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Flowers and Nonesuch
A tale of the power of love.
The sun peeked over the garden wall through the massive boughs of the old oak tree and into the window of tiny Collin Oaks Cottage. It bounced off the wobbly old mirror on the wall and onto the crystal bowl, splitting into colorful rays, one of which danced playful across the cheek of the young girl peacefully sleeping on the trundle bed. She moved her nose to keep the beam below her eye, but soon had to accept that the heavenly ray was determined to bring her into its new, fresh day.
Collinda sat up and stretched, delighting in the coolness of the morning. Her long hair cascaded around her shoulders in disarray, making her dark eyes stand out. She rose and walked slowly around the cottage touching each wall and piece of furniture gently. A long time has passed since her father had built the place for her, and she and her friend Dew Bunny had only recently rediscovered it. Still, each facet of its delicate being brought her a special joy, and she determined to never live anywhere else.
Fate had given Collinda’s grandmother the troublesome task of rearing the little girl, but misfortunes in her own life had left her incapable of providing constant care, and left Collinda free to spend her time at the cottage. Its magnificent garden, which boasted a stout rock wall completely surrounding it, was engulfed by towering trees which dwarfed not only the cottage but nearby Gate House where Gram lived in the tiny village of Collin Oaks.
The old woman spent her days in dark seclusion, not having the strength to notice or care about the comings and goings of her granddaughter. Collinda accepted the role she had been given, content to fill her days waiting for her papa to return to claim her and tending to her flowers and her friends in the forest.
Foremost of the furry friends was Dew Bunny, her constant companion and admirer. Collinda had found Dew Bunny under a Kale leaf one dewy spring morning long ago, when the rabbit was still a newling and quite lost in the world. Collinda had taken a drop of dew from a Morning Glory blossom and dropped it onto Dew Bunny’s tiny nose. The bunny wrinkled her nose at Collinda and hopped up into her arms. A friendship was born.
One morning Collinda and Dew Bunny woke early and went into the garden. A workman was poking about the bushes. Collinda put her hand to her mouth and cleared her throat.
“Oh, hello young lady. I didn’t realize these premises was occupied”, said the man.
“Only recently, and only by my bunny and myself,” replied the girl.
“Riley’s’ the name, Mr. Riley,” he said, touching his cap. Collinda curtsied. “I’m here to knock these walls into tiny rubble and cart it off,” he continued. The stricken look on the little girl’s face sobered him. “But quietly of course.”
“Why, this cottage is private property, built and owned by my papa!” she retorted. "I’m guarding it until he says you can do such a thing, which he won’t ever. And if you don’t leave immediately, I’ll tell my bunny to bite you on the leg.”
They looked down at the rabbit. Dew Bunny puffed up a little.
"Well,” said Riley, “I have my orders from the lady of the house, and I’m going to do my job.” He turned and shouted over his shoulder, “OK, boys, bring in the gear!”
Collinda grabbed her rabbit and ran into the cottage. “Dew Bunny, we’ve got to do something!”
The bunny jumped from her grasp and ran out through the garden gate. Fighting tears, Collinda grabbed her basket and went out the front door, sitting dejectedly on the large flat stone by the gate. The workmen carried ladders and hammers and awful looking stuff into the garden, chattering and shouting orders to each other. Suddenly the shouting got louder, and the men came rushing out of the gate, scrambling over each other in their haste. They gathered behind Collinda and stared wide-eyed at the garden gate. Through the opening poked a tiny black and white nose.
“Skyles!” exclaimed Collinda. “You wonderful polecat!”
Riley was not amused. “We’ll be back tomorrow, and with a net for your wonderful friend. Come on, boys.” They huffed off, muttering to each other.
Dew Bunny hopped up on the stone by Collinda to a big hug. “You’re wonderful too, Dew Bunny,” she said, wrapping her arms around the rabbits neck, “But what will we do tomorrow?”
Collinda paused outside the large wooden library door and took a deep breath. She put her hand over her heart and felt it racing. She carefully pushed open the door and peeked through. Gram sat quietly with her eyes closed in her large overstuffed straight-back chair, her face reflecting a perpetual pain deep inside. Collinda closed the door and sat on the three-legged stool beside the old woman, putting her hand gently on the outstretched arm. “Gram,” said Collinda. “I need your advice on a matter of grave importance. Otherwise I wouldn’t consider disturbing your reverie.”
Gram opened her eyes, turning her head toward the girl. Experience dealing with this little one had taught her to be wary when Collinda started sounding like her lawyer. But the sweet smile (and those eyes) put her off her guard. “Well dear, what can be the matter?” she asked.
“Well, Gram, just suppose that you had a friend whose child was in danger. Would you think it was your duty to do whatever you could to keep any harm from happening to that child, if you could help at all?”
Gram hesitated a second, an uneasy feeling stirring. “Of course dear. Why, do you have a friend in trouble?”
“Yes, Gram, and I’m struggling with a decision of how to best handle the problem. Of course, I come to you when I need real good advice.“ She paused and cut her eyes up to her grandmother to see if she was having any impact. Gram’s brow had indeed furrowed, though maybe more from a sense of wonder than concern. But just enough, thought Collinda. “Don’t you think less important things should have to wait until some later time under these circumstances?” she continued.
“One would think so,” answered Gram. “Of course they should, I suppose. Can I do anything to help?”
“Just the right words”, thought Collinda. She took Gram’s arm and helped her to her feet. “If I can show you the situation in person, you may indeed be able to help.”
She led the woman out the side door and down the wooded path. They passed the cottage’s vined wall and arrived at the garden gate, where Collinda led the way in. The Wisteria hanging around the stone arch had blossomed and now hung like large lavender grape clusters along the wall. Collinda pointed to the top of the gatepost where a large brown thatch of leaves had been formed into a nest. “Robins,” she said. “They’ve made a home for their babies.”
Gram stood up tall and sure enough could make out two or three tiny blue eggs in the nest. Peering along the wall she saw several nests with more eggs. Then recognition came to her face. She pursed her lips, then looked at the girl, knowing she’d been taken.
“I suppose you think we need to wait for these eggs to hatch before we take the wall down, now?” she inquired of the pleading eyes below her. Well, at least I know now where all this was leading.”
Riley opened the gate, peering into and around the bushes before entering. “Riley, “ ordered Gram. “Return in two weeks to do your work.”
Riley’s face showed obvious displeasure. With a nasty look at Collinda, he turned and left through the gate. Gram turned to the garden, where memories of another young girl had left ghosts swirling through the trees and down the paths. She let her eyes follow the stone wall back to the wood. “Your mama set a lot of store by this place. Kept it looking like a wedding cake. I always knew where to find her. Even after she married your papa, the garden barely moved down to second place. Still,” she said as she turned to the gate, “Better to bury the past.”
When the others had gone, Dew Bunny hopped over to Collinda, and together they danced in glee.
A week went by quietly. Collinda and Dew Bunny spent their afternoons in the woods by the old stump where they had come the day they first met. The early spring sunshine would warm the trees and grass and draw the forest animals into the glade. Collinda would share her baked treats with them and they would bring her small leaves and seeds from the emerging flowers deep in the forest. Long hours and days of working in the garden with her mother had given Collinda a thorough familiarity with most of the local and many far away flowers. She soon determined that there were many in the forest that grew nowhere else. “We’ll put these in our garden this spring,” she would tell them. “If there’s a garden left to plant."
Later that week the eggs started hatching, and Collinda still didn’t have any idea how to keep the work crew out of the garden. Dew Bunny had a talk with the Starling parents, who moved the newly hatched babies to a new nest high in the oak tree. A new pair of parents soon had a fresh set of eggs in the nest. Gram stretched up and seeing the eggs, turned to Riley. “You’ll have to wait until the eggs hatch, then you can start,” she said. Riley looked at Collinda. “I’ll be checking them every day, I will,” he mouthed to her.
