Believe it or not, this chapter is about gardening and I personally am not a big fan of doing so. This chapter idea did not come from experience even though I was just gardening about two weeks ago (that I wrote this, presently, it's like a month later); it came from church a very long time ago when my pastor said the word "seed".


Photo #98: How (Not) to Garden

Eadlyn knows that she is a person who cannot be one with nature. She isn't the kind of girl who could get down and dirty with literal dirt. She liked being clean and looking at plants. Nature is beautiful in her eyes and from a good distance. Her mother, however, has an eye for plants and their aesthetic. That just added to another quality the mother and daughter do not have in common (it was a surprise America gave birth to her since they almost share nothing).

Despite having royal gardeners, her mother liked getting down in the dirt herself. This time, with the royal gardens, she has the opportunity to have an endless landscape with whatever plants she wants from the tallest trees to the smallest shrubs. Eadlyn remembers her mother calling it "bonding" time but based on this photo of Eadlyn wishing she would dig herself a grave instead of a hold for some plants, she remembers it as "burying" time.

-o-

It was a beautiful sunny day in Illéa after a series of rainstorms the day before. Now, there wasn't a cloud in the sky which made America extremely happy since she could finally play around in the gardens and plant whatever she wanted. And because she has four kids, she has eight extra helping hands to make her landscaping dreams come true. Her kids really had no interest in getting into their jeans to garden, a part of them just wanted to be outside in the sun after being stuck indoors due to rain, and the other parts were forced by their mother to be out here.

America stabs her shovel on the ground, prepping one of her booted feet on the metal part as she looks at her four lined-up children from underneath her sun hat.

"Now, my babies, we will till the soil," America instructs.

"What?" Eadlyn asks confused.

Echoed by Ahren: "Double what?"

Followed by Kaden: "Triple what?"

Concluded by Osten: "Quadruple what?"

America blinks once as she looks at her children. She knew that if they were confused on what tilling soil was, then they would be out here for a while. Lucky for them, the sun was up high and not supposed to go down for a long time. Also, she only took ten minutes to explain the process of tilling the soil (mostly because the kids just nodded their kids without really thinking to themselves on if they understood it or not). Then, when they were left to do it on their own, they just held their tools in confusion.

Osten starts stabbing his shovel into the soil, digging out small piles of whatever he can and randomly tossing them to the side. Kaden stands to the side, getting hit with dirt whenever they were unintentionally thrown in his direction.

"Are you sure that's how you do it?" Kaden questions.

"I think so," Osten replies, continuing to till the soil the way he's been doing it.

"That's not 100%."

Osten's response is to shovel more soil on Kaden who only starts to shovel dirt back on Osten. The two boys suddenly engage in a dirt war which has to be stopped by America jumping in the middle of their shootout, demanding that it ends in a ceasefire. America, now covered in dirt, is only happy that they weren't using the shovels to fight each other. That case wouldn't end well for anyone.

Eadlyn puts a hand above her eyes to block the sun to see what the noise coming from her younger brothers was. She sighs disgracefully when she sees them both covered in dirt and it's only been five minutes since they started here.

"This is so much work..." Eadlyn mutters as she flips over the old dirt into the fresh one.

Eadlyn grunts loudly and stands up straight, feeling something behind her. She turns around and sees her mother right behind her. Eadlyn jumps a little and her heart rate spikes up dramatically. She could've sworn that her mother was dealing her Kaden and Osten.

"And you're doing it wrong," America tells her. "A lack of motivation doesn't always equal failure nor is it a permanent weakness so get going, Eady!"

America walks off. Eadlyn watches her go and makes sure that her mother is at a far distance before she rolls her eyes. She didn't need to be yelled at.

Across the garden, Ahren peers over Kaden's shoulder and sees his younger brother crouched over a hole he dug in the dirt. When Ahren looks into the hole, wondering why Kaden seems so invested in it, his eyes almost bulge out of his head.

"What's going on in there?!" Ahren exclaims, pointing at it with his shovel.

"I don't know but it's your problem now," Kaden replies instantly, getting up and running away.

Ahren looks to see where his brother went and he seemed to have vanished somewhere in the bushes, leaving Ahren with what he saw in the hole. Ahren takes a quick peek in the hole and whistles casually as he rushes to bury it in. Ahren turns on his heel and skedaddles away. Out of sight does not mean out of mind.

He sees Eadlyn standing still as she looks at something down in the dirt. Ahren walks over to see what's up with her (but if he sees that she's looking at whatever he saw in the hole earlier, he's turning and sneaking back inside). He takes a little peek over her shoulder and shockingly sees something worse than what he saw in that hole, he sees a decapitated flower - one of their mother's favorite flowers. And judging by Eadlyn's face, he can tell that she was the one who destroyed it.

"Tell mom you messed up," Ahren suggests.

Eadlyn shakes her head as she looks around to make sure her mother isn't nearby. "I can't tell her that. I have too much pride."

Ahren glares at her. Eadlyn bites down on her lip before handing Ahren her shovel. She trudges over to her mom which felt like the longest couple of steps in her whole life.

"Hey, Mom..." Eadlyn says casually. "I was tilling soil like you wanted me to and accidentally chopped off the flower from its stem."

"Which flowers?" America asks.

"I don't know what type they were but they were your favorite."

Eadlyn expects her mother to explode like a bomb. Even her brothers thought the same since they already took cover behind some shrubs. But to all of their surprises, America just smiles calmly and collectively.

"That's okay," America says as if she was holding back her fire.

"Really?" Eadlyn questions in doubt that her mother's reaction was genuine. "I thought you would've lashed out."

"I really want to but kindness is more effective."

America goes back to the plants she was working on. Eadlyn stands there confused for a few seconds before she realizes that she's in the clear, and then she bolts away. She searches for her brothers and ends up getting yanked into the shrubs where she sees the rest of her brothers. Her eyes immediately turn to Osten who is crying.

"What happened to him?" Eadlyn asks.

"He befriended a toad he found in the garden and it hopped away," Kaden says.

Eadlyn pats the top of Osten's head, thinking about how odd that is but she just killed a flower so who was she to judge?

"I haven't seen him this upset since they canceled his favorite cartoon," Eadlyn says.

"Don't remind me of that too!" Osten yells at her.

Eadlyn opens her mouth to apologize but they all hear their mother calling for them. In sync, the pop out from the shrubs, facing their mother in a military lineup. It wasn't planned, they were just in that formation. America doesn't put that much thought into how her kids are standing. She just beams happily at them.

"Isn't this fun, kids?" America asks them.

"No," Eadlyn responds.

Echoed by Ahren: "Double no."

Followed by Kaden: "Triple no."

Concluded by Osten: "Quadruple no."


When I was forced to garden, I was acting like all the kids combined.

Stay Tuned - (last sneak peek of the summer) A little message written on the window says lots.