13 In the Heart of the garden

The soil had long turned into a pool of mud by the time Grahams and Lilith began their exploration in the mansion. It was then Lilith had hoped to answer all her wonders by venturing the house with Grahams. Even though Grahams had warned her about the coming hurricane on their way from the looks of the clouds upon the sky, Lilith cannot stand by these troubling problems, which brought her substantial stress that caused her headaches for not satisfying her curiosity.

As the gigantic door opened, the depressing cloud had started to fall its heavy tears, blowing its mists from the east wind, which had welcomed Lilith and Grahams. The cracking of lightning on the morning they had ventured was a terrible dictation of what lies ahead of their exploration. It seems that Lilith is particularly unfortunate on selecting the diurnal, but her strong desire to unravel the peculiar, and unfamiliar house still surface no matter the circumstance they are in.

The rainfall had created a little pond betwixt the rectangular cobblestones on their pathway. They trudge along the pavement under the parasol Mr. Grahams had opened for Lilith. As they walk along the path, different and unknown wild plants crawled on the ground, covering the cobblestone path they originally walked on. Perhaps it was the fog brought by the gloomy and depressing sky, but the vibrance of the plants looked rather pale and faded as if she had walked into the woeful heart of the kidnapped Persephone. Although the glum overtook the beauty of the place, Lilith complimented its picturesque scenery beyond the glum looking- garden that stood before them.

“It had been very long since the death of Arlott twins. Conjoint twins, that is. Miss Flora had held dear the lavenders and other flowers while Miss Fauna had loved very much the bees on the climbing roses on the cement fences. Here, too, where she lied till her last breath, swarmed by the perennials they loved so. I was the one who had trimmed and helped the twins cut, and bud the plants with them, I grew fond of the two, they were beautiful creatures in one combined, such sweet ladies they were” Graham’s mustache had followed the frown ends of his commissures.

Lilith was rattled by the emotions that Grahams had finally shown, so he does have a soft spot too.

“Pray tell more”

“Miss Fauna had caught a strange unknown disease, that even the best doctor in the town could not phantom the name of the spreading strange disease inside their bodies. She had grown weak and pale each day, she coughs blood and breathes as if chocked by something. In order to save them, Miss Fauna had to be amputated, separated from Miss Flora. It was pure torture to look at the suffering of twins. Miss Fauna died during the surgery which brought her twin to depression for several years. Miss fauna's death brought chaos to the family’s emotion,” He gently lifted the crusted wet leaf on the fence “The flowers have withered, and the garden was drought for a few months, no matter how many times I take care of it, the flowers seem to never bloom beautifully again” he snapped out the branch of the leaf and began walking within the garden.

Lilith followed his pace as they had a converse that took not too long until they reach the center of the garden, basing on the marbled statue that lies in the wide-open area of the place. It has a height of 4 meters in her calculation and it was a beautiful figure of two people tangled into one by their waist or perhaps it was the creative mind of the sculptor that made this odd but astonishing masterpiece. It will surely have looked dazzling if not for the vines that crawled to the figures’ edges.

“Lovely twins-” By his words, Lilith realized the statue resembles the twin Grahams had mentioned earlier, “-yet so dreadful to reminisce” Grahams gazed on the statue, his face seems to have been stamped with despair and grief, or perhaps it was the weather that made Lilith concluded that Grahams was saddened. Although Lilith wanted to embrace and comfort this old man beside her, her body stood unmoved beside him. They stood in silence until Lilith felt the fond memories and the sadness had subsided as well as the rain.

At 1 in the afternoon the rain had calmed, and the cloud revealed the beautiful coral blue sky.

Her soft and slender hands touched the roughs and different texture that the sculptor had exhibited on their piece. She touched the wet, cold, and hard marble gown of the statue where her hands could reach, she skipped the vines that had almost invaded the skirt of the figure. Before she diverts her eyes to the statue, something caught her eyes. A golden word, in a plaque on the marbled pedestal, gleams between the thick vines.

[Florantine and Fauntespina Arlott

“For flowers have lived, and so have we. And for they die, and so must we”]

An epitaph, it seems, for it had left quite a message under their statue, although she jests the assumption of the words it carved on the marbled surface, Grahams assured her it was so as it seemed.

“Beneath the heart of the garden, is where Miss Fauna lied for many years now”

And so, it made sense for Lilith now. The statue stands in commemoration of the twins' joyful times when they are still physically combined to their death, as well as the melancholy message in the epitaph in connection to their likings of perennials in the garden. She wanted to ease the melodramatic atmosphere that the rain’s fog left after the rain, by trudging around the garden and memorize the place in her mind.

There were more leaves, with different shapes, on the path than the October season outside the mansion. Lilith had ventured the whereabouts of the plants as each are placed in distinct places in the garden. Those delicate are stored in the greenhouse, such as some edible ones. The plants seemed, too, are wilt and crusty, or was it the season of fall that the plants have changed in such a way.

There was sadness painted in Graham’s face as they step foot in the garden, or perhaps since the thought of going there, made Lilith ponder she had made him reminisce such unpleasant treasured memory. She suggested it was enough for today’s venturing of the mansion. And so, Grahams closed the parasol and whisked away the excess water off and down the raindrops from the taffeta.

“Must we come in now, madam?”The door plunged close behind them.