Free Let's Play in the Garden by John Grover Page A

the last chance we get. We have to have a lunch in the garden today. Mery, let’s play in the garden.”
    Merydith resisted going to the garden. She was afraid and not ready to enter it after what had happened. The garden had changed for her and she didn’t much like it. Its magic and enchantment were lost.
    “Mery, please, let’s play in the garden.” His face was sad, his mouth set in a pout, his eyes large and sad.
    “Oh, c’mon, Merydith,” added Tobey. “We have to; it’s the last lunch until springtime. Now we must go.”
    “All right…all right! Stop bugging me. We’ll have just this one last lunch. Now go wait outside while I make it. I have to start the tea.”
    “Yippie! Hooray for Merydith, she’s the best!” Aaron called with as much praise for his sister as he could think of. He ran through the door and out into the yard.
    Tobey quickly followed him.
    Merydith set the teapot on the stove, took out a basket and began their favorite sandwiches. I have the worst feeling about this, the worst. We should not have this lunch. It doesn’t feel right. Please make it be all right.
    As usual, they finished lunch, devouring every bit of the delicious food Merydith had prepared, and once they were done, the boys, as usual, took off to once again frolic in the garden.
    Merydith sat in the gazebo and did not move. She felt strange, something bothered her, and she could not enjoy herself today. She watched as Aaron popped in and out of sight among the giant plants and flowers of the garden. He spotted a baby rabbit and followed it eagerly. Merydith watched with cautious eyes as he ducked behind a dense Rhododendron bush.
    “Aaron,” she called, slightly concerned.
    “What?” he called back from behind the bush.
    “Remember, don’t roam off too far. I really mean it. This is too big a garden for you, for any of us. Stay close by, do you hear me?”
    “Yes, Merydith,” he called back.
    Relieved, she sat back and turned her attention on Tobey.
    Hours passed and Merydith lost all track of time, her thoughts caught up in daydreams and suspicions. She could have kicked herself. She didn’t want to spend all this time in the garden.
    She piled all their things quickly into the basket and started to leave. “Tobey, it’s time we left. It’s way too late. Dinner will be soon. Let’s go.”
    “Okay, Merydith, I’m coming,” he answered without argument.
    “Where’s Aaron?”
    Tobey looked behind himself and far into the garden. “I don’t know.”
    Merydith stopped and turned around. “Aaron, c’mon, we’re leaving now.”
    Nothing.
    “Aaron, answer me!”
    Still there was nothing.
    Wind blew through the air. There was a baleful moan in it.
    “Aaron! Aaron!” Panic began to set in when she got no response. “Tobey, help me. My God, I knew something was wrong about this damn lunch!”
    “Aaron! Aaron come here, answer us now or you’ll get a whipping!” Tobey’s forceful, loud voice was useless. Aaron never answered. They searched and searched, dashing in and out of every path, every plant, bush and tree, and looking into every well.
    Minutes grew into hours as their ultimate nightmare became a reality—Aaron had vanished in the massive garden. It was as if the garden had engulfed him, claiming him for its own.
    Their voices grew hoarse as the adults joined in, relieving them of the search, wandering aimlessly into the night, but in the end they realized it was hopeless…the baby of the family, Aaron Santaneen, was gone.
    “Aaron…Aaron!”

8. A Day of Mourning
    The sorrow that filled the next few days was indescribable.
    No one could eat. No one could sleep. Not a day went by that someone didn’t enter the garden for one last search.
    Merydith even sat in front of the great wall and laid her head upon it just waiting for Aaron to return through the gate. But alas, he was gone, the garden was too vast, too thick, too strange. It had reached out and taken him, and that was that.
    The