text: [Themes: Magical Realism]
  
  > look around
  Around you the garden is beginning to return to life. The rose bush has tiny pink buds, preparing to become flowers soon.
  Just north of you is an old, wooden house. At one time it was a dearly loved home, a place of comfort and laughter. Now it stands silent.
  
  The porch of the old house ends abruptly as the stairs have rotted away beyond all use. There is a cracked flowerpot leaning against the old house.
  
  A tattered note flutters, caught in one of the nearby bushes.
  
  > look at rose
  The bushes and plants are green with life. You notice a rose bush with blush-pink buds, and not far away lavender scents the air.
  
  > Clean pot
  You rub the cracked flowerpot.
  
  > climb the pot
  Little is to be achieved by that.
  
  > search the pot
  The cracked flowerpot is empty.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a measuring cup
  a round tin
  flute, house key, stone of flexibility and origami bird
  
  > play the flute
  You place the little flute to your lips and blow a few experimental notes. The sound is soft and a little melancholy.
  
  > look at the bird
  An expertly folded paper bird, the GIFT of GRATITUDE. The colors seem to change slightly in the Eunice light, but you think its blue. You remember your Gratitude List:
  
  ifcomp
  
  > Kiss bird
  You can only do that to something animate.
  
  > go northwest
  The old house blocks your way.
  
  > Go southeast
  You start to wander southeast into the prairie, but without a way to navigate you would easily become lost. If that happened, hope would never return to Eunice. Thankfully, you turn back.
  
  > go to the south
  The wind blows gently across the rolling meadow. This would be a sweet place to sit for an afternoon in a hammock and listen to the birds sing, except that there is no hammock and no birds singing.
  
  A whisk lies on the meadowland, looking very out of place.
  
  > take the whisk
  You reach down and easily pick up the whisk. Though you aren't sure where it belongs, someone always needs a whisk somewhere.
  
  > Go northwest
  You start to wander southwest, but without the tree as a signpost you would easily become lost in ever-shifting green grasses. If you were lost, hope would never return to Eunice. Thankfully, you turn back.
  
  > Go north
  The wind blows gently across the rolling meadow. This would be a sweet place to sit for an afternoon in a hammock and listen to the birds sing, except that there is no hammock and no birds singing.
  
  > go northwest
  The dark pine wood is a solid wall. Yet, as you look you can see a break in the trees where a path of pine needles leads west deeper into the wood or south to an open field.
  
  > take the needles
  Sometimes you can't take it with you. This is one of those times.
  
  > go to the east
  Around you the garden is beginning to return to life. The rose bush has tiny pink buds, preparing to become flowers soon.
  Just north of you is an old, wooden house. At one time it was a dearly loved home, a place of comfort and laughter. Now it stands silent.
  
  The porch of the old house ends abruptly as the stairs have rotted away beyond all use. There is a cracked flowerpot leaning against the old house.
  
  A tattered note flutters, caught in one of the nearby bushes.
  
  > Dance
  Lift your shoulders up to your ears. Feel the muscles tense.
  Then release.
  
  Stretch your shoulders back as far as is comfortable, pushing your sternum forward and take a deep breath.
  Then release.
  
  Raise your arms over your head and feel your sides stretch.
  Then release.
  
  ...
  
  Ahhh, that felt good.
  
  > examine the tree
  The tree is dark against the gray-green of the sky and mostly bare, with only a few yellow leaves. The trunk is thick and twisted. Low branches create a wide crown on the horizon.
  
  > climb the tree
  You hook your arm around a low branch and hoist yourself up. From there its an easy climb to the top with the wide horizontal branches forming an rough ladder.
  
  The wind blows strongly this high up and you grasp a branch for stability. There are only a few leaves still holding on here and there.
  
  The tree holds you high above Eunice in the palm of its dark branches.
  
  You aren't sure what you are looking for, until you see it. A small yellow apple hangs on by a delicate twig which looks ready to snap in the wind at any moment.
  
  > examine the apple
  It is a small yellow apple. As you look closer, you notice shades of reds and browns and greens on the skin in a collection of all the colors of fall. Your mouth begins to water.
  
  > take the apple
  Taken.
  
  > eat the apple
  With full awareness of your hand moving toward your mouth, you appreciate the smell and colors of the fruit. Imagine what it took for this to get to your hands: sunshine, water, warmth, and time. You take a first bite and for a moment hold the tart sweet fruit in your mouth. As you chew, you notice it fully as if it were your first time ever eating an apple. Very slowly you chew, appreciating the change in texture and the nourishment. You continue until you finish the apple and feel completely sated.
  A few brown seeds are all that is left. You keep them as a memory.
  
  > examine the seeds
  Some little brown SEEDS of MINDFULNESS that came from the apple you ate.
  
  You remember holding it with full awareness of the weight in your hand, appreciating the smell and colors of the fruit. You imagined what it took for this to get to your hands: sunshine, water, warmth, and time. You felt the fruit against your teeth and you took the first bite. After chewing, you noticed the first burst of flavor and how it gradually faded. Paying attention fully as if it is your first time ever eating an apple.
  Very slowly chewing, appreciating the change in texture and taste, you finished the apple and felt completely sated.