It was a cold autumn day and the garden which lay at the back of the Blackburns’ manor was still and quiet. There was no sign of life in the garden except for the young girl sitting on the wrought iron bench. She was looking at her surroundings, at the towering hedges around the flower bed with curled up dead roses, and the dull wood planks on the patio. There were little bird feeders around the garden but none had food on them and any birds that might have visited them had long since left for good. This young girl was named Hilda Blackburn. Hilda closed her eyes and tucked her little hands in her lap. She took a deep breath and imagined.
The garden she now saw was something new, something wonderful. In place of the shrivelled up roses were fragrant peonies and instead of the tall hedges there were lovely peach trees. The peaches hanging off of them were at the peak of ripeness and young robins flew from branch to branch. Hilda picked up some birdseed from the nearest bird feeder and fed it to a little flock of starlings who were playing on the luscious green lawn. Daisies covered the grass and Hilda made a daisy chain and gently placed it on her head. Then she walked slowly over to the patio. Young rabbits were frolicking on it and when she stepped on to it they came rushing up to her. She knelt down and let them play with her petite fingers until they ran off to munch on the berries growing from one of the many fruit bushes. She skipped over to a pond that had appeared and scooped up a little frog. She stroked its slimy head before returning it to its lily-pad.
The sun shone brightly and Hilda bundled up her skirts and sat on a red and white chequered rug. There were scrumptious treats laid out, ginger beer, prawn sandwiches and delectable lemon tarts. For a while she sat and ate, then she got back up and went to gaze at the huge fountain with crystal clear water spouting from the top and splashing into a marble basin. Hilda sighed contentedly as a cool breeze swept over the garden. She listened, she heard the heavenly sound of birdsong and the quiet rustling of the leaves. Hilda took a breath, this is all she could ever ask for, a retreat away from the hustle of life. If only, she thought, if only. Hilda skipped round in circles taking it all in.
The world had started to fade away and Hilda walked to the bench carefully taking another look at everything that she had seen one last time. She sat down on the bench, and opened her eyes. The garden was the same as it had been before she had re-imagined it, but now she had seen it in a new light. She smiled to herself as she ran joyfully back to her house.