Mimi's Garden

A little boy named Jay lived in Florida. He had blond hair and blue eyes and was two years old. Jay loved to swim in the pool with his Mommy and go for bicycle rides with his Daddy. He liked to chase his cats, Murphy and Luna, all around the house. And he loved to tickle his baby brother, Chris, on the chin.

Jay especially loved to visit Mimi and Granddaddy at their big, white farm house in North Carolina. Mimi always had new toys for Jay to play with, like a talking drum and a little guitar that played real music. Granddaddy would sit in the parlor and play his real guitar and sing while Jay played with his new toys.

One time, after Granddaddy finished singing, Jay left his toys and looked through the glass of the front door at Mimi’s garden. There were so many flowers! Jay wanted to go outside and see the flowers up close. Jay ran to the kitchen and found Mimi, who was just slipping on her garden gloves.

“Mimi?” Jay said. “Go outside? Flowers outside?”

“Of course we can, little Jay Bird” Mimi said. “Do you want to see the flowers?”

“Yes, I want flowers,” Jay said, and reached for Mimi’s hand. “C’mon, Mimi.”

“Wait, Jay,” Mimi said, pulling off her gloves. “We have to find the magic net.”

Jay, who had turned to run back to the front door, stopped and looked back at Mimi.

“Magic net?” he said.

“Yes,” said Mimi. “It’s the net we use to catch butterflies!”

“I want … I want … I want butterflies!” said Jay, waving his arms. “Catch butterflies?”

“Yes,” said Mimi. “But we have to use a special, magic net, so we don’t hurt them.”

Mimi went to the back porch to get the net. Jay was waiting at the front door when she came.

“I want magic net,” said Jay as he reached for the net.

“Here you go, Jay Bird,” Mimi said. “I’ll carry the butterfly bucket, and we can go catch butterflies together.”

Out they went, onto the front porch, into the front yard and down to the ring of flowers that encircled the lawn. Jay saw yellow daffodils and purple crocus and lots of other pink and gold and orange flowers but he did not know their names. Then he saw a giant yellow flower, taller than all the rest, hanging from the end of a long, green stalk.

“Sunflower!” Jay said.

“That’s right,” Mimi said. “And look! There’s a pretty blue butterfly fluttering in for a landing!”

“Blue butterfly?” Jay said. “I get him.”

Jay ran to the sunflower and swung the net as hard as he could at the butterfly. But the blue butterfly flew away from the net. Jay swung again and again. Each time, the butterfly flew just far away enough to stay out of Jay’s net. Each time Jay missed, the butterfly fluttered back to the face of the sunflower and landed safely. Jay began to get frustrated.

“Jay Bird, do you want Mimi to help?” Mimi said.

“Yes, thank you,” Jay said. “Mimi help?”

So, Mimi and Jay held the net together. They snuck up to the sunflower on tiptoe. Mimi helped Jay move the net very slowly over the butterfly. When the butterfly tried to fly away, it fluttered right into the magic net! Mimi pulled the net closed, and the butterfly was caught.

“I got it!” Jay said.

“Let’s put him in the butterfly bucket and get a closer look,” Mimi said.

Mimi opened the clear plastic lid of the butterfly bucket and held the net over the top. The butterfly dropped down into the bucket and Mimi plopped the lid back on.

“Look, Jay Bird,” Mimi said. “You can see the blue butterfly through the top. It’s a magnifying glass, so he looks bigger than real life.”

“Magnifying glass?” Jay said, and looked inside the bucket.

The butterfly gripped the side of the bucket with its legs. It had two blue wings with black spots and black lines on them. It had two eyes and two long sticks, antennae, coming out of its head. It opened and closed its wings very slowly. Jay looked up at Mimi and smiled.

“Big blue butterfly.” Jay said. “I caught him!”

“Yes,” Mimi said. “You caught him. “But now it’s time to let him go. He needs to go back to his sunflower and eat his supper.”

“Eat supper, right,” Jay said.

Mimi smiled and opened the bucket’s lid. The butterfly hesitated, then fluttered out of the bucket and back toward the ring of flowers.

“Bye bye, butterfly!” Jay said. “I eat supper, too?”

“Yes, it’s supper time for Jay Birds, too,” Mimi said.

They climbed the steps and went back inside to tell Mommy, Daddy and Granddaddy all about the big blue butterfly who lived in Mimi’s garden.