Free Charlie's Dream by Jamie Rowboat

cottage garden from the main area. As Charlie opened the little red door, the scent and colour that greeted him lifted his spirits immediately. Rows upon rows of succulent-looking vegetables were interspersed with vividly-coloured flowers that bloomed in every imaginable colour. Poppies, wall flowers, Lupins, Delphiniums, Lavender and Anemones grew in great wooden pots made from wine barrels that had been split in half and stood like scruffy-haired sentinels at the end of all of the flower beds. Huge patches of other Summer flowers swayed and bobbed in time to the slight breeze that lapped over the boundary wall. The movement kept the feeding bees and butterflies in a constant dance as they waltzed on the nectar-laden heads of each flower. The pathways that linked the whole garden together were made from the softest mulch and it just beckoned to Charlie to take off his shoes, something Shamir had done the moment he had entered the door. Heavily-laden fruit trees, which were dotted all around the place, provided dappled shade for great pots of luscious wild strawberries that dangled their arms down from the great stone jars.
    There was a shed that had one side constructed completely from glass. The wall had been made from handmade panes of different coloured glass, which were quite irregular in their shapes, but which had been put skilfully together in a transparent jigsaw. This was lined on the inside with five or six levels of shelving that supported endless trays of tiny seedlings, which stretched for sunlight and readied themselves for the adventure of outside. As Charlie entered the ramshackle old greenhouse, he quietly sat on a stool by the door to watch Shamir in action. Shamir's fingers moved quickly and nimbly through a tray of tomato seedlings, lifting some and reinforcing others. The ones he lifted out, he placed in other trays for distribution to his friends and he had a growing collection of these trays by the door. He patted and shook the others into their expanded positions and having carefully added some extra soil, he placed the tray back on the shelf and watered it thoroughly with a small watering can.
    "Can you help me carry these seedlings out to the garden?" asked Shamir, turning round with a tray of lettuce in his hands. "It's time to take them for a trip outside to see if they're ready for transplanting," he continued.
    "Sure," said Charlie, being snapped out of his little daydream. They loaded a few trays onto two wheelbarrows and headed through the labyrinth of paths that zigzagged across the two acres of garden that lay within the high stone walls.
    "How many elves help you maintain this place?" asked Charlie.
    "Well, there are four or five elves who work on it permanently with me, but then we have periods of harvesting and planting when many others are involved. Do you like it here?"
    "Mmm, yes, I do. There's something about this place that is very comforting. Maybe it's just more familiar and an easier scale to deal with. I don't know, it just feels gentle here, the rest of the valley is just too much to take in at the moment. It's like my dad reckons, if you go to a new city, find a small orbit of friends and shops, or the complexity and size of the city will overwhelm you."
    "Ah yes, I think I'd like your dad, he sounds interesting. Do you know, it's been years since I visited a city. The last time was nearly a hundred years ago, when I visited Gemma in Paris. What a time we had for those few years, and what a city. We danced and partied, created and loved, the whole place was absolutely electric for years."
    "I didn't know you had travelled in the outside world," said Charlie.
    "Most certainly, yes, I have travelled there many times. I have visited most of the major continents over the years. But it has always been a dangerous process to enter or leave the valley, so I curtailed my expeditions just before the First World War."
    "Uhuh, I see," said Charlie, struggling to lift a huge pumpkin onto