Lily Myers was only seven years old. She hated being "only seven." When she told her mother she wanted to ride a motorcycle, Mrs. Myers said, "You can't, Lily. You're only seven."
When Lily asked her father if she could run for President, he said, "Of course not, Lily. You're only seven."
Lily wasn't allowed to take the subway by herself because she was "only seven" and might get lost. She wanted to help her mother make pottery in her shop on the first floor of their house, but she couldn't because she was "only seven" and might break something. Lily wanted to go with her father to the factory where he worked, but she couldn't because she was "only seven" and might get hurt.
One day during the year when Lily was "only seven," she went with her parents to visit her Great-Aunt Velma and Great-Uncle Elmer in the country. Aunt Velma and Uncle Elmer lived a long distance away from Lily's house in the city. Mr. Myers drove Lily and his wife there in the family's car on the interstate highway.
On the way, they passed an airport. Lily asked, "Can I be an airplane pilot?"
Her mother said, "Not yet, Lily. You're only seven. Wait a few years."
Later when they passed a group of bicycle riders who were touring cross-country, Lily said, "I'd like to ride my bike clear across the country."
"Oh, Lily. That would be too dangerous for someone who is only seven," her father said. "You're just too little. You're just our little Lily."
"Little Lily! Hmmpf!" Lily mumbled back. She hated being "only seven."
At last they arrived at Aunt Velma and Uncle Elmer's house. They lived on a farm where they grew corn. The cornfield was behind their back yard. Behind the cornfield was a dense stand of trees.
Lily wanted to walk through the cornfield so that she could explore the woods. She looked longingly in that direction, but her parents ushered her inside the house.
Aunt Velma hugged and kissed everyone, as she always did. Uncle Elmer just called out, "Hello everybody. Come on in," from his chair, as he always did.
When Aunt Velma got to Lily, she said, "Oh my, look at little Lily. She's grown so much. She must be nearly eight or nine by now."
"Oh no," Mrs. Myers laughed. "She's only seven."
"Only seven?" Aunt Velma cackled. "Well, my, my, my!"
Uncle Elmer said, "Oh Velma. Don't carry on so. Didn't you hear? Lily is ALREADY seven. Why she is practically a grownup. Before you know it, she'll be driving around in her own car."
Lily hadn't thought of driving a car, but she liked the idea. She also liked Uncle Elmer.
They all sat down in the living room. Lily sat in a tan velvet chair because she liked the way the material felt and because it was next to a window that looked out over the cornfield.
The grownups began to talk about grownup things that didn't interest Lily at all. They talked about taxes and old family recipes and about which relatives were living where and doing what. Lily just sighed and looked out the window.
Uncle Elmer noticed her boredom and said, "Lily, would you like to go outside and play for a while?"
"Oh, yes," she answered quickly. "Could I?"
"I don't know if that's a very good idea or not, Lily," her mother said. "After all, you're only seven. I don't want you wandering off and getting lost."
"I won't, Mom. Please, can't I go?" Lily begged.
"Let her go," Uncle Elmer said. "She's a big girl. She won't get lost."
"All right, you can go, Lily. Don't get too far away, though," Mrs. Myers said.
Lily didn't have to be told twice. She jumped quickly down from her chair and hurried back out the way they had come in.
The sun was bright, and she blinked as she came out into it. For a while, she wandered about just in the yard remembering her mother's warning not to get too far away. She stooped to pet Aunt Velma's cat and climbed up to sit on the seat of Uncle Elmer's tractor. However, the cornfield seemed to be beckoning to her, calling her. She wanted to walk down the long rows and hear the leaves rustling against the stalks above her head.
At the edge of the yard, she peered back at the house. She saw no one watching her from the windows.
"The cornfield isn't too far away, " she reasoned to herself.
"Uncle Elmer said I am almost grown up."
In an instant, she had talked herself into it and climbed over the small fence that was around the yard. She stepped down in-between the corn rows and began to walk in the direction of the woods.
The corn was taller than Lily's head, and it seemed to swallow her up. It was still and private there. Lily knew she was hidden from the view of the grownups. She did a bit of a dance step with glee, suddenly realizing she had escaped.
The dirt between the rows was packed hard and dry beneath Lily's feet. She kicked at some of the clods, breaking them into bits of dusty dirt. From beneath one of them, a hard-shelled black beetle scurried away. Lily stooped down to watch it on the cracked earth. When it disappeared into a hole, Lily stood up and walked some more.
She was growing closer and closer to the woods and farther and farther from the farmhouse. She looked back in the direction of the house, but all that she could see were the long rows of corn stretching back behind her.
