The Secret Garden

James clutches his briefcase tighter when the train hits a bump in the road. God, why does he even bother with public transportation?

To be fair, his own car had broken down a few weeks prior, but still. Public transportation is a nightmare. 

The train is overcrowded and there are people standing in James’s face. Someone presses into his side to make room for their friend, and James edges further away. That means that he bumps into a sharp-looking woman, and she glares at him.

“Back off,” she says. 

“Sorry,” James mutters. The woman softens slightly, but she’s still angry. 

Understandable, James thinks. He tips his head in a silent apology and pulls out his phone, content to read the news as he waits for his stop.

Unfortunately, fate has other plans. 

“Hey, isn’t that The Detective?” 

James doesn’t see who it is, but someone suggested it, and everyone is quickly realizing the truth. 

Yet another reason he hates taking the train.

“It is!” 

“I recognize him from the Hillside Strangler case!” one passenger adds.

“You’re right!” 

“Wow, I can’t believe I’m on a train with The Detective!!”

James is overwhelmed by the responses, but overall this is going better than he would have dared to hope for. 

Of course, everything goes wrong the moment he thinks that.

“The Detective?” an old man snorts. “He’s just some schmuck pretending to be great at something he isn’t.”

The man has a cane, and briefly, James thinks of his old mentor. The comparisons stop there, though. Gran was constructive with his criticism, at least. 

“Top detective? More like the worst one, in my book. What has he ever done to help anyone?”

James’s shoulders fall, weighed down with the weight of his responsibilities. The old man is right. What did he do?

No one speaks up against the old man, and soon the tension is broken when the conductor announces, “Next stop!”

James hurries off the train, despite the fact that this isn’t his stop. He just… he needs to get off of that bus. It was already muggy before everyone recognized him, but then that old man made staying there unbearable.

James glances up at the arrival time of the next train and grimaces. It won’t arrive for another ten minutes, and he was already going to be late for his meeting without this detour. 

Noah is going to kill him, once he gets over his worry.

Ring! James pauses when he sees who’s calling him. He hurries out of the station and is just barely out the door when he picks up. 

“Noah,” he starts.

“James,” Noah sighs, his voice full of anger and relief. “Where are you? Normally you’re here by now!”

“I know, I know,” James sighs. “I got held up on the train.”

“Oh.” Noah’s voice is softer now, sympathetic. As a fellow detective, he knows James’s plight all-too-well. “Still, you need to get here soon or we’ll have to start the meeting without you.”

“I’ll get there as soon as possible!” James assures. “It’s not like I’m the only one you’re waiting on, right?”

“Er…” Noah hesitates.

James groans, “Don’t tell me that everyone is there already!”

“I won’t lie to you,” Noah says. “They are.” He at least has the decency to sound empathetic to James’s plight. Some of his other coworkers would be cold and uncaring about the circumstances. 

It hurts to suggest, but the words, “Start the meeting without me,” slide out of James’s mouth easily. 

“What?”

“Start without me,” he repeats. “We both know that I don’t really need to be there.”

“Still,” Noah hedges. James was the country’s top detective for so long that to keep him off of a case feels wrong, unnatural.

“Just send me the minutes afterward, yeah?”

Noah hesitates, but he eventually concedes. “Yeah. Take care of yourself, all right?”

“Yeah, yeah. See you tomorrow.” James hangs up and sighs. What should he do now? He glances at the train station hesitantly and debates going back in, but ultimately decides not to. The train home isn’t coming for a while yet, and he doesn’t want to wait in such a crowded, muggy space.

James glances around. Maybe there’s something interesting nearby?

There are cafes and shops, but nothing looks interesting to James. He walks around a bit, and eventually, he reaches the end of the road. Nothing to see but a few thin trails leading in every which way.

He sighs and begins to turn back, but something in the distance catches his eye.

A little speck of green, barely noticeable. James finds new strength and walks forward with purpose, eager now to see whatever plant this may be. 

The closer he gets, the more plants he sees. Some are only visible once he’s passed them, and James marvels at how well they’re hidden. 

A secret garden, visible only to those who wish to see it.

As James wanders through the small forest, he grows more and more content. He inhales, and the crisp scent of pine cones tickles his nose. James grins. 

This garden is a secret known only to James, or at least that's how it feels. The crisp air and beautiful flowers are a gift all their own, and James is glad to bask in them.

He spies various flowers, and all of them hold special meanings.

Valerian symbolizes readiness, and the flower makes him think of Oliver. His most promising student. His son. He's always up for anything, and he wears a near-constant smile. (The day Oliver is unprepared is the day that James eats his hats.)

Irises remind him of Noah, of his brave and loyal friend who would do anything for him and whom James would do anything for.

The freesias remind him of his students. They are wiser than their years, certainly, but they’re still children in the way that counts.

James could come up with endless comparisons, but he digresses.

Each flower reminds him of someone he cares for, and it makes this secret garden all the more special. James inhales, and it’s at that moment that a single flower falls to the ground. James thrusts out a hand to catch it, and it sits squarely in the center of his palm.

It’s a blue lotus. The flower symbolizes new beginnings, and James can’t help but feel that it’s accurate. This garden has given James a new idea, a new spark of hope. 

With all that happened last year, a garden will be the perfect beginning to this one.