Winter Spiral Garden Story

The Boy Who Loved Summer!

By Marsha Johnson

Once upon a time, there was a boy who loved summer. He loved to bright golds, deep oranges, hot sparkling crystal lights flashing on the water, the smell of wheat as it ripens in the field, fresh red warm strawberries right from the vines, the warm sunlight on his head, bare skin, and the feel of cool, deep dry earth as he walked barefoot along paths to the river.

He loved summer so dearly that when the cool winds began to blow, he shivered and felt some sorrow creep over his soul, and when the frost struck one night, leaving trails of feathery fronds on his windows, he decided to search for the warmth of the summer....now hidden somewhere.

And so the boy set out, and he found gold first in the leaves of the tree in front of his home, instead of fresh green, he saw that the leaves were now filled with yellowy gold color, shining at him through the rain.

Then he went further and he saw the golden stems of all the reeds and grasses that had been pale green and dark green in the summer, and he saw their small slivery leaves were also golden brown now.

When he crossed the farmers' fields, he saw the big green leaves of the squashes, collapsing in the fields, drawn down into the earth by the frost fairies, and he saw, suddenly, peeping out between the vines, the bright golds and oranges and deep blue-greens of the summer time in the skins and rinds of the pumpkins and squashes lying there. Later he wandered into the other fields and found the farmers there digging up the golden rutabagas, the orange sweet carrots, and the deep red beets from the earth.

Finally he came far into the fields and found there a higher place up on a hill, where he could look out over the lands, now covered with blues, purples, and greys, and he cried out, I love the sun! Where is my summer?

And a fire fairy, from the sun, came down to the boy as she heard his cry and in her golden bright self, she honored the boy and respected him, and told him in her own way that he should be given a bit of summer and sun to carry home with him, to keep him in the warmth until the sun and summer should return.

And the fire fairy gave the boy a beeswax candle, and scraped a spark from her self to light the candle, and the boy saw that the glow and warmth of the sun were captured in the golden orange yellow flame of the candle and he carried it home quite carefully and placed it on his mantel bare, to remind him of the sun and its warmth.