#CHAPTER 210: Zen

Sarah POV We walked down the same hall where my temporary room was, but she turned to a different door two doors down from a table on which sat a vase full of bright blue and yellow flowers. I stood in the open doorway as she put my phone on her nightstand charger, which oddly didn’t have a phone on it already. Then she came back out and led me down a turn in the hallway, around a corner, and then out into the most beautiful Zen garden I had ever seen. Katya smiled at my little intake of breath. I saw it had been raked to perfection, not a grain of sand out of its place. “It’s a copy of the Ryōan-ji garden at Japan’s Temple of the Dragon at Peace,” she explained with pride, “in Kyoto. Have you ever been to Japan?” “No, but I really would love to go.” She nodded. “It’s beautiful, and during cherry blossom season, it’s breathtaking. As you can see, it’s quite large and rectangular. The are fifteen larger rocks, but they are placed so you can never see them all at the same time.