2 – In The Garden

Alice feels dewy grass under her bare feet as she steps out onto an immaculate lawn. The door handle slipping from her fingers as she blinks in the sunshine. Her eyes taking a moment to adjust to the brightness and the sudden openness she finds herself in. She takes a deep breath of summer fresh air, rich with the smell of freshly cut grass, and feels her heart soar.
“Wow,” she spins around slowly drinking in the scene.
She is standing on a lawn in the middle of a beautiful park. Surrounding the lawn is a paved path circling around and branching off to wonder among a wide variety of flower beds and shrubbery. Beyond the flower beds and shrubbery tall trees surrounded the park. And beyond the trees all she can see is clear blue sky, with just a few wispy puffs of clouds floating by overhead.
The sun is warm on her exposed skin, of which she has a lot, and the grass is soft under her bare feet.
“It is such a beautiful sunny day,” she continues to twirl slowly around. “The sky is so blue. And the trees and foliage are so lush and green.”
Alice turns, slowly drinking in the wonderful sight, and enjoying the feeling of freedom and light that flows through her. She half closes her eyes listening to the hum of insects and the song of the birds in the trees. The heat of the sun on her skin is so relaxing, and the garden feels so tranquil that she is almost falling asleep as she twirls on the lawn.
Surrounding the lawn is a border of yellow daffodils, which shimmer in the sunshine and dance in the breeze. Alice can not help but be gay in such a jocund company. She gazes and gazes, and little thinks…
Then, suddenly, she has a thought. “The door I have just stepped through has disappeared.” She stops twirling.
Her eyes snap open and she turns her head quickly to the left and then to the right, as if expecting the door to be hiding somewhere behind her.
But there is no sign of any door anywhere.
In fact there is no sign of any type of building in this ideal garden.
No building means no long corridor, which means no door. Which leads to the question, “Well, how did I get here?”
Before she can consider this question further a guff voice bellows, “Keep off the grass!”
Alice jumps, her heart pounding. She snaps her head around to the left again looking for the source of the voice.
“I said,” the voice said, “keep off the grass.”
Alice jumps once more. But this time when she lands back on the ground she spins around and then she sees a short, stocky man in blue overalls standing beside a wheelbarrow that is loaded down with forks and trowels and other garden tools. He has a tangle of red hair, that is a little too long for a man his age, and a shaggy beard. His skin has that tan that you can only get from being outdoors in all types of weather.
The man looks disapprovingly at Alice.
Alice stands frozen in the sunshine.
The man nods at her feet, his eyes tightening as he notices that she is barefoot.
Alice knows that he is waiting for her to respond, or do something, but can not think of anything to say or do.
“I said,” the man folds his arms and tilts his head in exasperation. “Keep off the grass.”
Alice looks down at her bare feet standing on the lush grass.
“Oh, I am sorry,” Alice trots over to stand on the path beside the man; the dirty asphalt warm under her naked feet.
She stands a little bit closer than he is used to, which makes him tense up.
Alice can smell the aromas of compost and plant clippings from him, which she finds oddly soothing.
Now that Alice is off the grass and standing expectantly beside him, the man is at a loss for words.
Alice simply stands and smiles up at him, for even though he is not a tall man he is still a head and shoulders taller than Alice.
This has never happened to him before, the man is used to kids running away from him when he shouts at them, none has ever run up and stood smiling at him; until now, that is.
A long moment passes before he realises that Alice is not going to say anything to him.
Another long moment passes before he realises that she is not going to do anything. Most importantly she is not about to turn and run off, which is what he is rather hoping she will do, any moment now, without any further prompting.
Alice simply stands there openly examining him.
He is wearing an old, worn shirt that was once white, but is now dirty and gray. His sleeves are rolled up to reveal tanned grizzly forearms, covered with a thick coating of red hairs. His well worn hands have dirt under their fingernails and knuckles that look like walnuts. His blue overalls are new, with almost no stains on them; except for the hems of his legs which are splashed with dried mud, as are the well worn pair of work boots he is wearing.
Alice surmises that he is a Gardner.
The Gardner pulls the cloak of his authority around him, “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you youngsters to keep off the grass.”
Alice is about to say that she has never seen him before, and in fact has never been in this garden before, when he adds, “And no ball games either.”
“Oh,” Alice assures him, “I don’t have any balls.”
He takes a long slow look at her, shaking his head in disapproval. He looks at her pretty face and elegant neck. He looks at her slim shoulders and arms. He looks a little longer at her pert breasts, with their erect nipples clearly visible through her form fitting top. He looks at her bare midriff, her slim waist and taught abdomen with it’s twisted dimple of a belly button. He looks at the waistband of her skirt sitting too low on her hips, barely above the line of her pubic hair. He looks at her skirt that is so short it threatens to expose her panties with every step. He looks longest at her slim, toned legs, with so-soft skin and not a single blemish. And when he looks at her perfect, naked feed his breath catches in his throat.
