The Prince from the Raspberry Bushes

I know a garden in Moscow where no one goes. It is the most peaceful and perfect place to sit and read in the summer. I enjoyed many hours there during Jerusalem term. On Monday, partly to celebrate the beginning of Nicea term, I decided to go sit in my garden. On the bench I always did(across from the front gate on First Street), and reading Mathematics in Western Culture, I suddenly became aware that I was being watched. Glancing up, I spotted the culprit.
He was a little boy with fluffy brown hair. Hidden behind the raspberry bushes, he was peering between the stalks at me. I smiled and waved him to come over, which he did rather hesitantly.
"My name is Addie. What's yours?" I asked.
"Harrison." He replied.
"Oh that's a cool name! Did you know there was a soldier in the Civil War named Harrison?" He looked at me, obviously interested, but unsure what to say. So I went on. "He was an actor, but he wanted to be a soldier. He was a spy for the Confederates, and when General Lee ordered the attack at Gettysburg, he asked to join the fight."
"Was he okay?"
"Yes, actually, he was one of the guys who did live through that fight. He went back to being an actor after the war and was one of General Lee's favorite performers."
"Cool." Harrison looked over his shoulder for a moment, and then looked back at me. "Do you want to see something?"
"I'd love to!" I closed the book in my lap and followed him over to one of the empty garden plots. A month ago there had been a nice crop of corn. I wondered to myself who got the corn.
"I buried some treasure here last week. I marked it with my sword." Harrison pointed at a stick which was protruding from the dirt. I smiled to myself. This kid has an imagination. He knelt in the dirt and, removing the stick, he began digging around where the "sword" had been. I wondered what treasure was to him, if a stick was a sword.
After a moment he sat back on his heels and scratched his head, apparently befuddled over having not found his treasure.
"What is it you buried, "I asked.
"It was a seed from Asia."
"Really? Cool! What did it look like?"
"Well... it was small and green, and had a sort of point on one end ... and a brownish cap on the other end."
An acorn! He had found an acorn and had decided it was a seed from Asia. I want my kids to have imaginations like his.
He dug around for a bit long, and then gave a cry of triumph. He held out his hand to me and showed me the seed. It was indeed an acorn, but I played along.
"Wow! It's amazing! What will it grow into if you plant it?" I was curious what his answer would be.
"Well, actually its just a seed for a tree. I wish it'd grow a dog, though. I want a dog."
"I have a dog. Her name is Penny, because she was born when I lived in Pennsylvania."
"Cool." He stood and held out his hand to take the acorn back. I gave it back to him, and he carried it to the opposite end of the garden patch and buried it again. While he worked, he began telling me about his school and where he lived and such. I listened, interested in how ten year olds think. It suddenly struck me how amazing this whole thing was. Here I was talking with this adorable little blue eyed boy, and him totally letting me into his world of make believe.
He announced a few minutes later that he needed to go home. "But you can watch over my treasure if you want to." And then he added," You'll have to be made a princess first, though."
"Ah! And how do we do that?"
"Well... you need a dress... but you sort of have that... and you need a crown." He looked around for a moment and then scurried off to the other side of the garden. He was out of sight for a moment, and I waited patiently for him to return. When he did, he was carrying a branch which I assumed from the roses on it was from the billowing rose bush. It was the last bush still in bloom. He handed it to me. "You can make a crown out of that." So I did. I twisted the branch, careful to avoid the thorns, and then put it on my head.
"There. How's that?"
"Good. You're a princess now, so you can watch over the treasure too."
When he was gone, I laughed aloud. I really do want my kids to be rather like Harrison. Able to pretend and play anything, using their imagination to create whole worlds to play in. Be it castles with knights and dragons, or planets yet to be discovered, or underwater realms, I hope they unleash their ability to imagine.
Just like Harrison, the little prince from the raspberry bushes.