Warming the Rose

By Marta Smyk

The action begins in the rose garden, where the old gardener forgets to cover one of the roses for winter. Unexpected frost created drama among the roses. One of them Anastasia, gets frozen, which as a consequence, threatens that she might be cut down and burnt by the gardener.
To prevent the tragedy, the main character Amadeus, decides to seek medicine from a mysterious warming tree. Amadeus had never before left the garden. Now full of zeal he attempts to reach the unreachable.
The route leads through a wild meadow, where he meets a resolute and courageous little daisy named Lucy. Enthusiastically, she offers help in the journey.
In the same meadow, Amadeus meets another flower, Narcissus, who is a bit self-centred but timid of the outside world. He decides to join Amadeus in the dangerous journey and gradually overcomes his weaknesses.
During the trek there soon appear two opposite characters... unscrupulous and insidious Weed and Nettle who are a huge obstacle in Amadeus’s mission. Weed and Nettle work for huckster Thistle who tries to sell Amadeus for profit to Professor Poppy.
Professor is a crank, making suspicious experiments in his laboratory. Amadeus being twice trapped, cleverly managed free himself from the clutches of the danger. His determination to accomplish his plan keeps him motivated.
Meanwhile his friends Lucy and Narcissus are imprisoned by the Thistle in his horrible house with the sentence to be planted there forever. Amadeus manages to get back and frees them.
Together they have to flee, being hunted by Weed and Nettle. After reaching the wild forest, their new obstacle is Amadeus’s sudden indisposition.
Narcissus, having a flow of new self-confidence, musters up to organise help for Amadeus and gets the medicine from the warming tree, despite the ants.
Happily, they arrive at the garden. Amadeus applies the medicine to Anastasia. The tension increases when no one can see any immediate improvement. The gardener approaches Anastasia with the clippers ready to cut frozen rose.
However, he only smells her fragrance and admires her silky look. Suddenly in the last moment Anastasia gets well.
The End

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marta Smyk
• Release date: Oct 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301209637

Marta Smyk

Marta Smyk; graduated nurse with a Master degree in Philosophy. She spent 5 years in Florence, where she learned how to look at Art. Time in Africa taught her how to share happiness and sufferance with people. Now based in London; trying to learn how to combine realism with idealism. A passion for philosophy accompanies her on life’s journey. From time to time she likes just to buy a ticket and travel to some exotic place. Her life’s motto comes from the Roman poet Horace ‘Sapere Aude’ (Dare to know) She trusts her adventure story ‘Warming the rose’ will appeal to the child in all of us.

Book preview

Warming the Rose

Marta Smyk

Copyright © 2014 Marta Smyk

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All rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a rental system in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgment

Dedication

Chapter 1: Frost in the Garden

Chapter 2: Frozen Anastasia

Chapter 3: The Wild Meadow

Chapter 4: New Friends

Chapter 5: Kidnapping

Chapter 6: Where is Hope

Chapter 7: Professor Poppy

Chapter 8: Pursuit

Chapter 9: In the Wild Forest

Chapter 10: Journey's End

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my gratitude to my friends who helped in the process of the frozen rose story.

I am deeply thankful to Valerie Gordon Walker - the first proof reading and encouragement.

Huge thanks to Sergiusz Bojenko - who presented me with the rose photograph.

Thank you Jilly and Peter for reviewing my first manuscript.

Warm appreciation goes to my editor Edward Farrow.

Special thanks for Michael.

Dedication

Warming the Rose is dedicated to my little English friends: Lily and Daisy, to my Italian godson Niccolo and my polish nephew Peter.

CHAPTER ONE - Frost in the garden

Summer comes to an end. Anastasia, the tallest and the most beautiful rose, with petals of the deepest red flitted from flower to flower, thanking each and every one for the wonderful summer that they had just spent together.

'My wish for all of you is that you blossom beautifully next summer', she said.

