Kew Gardens

In London’s Kew Gardens, red, blue, and yellow flowers bloom in an oval-shaped flower bed. Stirring in the breeze, they shed colorful light over the bed’s most intricate details, such as the veins in a snail’s shell and the sides of a raindrop. They also illuminate the many people that walk through the gardens in pairs. All the couples move in erratic patterns, like the butterflies that flit overhead.

One such couple, Simon and Eleanor, walk past the oval-shaped flower bed with their children. Simon walks ahead of the others, lost in memories of a girl named Lily whom he once courted. He proposed to her in the same garden, and as he tried to convince her to say yes, he watched a dragonfly buzz in circles around them both. He imagined that if it landed on a particular flower, Lily would agree to marry him—but it never landed anywhere. He concludes that it’s for the best that it never did, since he is now married to Eleanor. Turning to his wife, he asks her if she ever thinks of the past, and she responds in the affirmative. Like Simon, she has a vivid memory of an afternoon in this garden many years ago. While painting as a young girl, she felt a kiss on the back of her neck. This kiss filled her with nervous excitement, and it became an unforgettable standard for all kisses since. After Eleanor confides in Simon, they both lapse into silence and continue their walk at separate paces.

In the flower bed, a snail and a green insect are also on the move. The insect moves quickly but strangely, halting and changing direction. The snail, on the other hand, inches resolutely forward. He approaches a dead leaf in his path and begins to wonder whether he should go around it or cross over its brittle surface.

Another pair walks past the oval-shaped bed; this time, it’s a young man named William and an unnamed older man. While William plods on steadily, the older man stops and starts, all while he chatters about spirits and voices. In vague terms, he describes an idea for a telephone-like machine that would allow the bereaved to listen to and summon their dead loved ones. As he speaks, he catches sight of a woman in the distance and begins to move toward her, but William silently catches his arm and redirects him to a flower blooming nearby. Fixating on the flower, the older man puts his ear to it as if listening, and then begins to mutter about the forests of Uruguay as William patiently ushers him forward.

Behind them come two women of the lower middle class, one of whom is flushed and excitable, and the other of whom is stout and steady. Curious about dysfunction in the upper classes, both take an interest in the older man’s irregular movement and speech. Listening in, they begin to rapidly parrot the older man’s words back to one another. However, the stout woman becomes transfixed by a flower as the flushed woman continues to speak. She enters a trancelike state, but quickly breaks out of it and suggests that they move on through the garden.

After some thought, the snail in the flower bed has decided to go under the dead leaf instead of around or over it. As he pokes his head under its edge, a young woman named Trissie and an unnamed young man approach the oval-shaped flower bed and stand still, exchanging awkward conversation. As he rests his hand on top of Trissie’s, the young man’s mind races with nervous excitement at the thought of having tea with her. He urges her onward impatiently, leading her through the garden while she lags behind to look at the flower beds in awe.

Such is an afternoon in Kew Gardens, a place full of ever-shifting colors and sounds. As the afternoon wears on, the voices of the garden, the people in it, and the city surrounding it layer on top of one another and ring into the air.