The servants knew it wasn’t Yurie’s fault that Yumie died and they all cared
for her like she was their daughter. They taught her how to read, write, sew
and play two stringed instruments called the kokyu and the shamisen. But
Yurie’s favourite thing to do was learn how to tend to gardens. Yurie loved
being in the gardens outside the mansion. The flowers and trees always made her
smile. The servants always said that she got the love of gardens from her
mother. They always told her that Yumie would spend hours in the gardens every
day. Yurie loved it when the servants told her stories about her mother, but
there were times that she would cry from listening to them because she missed
her mother.
One cold winter day Yurie was taking a walk out into the garden with her
doll, Sakura. Sakura was a gift to Yurie from her mother. Yumie made the doll
for Yurie just before she was born. She looked like a little girl, with short
black hair and was dressed in a pink kimono. Yurie had always kept Sakura with
her day and night, she thought of her as a sister. It was near the end of
winter, no leaves or flowers had sprouted yet. Yurie didn’t like it when there
were no leaves or flowers. It made gardens look dead.
Yurie walked over to a big wall with a door attached to it. She had once
heard the servants say that behind the door was a garden that Yumie and Kiyoshi
used to spend a lot of time. Yurie had always wanted to go through the door and
see the garden her mother and uncle loved so much. But the door was locked and
no one knew where the key was. Apparently Kiyoshi had the garden locked up and
the key buried somewhere ever since Yumie died. The garden reminded him too
much of his sister. After just staring at the locked door for a while, Yurie
went straight back to the mansion.
That night Yurie was in bed with Sakura lying beside her. She was just
about to go to sleep, when she heard voices from outside her room. She sat up
in bed and listened to what the voices were saying. “Did you clean that room again?”
asked a servant. “Yes I did” another servant answered “I must ask you though.
Why does master Kiyoshi keep that room cleaned, locked up and never shows it to
Yurie? It is her mother’s room after all”. “It’s because he has been upset
since she died and doesn’t want to upset Yurie with it. He doesn’t want it
dirty which is why he asks us to keep it clean.” Then the voices died down.
Yurie got out of bed, came out of her room and
walked to her mother’s room. It was five rooms away from Yurie’s room. She had
always wanted to look in there, but since it was kept locked up tight she
couldn’t. But tonight luck was on Yurie’s side. The servant, who cleaned the
room, left the key in the lock. Yurie took the key out of the lock and went
back to bed. She thought it was too dark to go in there now, so she would go in
there tomorrow when the sun started to rise. Then she fell asleep, holding
Sakura and the key close to her.
While she slept that night she had a dream; a dream about her mother
Yumie. Yurie was standing in a garden she had never been in before. It was a
beautiful garden with flowers everywhere. Then suddenly Yumie appeared kneeling
in front of her.
“Mother!” she cried, running into Yumie’s arms, “I miss you so much”.
Tears were running down her cheeks.
“There, there my daughter” said Yumie, holding her daughter tight,
“listen carefully to what I have to say. My garden feels sad and lonely without
anyone there to care for it. Yurie I ask you to care for it in my place”.
“But mother” said Yurie “I don’t know where the key to the garden is”.
“My best friend Iris has the key” said Yumie “find her and you will find
the key. I’m counting on you my daughter”. Then Yurie’s dream ended at that.
Yurie still had tears in her eyes while she slept; she missed her mother very
much.
The next morning, just when the sun was starting to rise, Yurie got up
very early. She wanted to look into her mother’s room, before anyone was up. So
she quickly got out of bed, grabbed the key to her mother’s room, went out of
her room and went straight to her mother’s room. Luckily none of the servants
were up yet. So this was Yurie’s chance of seeing the room before anyone could
stop her. She unlocked the door, opened it, and went inside.
Yumie’s room was a big room, with a big bed, a dressing table, a
wardrobe with kimonos and there was a big painted portrait of Yumie and
Kiyoshi. Yurie closed the door, so the servants wouldn’t see her and looked
around. On Yumie’s dressing table there was pretty jewellery, hair clips,
barrettes and hair combs. Yurie found her mother’s kimonos really beautiful and
wouldn’t stop staring at the portrait. Kiyoshi’s smile was something she had
never seen before. Whenever she saw him he never smiled because of his sadness.
What caught Yurie’s eyes the most was a doll that lay upon Yumie’s bed. The
doll looked like Sakura; only this doll looked a bit older with long black hair
and dressed in a dark purple kimono. “This must be Iris” Yurie whispered to
herself. She remembered that one time she heard the servant, who took care of
the room, talking about a doll called Iris that belonged to Yumie. Remembering
what her mother said about Iris having the key to the garden, Yurie picked up Iris.
There right under Iris was the key to the garden. Yurie was happy to have
finally found the key to the garden. She grabbed the key, put Iris back onto
the bed and left the room, remembering to lock the door and leave the room key
in the lock where the servant left it so that she wouldn’t notice it hadn’t
been moved.