Collinda sat before the mirror brushing her hair. Dew Bunny watched the candlelight flicker in the girl’s eyes. “What was your mother like, Collinda?” she asked.
“Papa said she was a rare beauty, but she would just smile and shake her head when he said that,” she replied. “But you could tell from the way he looked at her that he thought so. Her eyes were soft and haunted him, or something like that.”
“Like yours.”
Turning to the mirror on the old basin stand, Collinda moved her thumb along her eyebrow. The eyes she met were indeed soft and deep. An image slowly covered the mirror; a young couple with a small girl walking between, holding hands. The man was in a uniform, shouldering a travel kit. The young woman was trying her best to hold back tears in anticipation of their parting. Her sadness moved him to a brave smile. “Here now, we can’t have these long faces on such an important day,” he said.
The girl looked up with a puzzled expression. “What’s important about today, Papa?”
“Well, Collinda” he stroked his mustache, “I’m off to make the family fortune today. Somewhere in this war I’m sure to find a silver mine to bring home. Or maybe that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
The girl raised her eyebrows. “Oh Papa, there’s none such thing.”
“James,” smiled Colleen. “Do you want her last remembrance of her father to be nonsense?”
“No, I suppose not.” He said. He leaned over to the girl. “We’ll just call it nonesuch then,” and winked. She smiled up at him.
A gust of wind caught the branches of the large oak tree above and sent them soaring into the sky. James couldn’t resist Collinda’s fascination with the motion. ‘You see how the trees moving makes the wind blow . . . " He caught Colleen’s eye. “Well,” he smiled. “I’ll tell you something even better.” He scooped Collinda into his arms and turned toward the tree, speaking softly in her ear. “If your heart is full of someone, the trees will pass a message along to him on the wind. So when you miss me, you can tell the trees and I’ll know right away.” He turned to Colleen. “And if you’re out on a warm windy evening and you hear the trees whispering your name, you’ll know I’ll be thinking of you.”
She took his arm and they walked across the daisy-strewn field, smelling the wild red roses that lined the stone walls. They stopped only long enough for Colleen and Collinda to collect an armful of fresh flowers. At the bottom of the hill lay the train station, already bustling with throngs of men and their families saying farewell. They made their way through the crowd to a bench by the baggage platform just as the evening fog rolled in, surrounding them and adding a surreal aura to the scene.
James sat Collinda on the bench between them and took Colleen’s hands. She reached up and extracted a golden heart-shaped locket from beneath his shirt. He opened it gently revealing two tiny photographs. She took a rose petal from the bouquet and placed it inside the locket, then clasped it shut.
“For remembrance,” she whispered.
“Last night I dreamed that the world had changed,” he said, “and we were left alone to be together forever. But I can see now what a fantasy that was.”
“Remember what Mama says,” Colleen said. “A fantasy is just a dream that you no longer believe in.”
“Yes, but that you cling to, to ease the pain,” he finished her sentence. “She particularly liked to quote that to me.” He laughed at the thought of his unappreciated attempts to cheer up his mother-in-law with bits of nonsense.
Colleen smiled at the memories, then felt the coldness of the moment. “Oh, James,” she wept. “Why us? We’ve had so little time together.”
“I don’t know the answer, my dear,” he replied. “I suppose its God’s way of telling us to enjoy the precious time we have with our loved ones while they’re near.”
“But we’ll be so far apart, and so alone.”
“No, not alone,” he said, putting her hand to his heart. "When you’ve found your soul mate, that one person who in life is the other half of you, you feel complete even when you’re far apart. And even though we’ll be lonely, we’ll never be alone.”
The shrill whistle of the train pierced the fog. They made their way to the platform just as the train started moving. James knelt in front of Collinda, then stroked her hair and gently kissed her cheek. “Come now, how does a bunny say ‘I love you’?”
