Karen's Magic Garden

  I was very excited. A magic garden! Right here in Lobster Cove! And it would be our secret: mine and Diana’s.

  “Oh, there you are, girls,” said Aunt Ellen. “It is time for lunch now. Wash your hands, okay?”

  “Okay,” we said. We hid the diaries under a cushion.

  “After lunch we will solve the mystery of the magic garden,” Diana said.

  “The mystery of the magic garden,” I repeated. A shiver went down my spine.

  Long-Ago Cousins

  After lunch the rain stopped. The sun shone brightly. Diana and I took the last diary and ran outside. In the summerhouse, we sat on a bench.

  I opened the diary and read out loud again:

  “August twenty-fifth, eighteen ninety-two

  “Dear Diary,

  “I can’t believe the summer is almost over. Soon Mama and Papa and I must go home. I do not want to leave Polly. She is my best friend in the whole world. We have done something special. We made ‘memory boxes.’ In our boxes we placed special mementos of our summer together. Then we hid them in the magic garden. We have vowed to return next year and open the boxes together. Unless we are together, we will not open them.”

  I looked at Diana. She was bouncing with excitement.

  “Memory boxes!” she said. “What a cool idea. It must have been so neat the next summer when they found them and opened them again.”

  “Yes,” I said. “They were very good friends. Like us.”

  Diana smiled at me. “Come on! Let’s use the clues in the diaries to help us find the magic garden.”

  She took the diary and began turning the pages. “It says the magic garden is past the apple tree with the bent branch,” she said.

  I read, too. “It is past the vegetable garden and the rose arch.”

  “It is not so far as the woods,” Diana said.

  “It is not close to the ocean,” I said.

  Do you know what? We found the magic garden! It was practically right in front of our eyes! We had walked past it the day before, but had not seen it. It was covered with overgrown bushes and vines and even some small trees.

  “This brick wall is not high,” said Diana.

  “I am sure we could climb over it,” I said. I am a very good climber.

  And that is what we did. The vines made it easy. At the exact same time, Diana and I scrambled over the wall around the magic garden.

  We jumped down.

  “Wow,” I said.

  “Yes, wow,” Diana agreed.

  “No one has been here for a long time,” I said. The magic garden was not big. Rosebushes grew next to the walls. There were pebbled paths that we could hardly see. Overgrown plants, old sticks, leaves, and vines covered everything. Once inside, we could see a metal gate leading out.

  “Look,” said Diana. “Here is an old stone bench.”

  We sat on it in the sun. “I bet Annemarie and Polly sat here together, years and years and years ago,” I said.

  “They called this the magic garden because when they made wishes here, their wishes came true,” Diana said. (We had read that in the diary.)

  “Let’s make wishes ourselves,” I said.

  Diana and I closed our eyes and made secret wishes.

  I smiled at Diana. “I have a great idea,” I said. “But we will need a family meeting.”

  The Magic Garden

  “Where should I put this?” Little Henry asked. He was pushing a wheelbarrow full of small rocks.

  I pointed. “Over there, where Uncle Mark is making new paths.”

  “I am going to trim all these vines,” Seth said. “Then we can see the brick wall.”

  “A fountain!” Diana cried. “I found a fountain!”

  Back at the house, Diana and I had called a family meeting. We had decided not to keep the magic garden a secret. (But we still kept our wishes secret.) At the family meeting, we told everyone about the garden. We asked for permission to clean it up. That was my brilliant idea: to try to make the garden look like it did when Annemarie and Polly used to go there.

  Great-aunt Carol and Great-uncle John gave us permission. Then everyone wanted to join in. All my relatives who weren’t baking and cooking for the family reunion decided to help us with the magic garden.

  And now here we were.

  The sun was shining, but it was not too hot. We were filling garbage bags full of old leaves, bush trimmings, and vines.

  I was raking the flower beds. Under the blanket of leaves, I found small green plants trying to push their way through. It was just like in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. That was a very great book that Kristy read to me.

  Carefully I cleaned spaces around the plants, so they could breathe. I thought about how no one had taken care of them for a gigundoly long time. Were the little plants happy that we were here?

