LesleyScoble.com

The Unicorn Writing Challenge is to write a short story of up to 250 words. The inspiration is the Secret Garden photo.

It’s time for a short story! Are you sitting comfortably? Then, I’ll begin.

Secret Garden

SECRET GARDEN 

I stop and look. I am bemused. I don’t remember seeing that formal garden arch before. When did I last walk this path? Two days ago. Not enough time for climbing roses to grow over a mature archway.  

There are no people to ask. I hear no birdsong. An unusual disquieting emptiness is in the park. When one is familiar with something, one may not notice it or pay it much regard. Until it changes. Until something is missing. Or different. The norm is not normal anymore.  

I look behind me. The receding path is the same old route from my childhood. I return my puzzled gaze to the formal garden arch. 

This is not the Chelsea Flower Show, is it? 
Have they transferred plants from the famous show to our park? 
The annual flower show is clever. They can create wondrous gardens at unimaginable speed in a few days—building lakes and pools, deserts, moorland, grasslands, formal gardens, informal gardens, gardens with fountains, gardens with sculptures, tiny gardens, enormous gardens, cottage gardens—many and any gardens. Flat-pack, pop up designer gardens can appear overnight as though they’ve been in situ forever.  

Perhaps they donated a Chelsea Garden to our park to replace the wild natural path that’s meandered around it for donkey’s years?  

I take a step forward. The unnatural silence and stillness unsettle me. Disturbed, I approach with inexplicable unease. The smell of jasmine is overwhelming. I step through the arch and…


Lesley Scoble, August 2023

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My thanks to the hosts of this writing challenge, Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr.

Image Credit: Secret Garden photo©️Ayr/Gray.

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Lesley lives in the City of London Square Mile. An artist, actor and sculptor (her first ceramic sculpture won the V&A inspired by… Award). Scenic artist & book illustrator, playwright, (her musical play, Rapscallion performed in inner city schools and theatre school); TV dancer; Animator and illustrator for TV production. Set up Pinecone Studios Ltd and IIMSI Ltd drama and filmmaking workshops in London – producing award-winning films made by children.