This is a story about a granddaughter staying with her grandmother for two weeks at the end of summer. The grandmother lives on an island in the Puget Sound. They spend time baking, painting, walking the beach, and telling each other their dreams. It begins like this:
Blue sky. Blue water. Green islands. A long stretch of a two-lane highway cutting through. A round yellow sun above the horizon in the western sky. It was a quiet summer evening. Cars driving away from the sun. Cars driving toward it. In one of the cars driving toward the sun, there was a little girl named Harriet sitting in the backseat of a red SUV. The hum of the car on the road was like a tune to her. She hummed along as she gazed out the backseat window, daydreaming, watching it all go by. As one aspect of the world blurred, another came into sharp focus. There was the pretty blue sea. A small white pickup truck. A yellow road sign. Birds flying. The sky was such a particular perfect blue it seemed unreal. There were only a few fluffy clouds in the constant cerulean. Those clouds were perfectly white and so fat and pretty that Harriet wanted to reach out of the car window and pluck one from the sky. So she did. She closed her eyes and imagined just that. She used that cloud as a pillow, resting her head on it while dreaming.
Harriet’s mom was driving, and her teenage brother, Max, was in the front passenger seat. They were listening to the music that was on his phone. Momma said, “What’s that song that goes scoo scoo scoo? Play that one.”
“I don’t know.”
“I like that one.”
Max googled song, scoo scoo scoo. He played the suggested song. There were only two scoos.
“That’s not it.”
“Yeah,” Max shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Scoo scoo scoo. Maybe I dreamed it.”
“Maybe you dreamed it.”
*******
Harriet’s Garden is available on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and KindleUnlimited.
Universal Book Link: https://books2read.com/u/3y9lQv
Paperback USA Link: