The Stone Lion – Read and Print

By Rachel Dunstan Muller, copyright 2022

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At the end of Juniper Lane there was an overgrown garden. No one had tended that garden for many years. There was a wall surrounding it, and a locked gate, and a sign that said “No Trespassing.”

But such things have never kept out curious children. And so it was that one warm summer afternoon, two boys squeezed through a gap in the wall, then under a thick laurel hedge. The boys got more than a few scratches along the way, but they were very pleased with themselves nonetheless. For the hidden garden they found was bigger, and wilder, and more wonderful than they’d imagined – filled with all kinds of fruit trees, and flowering bushes, and wildflowers.

And then, at the edge of an overgrown lawn – which was really more like a small meadow – they spied something that made the garden even more special: a stone lion. It was as big as a real lion, and the expression on its face was both fierce, and yet at the same time somehow gentle and kind, as if its job were both to welcome and to protect anyone who came into the garden.

Both boys fell silent when they first saw it. They’d never been in the presence of anything quite so powerful-looking, so majestic. But it was just a statue after all – not a real lion. So after a moment, they did what almost any child their age would do. They ran their hands over the lion’s mane and then climbed on its back.          

The two boys could have kept their visit to the garden a secret. That’s what they planned to do at first. But the hidden garden was so special, that they just couldn’t help but share it. One by one they invited their friends. They had picnics together, and played games in the grass, and made flower crowns to put on the stone lion’s head. And though the stone lion’s expression never changed, somehow it seemed pleased to have the children’s company.

As the days went by, the boys’ friends invited their friends as well, and so on, and so on, until by the end of the summer, every child on Juniper Lane had squeezed through the garden wall at least once.

Well, every child that is, but one. There was a girl named Amina who did not get an invitation. Amina never got invited anywhere – not for playdates, not for sleepovers, or birthday parties. Maybe it was because she was new to the neighbourhood. Maybe it was because she spoke with an accent, or because her family came from somewhere far away. It wasn’t that the other children meant to be unkind. It’s just that to them, it was almost like Amina was invisible. They just didn’t notice or think about her at all.

No one invited Amina to the garden, but that didn’t stop her from finding her own way in. For weeks she watched the others coming and going, until one evening, after everyone else had gone home, she squeezed through the wall herself.

Now, if the overgrown garden seemed half-wild in the daylight, you can imagine what it must have looked like at dusk. Poor Amina found herself surrounded by dark trees and bushes, by strange, shifting shadows. But then she noticed the stone lion. It seemed almost to glow in the half-light, and when she got closer and saw the lion’s kind expression, her fear melted away. With the stone lion watching over it, even filled with shadows, the garden felt safe.

Summer faded and the first autumn leaves began to fall, and still, the children of Juniper Lane returned to play in the garden and visit the stone lion whenever they could. And so did Amina – but never at the same time as the other girls and boys.

As the seasons turned, many of the children had dreams about the stone lion. They dreamt that the lion came to life, and called them by name. They dreamt that the lion carried them on his back, through the neighbourhood and far beyond.

Amina had dreams about the stone lion too – only, she wasn’t sure that they really were dreams. She would wake in the middle of the night sometimes, and look out her window. And more than once, she was sure she saw the silhouette of a lion go past on the street below. It was a comforting sight – as if the lion were patrolling Juniper Lane, making sure that everyone was safe while they slept.

Amina wished she could talk to the other children about what she saw at night, but she was too afraid to speak. The other children were still ignoring her at school, and so Amina kept to herself.

Winter came and brought the first snowfall. Amina couldn’t wait to see what the garden looked like under a blanket of snow, and so on her way to school she made a detour and slipped through the wall. The garden was beautiful all covered in white – but that wasn’t what took her breath away. There were paw prints in the fresh snow. Great, big paw prints – bigger than any dog would leave. They were the size of lion prints, and the trail through the snow started from – and came back to – the stone lion.

Amina didn’t know whether to run to the stone lion and throw her arms around its neck, or to run away from the garden as fast as she could. So she did both. She ran to the lion and hugged its great, shaggy head. And when it didn’t come to life or move in any way, she ran as fast as she could to school.

Amina was so excited that morning, that she forgot to be afraid. She couldn’t keep her secret to herself. She told the first girl she saw on the playground, who told another girl, who told her brother – until every child in the school had heard the news.

As soon as their classes were over, the children of Juniper Lane raced to the garden and squeezed through the gap in the wall. But there were so many children all at once, all pushing and shoving to get in, that they trampled the very paw prints they’d come to see. A few of the girls said they had seen a trail leading to and from the stone lion. But the others said Amina had made up her story. That the paw prints weren’t real; that they couldn’t be real. Stone lions don’t come to life – no matter what some of them might have dreamt.

Amina wasn’t invisible after that. Now the other children in the neighbourhood did notice her, and some of them made fun of her, and called her names, and even said she was a liar. Amina stopped visiting the garden, even when she knew that no one else was there. Except to go to school, Amina stayed in her house and didn’t come out.

But still at night she dreamt about the stone lion. He was kind in her dreams. He called her by name and invited her to ride on his back. Once he carried her to a garden that was even bigger and wilder and more wonderful than the secret garden at the end of Juniper Lane.

The winter days got shorter, the winter nights got longer. One night it snowed so much that in the morning Amina’s school was closed. And the snow was still falling when Amina looked out the window at breakfast. It was beautiful: great, big flakes drifting down like soft feathers. But that wasn’t what made her gasp. What took her breath away was the trail of giant paw prints leading right past her house, right down the centre of the snow-covered road.

Amina didn’t wait to finish her breakfast. She threw on her coat, and her hat, and her mittens, and her boots, and she raced out the door. But this time, she wasn’t the only child to see the giant paw prints. The other girls and boys of the neighbourhood were rushing out of their front doors as well – until there was a whole parade of amazed childrentromping through the snow.

The paw prints led them to the other end of Juniper Lane, all the way to the very edge of the neighbourhood, where there was a snow-covered field. And standing at the far side of that field – was a lion. Not a stone lion; a real lion.

The children froze when they spied that lion, too astonished and frightened to take another step. Only one child kept going. And suddenly, that child wasn’t just walking towards the lion; she was running, as fast as the snow would let her. Amina ran straight to the lion – and then stopped.

 “Hello, Amina,” the lion said, with a twinkle in his eye. “Would you like to ride on my back?”   

Amina was too overwhelmed to answer, but she nodded – and the lion crouched down.

Well, when the other children saw Amina climbing up onto the lion’s back, they forgot their fear. They ran forward, and one by one the lion welcomed them and invited them to climb up too. And though this a mystery that I can’t explain, somehow there was room on the lion’s back for every child in that field.

Amina and her friends never forgot the ride the lion gave them that snowy day – not even when they were old and grey. And yes, I did say Amina and her friends – for after that day they were friends – all of them together.

In the years that followed, the children of Juniper Lane spent so much time in their secret garden that it stopped being a secret, and the grown ups eventually made it into a park. And as far as I know, that park is still there, watched over by a very special lion.

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