She wrinkled her nose at him, then smiled through her tears.
He embraced Colleen for the last time, then put his finger to her cheek to brush away a tear. “Your eyes are lovely, soft and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”
She held him closer. “I shall never forget those words, and I shall love you till I die.”
He kissed her, then turning, grabbed the hand rail and was gone.
Collinda and Dew Bunny rose early the next day to start planting the Delphinium seeds that a neighbor Mrs. Trevers had sent her. They would fit perfectly as a backdrop to the Petunias and Heather that would grace the area around the back gate. As Collinda carried her garden basket from the cottage a hopeless feeling settled over her. “Oh Dew Bunny,” she sighed. "We still don’t know what we’re going to do when all the birds have hatched.” She sat down on the stoop and scanned the garden. “If we had everything all planted and beautiful, I’ll bet Gram would change her mind.”
“Mmm, maybe,” said Dew Bunny. “And ‘specially if it looked like it did when your mama kept it.”
Collinda perked up. “You may have something there, Dew Bunny. But how did it look?”
“Your Gram would remember,” answered the bunny, fluffing her face with a paw.
“Yes, but if we ask her, she’ll guess what we’re up to,” said the girl.
“You’ll think of something,” said the rabbit as she changed to the other paw.
Collinda was already in for breakfast when Gram came to the table. The girl nibbled on a cake square, a little like a rabbit, her Gram thought.
“Gram, I’d like to embroidery a pillow case for my bed,” said the girl. She held out the plain white cloth for her to see. “But I’m not sure about the theme I should use.”
“One would think you’d have to have flowers,” Gram said as she took a slice of toast and dipped some marmalade onto her plate, noticing that Collinda was unusually thoughtful.
Collinda looked at the floral print wall paper. “Flowers would be nice,” she said, "But they’re so common nowadays. Still, if I had an unusual idea about the arrangement, I might get motivated to do something like that.”
Gram looked at her, wondering where this was going.
“Maybe if I used an outline of my garden,” continued the girl, “but I just can’t imagine what it should look like. I try, but I just can’t.” She shifted her eyes over to her grandmother and raised her eyebrows.
Gram took the cue. “Well, why don’t you make it look like the one your mama had. Here, I’ll draw it out for you.” She laid the white case out on the table. Collinda handed her a pencil. Gram drew out the bed lines, then began filling in the names of the flowers. “Let’s see, Chrysanthemums here, Delphiniums there, Petunias by the Violets . . . yes,” she put the pencil to her chin. “And where were the Fuchias? Oh, yes, over there.” Collinda thought that it had been a long while since Gram’s eyes had danced like they did that morning. When she was finished, Gram held up the case for Collinda to see, smiling in delight. It was all there.
Collinda ran with her treasure to find Dew Bunny. The rabbit was sunning herself atop the large porch stone at the cottage. “Look Dew Bunny, we’ve got it.” She hung the case on the door post just outside the kitchen window in the garden.
Collinda laid out a piece of paper and began copying the flower names into a list. It contained almost two dozen different flowers, some of which Collinda hadn’t seen in these parts. “OK, Dew Bunny, you get the rabbits started searching for Crocus, Magic Sprouts and Lara Belles.” She marked about half the flowers off the list as she talked. “I’ll see if Mrs. Trevers has the others.”
They scampered off in different directions. By late that afternoon they had laid out the seeds and sprouts, each in its own place. “That’s all, everyone. We’ll start planting first thing in the morning.”
Collinda woke up in the middle of the night as the rising wind beat the Wisteria against the cottage window. She sat up straight. “Dew Bunny, hurry! We’ve got to get the seeds in.”
Lightning lit their way as they rushed around the garden, tossing tiny packets into the basket. Collinda closed the heavy door behind her and sat the basket on the table. “That was close. Can you imagine how silly we would have felt in the morning if we’d let the storm carry away the seeds.” They laughed to themselves as they went back to bed.
