Chapter 2: The Garden
Lily: Mom!!! Mom!!!
Amanda: Huh?!!
Amanda woke up from her nightmare that still haunts her till today, annoyed to the fact that she had to see her husband in those hard times that was reminded by her mind.
Sarah: Are you all right Mom? Your face doesn't look right.
Amanda: Uh...what do you mean?....I....I... I'm perfectly fine....
Lily: I just asked you a question and you went blank, what's the deal here?
Amanda: Sorry Lily, I was kind of stressed out by that garden thing, so I must be overthinking about it.
Sarah: Are you sure, Mom?
Amanda: I'm 100% sure, I'm totally fine.
Lily: You own up to your own words, and don't tell us you feel sick right after we reached there.
Amanda: I do own up my words as always, Lily. Anyway, finish your meal so we can go to the garden as soon as possible. Make it fast!
Amanda started to eat her breakfast a bit faster than normal, Sarah questioned her sister Lily whether she knew about their mom's weird behavior, but Lily replied with just a shrug on her shoulders, indicating that she too had no idea about that.
Lily MV: Is mom trying to hide something from us?
Poor Lily and Sarah, they had no clue that their mom was hiding their lifetime secret from them for their own good.
After having a nice and..... kind of awkward breakfast meal, they set out to plant some flowers on Howard's garden, which he left abandoned after his demise. As they were walking by some bushes, Lily saw a small dark orb on the cloud, she stopped her steps and kept staring at the orb, identifying the unknown thing that appeared on the sky out of nowhere.
Sarah: Lily, what are you looking at?
Lily: Uhhh, umm, nothing, go ahead...
Sarah: Ok, but don't get lost, or we can't find you here in this remote area.
Lily: I won't, just don't leave Mom.
Sarah: All right.
Sarah just shrugged it off and followed Amanda behind, Lily stared at the cloud where the orb suddenly disappeared into thin air. She looked around to see if it was anywhere else, but she hardly even care about it so she ignored it and went back to her trail.
Lily: I'm getting nightmares everywhere. Why is it happening out of the blue? Am I being overreacting?
Without knowing what's gonna happen next, Lily just continued to walk behind her mom and her sister.
After a several miles long, they finally reached to the garden where Howard would used to gardening everyday with his family. The thought of the garden's owner had reminded them the good times they had when he was alive.
Lily: I really miss those good times.
Sarah: If only dad is still alive with us.
Amanda: He always will, Sarah. This garden had never left from my mind, as it was so attached to him like it's his second life. Anyway, shall we proceed?
Lily: What should we do?
Amanda: Alright, we need to make sure there's no infection in this garden, there might be a chance of it as it was being opened fully for so long. Furthermore, make sure there's no insects or animals that could destroy the whole garden. And last but not least, make sure the soil is suitable to plant flowers, or we should replace it with a new one. Get it? Come on, let's get to work.
Amanda walked up into the garden and started to do her work, Lily gestured Sarah to go together and they went to other side to do their work.
Lily checked the soil whether or not it's suitable to plant any plants on it. If not, it will be too challenging for the plants to survive with a mountain of unsuitable soil.
Sarah: Can't believe the garden still looks good even after so many years.
Lily: More than soil and sunlight, dad's passion of being a gardener is what made this garden looks so alive till now. From now on, we should never leave this behind ever again for the sake of our dad.
Sarah: For the sake of our dad, gotcha!!
Lily: Hey, take that thing out of that flower, it's making it horrible.
The family proceeded to clean up and make the garden look more beautiful than before. Amanda was in charge of digging the soil while Lily and Sarah looked after the flowers that were planted by Howard, although the colours were looked a bit worn out as it was left behind for so long.
Lily: Sarah, would you mind take that gloves? We need to dig in and take out infections from the soil.
Sarah: Alright.
Sarah went to the small house to take some tools when Lily continued to dig the soil with her bare hands.
Lily: Ugghhh, it's so dirty, we need to replace this soil into a new one.
As Lily continued to dig, she felt like she touched something hard.
Lily: What..... what's that thing inside there?
Lily curiously dig even faster to see what was inside, until she found something that she didn't expect to.
Lily: Is this...a book? What is it doing here?
Lily found an old book beneath the soil, she was confused as to why a book was buried inside Howard's garden.
Sarah: Hey, I think we need to look for better gloves, the old one have holes outside.
Lily: Forget about the gloves Sarah, look what I found here.
Sarah: What is it?
Lily showed the old book to Sarah, which she widened her eyes in shock and gasped in the air.
Sarah: Where did you find this?
Lily: I was digging up the soil and this book appeared from nowhere inside.
Sarah: Let's tell this to mom. Mom!!! Look what we have...
Before Sarah could tell, Lily closed her mouth and pulled her down to the ground.
Lily: Are you crazy?! Why are you trying to tell this to mom?!
Sarah: I mean, she should know about this.
Lily: No, let's keep this a secret from her. We need to know about this before she could.
Sarah: Why not?
Lily: This book seems familiar to me, like I have seen it somewhere before. I need to figure this out by our own. Until then, let's not tell this to her. Promise you won't tell her until I do so.
Sarah: Uhhhh....Lily.....but....
Lily: Please Sarah, I'm begging you. Promise me.
Sarah: Fine, I promise I won't tell this to her. But, what are we going to do with this?
Lily looked back at the book before she put inside her jacket.
Lily: We just have to find out by our own. Let's continue our work.
Amanda: Hey you two, what are you both blabbering there?
Sarah: Uhh...nothing mom, we were just talking.
Lily: Yeah, some sisters's talk.
Amanda: Save that later, the sun is setting down, let's finish our work as soon as possible before night arrives.
Without knowing anything, Amanda continued to replace the old soil with a new one. Lily and Sarah gave a signal at each other before continuing their work as well.
To be continued...