"The woods aren't too far away," she thought. "If Father calls really loud for me, I'll be able to hear him."
So with this logic, Lily plodded forward. In just a short while, she was deep into the woods. The tall trees blocked out most of the sun from above. Lily walked along in the shade following a path that twisted and turned among the trees. Squirrels chattered at her from the tip-top branches and a startled raccoon waddled away when she approached.
Just as Lily was about to reluctantly turn and head back toward the farmhouse, she thought she could see a clearing ahead. Curious, she pushed on down the path to find out what was waiting for her there.
When she reached the clearing, she caught her breath at what she saw. The sun poured down, flooding the area with bright light. The clearing was perfectly round. In the center was a perfectly round pool of water which sparkled and danced as it reflected the sun's rays. But, the most amazing thing about the clearing was that it was filled with flowers.
Every kind of flower imaginable was growing around the pond. Roses, daisies, chrysanthemums, marigolds, zinnias, orchids, asters, bluebells, tulips, irises, and daffodils all bloomed with great abandon. Lily had never seen anything like it. She didn't understand it because she knew some of them were spring flowers and some grew in the autumn. Yet, it was the middle of summer, and there they all were.
Just as she was about to run up and smell the flowers that circled the pond, something in the middle of the water caught her eye. It was a huge water lily just opening up in the very center of the pond. Lily was sure it had not been there earlier. She recognized the flower as the one she was named for. As she watched, the flower continued to open, and she saw something inside. Whatever was there was a sort of light purple color, and it was moving.
Lily stood without making a sound as she saw that inside the bloom was a large lizard. It was watching her, staring at her, blinking.
When the flower had opened completely, the lizard crawled down from the lily and slid into the water. It began swimming toward her. Lily felt frightened, and yet was so fascinated by the lilac-colored reptile that she remained just as she was.
The lizard reached the shore closest to Lily and pulled himself up into the beds of flowers. He stood there for a moment staring and blinking at her. Then he said, "Hello. I'm the lavender lizard of the lily. My name's Randolph."
Lily gasped and jumped a bit into the air. She stared at the lizard, and it stared and blinked back at her, not moving, not speaking.
Finally, Lily managed to ask, "Did you say something?"
"Of course I did," the reptile answered. "I said I'm the lavender lizard of the lily, and my name's Randolph. You must be Lily."
"Why, yes, I am, but how did you know that? And where did you come from? And why can you talk? Lizards can't talk."
"Such a list of questions," Randolph answered. "I know your name because I know everybody's name when he or she is seven years old. As soon as you turn eight, I shall immediately forget your name, and you will, of course, forget all about me. Grownups can't see lavender lizards. As for where I came from, I told you I am of the lily. I don't know about other lizards, but I can talk. Maybe it's just that the others have never spoken to YOU."
"I don't think so. I think you must be a very special lizard," Lily replied.
"Yes, of course, THAT'S true," Randolph answered. He began to walk around on just his back feet among the flowers picking them and sniffing them. Incredibly enough, each time he picked a flower, another grew from the ground immediately to replace it.
"Oh my!" Lily marvelled.
She came up to the circle of flowers and reached down to pick some for herself.
"No, wait," Randolph called out to her, but it was too late.
As Lily started to pick a tulip, it was pulled out of her reach and disappeared down into the earth, sucked out of sight.
Lily gasped as she looked at the brown spot where the flower had been. "What happened?" she demanded. "Why can't I do what you are doing?"
"Like you said, I'm a very special lizard," Randolph said with a shrug. "I'll pick some flowers for you."
He walked around gathering her a bouquet. He chose one of each sort of flower and put them all together for a beautiful assortment for her. He sniffed each one delightedly as he plucked it. No matter how many he picked, each was replaced immediately by an identical flower.
"There you go," he said gallantly as he handed the bouquet to Lily.
"Thank you, they're beautiful," she answered.
"You're welcome. Now we have to talk. Do you like mint-chocolate-chip ice cream?" Randolph asked.
"It's my favorite," Lily answered.
Then she saw before them, amidst the flowers, was a small table set for two with big bowls of mint-chocolate-chip ice cream. She hadn't noticed it being there before.
Lily and the lavender-colored lizard named Randolph sat down at the table in the flowers to enjoy their ice cream.
"What did you want to talk about?" Lily asked.
"You," Randolph answered. "I hear you're not happy about being seven."
"No, I'm not. Everything I want to do, I can't do because I'm 'only seven.' I can't ride a motorcycle or fly a plane or be President or ride the subway or help my mom make pottery."
"I see," Randolph said. He blinked at her as he took another bite of the green ice cream into his lavender mouth. "You'll be able to do all those things later when you're older if you still want to do them."
