SOLC14: The Little Girl

Once upon a time there was a little girl who played in two magical gardens. She could spend hours at a time in each garden. In the spring she would plant flowers and look for bugs and worms. In the summer she ran through sprinklers and blew bubbles. She jumped in piles of leaves and ate cookies in the fall. And in the winter she built fortresses out of snow. Of course, this was when she was very young. The gardens couldn’t shield her from growing older. She was a little bit taller every day, and beginning to enjoy new activities. Reading in a little metal chair or trimming the leaves off of herbs and picking tomatoes. She was still the same girl though. She would still jump in a pile of leaves and throw snowballs. But things weren’t quite the same as they used to be. She watched the squirrels in the big trees and the spiders in the bushes. But there hadn’t been bubbles for what seemed like ages. Things were slower, and the girl visited the gardens less and less. Until one day when she went out and sat down and looked at them. She looked long and hard and in her mind she said goodbye. She thanked them for what they had done for her. And she remembered all of the things that she had done there. Lastly, after a moment of silence, she took out a little plastic bottle and blew some bubbles.