Felicity – A Philosophical Fable [Chapter 16]
Mimi had an idea. She walked up to the wall. Not the wall where there was sometimes a door, but the wall on the other side of her room. She raised her hand just as she would to slid a door open and a door that had not been there before slid open. She stepped into the courtyard.
It seemed smaller than when she had walked in the twilight. But it was bright. The sky was blue and everything was bathed in sunshine. Glorious sunshine.
Mimi looked down while her eyes adjusted. Under her feet the stone tiles were warm. The air was fresh and clean. She inhaled deeply. There was no scent of wisteria. There was no scent of anything. Not yet.
In the center of the courtyard was a circular plot of earth. It was surrounded by a ring of grass which in turn was surrounded by the tiled patio with its rattan furniture. The furniture was spaced at regular intervals just as it was inside the house.
Mimi walked across the grass to the waiting plot of earth. A light breeze barely ruffled her hair. She stepped onto the soil. It felt soft and moist between her toes. She was ready to begin.
She got down on her knees. Down on her knees in the fertile black earth. Then she started turning the soil with a hand rake.
Beside her was a basket. It held little packets of seeds. After she had loosened the soil, she took a garden trowel and dug a hole. She placed a seed inside and smoothed the soil over it. Then she dug another hole. And another. This she did until she had a row of freshly planted seeds. When she finished, she started on the next row.
Mimi didn’t know how long she worked in her garden. There were a lot of seeds to sow, but she never wearied. She liked the way the soil felt in her hands and it gave her satisfaction to pat it down over each little seed. After she planted the last seed in the last row she stood up and looked over her work. It was good. She was pleased with it.
She brushed the soil off the bottom of her kimono and went back inside.