Seed Town

“Hey, Peapod, do you see anything?” shouted Onionette.

“I don’t see anything,” replied Peapod, shaking his head.

Onionette and Peapod were sitting on the windowsill in the old shed, peering at the road outside. An ordinary person walking along the path in front of the shed wouldn’t have noticed them through the window. How could they, when Onionette and Peapod were just two tiny seeds and the glass was fuzzy? And right now, they are watching out for Anna, their human friend.

Anna wasn’t an ordinary little girl. She knew how to listen well. Once, while walking through the snow near an old abandoned shed, her ears pricked up — she noticed a faint squeaking sound.

“Is that a mouse? Hmm, in the middle of winter?” she wondered. But when she looked closer, she saw that it was not a mouse. Through the etched glass she saw a pile of seeds. The seeds spotted her too. And so began a strange and beautiful friendship between the girl called Anna and the seeds in the shed.

That’s why Peapod and Onionette were always excited about her visits.

“Ever since Anna discovered us in the shed, all kinds of wonderful things have been happening here,” said Onionette happily. “Once she took me to school in her pocket.”

“And she took me to the big playground,” boasted Peapod. “And Pickles said that Anna introduced him to all the animals on the farm the other day!”

“Just when is she coming to visit us again?” The seeds were feeling anxious, unaware that Anna was currently sitting at her school desk learning how to count. She felt the same — she couldn’t wait to go to the old shed and teach the little seeds how much five times four is.…