Chapter 10: All in a Golden Afternoon
At first the flowers sounded like a fine orchestra tuning up, but then they began their song.
"Little bread-and-butterflies kiss the tulips, and the sun is like a toy balloon. There are get up in the morning glories, in the golden afternoon…"
Alex and Alice bopped their heads to the rhythm of the song; it was very easy to follow.
"There are dizzy daffodils on the hillside, strings of violets are all in tune, Tiger lilies love the dandelions, in the golden afternoon, the golden afternoon."
Alice leaned over to Alex.
"Their really good…" Alice whispered.
"I know, makes my singing sound like nails on a chalkboard…." Alex whispered back.
"There are dog and caterpillars and a copper centipede, where the lazy daisies love the very peaceful life they lead... You can learn a lot of things from the flowers, for especially in the month of June."
Alex and Alice yawned slightly, thought they weren't bored, the song was enough to put anyone to sleep!
"There's a wealth of happiness and romance, all in the golden afternoon. ... All in the golden afternoon, the golden afternoon..."
Suddenly a whole flock (or is it a loaf?) of Bread and Butterflies flew over to the two and began to tug on Alice's dress.
"Alice, I think they want you sing!" Alex smiled.
"Me? I'm not a good singer…." Alice pleaded.
But it was too late, the Bread and Butterflies had pulled her over to the pansies, she pretty much had no choice. All went silent as Alice cleared her throat.
"You can learn a lot of things from the flowers, for especially in the month of June…" Alice sang in a high voice
Alex smiled as he watched the events unfold. "I don't know what she's talking about, she's a good singer…" he thought to himself.
Alice continued to sing "There's a wealth of happiness and romance, all..." Suddenly Alice's voice broke mid-way.
She blushed in embarrassment but the other flowers didn't seem to mind.
"...the golden afternoon!" the flowers sang wrapping up their song.
Both Alex and Alice clapped when their song was finished.
"Oh, that was lovely" Alice smiled.
"Excellent singing! You guys are good!" Alex smiled also.
"Thank you, both of you.." The Rose smiled back.
"What kind of garden do you come from?" The Daisy asked.
"Oh, we don't really come from a garden…" Alex replied.
"Oh, do you suppose their wild flowers?" The Daisy asked the Iris.
"We're not wild flowers either…" Alice replied
"Just what specie, or shall we say, genus, are you two?" The Rose asked.
"Well, I suppose you call me a genus, humanus, eh... Alice!' Alice replied.
"And I suppose I'm a.. genus, humanus, Alex" Alex added.
All the flowers looked them over with interest.
"Ever seen an Alice and an Alex with a blossom like that?" The Daisy asked.
The Iris eyed them both suspiciously.
"Come to think of it, have you ever seen an Alice OR an Alex at all?" The Iris asked.
All the flowers seemed to mumble in agreement, which made Alex a wee bit nervous.
"Yes, and did you notice their petals? What peculiar colors!" A Daisy said as she tugged on Alex's shirt.
"Hey!" Alex cried as he pulled away and straitened out his shirt.
The Iris leaned down and sniffed Alice's hair.
"And no fragrance!" The Iris pointed out.
Another Daisy lifted the back of Alice's dress and looked at her legs.
"Hahaha! Just look at those stems!" The Daisy laughed.
Alice pulled away and straightened out her dress.
"Rather scrawny I'd say!" The Iris added.
"Look, we're not flowers!" Alex finally cried.
"Aha! Just as I suspected! Their nothing but common mobile vulgaris!" The Iris cried.
All the flowers seemed to gasp at the Iris's statement. Alex was now more than annoyed.
"Sorry, we don't speak flower, in ENGLISH please??" Alex asked rudely.
"To put it bluntly… WEEDS!" The Iris snapped.
Alex and Alice were appalled.
"We are NOT weeds!" Alice snapped back.
"Well, you wouldn't expect them to admit it!" One flower said.
"Don't let them stay here and go to seed!" Another flower yelled.
"Go on! Go! Get out of here!" Another flower barked.
Soon the whole garden was yelling all sorts of threats as they pushed and shoved Alex and Alice out of their garden. Alice and Alex finally smacked one of their pushing leaves away and turned to face them all.
"Oh, all right, if that's the way you feel about it!" Alice yelled.
"If we were our right size, We could smash every one of you!" Alex added.
The daffodils responded by tipping over a flower that had water in it, and soaking them all. All the flowers howled in laughter as the two stood there dripping wet. Alex opened his mouth to add something else, but couldn't come up with anything, The two jus huffed and angrily stormed off.
About ten minuets later the two stopped to ring out their clothes.
"A Weed! There's an insulting name Jafar didn't throw at me!"Alex grumbled to himself as he rung out the end of his shirt.
" 'You can learn a lot of things from the flowers...' Huh! Seems to me they could learn a few things about manners!" Alice huffed to herself as she run out her apron.