“You’re a disgrace!” She yelled.
Tears rolled down Emily’s small pale face as Leslie screamed at her for bringing dirt into the house. Leslie grabbed Emily’s arm and pulled her free hand over her head. Emily squeezed her eyes shut and turned away from the woman.
“Leslie!” I said, yanking her arm off of Emily. “What in the world are you doing? She’s just a kid. She doesn’t know any better. Give her a break.” I pushed Leslie away from Emily as she ran through the back door.
“Emily!” I yelled after her then looked at Leslie. “This is your fault.” I pointed a finger at her and took off after Emily.
I slowed my pace to look around the rose garden. The small budding roses twinkled in the sunlight from the morning dew. Between the pink and red roses, a glimpse of brown locks hiding behind a bush caught my eye.
“Emily.” I whispered. “Come ‘on Em, it’s just me.”
She crept around the bush and looked at me with her small swollen green eyes. Dropping to my knees, I stretched my arms out. She ran to me and pressed her body against mine with her arms around my neck. Her quiet sobs wetted the collar of my shirt. I gave her a small squeeze around her waist then let her go.
“I don’t want to go back there, Alex,” she whispered.
“I know but we have to,” I said.
Her head hung between her raised arms. I shook my head and laughed.
“Okay, Em. I’ll carry you.” I said.
I placed my hands under her arms and lifted her to my side. Her gaze went from my eyes to something behind me. A smile crept along her face as her eyes sparkled like emeralds.
“Bunny,” she squealed. Jumping off my side with a thud, she ran towards the critter behind me.
“Em, hold up,” I said. “Wait for me.”
She continued to run after the grayish white fur ball hopping in front of her. Her little legs supported her body with every pounding step she took. She ran past a big hedge with little buds about to bloom into red and pink flowers. Catching my breath by the large hedge, I saw Emily standing nearby looking towards the sky.
“Whatcha lookin’ at?” I asked.
She used her small index finger and pointed to the sky. As I came around the hedge, I saw what she was staring at. A large black gate with over grown weeds stood in front of us like a giant. Weeds entangled themselves in and out of the wired hole. The opening of the gate was topped with a large arch. In the center of the arch was a phrase, “El Jardín de Flores Negras”. Emily attempted to say the Spanish phrase, but it came out with a hard English accent. I told her that it meant the Garden of black flowers. She looked at me trying to comprehend then turned her attention to rabbit on the other side of the gate. She ran after it without a moment of hesitation.
I ran after the small child, calling her to stop. She continued to run after the small animal. I slowed my pace, once the small animal was out of sight and could no longer be chased. Although the rabbit was no longer there to chase, Emily continued to walk away from me like she was on a mission. She stopped once we reached what seemed like a dead end with a hedge in front of us. She snapped out of her gaze, and turned to look at me.
“Can we go now?” I asked.
Her head hanged as she walked towards me. She looked as if she was about to receive a beating for misbehaving. Giving her a faint smile, she grabbed two of my fingers and walked alongside me. We began to make our way back home, if you could call it that.
We walked through the maze of hedges of shiny green leaves until we were at another dead end. We tried many different ways to go. Left, right, right. Right, left, left. None of them worked. We were lost. There was much certainty of it now. Emily looked up at me with a puzzled face. She let go of my hand and sat on the grass beneath us. I did the same. She laid her head on my lap and took a deep breath.
“Do you think mom misses us?” She asked.
“I don’t know, Em,” I said. “But I’m sure she does.”
“Then why is she so mean to us?”
I looked at the small fragile child lying on my lap not knowing what to say. I stroked her long soft brown locks of hair feeling each and every strand of hair through my fingers. Her breaths got slower and smoother with each stroke. Closing her eyes, she drifted off into another world of dreams.
I slid my hands under the sleeping child’s head and lifted it up to set it on the ground. Without making a sound, I walked over to the end of the hedges, and looked around. I told myself, You need to stay close to Em. I took a few pathways only to find more dead ends and more hedges with shiny green leaves surrounding me.
My ears twitched at the sound of small footsteps coming closer to where I was. Emily? I thought. The small footsteps grew closer and closer to where I was. The pattern of the footsteps was abnormally spaced between each beat. My chest began to rise and fall more rapidly as I realized it was not Emily. It was someone else.
The footsteps grew louder until they stopped nearby. I dared not to move. I stood still as a statue until I was sure that whoever the footsteps belong to was gone. I stuck out one foot and placed it carefully on the grass.
“What are you doing here?” A boy said walking towards me with a stick pointing at me.
I gave a small shriek and jumped back. “I-I was um trying to find my way out,” I said.
