One very hot morning, Mary Lennox woke up feeling grumpy. She felt even grumpier when she saw a new servant by her bed, not her usual Ayah.

"Why are you here?" Mary asked the woman. "I don't want you. Send my Ayah to me."

The woman looked scared. She quietly said that Mary's Ayah could not come. Mary got very angry and kicked the woman, but the servant just looked more frightened and kept saying the Ayah could not come.

Something felt strange that morning. Nothing was happening as it usually did. Many servants were missing, and the ones Mary saw moved quickly with worried faces. But no one would tell her why, and her Ayah never came. Mary was left alone. She went outside into the garden and played by herself under a tree. She pretended to make a flower bed, sticking bright red hibiscus flowers into little piles of dirt. All the time, she grew angrier, thinking of mean things to say to her Ayah when she returned.

She heard her mother come out onto the veranda with a young man. They spoke in quiet, strange voices. Mary knew the young man; he was a new officer from England. Mary watched her mother. Her mother was tall and pretty, with curly hair and lovely clothes. But this morning, her mother's big eyes were not laughing. They looked scared and she looked at the young officer as if asking for help.