I was startled the bitterness her voice.
"Look this garden. To you it may not look beautiful. Other people tell me the colors
the flowers do not go well together, but they have only one sense. People trust their eyes too much. We must use other senses to appreciate a garden. Feel this."
I walked over her and felt the soft leaf a plant.
"That's lamb's ears. I have never felt a lamb's ear, but I'm sure it would be as soft and woolly as this leaf."
I looked the garden. She was right. I did not think it was beautiful. There was another plan of organization that was meant for a blind person, not a sighted person. The color of the flowers and the arrangement the plants would not have been done that manner by a gardener sight.
"This has a beautiful flower," I said, hoping to express my interest the garden when I really wanted to hear more this blind girl' s hatred of the two intruders, her stepmothers.
"Where? Let me feel. Yes, it may be beautiful. It has a very delicate smell. But it's very poisonous, you know. It's called Black Hellebore; the Christmas Rose. The ancient Greeks thought it cured madness, and in a way I guess it does; death is always a cure of sorts."
"Why do you have poisonous plants your garden?"
"Oh, I have lots them. Sometimes the most beautiful, innocent flower is deadly. Can you see the foxglove there?" She pointed toward some tall plants with purple flowers. "The leaves make a salad look too good to eat, and actually you shouldn't. If you want to live, that is. And, of course, I also have monkshood." She pointed to a plant her feet and bent over to pick it up. "The juice this plant is tasteless, but when added to tea or any drink, it becomes deadly."
I began to think the second wife, who died food poisoning. I looked
around the garden to see if there were any other dangerous plants I could recognize.
"Nature is frightening, isn't it? But if you understand her, you can use her. She always gives warnings to us."
From the porch, Ms. Ryan was calling for us to come tea. Sonia reached her hand
her basket and held out some parsley she had just cut. "You are not afraid parsley, are you?" She handed me a bit to eat. As I chewed, she explained that parsley first grew from the blood __ the child Opheltes who had been killed a snake. Seeing parsley then became known as seeing one's death.
"You go have your tea Ms. Ryan. And enjoy it."
She then went back to the house. I followed slowly behind and reached the porch where Ms. Ryan was waiting me.