  We worked in the garden a long, long time.

  Finally Diana and I flopped down on the stone bench. (We had found three other benches.)

  “This is hard work,” Diana said.

  “Very hard.” I had leaves in my hair. My hands were dirty. I was hot and sweaty.

  “My goodness gracious!” said a voice.

  Great-aunt Carol was standing at the little metal gate of the garden. (We could use the gate now.)

  “This is completely amazing!” she said. “To think I’ve lived here all these years and never knew about this special garden.”

  Diana and I sat up proudly.

  “It’s going to be a beautiful little garden,” Aunt Ellen said. “These rosebushes are already setting buds for the fall.”

  “And I believe there are bulbs beneath the soil,” Mommy said. “Next spring you will have crocuses and lily-of-the-valley and tulips.”

  “I found a birdbath in the old garden shed that I will set up here,” Uncle Philip said.

  “Many birds and butterflies live here,” I added. “They knew about the garden the whole time.”

  “This is too wonderful,” Great-aunt Carol said. “You all deserve a special treat. I will bring a big pitcher of lemonade, and then I have some surprises for you.”

  The Two Wishes

  “I got my wish,” I whispered to Diana later.

  “You wished for fried chicken?” she asked.

  “Nooo!” I laughed. “My wish was to have a picnic on the beach. Mommy told me she used to have them. I wanted to have one, too.”

  Great-aunt Carol’s surprises had been a big, lovely fire on the beach, and a picnic supper. We even went swimming. In case you do not know, the ocean water off the coast of Maine is very, very, very, very cold. Even in August. But we were all so hot and dirty and sweaty that we did not care.

  Seth and Uncle Mark and Uncle Philip and Uncle Richard stayed in the water the longest. I lasted two and a half seconds. I ran in very fast, yelled, and ran out again. I did not want to turn into an ice cube! Then I wrapped myself in an old blanket and curled up by the fire. I felt gigundoly fabulous.

  Since my wish had come true, I told Diana about it. For our picnic supper we had fried chicken, corn bread, and potato salad.

  The sun went down. I felt warm and full and sleepy. I was leaning on Mommy by the fire. Andrew was sleeping in Seth’s lap. Kelsey was sleeping in Aunt Ellen’s lap. Diana was roasting marshmallows on a stick in the fire. Uncle Mark was helping her.

  “I think it is almost time to go to bed, Di,” Aunt Ellen said.

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Mommy said.

  I snuggled up to her.

  “Oh, I completely forgot,” Aunt Ellen said. She reached in her pocket carefully (so she would not wake Kelsey), and pulled out a bracelet with pink hearts on it.

  “I found your bracelet, Diana,” she said. “It was in my suitcase by mistake.”

  Diana’s eyes were wide. “Thank you, Mommy. I am so glad you found it.”

  Then Diana ate her marshmallow and moved closer to me. “Karen, my secret wish was to find my heart bracelet,” she whispered. “My wish
came true! The garden really is magic, just like Annemarie said.”

  Getting Ready

  On Saturday morning my relatives and I worked in the garden again. It was like a miracle.

  Now the paths were clear. The flower beds were clean, and summer blooms were showing brightly. The fountain had been cleaned out. Great-uncle John said he would have it repaired and put water in it.

  The rosebushes had been trimmed. The brick walls were almost clear of their vines. The garden looked beautiful.

  After lunch it began to rain again.

  “Boo and bullfrogs,” I said. “Great-aunt Carol said I could plant some flowers in the magic garden. Now I cannot.”

  “I need you inside anyway, Karen,” Mommy said. “You and Diana can help get things ready for the reunion tomorrow.”

  “What should we do?” Diana asked.

  “You may decorate cookies,” said Aunt Denise.

  “You may squeeze lemons for lemonade,” said Aunt Ellen.

  “You may make name tags for everyone,” said Mommy.

  Diana and I looked at each other and smiled. Those were fun jobs!

