There came a garden in the sophisticated eastern area of the far-fetched land beyond time, the most beautiful garden ever seen. It is located within the homeland of an old woman, which restricted everyone from going there as she barricaded it with wrought iron and barbed wire. Still, the most attractive thing about the garden was that it had a short, gigantic mango tree whose fruit was as big as a watermelon.
Most times, passersby will see her singing to the mango tree, and they always wonder if she has gone mad or not, and this is why they named her ‘old witch’. People living around her will tell their children not to go to the old crazy witch and her garden saying that it is not safe there. They concluded that attractive things are dangerous as they will lure people to danger, and that was the reason why the old crazy witch restricted people from going there.
Many years passed, and the old woman died on an unfortunate day, so to speak, as her family came and buried her on a piece of land in the garden as she wished.
After her death, her children and grandchildren come once a year to clean the garden and its environment, sing for the mango tree, pick enough Mangoes to eat, and go back to the southern part of the environment where most of them settle and reside.
After five years of her death, one sunny afternoon, a few children in their teenage years decided to go to the garden and aim at the eye-catching mango especially. They scaled through the wrought iron by breaking the entrance gate and went in. They played around the garden and plucked as many mangoes as possible by emptying the tree. After that, they shared the mangoes and decided to leave for their home. When they got home, most of them hid the Mangoes from their parents, knowing they would never approve of eating the mango from the old witch's restricted garden.
Maziba, one of the children, kept his sack of mango in the kitchen and picked a piece to bite, and immediately, he disappeared.
No one knew what happened as his parents and his younger sister Jelle came back from the market and saw the sack dropped in the kitchen. Maziba !! His father, Mr Zinman, called out, but no one answered, so he went to the backyard to search for him.
Jelle opened the sack and saw that it was bagged with some eye-catching and very big ripe mango fruits and took one immediately.
“Mother, Maziba kept it there,” Jelle said, strolling to the basin and washing the mango, and before her mother would stop her, she had bitten a piece and disappeared too. Her mother screamed in fear and Mr Zinman ran to the kitchen where he saw his wife crying on the floor, fidgeting in confusion. “My daughter disappeared after eating the mango,” she said pointing to the sack.
Without altering anything, Mr Zinman opened the sack and saw the Mangoes. “These mangoes looked like the ones in the old witch garden,” he said, looking at them carefully. He picked up the sack of Mango and carried it out of the kitchen, and as he wanted to open the entrance door to exit the sitting room to the house environment, he heard a knock and opened the door.
“Good day, Mr Zinman”, the man greeted, but since Mr Zinman wanted the strange property out of his premises first, he answered casually as he carried the sack and dumped it outside. He looked at the man closely to confirm that it was Mr Matinga, one of his child's friends' father, and asked him to come in. “My son is missen, " Mr Matinga said, looking worried and sweating profusely.
“All my children are missing too but I can track their whereabouts”, Mr Zinman said to Mr Matinga in a shaky voice. Mr Matinga opened his eyes bulging as he heard the positive information. “Where are we starting from?”٫ Mr Matinga asked, looking as if his heart wanted to come out of his mouth. Mr Zinman brought out a Mango fruit and said, “ My daughter Jelle disappeared in front of my wife after having a bite of this,” and he saw Mr Matinga agitate to retreat.
“Who will bell the cat?” Mr Zinman said as he locked eyes with Mr Matinga, whose wife had just entered, and he continued.
“ Who will have a bite of this to know where the children were?” he suggested as everyone in the room kept mute including his wife. He noticed that they are all scared of the unknown and he decided to take the bull by the horns.
You all will go to the garden of the old witch, as I suspected that the mango fruit is from there, and I will have to eat the mango to know the status of my children. Then he bit a piece and disappeared. Everyone ran helter-skelter out of Mr Zinman's house and straight to the old witch's house and garden.
Mr Zinman appeared in a strange garden which was not of this earth; it looked like paradise, where different fruits were planted. He saw all the children playing, eating, and climbing different trees of their choice, and he was disappointed that the children were careless about their home. He shouted, “Come here you fools,” and the children moved towards him as they couldn't recognize him. “ Do you know how worried your parents are in the real world?” he asked as all of them kept their heads down.
“ Let us find a way out of here,” he said, and as he turned back to search for other routes, the old witch appeared to them. “Where are you taking my hostage? “ she asked angrily.
“These are my children and they are not hostages to any ghost,” he replied boldly.
“Did they tell you what they did?” she asked.
“No”, Mr Zinman said and asked her to forgive them emphasizing that they are just children.
“ They encroached on my privacy, entered my garden, pruned all the mangoes on the tree, made a stampede, and almost killed the garden,” she replied.
Mr Zinman now saw that the old woman loved the garden while she was alive, and that was the reason she restricted people from it, knowing that people would try to destroy it, and he said politely.
“I promise you that they will work on the garden till it gets back in shape, so please let them go,” he pleaded.
“What if I say no and made all of you my hostage here, what will you do”, the angry old witch said raising an eye brow up and Mr Zinman replied, “I am leaving here with your permission or without your permission, have you forgot that human are more powerful in any realm only if they know they are and I know myself so if you want your garden to be in good shape, it will but if you kept being adamant, your garden will be destroyed and your mango tree will be no more” he concluded then the old woman had a thought for sometimes and replied “Do not forget your promise when you get out of here and for the mango, you can only plug what you can eat on a go, no hoarding” she concluded.
“So how are we moving out of here?” Mr Zinman asked.
She replied “Sing with me “
My beautiful garden
Created with love
With its very attractive features
Only to take care of with love
The garden of life
Where green and other colors create life.
They all sang with her, and they met themselves in the garden at home, and Hurry!! They heard a loud scream and a sound that called for celebration as everyone hugged one another with joy, even though they could not enter the old woman’s house, let alone the garden, and they all stood outside in fear since nobody wanted to disappear or, at worst, die.
Thanks for reading through.