In a forgotten corner of a garden down past a crooked row of old cherry trees in blossom, there was a young man in a new but worn suit and a little girl in a delicate blue dress laced with frills wearing a white scarf to match. They were currently turning over a row of stones that had once marked out the outline of a flowerbed. Crouching over the freshly exposed soil, the man showed the girl all the bugs and signs of life that had been hidden from them moments before.

 Eagerly the girl squealed in excitement, petting one of the beetles gently. After a while, they carefully replaced all the stones they had removed, and the man led the little girl over to a swinging bench where they often spent their afternoons sharing stories.

 “Nari, did I ever tell you the story of when a beetle saved my life?” The man asked the girl his eyes glittering mischievously.

  “No, I never heard about beetles before! Please tell me, Uncle Zeb. Pleeaassseee!” She pulled on his hand urging him to hurry over to the swing.

 “Hmm. I don’t know. I think I might have already told you that one. Maybe I’d better go over your spelling with you instead.” Zeb rubbed his chin thoughtfully turning his gaze to the sky.

 “No Uncle! I already did my studies! Don’t you remember? I’ll learn lots more if you tell me about beetles instead!”

 “Hmm. I don't know— “

 “Oh, please Uncle Zeb? How else am I supposed to learn about what Harold eats and how long he sleeps?”

 “Who’s Harold?” Zeb slowed his steps even more.

 “He’s the beetle who lives under the red stone. He’s, my friend. Oh, Uncle. You must remember. I intro…introduced him to you! Please sit down. I want to hear about how Harold saved your life!” Nari gave up on pulling Zeb’s hand and settled for running the last couple of steps and scrambling up into the bench cushioning.

It was like snuggling with a very happy, very warm large pet; it always smelled strongly of cinnamon and made Nari feel like a blanket of impossible wonderful things were just a sentence away. Indeed, they were because her uncle finally settled next to her on the seat with an amused smile across his face.

 “Well alright. I suppose I’ll tell you just one.” He agreed. Nari squealed in delight knowing that ‘just one’ would turn into an afternoon of stories that her uncle had not yet published.

  “Lily Flower?” Zeb called upstairs for his niece using his nickname for her.

  “Coming uncle!” Came a voice older than that day in the garden when they met Harold the Beetle who allegedly saved Zeb’s life. He smiled thinking of the surprise he had planned for his niece two days from now on her eleventh birthday. The sound of small bare feet slapping against the hardwood floors greeted him before the sight of his niece.

Taking in her unbrushed hair and the paint spatters of bright colors across her dress he reckoned maybe a bachelor wasn’t the best option for raising a polite young lady. Then again what other choice was there with her parents dead and the only other woman to raise her being her father’s sister a more distasteful, cross, arrogant woman he never met. If it wasn’t for the fact that the girl’s father made him the legal guardian to manage her estate until she became twenty years of age, then he wouldn’t even have been able to provide a decent home to raise her in. 

 The wild mane of strawberry blonde hair the same shade as his sister’s used to be, bobbed down the stairs at a crazy angle as the little girl scrambled down the stairs.

 “Slow down or you’ll fall and bust your head open!” He called. Slowing her speed by an insufficient fraction she hopped down the last few steps and thrust out her hands holding a sheet of thick paper heavily coated in still wet paint. Small droplets still hanging off the edge of the paper.

 Sighing with a tired exasperation he realized more paint droplets had joined the many over the years in forming a colorful trail from the girl’s room across the house. 

 “What’s this then?” He asked while taking a peek at the brightly speckled stairs making a mental note of where not to step for the next hour or two.

 “It’s a fish! A pretty Boesemani Rainbow fish! I got it from one of your books! And I even added shading to it! Look!” She held it up to showcase. 

 “You’re getting much better. I really like what you did with its eyes. And the tailfin is especially good!”

 “Thank you! I really like him. I’m going to name him Ralph.” She decided.

 “That’s a good name. Listen, I’m going down to the garden for a while to do some planting alright?”

 “Okay. Can I help too?”

  “Not with this sweetheart. In a couple of days though I’ll need your help with a really important project.”

 “Okay!” The little girl beamed enthusiastically at the promise. “I’m going to go make Ralph a friend!” As soon as the announcement was made, she dashed back up the stairs to continue her painting. Shaking his head in amusement Zeb grabbed his favorite hat from the stairway post and headed out the well-used side door leading out into the garden as he whistled a merry tune.

This was the last time anyone saw him.

 The eleven-year-old girl later spent hours searching the vast gardens thinking her beloved uncle was playing a game of hide-n-seek. After turning up nothing she headed back up to the house and searched for the maid who came by once a week to do the cleaning on the main floor and deliver their groceries for the week.

 “Amanda? Is my uncle in here?” She called into the kitchen.

 “No honey, I haven’t seen him at all today.”

  “But he’s not in the garden. He said he was going to do some planting but he's not there. It’s time for lunch; he was going to make his Tuna Special for us.”

 “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t we go up and check his study or maybe the attic? You know how your uncle loves his little experiments.” The elderly woman gave a loving pat on the top of her head born from years of handling children, as she led the way to the staircase. Her indulgence quickly turned to a more serious manner however when their search of the house revealed his absence.

 “He said nothing at all of leaving the property?” Amanda asked again intently. Feeling nervous and scared all she could do was shake her head. Her stone-gray eyes beginning to burn with tears.

  “Oh, don’t fret honey. I’m sure he’s just lost track of the time is all. Up to his ears with whatever project the silly boys got his nose into now. You just sit here and wait for me while I have a browse of the grounds myself, okay?”

Giving Nari’s shoulder a squeeze and wrapping a warm fluffy blanket around her shoulders she sat her down on the couch in the parlor. With a swish of her skirts and an impressive speed that the girl didn’t think matched her age she swept out the door to search the grounds. Nari wondered what hopes of finding her uncle the sweet woman had when she couldn’t find him was beyond her. They both knew that she and her uncle knew every inch of the house and grounds better than anyone else.

Living with Amanda was really quite lovely. She had a cozy little cabin just down the road from their home and out her backdoor she had a wild sprawling garden whose form seemed to have been made up by its own mind instead of an intentional design. A warm evening spent sitting at the foot of Amanda’s rocking chair staring into a merry fire warmed her heart.

 She still missed her uncle very much however and would often walk up the lane to her home to see if he had returned from wherever it was that he had gone too. As the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months and the months into seasons, she gradually began to accept that he had left her behind. Men and women dressed in stuffy suits carrying cold briefcases began to show up at Amanda’s home discussing all manner of complete nonsense. Although most of what they said didn’t make sense to Nari she got the general idea that they wanted to send her away to somewhere far away from the smell of the sea and the beautiful mountain she called home. Somewhere where Amanda and her little cottage nestled in the crowded forest would become a distant memory to be looked back on fondly but not to be continued in her new life. An aunt awaited her in a large city surrounded and made of stone and metal and glass and noise. She tried to argue all these points with Amanda even when she felt guilty when Amanda would give a tired sigh and gently repeat all she had said before. About having a good, strong, established family name and the need to preserve that. About how having an aunt to look up to would be far better than some silly old woman who lived in the woods in a worn-out cottage talking to the birds all day. 

 Nari didn't agree in the least.