Spring came and the community garden was full of gardeners putting the finishing touches

to their preparations for the new gardening season. The young couple placed coverings over

the young carrots and lettuces very carefully. They tied wooden sticks for the broad beans

and moved the cucumber, tomato and pepper plants from pots to glass containers.

5Their neighbour, a portly old man, also busied himself in the plot next to theirs, pruning his

rose bushes attentively and weeding diligently. The bushes were laid out interestingly in three

precise rows. The roses had petals in breathtaking shades of apricot, fiery pink and orange

and although the flowers had yet to fully come to bloom, the elderly man's plot provided the

most arresting sight in the community garden.

10One morning, the young couple headed out very early, only to find the old man standing very

still at his usual spot. He was staring at his rose bushes. Just as they did previous times, the

young couple greeted him. The elderly man turned around. He raised a hand to his chin slowly

as if lost in thought and turned back to his rose bushes. It would have been alright if the

encounter ended there. Their neighbour had always been a peculiar old man. However,

15as the young couple exchanged glances, they noticed that their neighbour had begun to sob,

his entire body convulsing in great wracks of distress. This alarmed them. The elderly man's

reaction was deeply unsettling but the young couple did not want to think too much about it.

By the end of Spring, the couple had long forgotten about the old man and had gone back to

having regular gatherings with their other neighbours.

20Summer was their best season. The young gardeners harvested their beans and planted

beetroot. A new gardener joined the community garden and the customary practice of

presenting him with gifts of fruit and vegetables kept the young couple really busy. Soon, they

forgot that they had ever considered forming a friendship with the elderly man.

That autumn, they planted raspberries, leeks and garlic. On the plot next door, the roses

25started to blossom. The young couple thought of how although the rose bushes were steadily

thickening, weeds were beginning to grow around them. They did not notice that the elderly

man's visits to the community garden were becoming more and more infrequent. By now their

indifference to him was total. When he did show up, he was thin and looked almost like he

had begun to curl up at the edges, like a leaf.

30Winter came and the couple planted lettuce. After that, they occupied themselves with their

raspberries and another crop of broad beans. One day, someone said that the old man had

moved away for good. The young couple were taken aback by the news and they were drawn

once more to his roses. The rose bushes were flowering in violent swirls of colour. They were

fully grown and truly beautiful but now there was something different about them. The couple

35thought about the elderly old man and for the first time, they found themselves thinking of the

loss of a friend.

Raffles Girls' Primary School 2024 P6 English Prelim — Practice