During the day Yurie pretended to act like nothing special had happened,
so the servants wouldn’t be suspicious of her. Then after going through all of
today’s lessons of reading, writing, sewing and music, Yurie went straight into
the garden. She ran straight to the locked door, unlocked it with the key,
opened the door and went straight into the garden. Yurie was amazed by what she
was seeing. The garden was big, with lots of grass, lots of flower beds, and
three sakura trees. In the middle of the garden was a big pond with a few carps
in it. There was even a band stand; Yurie had seen the band stand in the
portrait of her mother and uncle sitting there together. Yurie was happy to be
finally in her mother’s garden, but was not happy at the way it looked. The
garden was in a terrible mess, since it hadn’t been looked after for eight
years. There were lots of dead leaves, lots of weeds, broken sticks and the
pond and band stand didn’t look tidy either.
Yurie didn’t like it like that and decided she would take care of it.
“Mother” she said “I promise you I will make your garden as good as new”.
Yurie knew of course that she couldn’t take care of the garden by
herself, so she decided to ask her friend Sentarou to help her. Her friend
Sentarou was the gardener’s twelve year old son. He was like an elder brother
to Yurie and spent all his free time with her. Yurie found him by a tree close
to the locked garden and ran up to him. “Sentarou” she said “I need your help”.
She told Sentarou about her finding of the garden key and going inside. “You
actually went in there?” Sentarou asked “what is it like?” “It is a mess in
there” answered Yurie “I can’t take care of the garden myself, so will you help
me please?” “Of course I can” said Sentarou “show me the garden please”. Yurie
led Sentarou into the garden and he took a good look at it. “You’re right it is
a mess” said Sentarou “but if we work together we can make the garden as good
as new”. Yurie agreed and they both promised each other to keep this all a
secret. They feared that telling anyone about this would get them into trouble
and they may not be allowed to go to the garden anymore.
So all through the rest of winter and the beginning of spring, Yurie and
Sentarou tended the garden together. Sentarou raked the dead leaves, cut off
the dead wood from the two bushes and picked up all the broken sticks. Yurie
tided up the flower beds and pulled out the weeds. Then together they took care
of the pond and band stand, until the whole garden looked as good as new. And
together they watched the garden grow. By the time it was the middle of spring,
the garden was full of flowers and green leaves on the trees and bushes. There
were lotus flowers in the pond, sakura blossoms on the trees, iris growing around
the band stand, pink and white azalea flowers bloomed on the bushes and there
were multi coloured chrysanthemums and orchid flowers in the flower beds.
“The garden really is now good as new” said Sentarou. Yurie agreed with
him; the garden had become exactly as she saw it in the dream of her mother.
She told Sentarou all about the dream. “It was a good thing that your mother
visited you that night” said Sentarou “otherwise we would have never been able
to look after this garden”. “I do wish that my uncle would see this” said Yurie
“I wish he would come home and spend time in this garden, like he used to do
when mother was alive”. Yurie prayed her
wish will come true.
Meanwhile somewhere, far away from the mansion, Kiyoshi was asleep at an
inn and was dreaming. He was dreaming that he was in his late sister’s garden.
And there, standing in front of the band stand was his sister Yumie. Yurie was
in the dream too and she was playing with Iris and Sakura, while sitting beside
her mother. “Yumie and Yurie” whispered Kiyoshi in shock. “Come play with us in
the garden Kiyoshi” said Yumie. “Yes please do uncle Kiyoshi” said Yurie. Then
the dream ended. Kiyoshi woke with a start and decided to head home
immediately.
When he arrived at the mansion he asked the servants where Yurie was.
“She will be outside sir” answered one of them “she spends all her free time
outside with Sentarou”. Kiyoshi had a feeling that she would be in her mother’s
garden like in his dream, so he rushed outside. He rushed to the door of the
garden, opened it and went into the garden.
Standing in front of the band stand was Yurie, playing with her doll
Sakura, and talking to Sentarou. “Yurie” called Kiyoshi. Yurie and Sentarou
stopped talking and looked to who was calling. “Uncle Kiyoshi” said Yurie.
Kiyoshi walked over to them. Yurie was afraid that her uncle would be cross
with them and lock up the garden again. “Please don’t lock up the garden again”
she said, in fear, “I love this garden as much as mother did”. Kiyoshi walked
over to Yurie, knelt down in front of her and pulled her into a hug. “Uncle
Kiyoshi?” whispered Yurie; she had never been hugged by him before. “It’s all
right my niece” Kiyoshi said, stroking her head, “I won’t lock it up again”.
“I’m happy to hear that” said a female voice.
That female voice belonged to Yumie; she appeared to them in her spirit
form. “Mother” said Yurie. “Yumie” said Kiyoshi. “I’m happy that my garden is a
beautiful place again” said Yumie. “I’m sorry Yumie” said Kiyoshi “I didn’t
take care of your garden or Yurie”. “It’s alright Kiyoshi” said Yumie “I’m glad
that everything is all right now. Yurie be a good girl for your uncle and
continue to take care of the garden”. “Yes mother” said Yurie. Then Yumie
disappeared into heaven. Then Kiyoshi pulled Yurie into another hug and held
her like there was no tomorrow. Yurie returned the hug, happy that she was
finally with her uncle.
From that day on Kiyoshi spent a lot of happy times with Yurie. Both
Yumie’s garden and bedroom were kept unlocked and Kiyoshi and Yurie went into
them whenever they wanted to. Yurie gained custody of Iris and she kept her by
Sakura’s side; Iris and Sakura were like mother and daughter to her. As for
Yumie, she looked down on her daughter and brother from heaven ever after.
