The Last flower

MELODY'S POV The words coming from her mouth always soothe me. Every time I am with her l feel complete. It is like the world disappears and I am lying in the most comfortable and warmest blanket you can ever find. But how is this happening to me again? My grandmother was all that l had left and she was now on her death bed. l close my eyes to try and make the pain go away but as soon as l close them, l have a feeling she might just leave me. So, I sit next to her, looking at her beautiful face while she rests, and sometimes run my fingers through her hair. As I hold her hand she begins to wake and open her eyes. Her big brown eyes piercing into mine and giving me a soft smile. ¨Melody l needs to tell the history of our family. Go to sleep and I will tell you tomorrow¨ she says, her sweet voice putting music in my ears. l look at her for a few seconds and after that l just nod. l lean on the sofa l am sitting on and adjust my blanket. Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes. 'Please do not let me wake up with her gone too.' l think to myself before sleep engulfs me and the world of dreams takes over. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am walking barefoot on barren land. I cannot see anything for miles in all directions. I carry on walking and screaming for someone to hear me, but I hear nothing. After what feels like forever, I start to see what looks like water on the horizon. However, I am so tired, and my mind may be playing games with me. I have no option I must carry on going. I look to the left and discover dandelions in full bloom in a barren land. How are flowers growing and blooming in soil that is not fertile? As I focus, more and more of these flowers are appearing in my vision until I am in a flower field. I start to run around in the field and l wake up.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I wake up to my grandmother singing my favorite song. I keep my eyes closed enjoying the melody and suddenly, she stops singing. "I know you are awake Melody", she says. "Morning did you sleep well," I asked as I stretch my aching muscles from sleeping in an uncomfortable position. "I slept ok, I just need you to get me some water and then bring my bag to me," she says adjusting herself into a sitting position. "I know you have a lot of questions regarding our family, we wanted to ensure you have a good childhood, but I don't think all of us have made sure of that". I stare at her wondering where she is going with me, so I just go with it. I stand up and walk to the mini kitchen area in the room and pour some water from a jar into a glass. I then collected the bag and hand both to my grandmother. She put the glass of water on the table beside the bed and starts rummaging through her bag. She takes a book and then looks at me and then says, "Well here it goes, our family is special".  "What do you mean special, growing up we have never done anything that would suggest that we were special. Or am I blind", I laughed out loud. Looking at her, she did not look amused and just carried on like I did not say anything. "We ARE special, our family was foretold that one of us would possess an enormous amount of power, my grandmother did not predict what will happen to us after she told us. The story traveled and soon we started to die off one by one," she says as she was looking for something in the book. I just stood there looking at her like she has grown a second head. I mean who will believe the chronicles of the madwoman. She has done this to me before when she told me my father had the power to change into a lion as a child. She told me if do not eat my vegetables, he will transform into a lion and make sure I pay for it, which gave me nightmares. Why should I believe her now? "Melody sit down, and I will tell you everything," she says still looking for something in the book. "Aha I found it, this is a drawing of your great-great-grandmother. Isn't she beautiful, I think that's where we got our beauty from"  I think I predicted right; this woman is suffering from a case of insanity. I mean of all the crazy stories she has come up with, this has got to be the most insane one yet. Where does she come up with this stuff? Whatever she is smoking or drinking I better get a source before she drops dead anytime. I took a deep breath, "Gran, I have tried to take all the stories you have said before seriously, but this just put the icing on the cake. I mean really", I said I took the drawing from her and sure enough, there was a beautiful lady with similar features to that of Gran and even my mother come to think of it. "This woman was the most beautiful in the village, a lot of men wanted her. I even heard from my mother that one of the men divorced his own wife to get a chance with your great-great-grandmother. Her name was Tabitha and she used to dream of people's futures in her dreams. She was powerful.", Gran said looking into space. As I studied, she features I felt maybe this is not the last scriptures of a dying woman, maybe she is going somewhere with this. Knowing my grandmother, this was going to take a while so I made myself comfortable on the chair and grabbed a blanket to cover my legs. "What else can you tell me about her", I asked "Well, as I said a lot of men wanted her. In her dreams, she dreamt of Cornelius Augustus who was the son of the Chief at the time. I think he was you kids' definition of tall, dark, and handsome", she said chuckling. "I would have loved to see a picture so that I can judge for myself but oh hell. Anyways he courted Tabitha for years to no avail. You see Tabitha did not trust him and she ended up marrying the son of the head farmer in the village. Cornelius did not take that lightly and I think that's where some of our family problems came from". I just sat there absorbing everything. This Cornelius maybe took it hard and wanted revenge, but why did Tabitha refuse to marry Cornelius. "Gran why did Tabitha refuse to marry Cornelius", I asked. l sat at the end of my seat biting my nails something l do when I'm impatient. I had to know cause this story was getting interesting. She turned her head towards me and the look on her face was filled with amusement, "Weren't you the one that was saying I was crazy?", laughing she closed the book she got the drawing from and put it on the side table. I just let her be. I am not going to entertain her amusement because that will get us nowhere. For all I know she will rub it in my face until it's not funny to her anymore and who knows how long that will be. She stopped laughing, "OK I will carry on, Cornelius may have been courting Tabitha for years, however, as the son of the Chief his