Gladiolus 5

Gladiolus-Remembrance

April 28, 2003

London

Aren's residence

Saguru's pov

I stepped out of the safety of the black car onto a cement path, clutching my stuffed bear Sherlock for dear life. This place was strange, everyone looked weird, they looked like my mother, like me.

"Come on Saguru my angel ," mother said, taking my left hand.

We began following the path, there were plants everywhere and it was the same on both sides, It reminded me of our garden back home. I thought it

looked nice but the kids at school said it looked ugly.

Father bent down next to me,"Look see those," He said pointing to a bush with light purple flowers on it," These roses like the ones we have back at

home they symbolize enchantment or a love at first sight."

"I-I I wanna go home," The words were difficult to force out.

"Now come on Saguru let's not get shy now you've already come so far," Mother said pointing to a large house.

I clutched my mother's arm and we continued walking. As we got closer the house seemed to get bigger, it looked more like a castle than a house.

It looked like our house but it was huge, I thought it was amazing but the kids at school always said it looked funny the way it was the same on both sides.

Mother knelt down beside me, she straightened the lapel of my blazer,"Alright Saguru, I want you on your best behavior."

'what is she talking about, I want to go home, I want to be with Baya. where are we, why are we here?'

The front door opened and a man wearing a black tuxedo held the door open, He looked kind of like a panda the way his stomach bulged out.

"Thank you Mr. Richards," Father said as we walked in.

"I'll go inform my master of your arrival sir,"The funny penguin man said as he walked up the grand staircase.

I loosed my grip on mother's arm and looked around the room two staircases curved and met in the middle on the second floor, they split off again in opposite directions to the third floor. A huge chandelier hung from the ceiling reflecting little rainbows on the floor and walls. Several large wooden doors hid the rest of the house out of view.

I heard rapid footsteps echoing the halls of the third floor, I clung onto mother again hiding behind her leg. A door opened on the third floor then the continued sound of footsteps, there was a loud thump.

"Oh honey are you alright," Mother asked trying to take a step forward, I pulled her back,"Stop clinging and say hello," mother told me.

"I'm alright Ma'am," A girl's voice said sweetly

I stepped out from behind girl standing in front of me had brown hair like my father, she looked about my age, and wore a long sleeve dress of bright red, it had a puffy skirt and a wide ribbon around the waist, her hair was braided in a spiral around her head, she looked like a princess strait out of a fairy tail.

"My name is Isabelle, I like your bear, what's his name?" she said pointing to Sherlock.

"S-Sherlock."

"And what would your name be, wait don't tell me, let me see what's behind your ear," she stretched out her left hand towards the right side of my head and produced a playing card,"Hm let me see what it has to say about you. Ah here we go your name is Saguru Hakuba, your six years of age, your bi-lingual, and despite your youth you have read almost all of the Sherlock Holmes stories and are quite proficient in the game chess. Your playing card is the Ace of Diamonds. Did I miss anything?"

I stood there in awe. I could feel my face grow red,'How'd she know who I was, why didn't she say anything about my abnormal yellow hair?'

"Why Isabelle, when your mother told me you were full of surprises I didn't know she meant this, you're quite the magician aren't you?" Mother said pushing me closer to her.

"You're a timid one aren't you," Isabelle said handing me the playing card, It didn't have any words on it,"Come on, I want to show you something," she said grabbing me by the arm.

I looked at mother and father,"Go on Saguru, have fun," Father said with a smile.

As Isabelle led me out of the room through the furthest door I saw another man come into the room and walk up to my parents. Isabelle took a sharp left leading us deeper into the house, the walls of the hall were painted red and had a long wine coloured carpet with a golden rose pattern on it. She stopped at the end of the hall, there was a large grandfather clock with two carrosine lamps on either side.

"That door leads to the kitchen," Isabelle said pointing to the left of the clock, there's another staircase that goes upstairs over there," She said pointing to a small stairwell behind us,"But what I want to show you is here," She said opening the door to the right.

The dimly lit hallway was consumed by sunlight, and we stepped out into a vast greenhouse, there were all kinds of plant life in that room, there were entire fruit trees inside and there were garden beds neatly arranged in a circular pattern each one filled with all kinds of vegetables and flowers.

"Come on Saguru,"she said, taking my arm again, she led me to a metal spiral staircase that led up to a veranda hanging off of the second story of the house. There was a table and a set of three chairs on the veranda, at the table sat a grown woman with yellow hair like mine, she cradled a newborn in her arms, Isabelle took the seat next to her so I sat down in the empty chair. From there you could see the entire greenhouse, the garden beds creating a colourful mandala like pattern. I'd never seen anything like it before.

"So you must be Saguru, Little one," The woman said to me.

I nodded.

"I see you've met my daughter Isabelle, would you like to meet my second daughter Francis?" The woman asked in a soft kind voice.

I nodded, "Is the baby Francis. Francis, Isabelle, I could've sworn I saw some flowers labeled that outside.'

"Well come see,"The woman said, adjusting the blanket around the small child so I could see,"She's very special, see her hairs red, it's one of the rarest colours."

As the woman said the infant had short fiery red hair, and like Isabelle her face was covered in freckles. The little child's eyes fluttered open revealing an emerald green like her sister's. Isabelle came up to the child, she clenched her fist in the air, and suddenly released a java dove in a small puff of smoke. Little Francis laughed in delight. 'Had that bird always been there?'

"Here hold your hands out," Isabelle said, cupping her hands out in front of her.

I did as she instructed. Isabelle ran into the door on the veranda and came out with a bag of bird seed.

She chuckled to herself,"Here do you want to feed the birds?" She asked, pointing to the java dove resting on my shoulder.

I nodded.

"You don't talk much do you?" she said, pouring a handful of seed into my outstretched hands,"But you know what that's okay, mother always tells me that actions speak louder than words," With that she made a whistle sound, several more doves came over from among the trees.

I couldn't help but smile as I heard those words, I've never met someone this nice before. Almost immediately the birds flocked together on my arms pushing and pecking each other.

"No no no, don't fight there's enough for everyone," I didn't like to see people fighting let alone these birds.

Isabelle walked up in front of me,"Don't worry Ace is very territorial," she said, removing a bird that was climbing over the rest, she opened her right hand which had seed in it. The bird she had removed joyfully hopped into her hand with the seed,she gently teased the bird's breast feathers upward softly cooing,"They don't normally take to new people this quickly, I think they like you, and so do I."