Curiouser and curiouser… Lewis Carroll’s words flashed through Pansy’s mind.
He tied the blindfold over Pansy’s eyes, then took her hand.
She loved the mystery and the sense of adventure. As her eyesight was isolated, her other senses became sharper. She was conscious that her feet crushed dry leaves and twigs underfoot. She could hear the monkeys thrashing through the trees, chattering playfully. Not long afterwards, she became aware of the sea, because of the way the sea breeze brushed her skin and the tangy smell of salt reached her nostrils. Then a little later, she could sense bright light even with her blindfold on. So they must be out of the forest and in a clearing. She could hear the sea now.
“Okay, stop just here,” said George. “I’ll take off the blindfold now. But keep your eyes closed until I tell you to open them, so you won’t spoil the surprise.”
After he had taken off the blindfold, he put his arm around Pansy.
“Now, you can open your eyes, my darling.”
At first the bright sunlight was blinding, and Pansy waited for her eyes to adjust. They were in a small grove of wood right by the sea. The trees were special because their crowns were shaped like a pagoda, the trunk sending out a single stem to a great height before branching into several limbs. But it was the colour of the leaves, each group shaped into a rosette, which surprised Pansy. They were in red, copper and gold just as she dreamt about trees in autumn in England. And here they were, right here in Singapore! A small copse of them, looking as if the leaves were on fire! She was surrounded by them. At the feet of the trees was a carpet of brown, red and gold leaves which had fallen. It was magical. Truly she could believe she was in England!
“Oh, George!” Pansy covered her mouth in disbelief, amazement and delight.
“They are wild sea almond trees,” George explained. “They are our local deciduous trees which shed their leaves twice a year, unlike the majority of our evergreens. They grow on sandy shores and have green leaves which change colour just before they fall. Their green almond-shaped fruit turns red to purple when ripe and is edible, tasting like almonds. Some of them do grow by the wayside, but on its own, each isolated tree does not impress locals with its metamorphosis. What is spectacular about this place is that the trees are clustered together, so the visual impact is much greater.”
“They are so beautiful! What a gift! How did you find this?”
“You remember when you were talking about finding places to read your Wordsworth instead of just at your Windermere? I know you sometimes like to pretend you’re in England. That was when I went cycling round to look for a suitable alternative, and came across this.”
“You’ve made me so very, very happy,” Pansy said, hugging him.
Just at that moment, a gust of wind blew in from the sea, shaking the crowns of the trees and they let fall a confetti of autumn-hued leaves. The leaves spiral down over George and Pansy and their upturned faces. Delighted, George took Pansy’s hands and swung her round and round in their joy, their feet scattering the red, brown and gold leaves in all directions. Then he pulled her close to him.
They kissed deeply, his hands cupping her face, then sweeping her body. The place was deserted, not the kind of area chanced upon by any casual passer-by. He unpinned the kerosang on her kebaya and put his hands underneath the blouse so that if anyone should turn up, it would be easy to do up again. He leant Pansy against one of the trees and took her nipple in his mouth. Pansy gasped. Being outdoors and being so daring heightened her arousal. At home, they were always conscious of Kim Guek nearby in the living room, the bed and floorboards creaking, so they always tempered their movements and muffled their moans into each other’s nape or into the pillow. But out here they could let loose the force and energy of their lovemaking. He removed his belt so that its buckle would not hurt her, slipped off her knickers, and probed her wetness. Her moans brought him to hardness rapidly. She arched her back to meet his body. George was unstoppable. It was probably the day that Anthony was conceived.
Pansy realises now that there is no dearth of nature here in Singapore, despite it being a city of concrete and glass mountains. Thanks to Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his “greening project”. This means a great deal to her. If people could tear their eyes away from their iPhones and iPads on their journey in a bus or car, they too might see that a huge variety of beautiful trees, plants, and flowers proliferate across the island, and that there is a constant flurry of activity as they are being visited by all kinds of birds, bees, dragonflies, butterflies and moths. And if people were to unplug their ears from their earphones, they would hear the wind rustling through the trees, the birds calling out to each other, or singing their cheerful songs.
It has taken a while but Pansy finally feels that she’s settled back in her birth country. Now she knows where to go if she feels she needs to be with nature, to catch sight of a purple heron or white-throated kingfisher, to hear the sunbirds sing. She has a choice of several reservoirs with mature forests surrounding them, or she can take a bumboat ride to Pulau Ubin, or nearer still, a train to Pasir Ris Park, Sungei Buloh, the Botanic Gardens and of course, Gardens by the Bay. She has come here to check out what kind of migratory birds stop by here annually. She sees a young man wearing his green T-shirt with the Gardens’ emblem of a dragonfly stitched on it, so she
