The Last 7 Days of My Life: Nils Stylus Diary

Secret Place Part 2

Using my hands, I reached into between the petals and that was when I realized they were not petals, but the head of mushrooms. Giant mushroom heads that started shaking like the villagers were drumming up a storm at the festival that was to come tomorrow.

That was not today, and they were finding the rhythm on their own in this quiet garden.

Something hits my face as the mushrooms shivered with crazy intensity.

I stood there for a while wondering if what I thought was powdered wheat for the cookies was actually another kind of powder. I blinked a few times, then I felt like my soul had migrated from my body, waving at me from abroad.

Wait, had I already died? Was this heaven? I pinched myself, nope still living. Unless you still felt pain in heaven. That would have been annoying. Nah, this wasn't heaven, but it was pretty strange.

I looked down and saw finer flowers attached to climbing vines growing in and around the mushrooms. It was there I saw Sir Phillipe staring at me. Then he vanished, ran around a tree trunk and right back into Bella's arm.

She laughed and said, "You have to be patient Nils. He is not used to you yet."

I groaned, for I was not exactly jumping to make friends with a rabbit named Sir Phillipe.

She came over. Sir Phillipe nestled himself in the grove of her arms. It looked so peaceful, cute even. I blinked and remembered I was not the type to call anything cute, but that was how I felt.

I ended up wearing dresses a while ago prior, so at this point I was open to the world on a level that was different. This must be what it meant to be living at your best and enjoying life.

"This is my friend Nils." She whispered in one of his extremely long ears. "Oh, I never told you the name of this place." She cleared her throat and proclaimed with a strong declaration. "Welcome dear friend, to the garden of peace."

Peace, Serenity, I wasn't far off. The garden was a great reflection of its name. I entered tentatively. As soon as we were truly into the garden, the rabbit returned to its four paws and hopped off.

Sir Phillipe found carrots and brought them back to drop to our feet. I don't know from where, maybe from his personal stash. Bella threw it in the air and he hopped to catch it.

I swear to you; I heard rabbit laugh or maybe I tired since it was soon night. Sir Phillipe was a strange beast to meet.

Maybe it's the energy of the garden, because pretty soon I forgot that there was a rabbit and a secret paradise in the middle of the forest.

You get used to what you do not know, and it becomes not so strange anymore.

I watched as Bella played with Sir Phillipe. In that moment she looked like a fairy, as if at any moment now she would grow wings and take off into the air.

Bella pointed at me and said, "You are the rabbit now."

What?

Suddenly, she bent her body into the form of a rabbit and chased me around the garden. Sir Phillipe pretty much outran her and kept cutting me off. I had to sidestep and swerved around the little one.

Now that I thought about it for the first time today, my legs actually felt normal. Not just ache free, normal. Was it because I was having so much fun or was this place that magical? What was this place?

Could this garden be actually magical? What else could it do? This was amazing. We stopped to rest, or in my case, gasp for air in big gulps. Joel's laughter was distant, but I heard it like a screw spinning into the block of wood that was headed.

Catching my breathed I turned to Bella sitting on a boulder. Her eyes scanned the surroundings, while Sir Phillipe nibbled at the grass with no regard for us.

"How did you find this place?" I asked her.

She smiled even wider. "One day, while I was looking out the window, I saw Sir Phillipe through the grass. His eyes surprised me." She made a gesture at her own eyes and flick of her hands as if to emphasize how big it was.

Sir Phillipe looked up, and I was not sure, but I felt he was neatly offended at the assumption he had big eyes.

She continued. "I had only gotten a glimpse of him. Every day after, I looked out my window to see if I would catch another glance of him. I wasn't that lucky. It was almost like I imagined him."

"So, one day when momma sent me to the market, I snuck through the backyard, because I needed to prove that I wasn't hallucinating."

"I parted the grass, and I saw Sir Phillipe standing there. At first, I startled by how much bigger he was up close. I was so amazed by how grand it was, yet so covered simply by you couldn't see it at all. Since then, I come here every time I'm having a bad day, I play with Sir Phillipe, who is really just a big playful bunny."

She patted Sir Phillipe on the head and he leaned into her hand for head scratches.

I had never gotten to pet a rabbit before today. The rabbits I saw always scared. I mean, it made sense since they hunted, and they would run away if you went near to them.

Sir Phillipe may have never hunted or had the fear of hunting over his head in this life and, as such, was more sociable than your average rabbit.

It made sense. No one except Bella knew about this place, so it was unlikely that was going to happen.

He hopped over to me and sat there as if waiting for me to pet him. I stretched my hand out, and he leaned his massive rabbit's head into my hand and I felt his soft fur. And patting him made my heart feel so much better.

I felt like all my stress was leaving my body. The urge to pick him up and cuddle him was high in my mind, but I didn't want to overstep my boundaries.

We continued to play, Bella pouncing on me from behind knocking me to the ground, me innocently wrestling with her, not too hard as not to hurt her, but enough so that we were both having fun. Sir Phillipe started chewed on my hair when I laid down to rest. I had to tell him my hair was not grass. It was white.

Bella rolled on the real grass laughing. It was hilarious, but I really wished my hair was not looked at as food.

My white hair was still an odd fixture amongst everything else. It reminded me I was not normal anymore.

Still, all this playing made us very thirsty, so I said, "Man, I'm thirsty."

Bella said, "There is water. I could use some too. Follow me." Sir Phillipe and I looked at each other than set off after her.

We came through two immense trees and stepped into a clearing. Laid before us was a low patch of grass. In the distance was the cutest waterfall I have ever seen or small. It was small. I had never seen one of such small statues. The water gleamed and spewed forth through the creases of the bulging rocks and into the wading pool beneath.

Flowers guarded the perimeter and drank of the moist spray that surrounded the pool. Contrast this with large rocks leading into up on either side of this waterfall, with a skinny, but white flowered tree behind the waterfall and it was a beautiful sight.