My Best Bud!

A small child finds a best friend in her garden.

     My best friend's name is Flower. That is a great name because we met in my garden! I met Flower way back in the herb garden - playing in a patch of fennel. She likes dill too, but I think that she is very partial to fennel. I kind of like fennel too. It has a spicy, licorice smell. And the yellow-green flowers look like an opened umbrella made out of very lacy cloth...or...like huge oval fireworks on the Fourth of July.

    The herb garden is the hottest part of the garden, all sun, but Flower doesn't seem to mind. I always wear my baseball cap and plenty of sunscreen when I visit her there - just like my Mom tells me to. I feel sad because Flower doesn't seem to have a Mom that cares about her.

     Flower's clothes are very odd. She always wears a green jumpsuit with black zebra stripes. Sometimes she wears a really weird headband that seems to have small red horns sticking out. I guess it's last year's Halloween costume. I didn't ask her about it though, because my Mom tells me not to be nosy. I don't want to be rude to my best friend. Sometimes Flower smells awful too, but I don't tell her. It would hurt her feelings, and, well, nobody's perfect, right!

     This is kind of a sad story now. After four weeks of being best buds, Flower disappeared. I never got the nerve to tell her that I love her (even though she was growing alarmingly fat and ugly)! Best buds overlook those kinds of things, right!? 

     Another sad thing about her being gone: we can't enjoy all the beautiful black and yellow butterflies that are visiting the herb garden. My Mom told me they are called Black Swallowtails. Flower would have loved them!