Japanese Garden

I have to say that time on the street is a challenge in the city of Lethbridge, and I learned a lot about what I can do when faced with impossible hurdles to climb. I gained a sense of understanding for those that were less fortunate than me. Being on the street, for as long as I was, doesn’t compare to the lifetime that other people have had; in fact, it was a mere drop in the water if I were to compare.

Getting to that mindset took a bit of time though as I was still a young and ignorant fellow during my time in that windy city.

My pals and I also had one another to lean on, along with making friends that offered couches, beds, or a floor to sleep on. We also used the money we saved up to pay for motels and food, but our wallets were getting dry as we still had the thought of getting a place looming in our minds.

Scott, Lionel, and I went around and explored Lethbridge quite a bit. We would do all kinds of things to kill time and have a bit of fun at other people’s expense, or we would find ways to get grub in our bellies without paying a dime.

This one time had us leaping onto private property for the fun of it.

It was a late night in September, and we were still without a home; however, we made friends with a young guy that worked with Lionel who offered us a place to stay. You remember Lionel, our pal that got me and Scott into this situation by practically lying through his teeth with his coalescing words of reassurance and grandeur.

Lionel’s friend was Arnold, or Arnie as we called him, and he seemed much younger guy then us despite us being the same age. He had a baby face that lacked any facial hair, glasses and hair that resembled Daniel Radcliffe in the earlier Harry Potter films, and he stood at about 5’5 – which was only slightly shorter than me, but still!

Arnie managed to convince his parents that we could hang out in his basement for a couple days. Despite my anxiety telling me how messed up this was, I was quite grateful for the warmth of a house.

Anyway, that night, Arnie got an idea while we were outside – you guessed it – smoking a joint.

“I have always wanted to go to the Gardens” said Arnie after passing the joint to Scott.

“What Gardens?” Scott said.

“The Japanese Botanical Gardens. They’re pretty much the only tourist attraction here in Lethbridge.”

Lionel was leaning against the house when he burst out laughing.

“Why would we go to a garden? Smell some roses?” Lionel cupped his hands to his face.

“ARNIE IS OFF HIS ROCKER!”

Arnie shot Lionel a glaring look. “Shut-up man, I’m serious.”

It was my turn at bat, so I took a big hoot of the joint, and then slowly exhaled the smoke, creating a vaporous wave all along my face. It certainly did what I wanted: I got their attention.

“What’s the deal with this garden? Surely there is more to this than flowers, eh?” I asked.

Arnie’s face lit up at the question, like a kid that woke up realizing it was Christmas morning.

“There is this gong right in the middle of the garden that we can hit.”

Lionel passed the joint to Scott when he nearly dropped it.

“A gong? That’s pretty solid man! You think we should go in and hit it?” Scott asked excitedly.

“It would be easy since they don’t have much for security. From what I heard, it’s one security guard that walks around the garden.” Arnie was pretty pumped. He hadn’t got much excitement lately.

Lionel, rarely the voice of reason, jumped in with vigor.

“Hold on a second boys. Why would this be a good idea? What if we get caught? I actually know people here -,”

“So do I,” snapped Arnie, “Live a little man! It’s dark and late, and we can outrun the guard if we need to.”

Arnie, who stood up to Lionel’s shoulders, looked at him with a sense of courage and bravado that made him seem taller than Lionel.

With his hands up like he was being held at gunpoint, Lionel relented.

“How are we going to do this?” Lionel asked.

“That’s the easy part. We’ll just walk in.”

After walking for about twenty minutes, we approached a large barrier made of stone and concrete. The barrier, or barricade rather, seemed to stretch endlessly to our right, while the left had a noticeable curved corner that continued beyond our view. We had the advantage of trees, bushes, and shadows to cover our tracks as we tried to figure a way inside.

“Let me throw Rod over,” joked Scott.

“As if,” I said. My eyes couldn’t roll back enough. “Why not find something to climb with?”

We poked and prodded around for a couple minutes, trying to find anything to stand on.

Scott grew impatient and ran back from the barrier, only to run and jump for the edge.

“Scott!” we all shouted in hushed voices.

With both hands on the edge, and using his feet to inch upwards, Scott was able to hoist himself up and over.

“There is a landing here,” croaked Scott, trying not to gain the attention of any guards. “Lionel, jump, I’ll catch you.”

Without much thought, Lionel walked back and ran towards the wall, jumping and catching the edge barely. He let go of one hand and grabbed onto Scott’s, who then pulled him up by his belt strap.

“Ok. Arnie, jump!”

Same as Lionel, Arnie walked back for a running start, but he couldn’t get as high as Lionel; instead, he grabbed at Scott’s arms that were ready to catch him. Being the giant that he is, Scott was able to hoist him up as well.

