Rica’s grandmother has a garden behind her house, and it is the girl’s favorite place to be. She spends hours weeding the well-defined plots and identifying the many plants growing in them: sage, valerian, thyme, lemon balm, gentian… Grandmother calls these plants “simple.” That was the name given to the herbs used to make medicines in the Middle Ages. In the winter, Rica likes to dig up the fennel bulbs. She makes tiny bouquets of violets in the spring. In the summer, she rests in the shade of the tall poplar tree and watches the clouds f loating across the sky. Leaning against the tree, the girl wonders what she will be when she grows up. She wishes the whole world were as orderly and lovely as her grandmother’s garden. When Rica pulls out the couch grass1 choking the plants, she imagines that she is removing the illness from which she has been suffering for years. “If only diseases 1. Couch grass is an invasive weed. 11
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