A Hard Day's Work

In a far corner of the Botanic Gardens, under the blue of a clear spring sky, a chocolate-brown bear knelt over a flowerbed on the edge of a twisting stone path design. This part of the Gardens was still in the process of being renovated, so he could kneel on a grassy patch that hadn’t been paved yet (and work in peace without any visitors). It was going to be a statue garden, but the only current feature was a stone bench. 

He hummed to himself as he worked in practiced, robotic motions: scoop the soil, plant the seed, cover it up. On and on and on and on, until he reached for the next seed and found his tray was empty. The noise of paw hitting plastic shook him free of his work-zone-daze with a quiet “oh.” The entire stack of five trays, that he’d laden with seeds just this morning, were empty and scattered around him. 

He sat back, blinking a bead of sweat out of his eye and wiping the rest off of his brow. The flowerbed wasn’t totally filled yet: he contemplated getting up and returning to Baogonia for another set of seed trays…before a twinge in his shoulder made him think better of it. He stretched, and flopped onto his back.

The ground wasn’t particularly soft, but his aching muscles loosened in relief. It’d been a long day, and he’d forgone lunch in an effort to speed through the project. That was a mistake. His stomach grumbled loudly and he sighed, folding his paws over his tummy as he gazed towards the blue sky. A few clouds drifted by…he squinted. Does that cloud look like a slice of cake? He really should’ve packed a snack. Another cloud lazily wandered into his field of view: this one was definitely shaped like ice cream.  

As he gazed skyward, a gentle breeze brought the smell of lavender from another flowerbed further down the path, soothing his running thoughts…while the warmth of the sun’s rays pooled in his sore muscles as if to weigh him down. His breathing slowed as the time between his blinks lengthened, and shortly thereafter, he closed his eyes completely. 

The dessert-shaped clouds continued to drift by, casting blue shadows over the fields of color and the small shape of a sleeping bao. 

• • •

A pink baobear with a sunny disposition and a large red bow, complete with a basket under her arm, paused under a tree to check her list. She flipped the notepad open to a list of names, and scratched out the second-to-last name with her pen (that had a little flower on top). She tapped said flower against her nose as she scrunched her face in thought while looking at the last name: Dove.

“Let’s see…where did Dove go? I remember that he took seed trays for a new flowerbed. I asked if he wanted help because it would be a bit of a walk from the conservatory…” She searched her mind for a few moments longer before she held her pen aloft in inspiration. “Ah-hah! The statue garden!” 

It only took her four minutes of speed-walking to make the ten minute trek to the statue garden. She passed the bench and the ring of flowerbeds into the work-in-progress part of the garden, but couldn’t see her volunteer at first glance.

“Flowerbud? Hello?” She called out, before kicking an empty seed tray and nearly jumping out of her skin as the plastic skittered across stone.

Once she’d recovered from the momentary fright of a sudden noise, she continued on to follow the line of empty trays. The wind must have pushed these along… she mused… but why would Dove leave trash around? 

She got her answer when she passed a bed of lavender, and saw the bao flat on his back just beyond it, snoozing softly. He must’ve been there a while: a butterfly had come to rest on his nose and stretch its wings in the sun.

Baogonia smiled and tiptoed next to him, pulling a bag out of her basket and balancing it carefully in his paw. Satisfied, she retreated — gathering the seed trays as she did so — and turned down the path back towards the conservatory.

Dove would awaken later in the afternoon to find a paper bag clutched in his paw. Inside was a blueberry pastry from the café and a small note, handwritten in Baogonia’s flowing script: 

Thank you for your hard work!