The boy looked at me and laughed. He was about the same age as Emily, maybe a year or two older. “No one makes it back home from here.” His blond wavy hair bounced gently up and down with his laughter. His bright pearls popped from the rest of him. He had a small figure in which he looked as if he had not eaten in days. I could see every outline of his ribs.
“What?”
“You heard me. You are stuck here. Say goodbye to the good ol’ home you once knew.”
“No, this can’t be happening. We must find a way out.”
I ran past the boy, to find Emily. I found her where I left her lying on the grass asleep. Scooping her into my arms, I turned to find the boy standing in front of me with his arms crossed.
“Go away,” I said.
Emily stretched her small arms out and rubbed her eyes with fisted hands.
“Who are you talking to, Alex?” Emily said.
“No one.” I stared bluntly at the boy in front of me. “We were just going to go home now, that’s all.”
The boy rolled his eyes and took a step sideways. He angled his body and made a swoop motion with his hand letting us go past him. I marched past him and held my head up. Once we were far enough away from him, I let Emily down so she could walk on her own. We walked through hedges for what seemed like hours until we reached a small pond with a small white house in the middle of it. Emily was the first to step foot into the water.
“It’s warm,” She said.
I looked at her then placed my foot into the water as well. It was warm like a nice Sunday afternoon bath. Weird. I thought. Emily began to pull her legs through the water, as if going through molasses. When we reached the house, the water was still to my knees, but to Emily’s waist. I lifted her up to the door that had white paint peeling off of it. Both of her small hands grasp the brass door handle and turned the door open. Once she was inside I lifted myself up into the house and rang the water out of my socks. The house was one big room with a kitchen, a table, a chair and a neatly made bed.
“Em, I don’t think we should be here,” I said.
Emily agreed and grabbed my hand as we turned to the door. Reaching for the handle, the door slammed shut rattling the whole house. Emily grabbed onto my leg.
“What are you doing here?” A voice echoed through the room.
“We just want to go home,” Emily said. I grabbed her shoulder and put a finger over my mouth to tell her not to say anything.
“Well in that case,” The voice trailed off. The lights dimmed down to pure darkness. Small footsteps came closer to where we were standing.
“Oh, dang it,” the voice said. “Where are those darn light switches? Ah, there they are.”
The lights flickered on and a small old lady stood in front of us with a sweet smile. Her teeth were yellowed and some were missing. She had a small stature and was slightly bent over at the hips. Her silver wiry hair was loosely tied behind her by a small band.  She offered us tea and a snack. Emily was quick to agree. The woman’s ocean eyes popped as she made us tea and a snack. She came over to the table and poured the tea into three cups and placed a biscuit on each plate.
“So, what are you two youngin’s doin’ out here?” She asked.
“Uh- well we are actually kind of lost,” I told her.
“Yes, I see. And you want to go home? Correct?”
Emily shook her head, and then continued to eat her biscuit.
“No?” The woman laughed, “You don’t want to go home because of your mother.”
“How did you know?” I asked.
“Sweetie, I know all.”
I stared at her. “What?”
“Your mother has been hard on you because she cares about you. She wants the best for you. Ever since your father died, you have been distant with her and she wants you closer to her. She’s trying her best to make things better without your father here, but she cannot do it alone. She needs you and you,” she poked little Emily’s nose with a wrinkled finger. “She loves you two and even though she can be a little harsh on you. It does not mean she doesn’t love you. In fact, she is worried sick about you two.”
The old woman walked over to the kitchen sink and bent down to the cabinet below. She pulled out a glass ball and set it in the middle of the table. She instructed us to look closely into the middle of the ball. A picture began to swirl and form. It was of our mother; she was sitting at the table holding a wadded up tissue and looking at a baby picture of Emily and me. Her long brown hair like Emily’s was no longer nicely combed like it always was but tangled into a loose ponytail. The picture began to fade then it disappeared.
Emily looked up at me while tears formed little pools at the bottom of her eyes. I closed my eyes as I wrapped my arms around her little body and told her that we are going home. After thanking the lady for the tea and snacks, we bid her goodbye. The other directions she gave us were “to walk outside her house and you know where to go.”
We walked to the door and turned to old woman sitting in her chair. Opening the door we walked into the bright sun shining down on us. Once everything came into view, we were in the familiar back yard of our house. Emily let go of my hand and ran towards the glass back door. I ran after her into the house. My mom stood from her seat and dropped to her knees to hug Emily. After she was done with Emily she looked up at me with sorrow. I ran to her and wrapped my arms around her neck.
“I love you, Mom,” I whispered.
“I love you too, Alexandra,” She said.