  That is how we spent the afternoon. Diana and I decorated a gazillion sugar cookies. We had tubes of frosting, and we drew a big P on each cookie. P for the Packett family. Then we squeezed lemons until our arms hurt. I liked being in the kitchen. It was full of people and noise and running around. No one told me to use my indoor voice. No one told me to stop wiggling.

  Then Mommy gave us a box of paper name tags and a long list of names. We wrote names on name tags until our hands felt as if they would fall off. On my tag I wrote “Karen Brewer,” and decorated it with violet flowers. Diana’s said “Diana Wells,” and she drew red roses on it.

  In the living room, grown-ups kept working on the family tree. It was almost done. There were a few names missing by the roots, and some pictures, too.

  Uncle Mark gave us kids a long roll of paper. We spread it on the floor and made a “Welcome” banner for everyone. I drew butterflies on my section of the banner.

  When we were done, Uncle Michael and Aunt Denise hung it on the front porch over the door. It looked beautiful.

  There were many things to be done for the reunion. Even when the rain stopped, we still helped. (I wanted to go back to the magic garden. But I did not.) These are the things we did:

  1. Gathered tons of flowers to put in vases everywhere.

  2. Sorted plastic forks, spoons, and knives.

  3. Unwrapped paper plates and plastic cups.

  4. Blew up balloons.

  5. Swept the front porch.

  6. Helped put chairs around the outside tables.

  In the late afternoon, Mommy, Seth, Andrew, and I went on an outing. We hiked around the countryside near the house. It was beautiful. Andrew caught a toad. Mommy and Seth picked blueberries. I looked for a bear but I did not see one. All I found were a few bugs.

  “Time to go back,” said Mommy.

  “Okay,” said Andrew.

  “Okay,” I said. Even though I wanted to stay.

  But guess what I saw on our way back. Five deer!

  For dinner we had take-out Chinese food. We each got a fortune cookie. I love fortune cookies! I cracked mine open and ate half of it. Then I read my fortune. It said: “Happy is the house that shelters a friend.”

  Just like this great big house. It had sheltered Annemarie and Polly, and now Diana and me.

  Well, for heaven’s sake.

  The Packett Family Reunion

  My face was warm when I woke up on Sunday. I blinked. It was sunny.

  “Hooray!” I cried. Too late I remembered that my cousins were asleep. Diana woke up, then Little Henry, then Theresa, then Sarah.

  “I am sorry I woke you,” I said. “But it is sunny. It is a beautiful day for our family reunion.”

  Diana smiled at me from her sleeping bag. She did not mind my waking her.

  “Hooray!” she yelled. She jumped up so fast that she almost got tangled in her sleeping bag. Then she grabbed my hands and we danced in a little circle. We tried not to step on anyone. Diana knew exactly how I felt: excited, happy, and bouncy.

  “Come on, kids,” Aunt Denise called. “We have a lot to do this morning. Roll your sleeping bags neatly and stack them by the wall.”

  Right after breakfast, carloads of people began to arrive. Diana and I sat on the front steps. We kept jumping up and down and running around the porch.

  “Hello!” I called when the first people came. “Hello! Welcome to the Packett family reunion!”

  Diana and I were wearing our name tags. Mommy had put us in charge of the name tag table. As our relatives arrived, we helped them find their name tags. They peeled off the backs and stuck them to their clothes.

  There were more people than I could count. There were aunts and uncles, mothers and fathers, cousins, teenagers, kids, and babies. And they were all carrying food.

  “I cannot wait for lunch,” Diana said to me.

  “Karen,” Mommy said from the porch. “Here are some new cousins: Nicky, Benjamin, Clare, and Laura. Why don’t you and Diana show them the magic garden?”

  “Yes,” I said. “We will be happy to. Everyone, come this way.”

  My new cousins loved the magic garden. Diana and I took turns telling them how we had found it. (We did not talk too much about the diaries. Those were still our special discovery.)

  By noon, all of our relatives had arrived. Great-aunt Carol rang a giant bell.

