Millie Fleur's Poison Garden

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

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SPEAKER_2 (0:31)

This is Believe, one network, every topic, everywhere.

Lisa Bueno (0:37)

Okay, our friends, so today we are going to visit that little girl that we read about, I think a week or two ago, who had the pumpkin patch.

SPEAKER_1 (0:49)

Remember her? The entire village with pumpkin patch?

Lisa Bueno (0:51)

Yeah, that's the one. Her name is Millie Fleur, and apparently she's got a couple other stories written about her, and we've got to read them because we love doing that, and they're spooky stories too, so let's jump in. Today's story is called Millie Fleur's Poison Garden.

Oh my goodness. The story was written by Christy Mandan. So grab your book out, my friends.

Follow along with us as we read. If you don't yet have this book, you can get a copy of it. I will post a link on my Amazon affiliates page, but I think you can get them just about anywhere. I saw them at Target, I think. So anywhere you go to get books, you might be able to find this one, but please do follow along with us. Look at these words as we read and you'll feel smarter.

Philip (1:40)

We will too, right?

Lisa Bueno (1:42)

Okay, so this story is read by Mommy.

SPEAKER_2 (1:47)

And...

Philip (1:51)

A cat! And not just any cat. Let's see.

The pumpkin cat fluffed the cat in the, in the Halloween bucket?

Lisa Bueno (2:07)

Wonderful.

Philip (2:08)

It is a pumpkin-y, Halloween kind of time.

Lisa Bueno (2:11)

And I'm happy you're here with me, Fluff.

SPEAKER_1 (2:13)

Are you ready?

Lisa Bueno (2:14)

Meow.

Philip (2:15)

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_1 (2:16)

Paw. Paw.

Lisa Bueno (2:18)

Garden Glen was a place of sameness.

Prim pastel houses, each one like the next, lined the streets of Garden Glen like candies in a box. Their windows were spotless, their hedges perfectly pruned, their shutters hung straight and true. Every house and yard in Garden Glen was flawless, with not a blade of grass out of place.

SPEAKER_1 (2:54)

Wow.

Lisa Bueno (2:55)

They must be really good at gardening.

Except for one tumbledown house in a scruffy hill on the edge of town, rejected and excluded. It stood lifeless with no one to love it until Millie Fleur Lafay came to town.

SPEAKER_1 (3:23)

Wow.

Lisa Bueno (3:24)

She and her mom have got a weird looking car, don't they?

SPEAKER_1 (3:28)

It's purple.

Lisa Bueno (3:29)

Not one of those that you see every day. Millie Fleur's new house was marvelous, but it was missing something. It didn't quite feel like home yet. We can fix that, her mom said, pulling a surprise from her pocket.

Seeds from Millie Fleur's old garden, and she got straight to work. Now you know what it takes to make a garden, right? Yeah, you gotta do work. You got to dig holes and put down fresh dirt and pull out the weeds in the ground, all sorts of things. So that's what Millie is doing here. And Millie Fleur's garden grew fast and wild. And we can see she's got fanged fairy moss and sore toothwort and tentacled tansy and glowing jack-in-the-bush and grumpy gilly flower. She's got a bunch of strange-looking plants.

Garden Glen's Rosebud Club was not happy about Millie Fleur's new garden. It's odd, said a man with a rather common sport coat. It's unruly, said a lady in a stiffly-stirched dress. Appalling, bellowed Colonel Stick-in-the-Bud. The president of the Rosebud Club was determined to root out Millie Fleur's garden. Beware the poison garden, they put a big sign in the yard.

Philip (5:11)

This won't do.

Lisa Bueno (5:13)

According to our rules, your garden is unacceptable. We simply cannot have this poisonous mess in our town. But it's not poisonous, Millie Fleur scowled. It's just not like yours. Hmm, Millie Fleur didn't understand why the club was so upset about what she grew in her garden. Your garden is different from anything they've seen before, her mother told her, and some people are scared of things that are different. Maybe I should plant a few roses? Millie Fleur asked. People here seem to like that sort of thing. Only if roses make you happy. her mother said. Do you see that she's got my neighbor told her a backpack? That's fun. That night, Millie Fleur couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned, thinking about her beloved sneezing stinky weed, her grumpy gilly flower, and her fanged fairy moss. I do have to say, they are kind of weird names, right? A little bit, yeah. They were curious little plants, and they made life interesting. She was proud of her wild, weird little garden. Maybe she would start a new club.