At first Alice feels a little uncomfortable standing under his disapproving gaze. Her first instinct is to bring her hands up to cover her breasts. But she keeps her hands down by her sides and instead feels a fire ignite inside her. Her breasts seem to swell under his gaze, her heartbeat quickens. His eyes drift lower.
As he looks at her abdomen she pulls her stomach in tight and straightens up. Now she wants to simultaneously pull her skirt up higher on her waist to cover her belly button and down to cover her legs. But she just leaves it there, a narrow strip of cloth covering barely enough.
He unconsciously licks his lips.
A thrill runs through her as she wonders if he can tell that she has no panties on. His eyes move down to her legs. She feels naked, but not exposed, as he gazes at her thighs. A tingle runs through her body as she considers how exposed she would be but for the flimsy patch of cloth that covers her naked vagina. A skirt so short that she can feel every stray wisp of breeze caressing her pubic hair; so short that the complete length of her legs are visible to him. Her slim legs that lead his eyes down to her bare feet.
“Hump,” he snorts as he completes his examination.
Still his gaze has made her nipples all the more hard.
She smiles expectantly up at him.
His examination, though clearly disapproving, has made Alice feel naughty, a good naughty, a very good naughty. A naughty feeling that rushes through her body and threatens to overwhelm her. Threatens to make her pull her top down so her breasts can spring free. Threatens to make her flip up her skirt to show him her naked cunny. Threatens to make her scream madly at the top of her voice.
But she doesn’t. Instead she just stands completely still and smiles.
The gardener, for that is what Alice is sure that he is, pulls himself together. His eyes still downcast he turns, picks up the handles of his wheelbarrow and trundles off down the curving path; soon disappearing from her view behind a thick foliage of bushes.
Alice feels light headed, almost giddy with excitement and is tempted to immediately step back onto the grass.
“And keep off the grass!” comes a bellow from behind the bushes.
Which makes Alice laugh softly.
She shrugs, letting the gardener slip from her mind, even though she is going to be in his for a long time to come, and decides to explore.
She turns around and follows the path in the other direction as it meanders among the flower beds.
The sent of summer blossoms and hum of insects fill her senses as she strolls aimlessly through the garden. The air is pleasantly warm and Alice forgets her current state of undress as she drinks in all the colours of the fragrant flowers.
As she wanders she sees people in the distance rounding corners or disappearing around bends as she strolls along. At first she thinks nothing of this, but gradually she realises that she is only seeing people in the distance. They are always walking away from her, always turning a corner, always at a distance.
The next time she sees a person in the distance she hurries to catch them, but they round a bend in the path and when she rounds it in turn there is on sign of them. The path branches in several directions and they might have taken any one of them. She strolls on a little further and sees another fleeting glimpse on the path ahead of her. Once again she hurries, but once again they disappear before she can catch up with them. Again and again she sees people in the distance. Again and again she hurries to catch them. And again and again they disappear before she can catch them.
Try as she might she can never get close to anyone. They are all unreachable.
“This is most strange,” sighs Alice. “It’s not like I want to engage them in some deep philosophical conversation.”
She looks around in case she might glimpse someone else, “I just want to see what they look like.”
She hears a rustle behind her. She twirls as fast as she can and sees the branches of a clump of small trees swaying. She runs to them, pushes her way through some bushes and finds herself in a small, dark clearing. The trees grow high all around her, blocking out any direct sun and the ground is littered with dried leaves and dead branches that rustle and snap under her feet.
She hears the crunch of footsteps off to one side.
Quick as she can she dashes down a narrow trail, but finds herself surrounded by mossy tree trunks and quite alone with no sign of whoever made the footsteps.
She hears footsteps crunching dried branches off the the left and dashes after them. But once again finds herself alone in this dark tangle of a forest. What had appeared at first to be a small clump of trees has turned into a large rambling forest of dark trails and mottled sunshine.
“Where are all the people going?” Alice is quite frustrated.
Again and again she hears footsteps, or the rustle of branches, or she might even glimpse the outline of a person. But time and time again when she rushes to catch these fathom people she finds herself arriving too late to find them and being left quite all alone.
Alice is getting very hot and sweaty and quite out of breath with all this running about.
“And I still haven’t met any of these people!” Alice stomps her foot in frustration.
Alice hears a footstep and runs in that direction. She hears another and runs after that. Then another. Then another. Then another. Pushing through branches and running along narrow tracks. Turned around and around, so that she barely knows which way is up never mind which way the footsteps are leading her. She turns and runs after each sound and after each shadow.
Around and around and around she goes, and where she will stop, well nobody knows.
Alice hears the snap of a branch. She turns and pushes her way through a tangle of foliage and suddenly finds herself running out into the open.