  “Welcome, everyone!” she said. “You’ve come from all over, near and far, to be with your kinfolk at this first Packett family reunion. There are a lot of warm feelings here today — and a lot of food, too.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “But before we fill our stomachs, let’s fill our hearts. Everyone, turn and hug the people to the left and right of you.”

  This was fun! I hugged Diana on one side, and Uncle Michael on the other.

  “Now, John has a memento of this special day,” Great-aunt Carol said.

  Great-uncle John took something from a box and held it up.

  Diana laughed. He had made “PACKETT FAMILY REUNION” T-shirts!

  “Who’s an extra large?” Great-uncle John asked.

  Diana and I decided to get extra larges so that we could use them as sleeping shirts.

  After everyone had a T-shirt, it was time to eat.

  In the backyard were tables with food and other tables with chairs. It looked like an outdoor restaurant. There were so many things to eat: baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw, corn-on-the-cob, rolls, muffins, fruit salad. There were bowls of chips and pretzels, and platters of hot dogs, hamburgers, and barbecued ribs. Five different grills were cooking things.

  One table had only desserts: the cookies we had decorated, cakes, pies, caramel apples. And that wasn’t all!

  On the beach, Seth and Uncle Richard had dug a huge pit and lined it with wet seaweed. Now they were steaming clams, mussels, lobsters, potatoes, and more corn.

  I looked at all the food and sighed. “I do not know where to start first,” I said.

  “I want a hamburger and some chips, then some coleslaw and potato salad,” Diana said. “Then maybe a hot dog. Then maybe dessert.”

  “We will have to go slow if we want to eat everything,” I said.

  That is what we did. We sat beneath a huge pine tree with our plates of food piled high. First Diana took a bite. Then I took a bite. We would not chew at the same time. But when I finally finished my last piece of cake with ice cream, I just wanted to lie down.

  “The magic garden,” Diana moaned.

  We got up and sort of rolled ourselves to the magic garden. Diana lay down on one bench. I was on another. We lay on our backs and looked at the sky.

  Diana giggled. “I am wishing that my stomach felt better. Do you think I will get my wish?”

  “Yes,” I said. “Not for awhile, though.” I giggled also.

  After a long time we both
felt better.

  “I guess I got my wish,” Diana said, sitting up.

  “That’s because this is a magic garden,” I said. I sat up, too.

  Then we heard Great-aunt Carol ringing her big bell again.

  “Come on, everyone!” she called. “It’s time for games!”

  “Games?” I asked Diana.

  Diana grabbed my hands. “Let’s go!”

  Family Games

  We played Packett Family Reunion games. I was on the blue team. Diana was on the red team. Mommy was on the blue team with me. Seth and Andrew were on the green team. There were eight teams in all.

  “Go, Karen, go!” I heard Mommy shout.

  I was hopping against Seth, Aunt Ellen, Nicky, Theresa, and Kelsey in the sack race. I pulled my sack up tighter and hopped as fast as I could. Halfway through the race I wished that I had not had that second piece of coconut cake.

  Kelsey tripped and fell on her sack. Then Nicky fell. Seth was hopping very hard. But not as hard as I was!

  Just as Seth was rounding a bush and hopping toward the finish line, he tripped. Hop, hop, hop. I hopped right past him, and crossed the finish line first! Aunt Ellen was second. Theresa was third.

  For my first-place prize I got a small pink plastic purse that was full of wooden beads to make a necklace. Yea!

  We played lots of games. There was a relay race, an egg-toss contest, a three-legged race, a frying-pan balancing contest, a pin-the-lobster-on-the-trap game, and many others. We played until it was time for a family photograph.

  We all crowded onto the wide porch steps. The littlest kids sat on the bottom steps. The middle kids sat on the middle steps. Then the grown-ups filled the rest of the steps. We were all smushed together like sardines! I could not stop giggling. Great-uncle John set his camera on a tripod and pressed the timer. Then he ran to the porch and sat next to cousin Jennifer. I remembered to smile big just in time. Click!

  “I will have copies made, and send everyone a group portrait,” said Great-uncle John.

  We all climbed down the steps. It was time to eat again. I only ate a little bit this time.