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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: ARTIFICIAL (08/11/16)
Several fruit trees grew in the garden of our new home: coconut palms, papaya, banana, avocado and a huge breadfruit tree. Locally the avocado was called butter fruit. We had fun with the local names of the trees. Bread and butter grew on trees in our garden. We even had a tree with tiny white flowers and cherry-like fruit year round. It was called jam fruit. We could say, "Go get your breakfast from the trees."

The coolness under the breadfruit tree with its large hand-shaped leaves invited me to its shade. Inside the house, it was too hot. I took a book, lay in the grass and began to read. I forgot time and space. Mom called me to lunch. I had to leave the make-believe world in my book.

Mom saw it first.
“Look, you have blood on your blouse!”
“Do I?”
Then I saw it. I took off my blouse and discovered several leeches on my body. One had sucked so much blood that it had fallen off. The wound it left was bleeding. Mom sprinkled salt on the rest of the leeches. They fell off, one by one. It was the first and last time I lay down on the lawn. We had just returned from Finland, where to lie in the grass in summer looking up at the clouds or reading a book was a pleasant experience. But I could not do the same thing in Kandy.

Opposite Esmidia was a semi-detached house behind a hibiscus fence. The two girls who lived there who became my friends. Vinitha was Sinhalese, and Annette was a Burgher. I was a foreigner. Vinitha lived with her mother, her stepfather and her siblings. Annette lived with her grandparents. Vinitha was eleven; I was ten and Annette nine years old.

When it had rained, we used the wet sand and mud to build fairy houses. We made beautiful small houses with moss lawns, tiny flower beds, and a fish pond. Where could we get the foliage and flowers to decorate our art if not from Grandfather Gray's garden? Annette's grandfather grew lots of flowers in front of his house. He cared for them like they were babies. He had more concern for them than he had for Annette. If he ever expressed any love, it was artificial. When he caught us taking a few tiny flowers and leaves from his garden, he shouted at us and threatened us with the police.

Mom had a small nasturtium plant in our garden. The small nasturtium leaves were perfect to use as water lily leaves on our artificial pond, a small mirror.

While creating our make-believe worlds we built a deep friendship. There is nothing artificial about that.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Robyn Harbour
08/19/16
I also had a make believe world when I was small. A great way of escaping into an adventure beyond everyday life. I liked the picture you painted of where you lived.
Pat Small
08/23/16
Interesting comparisons. For me, it didn't flow well when you moved into Across the street from Esmidia. You needed some sort of a transition, I thought.