"But, I want to do them NOW," Lily insisted.
"I see," Randolph said again, and then he grew silent as he licked his lavender lips over the cool minty sweetness.
When several minutes had passed and Randolph still had not spoken, Lily said impatiently, "Well, what can I do about it? Aren't you going to help me?"
"Help you? You mean so that you're no longer seven?" he asked with surprise.
"Yes, of course," Lily answered.
"Oh no, I can't do that. Everyone must be seven so that they can become eight. Being seven is important. Everyone should be seven at least once in his life."
"What's so great about being seven?" Lily wanted to know.
"You mean you really don't know?" Randolph said with a startled look as he dropped his spoon.
"No, I don't."
"Heavens! When you're seven you can swing on the swings at the park, and you can play jacks, and you can..."
Randolph stopped as he heard a faraway voice calling. "Lily, Lily," it said.
"That's my father calling me," she said as she rose from the table with a start. "I have to go now, but I don't know what you mean. Grownups can swing on swings and play jacks if they want to."
"Ah, Lily, that's the key. When you get older---you won't want to play jacks and swing on swings because you'll be too busy doing grownup things."
"But I like to swing on swings and play jacks," Lily said.
"Yes, of course you do, Lily. Being seven is very important," Randolph said wisely.
"Lily? Lily?" They heard Mr. Myers call again.
"You better go now, Lily," Randolph said.
"Yes, I guess so. I hate to leave you. I've had so much fun with you here."
"It's time you go, Lily. You can't fight time or being seven. Don't forget your flowers."
"Yes, OK," Lily said as she gathered up the bouquet of various flowers.
"Goodbye, Randolph," she called back to him. She hurried off as she heard her father's voice calling again.
"Goodbye, Lily," Randolph said, then he licked his ice cream bowl clean with his long lavender tongue.
Lily ran quickly back along the path through the woods. When she reached the cornfield, she yelled to her father, "I'm coming. I"m coming."
She started off down the long stretch of dirt between the corn rows. The leaves of the corn plants hit against her legs and arms as she ran. She hurried on, clutching her flowers to her chest.
At last she was at the other end of the cornfield. Panting and gasping and out of breath, Lily quickly climbed over the fence and dropped down into Aunt Velma and Uncle Elmer's yard.
Her father and mother stood in the driveway by the car talking to Aunt Velma and Uncle Elmer. They turned to watch her as she ran up to meet them.
"Where have you been, Lily?" her mother asked. "We were getting worried."
"I was in the woods, back by the pond. I met a lavender lizard named Randolph. We ate mint-chocolate-chip ice cream."
The grownups all laughed.
Lily stopped talking and glared at them. "Why are you laughing? Don't you believe me?' she demanded.
Then she remembered the flowers she had clutched in her hand.
"He gave me these," she said as she held up the bouquet, but when she looked at them, she saw that instead of the beautiful variety of tulips and marigolds and bluebells and roses and chrysanthemums that Randolph had given her, she held only a very large fistful of daisies, plain white and yellow field daisies.
"Oh no, these aren't the flowers that Randolph gave me. He gave me a bunch with lots of different kinds," Lily said as she looked at the flowers with dismay.
"They're very pretty just the same," Uncle Elmer said. "You must have found them in the woods."
"Yes, by the pond. Randolph picked them for me there. Every time he picked one, another one grew right back."
"I don't think there is a pond back there, Lily," Aunt Velma said hesitantly.
"Lily, you shouldn't make up such stories," Mrs. Myers scolded her.
"It's all right to have a good imagination," Uncle Elmer cut in. "She's only seven after all. Why not let her have her fun?"
Then Lily remembered what Randolph had said. "Grownups can't see lavender lizards." Of course, if they couldn't see Randolph, they wouldn't be able to see the flowers he had picked for her either, she thought. That was why the flowers had changed into daisies.
Lily looked up at her parents and aunt and uncle. She suddenly felt a little sorry for them because they were too old. She was the only one who was 'only seven.' She smiled slowly and asked, "Are we going to go home now?"
"Yes, Lily. We're ready. We were just waiting for you to come back," her father answered.
"I'm back now, so let's go," Lily said suddenly feeling a need to hurry. "I want to go home and play jacks and swing on the swings in the park."
So the Myers family climbed into the car for their trip back home. They waved goodbye to Aunt Velma and Uncle Elmer and then returned to the city. Soon Lily was playing jacks and swinging on the swings and was as happy as she could be because she was "only seven."
2 comments:
That's a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing it.
I'll look forward to reading more.
Thank you, uncarved wood. Thanks for stopping by my blog too. :)
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