Her fellow roses swished and swayed in appreciation of her words. The pure elegance of Anastasia drew admiration from the whole garden. In the merriment the roses agreed, it had been the most perfect summer. They had been warmed by days and days of sunlight and lovingly tended by their gardener - an antique man with parched green hands like oak bark who had nurtured and watered them with devotion and care. The roses in the garden were the most beautiful and the most delicate flowers.

On the next day, the old gardener went out into the garden to cover all of the roses before the deep cold of winter. He repeated this routine each and every year to protect them from the harsh winter frost. He dressed every single rose in a special warm winter coat handmade in cashmere and gossamer and stitched together by his wife from the comfort of their home. So that morning, he worked very hard to dress every single rose. In fact, so hard did he work that beads of sweat began to drop from his brow onto the flowerbeds below. As he dressed the garden's last two roses - his glasses, without warning, fell from his head, glancing and breaking on a garden stone to shatter as they hit the ground.

'Oh drat', he muttered, 'Tomorrow I shall have to go back to the opticians, again!' He was particularly cross with himself because he had visited the opticians only the previous week for a new pair of glasses, now broken. Picking them up, he shook his head, let out an exasperated sigh and stormed back into the house in frustration.

His anger at his broken glasses had distracted him so much that, in his haste, he had completely forgotten to dress the last and the most beautiful rose, Anastasia.

'Come back, come back... oh please! I haven't got a winter's coat', pleaded Anastasia. As the gardener disappeared into his house, she cried dewy tears that fell and trickled from her petals as she realized that she was sure to freeze in the first winter frost.

The news about Anastasia's bad luck travelled so fast around the garden that the roses huddled together in little groups to see what they could do, to find out how they could help her. This had never happened to them before and they were filled with such anxiety and dread that a few of the red roses turned the palest white of the whitest rose.

At that moment, as they tried to think of ways to help and comfort Anastasia, the bitter chill of the cold north wind gusted and billowed through the air, a prelude to winter - a winter that Anastasia would have no protection from.

'We will wait with you for the gardener to come back' said Isabel, Anastasia's close friend. Isabel was a beautiful yellow rose with a lovely manner in the full bloom of youth. She was quite a bit shorter than Anastasia, had thicker thorns, a shorter stem and was a devoted friend. She looked around impatiently trying to spot the gardener, but the old man did not appear again. It was a dinner time and the gardener was relaxing in his home, after a long day of work.

That night, unexpectedly, the first mild frost arrived, covering the garden in a blanket of the palest white. Anastasia knew what the frost was capable of doing to uncovered plants. For the very first time in her life - from her stem to her petals - she felt afraid.

'Oh, I am so cold and I feel so miserable' said Anastasia - the forgotten rose. Her delicate leaves had curled and fallen gently down; her stem was stiff and grazed by cold. The reddest petals of the reddest rose had faded slightly and the edges and the tips of each and every petal were a reddish tinge of reddish brown.

On the next day, the gardener went to the opticians but did not return to the garden. The roses watched his comings and his goings and always worried when he left the house. What if he never returns, they thought. All the while, Anastasia shivered in the withering cold.

'Can't he just see that the frost is coming and Anastasia still is uncovered' Isabel complained, ruffling her petals and brushing a leaf on the ground beside her in frustration.

Amadeus, a handsome deep burgundy rose, who was Anastasia's best friend, was very disappointed with the gardener. Standing in front of Anastasia, he couldn't believe what had happened.

'She cannot be so cold all winter!' he protested, sounding irritated, sad and protective all at the same time. Anastasia's situation was very serious and her chances of surviving the winter were slim if nothing was done. The roses in the garden knew this and rustled with turbulent indignation.

'We have to do something' said Amadeus with forceful purpose,

'We simply have to do something' whispered the rose garden in hopeful anticipation.

Since the old man had broken his glasses, the roses had been desperately trying to find an answer. After much soul searching, Isabel exclaimed: 'Let's put Anastasia in the garage, maybe she could spend the winter there.'

The others did not like the idea. None more