The Gate

I’d walked past the mysterious looking gate in the wall for years on my way to and from school. I mean, it wasn’t that mysterious as I knew it was the gate into a back garden. I had walked past the front of the house many times too but could never quite work out which house at the front the gate belonged to. I used to imagine it was like one of the doors that Alice goes through, although it is full sized of course. Anyway, on this particular occasion the gate was slightly ajar and I could get a glimpse into the garden beyond. I slowed my walking pace down to saunter by and get a good look inside. Actually I couldn’t see much – a bit of lawn and some shrubs and the corner of the house behind. I thought I could see a pair of shoes on the grass, but they weren’t moving and seemed to have been abandoned there. I was desperate to see more so having made sure there was no-one else around I stuck my head through the gap to get a better look. I saw straight away that the shoes were, in fact, on someone’s feet and they were lying face down on the grass, as if dead. My imagination started to run away with me at that point and I tried to see if there were other footprints or any signs of blood. I wanted to turn away and rush home, but could imagine how I would feel if the local news headlines were about someone having a heart attack and dying in their own back garden, so I slid through the gate and, after checking for any danger (I had done my first aid course at Guides), I went over to the woman calling out ‘are you ok? Can I help?’. She flapped her arm at me. Phew, at least she was alive. I went closer to see if I could help her get up and she brought her finger to her lips to shush me. Her ear was pressed to the ground. Nearby I saw a blackbird cocking his head as if listening to the ground too. I began to wonder if there had been warnings of an earthquake! The blackbird began to peck at the ground and soon stood up with a worm in its beak.

The woman pushed herself into a sitting position and looked at me for the first time. ‘Who are you?’ she asked. Umm, I wasn’t sure what to say so decided to go for a version of the truth. ‘I was walking past the back gate and saw you lying here and thought you had collapsed’, I said, weakly. ‘Oh’, she looked at the back gate and seemed to have been unaware that it was ajar. ‘I was listening for worms’, she said. I must have looked a bit puzzled because she realised that was a weird thing to be doing. ‘I’m teaching the blackbird to fend for himself’ she explained. I was still a bit confused so she went on to clarify that she had found the abandoned chick and looked after him so he was quite tame. Indeed, he was still on the lawn searching for more worms. ‘Anyway’, she said, ‘Thank you for checking on me but I really am fine’. I said my goodbyes and left, feeling very guilty at my nosiness. The mysterious gate never held the same fascination for me once I knew what was behind it.

Now that I have my own house and garden, and little blackbird in the shape of my daughter Milly, I have put an old gate into the back fence. It only leads to the driveway, but Milly and I have great fun making up stories about what might be behind the gate.