The sunbeam was bouncing off the mirror as Collinda and Dew Bunny finished their bread and jam. The girl lifted the heavy basket and carried it into the garden, where the other rabbits had already begun gathering. “It’s all right, everyone,” she shouted. “We got the seeds inside before the storm hit.”
She looked up at the post and her heart sank. The pillow case, the drawing with the locations of all the flowers, flapped in the breeze, washed white as snow. Dew Bunny’s ears drooped to the ground.
They all gathered around Collinda as she sat scratching the ground with her toe. Grandpa Biggie had been late coming due to the slow gait of his four and seventy years. He eyed the doleful looking group of would-be gardeners. “What a sight,” he said. “Why, I remember this place when it was a durn site prettier than it is now.”
Collinda and Dew Bunny cut their eyes to each other, then looked at Grandpa Biggie. The sun broke through the clouds and the wind died down. They would have their day after all. They spend all that day setting out shoots and planting seeds where the older rabbit recollected they had once been. When they had finished, they settled down for a snack of carrots and grapes. Now all they needed was time.
The day came when the last chick had hatched and flown. Riley watched them leave, then stormed into the house and confronted Gram. The old woman summoned Collinda. “It’s time, young lady,” she said to the little girl. “Mr. Riley starts his work today, and no nonsense.” Riley was somewhat perplexed that Collinda wasn’t making a fuss. Maybe she was trying to ruin his day.
They marched single file to the garden, Gram leading followed by a strutting Riley. But when she flung open the large wood gate, she could scarcely believe what she was seeing. A magnificent array of floral colors bathed the entire garden in a luscious glow of natural beauty. Each single plant had burst into its own glory, making the whole setting a shimmering, fulfilling delight to the senses. Gram started to speak, then recognition came to her face. “Why, it’s just as your mama kept it, Collinda. Even the Badgepipe is the same shade of emerald green.” She reached out and touched the plants, moving them side to side to catch the different angle each one had to offer. She playfully moved the Snapdragon’s mouth. “It was my favorite when I was a girl,” she said to no one in particular.
Riley knew when he had lost. He pulled the cap down over his forehead and closed the gate behind him.
A tear came to Gram’s eye, and she turned and held out her arms. Collinda rushed in, as years of aching came to a close in a pair of warm arms.
Gram and Mrs. Trevers found Collinda and Dew Bunny planting Delphiniums in the garden one morning.
“My, my," Mrs. Trevers remarked to Collinda. “Aren’t you and Dew Bunny busy this fine day."
It was true. The row of sky blue blossoms reached all the way past the stone hedge nearly to the door.
“Yes,” said Collinda. “We’ve had to move all these plants as far away from the meadow as we could." She shifted her eyes slightly upwards to see if Mrs. Trevers had taken the bait.
She had. "Why, whatever for?” the woman asked, a worried look on her face.
“Because,” answered Collinda, “The horseflies were getting hoof prints all over them.”
Mrs. Trevers’ jaw dropped, then she laughed out loud. “My, aren’t you a clever lass.”
Collinda raised her eyebrow. “You don’t have to be clever if you have a good imagination.” She looked at her grandmother and smiled.
“Where does she come up with these things?” asked Mrs. Trevers.
Gram shook her head. "She comes by it honestly. Her papa was so full of it we sometimes wondered if he knew there was a real world. Still, if there are any things that Collinda loves, its flowers and nonsense.”
“Nonesuch, Gram.”
“Well, you’ll have nonesuch for lunch if you don’t come now," Gram teased. She winked at Mrs. Trevers, then took her arm and gently escorted her down the path.
Collinda scooped up Dew Bunny just as a great gust of wind shook the giant oak tree. She stood transfixed as the branches soared to the sky, then wrinkled her nose at the tree and turning, went into the house.
Copyright 2008 Collin Oaks Winery. All rights reserved. Our thanks to Lara and Linda
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