Meggie s guest

“Hm, do you know what we need?” a young average height man by the name of Mike asked with enthusiasm standing in the shade of the ornamental tree. 
“Let’s see… Where is my list? Oh, here it is. I’ve got it. Ok! Two boxes of nails, a hammer, a file, a saw…” Jeremy read out intently, holding some planks. On both sides of the house were gardens, which stretched from here to the small brown shed and pond. When Jeremy’s father eventually closed down the shop in Europe, the family moved to this lovely secluded spot.   
“Do you know where the hammer is?“
“Oh, probably in my toolbox…”
“And your toolbox is..?”
“Over there in our shed, just by the greenhouse…”
“Wow! You have a greenhouse… That’s so cool!”
“Yes. You will like it! There are loads of flowers and it is always nice to spend some time there. I’ll show you it later after lunch. Could you bring me some screws and a screwdriver too?”
“Yes, sure! I guess it is a good idea to get some sandpaper and a tape measure too!”
In spite of the fact that Mike was Jeremy’s best friend, it was the first time when he had been invited here, so he graciously proposed to help in the garden.

Meggie, a nine-year-old girl was peering around from behind the book.
“Hmmm… What are they gonna build?” she thought sitting in a lawn chair. The book of short stories, that she was carrying with her everywhere, didn’t get much attention from her kinder garden friends, but she liked it. Though, the warm summer sun rather distracted her from reading. Therefore, she abandoned any thought of trying to continue this activity. The girl took a watering can and began to water one of the nearest flowerbeds.   

Some time later, when she was carefully examining the tiny leaves of the chamomile in the corner of the garden near the hedge and the climbing plants, it began to rain and she hurried down the narrow flagstone pathway. Cool raindrops came down heavily on the patio, when she came in the house. Her flowery dress got rather wet as well as her favorite straw hat. It was the right time for lunch so everyone gathered around the table and after the prayer began to eat. After lunch, she spent some time reading until the end of the rain. Then she decided to go out and to enjoy the sunset and humid after rain air.

The main part of the garden was lit up with some small solar-powered lanterns. The evening air pleasantly chilled providing emotional experiences. She liked walking barefoot on the wet grass. This amused her a lot. She nearly reached the compost bin and the wheelbarrow at the back of the garden, when suddenly Meggie heard a noise somewhere behind her. She stopped harshly and then very slowly turned around. 
“Oh, Jesus! What’s over there?” she thought fussily. The whole of Meggie’s body went all tense in expectancy… But nothing more happened. She squinted and realized that the author of the noise somewhere among raspberry bushes! The leaves of the plant were moving. Meggie flinched from danger. Surely she wasn’t a coward, but it seemed that in this moment she was ready to scream in terror, though, her mind understood that no one could be here except her and… and… And from the raspberry bush appeared a small hairy muzzle. A black nose was moving slowly smelling, when a hairy paw grabbed the branch full of pink berries to its mouth and tasted raspberry. When the animal came out fully from the bush, it looked in amazement at Meggie. The girl realized that it was none other than a raccoon. A raccoon! Meggie was delighted. She sat down near in the wet grass carefully watched the small guest. She met birds, squirrels, hedgehogs here as usual. She always left some food for them. But a raccoon had never come here before. She spread her dress diligently, and freely stretched her legs, at a time when her new guest was eating berries. When she looked up on the tree above the bushes, she saw in the darkness a new birdhouse. A new birdhouse?!
“Oh, that’s what Mike and Jeremy had been building all day long,” Meggie thought smiling happily.            


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