Flowers are my only friends {Lotus} [Open]
May 22, 2011 20:34:58 GMT -5
Post by plantix on May 22, 2011 20:34:58 GMT -5
“Just a little further!” I motivate myself, reaching for a branch that needed to be clipped. I finally reach the branch I needed to cut and in an instant, I use the clippers on it before the branch slips before I fall to the ground. The nearly-dead branch falls a few feet before hitting another set of branches, then falling to the surrounding ground, littered with a few dead branches I had already cut. Around this time of year, my job is to maintain the trees. Right now, its a few hours before sunset and work should be over soon.
I let out a sigh of joy, knowing that my job is almost finished for the day. I look down to the ground and think of jumping down, but I realize that the drop must at least be twenty feet, so I opt to climb down safely. As soon as I start to climb down, I realized that there’s problem. ‘That was foolish’ I think. When I was cutting the branches, I cut off some of the branches I used to climb up. Some of the branches were conveniently placed close to the branches I had already cut, but a few were too far to reach from so I need to leap a bit.
After climbing down half way the durian tree, I reach a branch that I need to leap to, to get down. I jump, but miscalculate distance by a few mere inches. The sudden loss of balance makes me stiffen with fear, then tip forwards to try and regain my balance. I don’t have enough control though, so I slip and fall down. Luckily, I only hit one branch that smacked my left shoulder before I fall to the ground.
“Lotus!” I hear mama gasp. She hurries over to me from the near-by tree she was working on, but by the time she gets to me, I’m already standing. “Are you hurt?” she asks me.
“I’m fine mama, I just hit my shoulder.” I say, but I see the peace keeper who’s in charge of watching us work. He gives us a threatening look to signal us to get back to work. Mama stands up and walks back to the tree she was doing her work on. We both understand that the peace keepers want us to work until our job is over, with absolutely no interruptions. I grunt a bit, but since I know better than to deny the peacekeeper, I stand up and gather the branches I have cut off from the trees.
‘At the very least you could have checked to see if I was bleeding’ I bark to our overseer in my mind. Saying things like that out loud would get me a beating for sure. I neatly place the logs of wood into a large bin that’s set out for us. As usual, I’m the first one to finish our job. There are other adults and children working here, but I don’t really talk to them much, and they don’t really approach me. I think of papa working in the fields; watering the seeds, watching the sprouts come up and tending to the plants. I’m reminded of my fall by a short, sharp pain that rests on my shoulder. I look under the shoulder of my shirt at it and it reveals to me a small, red bruise. Nothing serious.
…
As soon as the two of us enter in our small hut after our day of work, mama goes to the stove to start a fire to make dinner. Papa should be coming home real soon. I get my papa’s old and patched backpack and head towards the door.
“Mama, I’m going to the fields to play! I’ll be back soon!” I quickly say half way out the door.
“Alright, but Lotus, be back in time for supper!” she yells to me, being already outside of the hut. She knows that I have no friends to play with in the field. When I say field, it’s almost like a second house for me, and the flowers are the people who live there.
After a few minutes of running happily to the field of wild flowers in the peak of their bloom, I childishly say a loud ‘hello’ to the flowers, as if I was expecting a response. I know they won’t though, but it’s nice to talk to them because I can tell them how I feel without being judges. It’s so beautiful and relaxing here. I wish I could show this to someone, like, another kid who’s just like me. I lie down on a large patch of grass and look into the sky.
“I wish” I say to myself. I turn my head to my right and see a dandelion puff. It makes a perfect, fuzzy, sphere with no seeds that have been blown away by the wind yet. I sit in an upright position and take the dandelion puff.
“I wish I had a friend to play with” I ask the puff. I blow the puff of seeds away and they seem to float in a spiral to my right…
I let out a sigh of joy, knowing that my job is almost finished for the day. I look down to the ground and think of jumping down, but I realize that the drop must at least be twenty feet, so I opt to climb down safely. As soon as I start to climb down, I realized that there’s problem. ‘That was foolish’ I think. When I was cutting the branches, I cut off some of the branches I used to climb up. Some of the branches were conveniently placed close to the branches I had already cut, but a few were too far to reach from so I need to leap a bit.
After climbing down half way the durian tree, I reach a branch that I need to leap to, to get down. I jump, but miscalculate distance by a few mere inches. The sudden loss of balance makes me stiffen with fear, then tip forwards to try and regain my balance. I don’t have enough control though, so I slip and fall down. Luckily, I only hit one branch that smacked my left shoulder before I fall to the ground.
“Lotus!” I hear mama gasp. She hurries over to me from the near-by tree she was working on, but by the time she gets to me, I’m already standing. “Are you hurt?” she asks me.
“I’m fine mama, I just hit my shoulder.” I say, but I see the peace keeper who’s in charge of watching us work. He gives us a threatening look to signal us to get back to work. Mama stands up and walks back to the tree she was doing her work on. We both understand that the peace keepers want us to work until our job is over, with absolutely no interruptions. I grunt a bit, but since I know better than to deny the peacekeeper, I stand up and gather the branches I have cut off from the trees.
‘At the very least you could have checked to see if I was bleeding’ I bark to our overseer in my mind. Saying things like that out loud would get me a beating for sure. I neatly place the logs of wood into a large bin that’s set out for us. As usual, I’m the first one to finish our job. There are other adults and children working here, but I don’t really talk to them much, and they don’t really approach me. I think of papa working in the fields; watering the seeds, watching the sprouts come up and tending to the plants. I’m reminded of my fall by a short, sharp pain that rests on my shoulder. I look under the shoulder of my shirt at it and it reveals to me a small, red bruise. Nothing serious.
…
As soon as the two of us enter in our small hut after our day of work, mama goes to the stove to start a fire to make dinner. Papa should be coming home real soon. I get my papa’s old and patched backpack and head towards the door.
“Mama, I’m going to the fields to play! I’ll be back soon!” I quickly say half way out the door.
“Alright, but Lotus, be back in time for supper!” she yells to me, being already outside of the hut. She knows that I have no friends to play with in the field. When I say field, it’s almost like a second house for me, and the flowers are the people who live there.
After a few minutes of running happily to the field of wild flowers in the peak of their bloom, I childishly say a loud ‘hello’ to the flowers, as if I was expecting a response. I know they won’t though, but it’s nice to talk to them because I can tell them how I feel without being judges. It’s so beautiful and relaxing here. I wish I could show this to someone, like, another kid who’s just like me. I lie down on a large patch of grass and look into the sky.
“I wish” I say to myself. I turn my head to my right and see a dandelion puff. It makes a perfect, fuzzy, sphere with no seeds that have been blown away by the wind yet. I sit in an upright position and take the dandelion puff.
“I wish I had a friend to play with” I ask the puff. I blow the puff of seeds away and they seem to float in a spiral to my right…
