The Reappearing Garden

 Once upon a time a garden appeared in the middle of a city overnight. No one knew where it had come from, or how it had arrived, or who was responsible. Nevertheless, there it was: sparkling with morning dew drops atop all kinds of flowers, shrubs and trees.

    Because there was some possibility that the garden could be dangerous, only prestigious grownups were allowed to go inside the garden's boundaries. These grownups liked the garden so much that they had a wall built all around it so that they could wander within without anyone who they considered 'unsavory' looking at them or at the beautiful plants.

    The night after the prestigious grownups built the wall, the garden disappeared.

    It reappeared in another part of the city without any explanation.

    Again, the prestigious grownups kept everyone else out, but this time they built a large gate instead of a wall, thinking that perhaps the garden wanted everyone to see it — though, surely it couldn't want just anyone to enter it. For, they said, it was far too nice a place for just anyone.

    The night after the prestigious grownups built the large gate, the garden disappeared again.

    It reappeared in yet another part of the city.

    This time, some kids discovered it first, and they went about it looking at all the wonders of the flowers, hiding in the shrubs, and climbing the trees. The kids knew that it was only a matter of time before the prestigious grownups found out about it, but by then they had spent so much time in the garden, that they understood its ways. They told the prestigious grownups that if they kept it for themselves again, the garden would move.

    That didn't stop the prestigious grownups. Yet again they tried to keep it to themselves, only this time they used an electric wire, thinking that the kids and other 'unsavory' people could see more of the garden with a wire, but get a sharp shock if they tried to enter something that was, they felt, too good for the likes of 'them.'

    The night after the electric wire was put up, the garden disappeared.

    It reappeared in yet another part of the city.

    Again, and again, and again the pattern repeated itself.

    And it was only when the prestigious grownups let the little kids and all the 'just anyone's into the garden, that it stayed there for a very long time.

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