I sat there in the lecture hall, flipped through all ten questions, and came up dry. My BS meter just about busted the roof. By the end of those three hours, it'd pretty much reached the stratosphere. I took a long walk afterwards to clear my head, eventually wandering all the way down to the botanical gardens.
I tripped down the dirt paths, wobbling in my oxfords across a stream and through several stands of bamboo. It was blessedly cool down there under the shade of the large trees, the overgrown bushes. I meandered around, not entirely certain what I was doing mucking about in my imaginary Sherwood Forest, just knowing that I was looking for something I couldn't quite understand.
And then I turned a corner and saw this.
It was like something out of a Hallmark movie. Sun shining through the cherry blossoms, a gentle breeze. I almost forgot about the cars whizzing by on the other side of the gate. And the nagging grind of construction. Almost.
I kind of stood a bit. Stared. Just to make sure this was a real cherry tree and not some creation of my fried brain. I looked some more. It was real.
I turned around and hiked back up, sunshine warming my back.