hands were always in someone's skirt if you catch my drift. He wanted Tabitha but would have never stayed faithful to her. So, Tabitha moved on. With that answered, Abraham the son of the head farmer was a wonderful husband and soon they had 3 children together. The youngest of the bunch is your great-grandmother, my mother Isabella". From what I had heard about Isabella she was the family rebel. Rules were something to always break so I know this story is taking a bad turn. I stood up and walked to my Gran and helped her sit up in a comfortable position and walked back to my chair. "Thank you, Isabella knew of her mother's dreams and knew they had to be kept a secret. Growing up she would hear Tabitha telling her other two children of her dreams about them and never about her. I think she got jealous and rebelled. Her husband ended up being the son of Cornelius surprisingly enough. She confided with her husband on how Tabitha has powers and has never used them to give her a better future. Like a domino effect this ended up in Cornelius' ears", she said. "Well Isabella took the family secret to her grave", I laughed to myself. "Yes literally", my gran added sarcastically. "But I don't think she knew what she has started. Cornelius publicly confronted Tabitha of being a witch which led to her being burnt at the stake in the town square. Your great-great-grandfather could not take his grief and hanged himself in the farm cellar", a lone tear flowed from my gran's eyes. This woman never cried so I knew this was upsetting for her. I mean this was her own mother's doing for starting this at the end of the day. We sat there quietly afterward, each person to their thoughts. I had a lot of mixed emotions the first one being sadness. I fell for my grandmother; I mean she must have felt some type of way towards her parents. It's not easy to grow up in an environment where her grandparents died so violently. In the hands of her other grandfather no less. No wonder she is a woman of very few words most of the time, who knows what's playing in her mind. I also felt anger towards Isabella, I mean if she did not act like a stool pigeon maybe Tabitha would have eventually dreamt of something regarding her. I tried to breathe and relax, this happened years ago before I was born. Although, this is my past I should try to move on from it. "You are quite Melody, I mean your face looks so hard you can break glass with it", leave it to gran to pull a joke when the mood is sour. "I'm just thinking that's all. This is a bit hard to take. After all, we have lost a lot of family members because someone was a tattletale. I guess I'm just worried if you are OK", I asked. "Well as a child I did not understand what was going on. I mean I was around 8 years old at the time. I remember a lot of my aunties and uncles shouting at my parents saying it was their fault. My father tried to protect my mother and moved us to live under the protection of the Chief at that time. I never saw him but I suspected it was Cornelius", my gran said trying to get into a sleeping position. I guess she was tired of sitting. It was getting late and she should be asleep at this time. I stood up and walked to her, helping her into the sleeping position she turned to go on her side facing the chair I will be sleeping in. "Melody, you have been sitting on that chair for god knows how long. I don't even know if you are showering because last time a sniffed in your vicinity 2 days ago you had the stench of impending doom around you", she laughed as I just shake my head at her. "If you must know l shower every day, you have the stench of impending doom with all the baths you have been having for the past two weeks. Your nose has had enough of the smell it decided to go into a coma", which shut her up some. She had it coming with how much she jokes with me every day. She however started laughing even more, like a full belly laugh. I sulked back into my seat; I mean how is it every time I think I have her she all but laughs. Oh well. "God, you can dish out some good ones. I taught you well that no one can step on your toes anymore without getting a talking to", as she laughed, she probably shocked on her own saliva as she started coughing violently. I quickly grabbed a glass of water and handed it to her. She took it a took a few sips whilst still coughing in between. After a while, she stopped coughing and laid on her side looking at me. "Are you OK, you looked like you were about to cough up a lung", I said chuckling She smiled trying so hard not to laugh again, "Seriously, you need to stop now because I need rest". "OK good night gran", I said as I kissed her forehead and covered her with a blanket so that she stays warm. Since she was asleep, I might as well try to go for a nice walk as I haven't been exercising much. I took my blanket and wrapped it around me and got out of the room my gran was in. The wide corridor was quiet as a walked the short walk towards the elevators. I pressed the down button and waited patiently for the elevator to come. After about a minute I heard a ding signaling the elevator and the doors opened. Walking inside the elevator, the doors closed, and I clicked the ground floor. We were on the second floor so the ride to the ground floor was short as the doors opened. In front of me was chaos, people with some form of pain waiting in the sitting area, nurses and doctors walking to and from areas with haste. The speakers announcing the next client to be seen and in which room. I just quickly walked to the nearest exit out of the hospital. As soon as I walked out of the hospital, I felt the late-night breeze. Clutching the blanket closer to me I carried on walking across the street and into the park. At this time of the night, the park was quiet, I couldn't see anyone around which was good. I soon found a bench looking over a pond and sat down. I sat there for what felt like a long time as I just looked in the pond. It was a good place for me to think about what has been going on and what I have to do with myself if I could not take care of my gran anymore. Without my gran, I was going to be alone as I did not have time to go out a socialize. I was taking online classes for my business degree and practically living at the hospital. I then looked up at the sky thinking to myself about what gran had told me about my family. It was a lot to take and every thought I can had a tonne of questions following it. I signed, I might as well go back to the hospital and write down these questions before gran wakes up. I stood up and stretched my muscles and turned to walk back to the hospital. As soon as I turned, I noticed a shadow behind the tree next to me.