That only left me.

“Come on Rod, jump for it!”

Scott waved his hands, and then motioned for me to come over, like a game of red rover out in the playground, only this time the wall – and police – could stop me from going over.

I started sweating as I backed up in the same way Arnie and Lionel did.

What if I bail? I started thinking. My head had a funny way of messing things up in these kinds of situations, but then again, how often would I or anyone be jumping over a stone fence to get into a Japanese garden in Lethbridge?

I ran, leaped, and missed the edge, but Scott caught me and hoisted me up as well. I suppose there was nothing to fear after all. Friends have a way of catching you when you least expect it.

We were finally in, and all that was left was to hit the gong. Initially, we crept along the ground in our best imitation of Solid Snake from Medal Gear Solid, but we soon realized that there wasn’t anyone around.

I relaxed a little and stood up, and I finally took a look around me. And I have to say, it was a spectacular sight.

There were thousands upon thousands of flowers. There were roses, lilies, daffodils, sunflowers, hibiscuses, and all sorts of blossoms.

The inside of the barriers, the ones that initially kept us out, were lined with bamboo, which gave the place an authentic, traditional Japanese feel to it. Three or so ponds were in the middle of the garden, with each one housing specific flowers around them to see and smell, and paper lanterns were strung above us and on the Sakura and Ume trees that bordered the garden. The smell was such an intoxicating, aromatic smell of wonder I have to say. I have never smelt such a fresh and beautiful sweetness since that time.

There were a few buildings that were made with that authentic Japanese look, and a bridge that led to a miniature tower, which was where the gong was housed.

The set of flowers I was surprised to see were marigolds. I remembered that marigold flowers are of Mexican origin and have been used in the Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festivals.

I suddenly had a bad feeling about being in the garden. I looked around and saw marigolds in several spots in the garden, jutting their heads to watch for anyone that might harm them and their friends.

My family jumped over a lot of hurdles to get to Canada, from swimming across the famed Rio Grande to enter the U.S., to driving to Canada after a couple months when they learned that the Canadian government offered visas and a place to stay with ease.

I felt uneasy about what I was doing, like my parents, and my abuela and abuelos, were watching me and shaking their heads in disgust.

“¿Por qué lo hiciste?” is most likely what they would say if they learned about this night.

“Why did you do it?”

I struggled to find the answer, so I went to find Scott to ask him. It didn’t take long since they were over by the small tower that was across a bridge, the tower being smack dab in the center of the garden. Real hard to miss, unless you’re daydreaming with your nose caught in the flowers like me.

“There you are!” Scott said, standing up after relaxing with his pipe against a post. “Quick, smoke a bowl with us before we hit this thing.” He handed his glass pipe to me along with his lighter.

“What are we doing this for again?” I held the pipe up without lighting it.

“Simple. We find out what happens,” said Scott with a smirk.

Lionel was leaning against one of the posts that held the gong in that suspended way you see in movies, while Arnie was sitting cross legged on the stone floor beside the gong.

“But shouldn’t that be obvious? It’s a gong, what else is it going to do?” I really wasn’t feeling up to it.

“Well sure it’s going to make some noise, but we’re also going to be the ones to do it. No one else. We get to find out what happens, but it’ll be on our terms. Nobody else’s.”

Scott could be quite convincing when he wanted to be. I wasn’t fully convinced though, so I looked at the pipe. It glistened and shone in the lantern-lit night sky. Without thinking much more, I lit the pipe, inhaled deep, and blew the smoke from my lungs, like I was expelling those bad feelings from my mind.

“Ok, let’s do it,” I said, handing Scott his pipe.

“Great! We all get to hit it once,” said Scott.

One after the other, we took turns with the mallet and hit the gong, and it reverberated loudly into the night. Dogs barked, and birds flew from trees as we hit it.

When we finished, we sat back onto the stone floor and were ready to light up a joint - when suddenly, we saw a flashlight from the other side of the garden.

Scott, still holding the mallet, dropped it and shouted “RUN!”

We ran back to where we came from, but it was easier to get down since we had to run up a set of stairs to get to the top and edge.

We all jumped off one at a time, landing on the ground without much trouble. Ah to be young.

We ran as fast as we could away from the garden, never looking back at the garden. I wasn't aware of those around me as I ran as fast as my legs could carry me.

It was about 1:00 a.m. or so when we neared Arnie's house, and we were feeling that rush of adrenaline. We did it, I thought. We broke in and hit that gong! I started to laugh as hard as I could, and then we all started to laugh. We were all pretty happy about our feat.

We walked into Arnie’s place in high spirits, hooting and hollering as we felt we made off with what we considered the heist of our lives.