A peculiar seed
Nell found a seed inside her left boot. It was blue, square, and humming. “You are not a sunflower,” she said. The seed hummed a little louder.
She planted it beside the beans, gave it a drink, and wished it goodnight. In the morning, the roots were pointing toward the sky.
Under the soil, a pink mushroom rang like a doorbell. Nell put her ear to the ground. “Come in!” someone called.
Below the beans
Nell followed a staircase of roots into a glowing garden. Flowers grew downward. Rain floated upward. A snail wore a flowerpot as a hat.
“Your garden is upside down,” said Nell. “So is yours,” said the snail, very politely. Nell had never thought of it that way.
They watered the stars that grew beneath the carrots. They picked a basket of giggling peas. They sat on the ceiling and shared a crunchy apple.
A different way to grow
When it was time to leave, the snail gave Nell another blue seed. “For a friend,” he said. Nell climbed home, carrying the basket carefully upside down.
She planted the seed in her friend Bea’s garden. “What will it grow?” Bea asked. “I don’t know,” Nell said, grinning. “Isn’t that wonderful?”
That night, two tiny doorbells rang beneath the beans. And above them, two friends dreamed of all the things they had not discovered yet.
A little thought to take with you
If you planted a magic seed, what would you hope would grow?