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Beckie, Southampton, England, 1993-1994
I used to hang with a group of friends and we used to go to a place we
called the "magic gardens." It was behind the university campus. There was
an old air raid shelter to the far left 'round a bend, but there was a huge
stone circle on the floor in the middle of four evergreen trees where we
used to sit. We would often speculate on the reason for a stone circle and
guessed it was used by hippie students and their black magic. We would spend
the long summer days here, sunbathing in the day and just hanging out at
night, playing hide and seek games and running through the woods that
surrounded the gardens.
At night the place would get very cold and the mist would swirl in from the
trees and the river. We were trespassing, but we only ever bumped into a few
students who had no problem with us being there. It was fenced off and we
used to climb over the high wire fences to get in there. The grass was soft
and the ground spongy. The one thing I remember was the lights. We would
often see lights floating around in the woods, white, sometimes red, we
guessed it was just people with torches and we never knew what they were,
but they moved very smoothly and slowly, not like people stumbling through
the woods tripping on logs and stones. On the other side of the woods was a
church and a very old churchyard. The lights would be here too and to the
other end was a river behind the woods. We also heard hushed, whispery
voices. Sometimes the lights and voices would freak us out so we would go
and not come back for a few days but we always returned. It was like the
place drew us to it. We would generally just walk around the area but always
ended up at the magic gardens. We used to climb the trees and sit in the
tops where you would get a good view of the whole are. There was also some
stone steps and some kind of structure too. I'm thinking of going back there
one day to see if it still remains by the river in the woods. I'll take a
camcorder with me, and try to capture the lights.
