TIMELESSNESS

1
I am 2 or 3 years old. I am 42 years old.
Im standing in my Grandmothers wooden, Victorian greenhouse. Grapes are growing high up in the roof. Insects buzz. The air is hot. Hotter than outside. There is a smell of damp bricks, luxurious vegetation, musty humidity. Im crouching down in my new aluminium greenhouse. Newly planted seeds are sprouting. Insects buzz. The tomato plants will need staking soon. The peppers are growing slowly. The air feels dry and smells clean.  
Its the height of summer. It is a warm spring evening
All day Ive been outside playing in my sand pit, with my old yellow tin-plate dumper truck. Ive got sand in my diapers. All day Ive been replanting the garden. Things are growing rapidly. If I dont get it finished soon the rest of the planting scheme will have to wait until next year.
Ive come into the greenhouse to do my favourite thing misting the vines with an old copper water squirting thing. I have to water the seedlings and see if they need re-potting.
Theres water everywhere, it drips from the vine, soaking the warm cracked ceramic tiles of the floor. I check all the seedlings, looking for stray weeds and overcrowding. I water them carefully with a watering can.
The best bit is squirting the water with the old copper squirty thing, high up into the vine. The best bit is pinching out the side shoots from the tomato plants. And like a bolt out of the blue, theres that smell again, that musty damp Grandmothers greenhouse smell of 40 years ago.
Mothers caring voice comes from the house Where are you?. Matthew Jacks enquiring voice comes from the house Where are you Daddy?
I run to her with the enthusiasm of a 2 year old. I look up at him with the enthusiasm of a father.
What have you been doing? she asks enthusiastically. What have you been doing? he asks inquisitively.
Squirting I answer. Ive been travelling in time, Ive been 2 years old again, I smelt the past. Ive been squirting I answer.
TIMELESSNESS