The Florist: This Tree Requires Scary Offerings!

“Wouldn’t it be strange if men were the ones who had to bear children?” “Hahah! I saw this video the other day about someone who tried the pain with a strange belt. It was hilarious!” “No, no, I mean, for real!” “That’s impossible… How would they do that?” “Maybe there’s another alien species where men are tasked with pregnancy.” “That’s a bit, uh…” “Do you think there are animals like that?” “Like… chickens!” “Chickens are the females of roosters, idiot.” “Sit down, class! Open your biology books on page fifty-four. I hope you brought your books! All of those who didn’t bring them can leave my class!” “Miss, I didn’t bring my book!” “I saw you hide it in your bag so you can leave, you brat!” Laughter echoed in the classroom before the students opened their books to find diagrams detailing the strata of the earth. The teacher wrote the date. “Today is the… What’s today’s date, class?” “The twenty-sixth of March 2016, miss! A Saturday, miss!” “Good! I… I did this on purpose, of course! I wanted to test you.” She cleared her throat and pointed at a picture on the board. “Today, we will be studying about rocks. As you might already know, the land we stand on is not one block of land. The innermost layer is a core that is very, very hot, and as we move towards the surface, there are different other layers! We call those layers strata. What’s exciting is that the strata closer to the surface record history of erosion or other various events!” “Miss, more importantly!” One of the students raised his hand. “We were discussing something related to the previous chapter, and we need your input!” The teacher nodded. “Do ask. For once, we’re ahead of the other classes.” “That’s not true, miss! We’re one chapter behind!” “Oh… Oh, jeez. But, I can’t leave my precious students in a confused state! I shall answer your questions!” “Then, miss, is there any animal species that lets the male handle pregnancy and child delivery?” “Hmm…  What a fascinating question indeed! The easy answer seems to be a no. But then again, we know very little about our own planet, let alone other planets. I would say; so far, no. But, some might show up in the future! You never know!” “Ohhh! Teacher believes that alien exists!” “S-So what if I do?” “Teacher is an alien too! Run awayyyy!” “No! Come back here! This is a high school, not a nursery!” She gritted her teeth, seeing them flee. “These kids, honestly.” She moved her gaze to one child with hair black as charcoal sleeping on the last desk beside the window, the wind blowing gently and as his hair strands swayed. She approached him slowly. “Hey, there… You’re my student, aren’t you?” She peeked at him curiously and jumped back as he sat up to look at her with his clear blue eye. However, one thing in particular was unusual about the mysterious teenager. He seemed older than the other kids. His eye was covered with an eye patch, his lips wounded as his skin was filled with severe acne. He gazed at the teacher without smiling, and she offered a smile that he didn’t return. “What’s your name?” “Sidra.” “Sidra? That’s a name I’ve never heard of. What does it mean?” “A tree.” “A… tree?” “A tree.” “How old are you, Sidra?” “I’m seventeen.” “Seventeen... This is the second grade. Did you fail a year?” Sidra nodded, and she sat in front of him, worried. “Is that why you don’t fit in with the other children? Did they hit you? Are they bullying you?” The black-haired shook his head. “This is all due to personal circumstances, miss. I wasn’t aware that class had ended, so I will leave now.” He took his bag and walked towards the exit of the classroom. The students stopped talking as soon as he got closer to them, and they looked him up and down with scornful glances that he got used to. The whispers of five years of bullying crammed in the back of his head, he tilted his head back to look at the sky after he left the school building. He shut his eyelids as the wind played with his hair. He followed the wind towards a spot he loved, but that day, things were different. He heard the trees wailing, weeping as they bled. He watched the workers cutting down the tree he so loved to turn its spot into a parking lot. Sidra raised his eyebrows. His eyepatch fell off his face, tears rolling down his cheeks. He heard people laughing and glanced to the side to be grabbed by his collar and shoved into a wall. “You call yourself a man, and you cry like a b***h just because they cut down a tree. Real men don’t cry, ya hear?” “You’re wrong…” the black-haired mumbled. “What did you say to me, you little s**t?” Sidra shut his eyelids as he felt a fist sink into his belly. He fell to his knees, wincing. Despite being older than the rest of his classmates, he wasn’t the only one who failed a grade. There was always a bigger fish. Sidra recognized that. “You’re just one weird ugly stupid kid! You have the lowest grades in class! Even your parents abandoned you, you i***t. You know what? I’ll leave you alone. You’ve got enough on your plate.” The students entered the building, and Sidra stood up, wiping his tears. He had no more class that day, and he couldn’t afford to pay for cram school. He could only leave the school and go back home. He had no friends to hang out with on a Saturday night, too intimidating to be approached by his peers. He didn’t mind. He stopped a few feet away from his house and cleaned himself up. He drew a smile on his face then took a deep breath before taking a step forward to bump into someone. “Ah... I’m so sorry.” Looking up, he saw a man looming over him with frigid eyes, azure blue locks falling down his face as he looked down to eye him. Sidra’s eyes widened slightly, feeling his heart tightening at his sight. Was he one of the criminals the authorities warned the people from? Was his hair natural or dyed? No... No one could have that hair colour naturally. The man narrowed his eyes. “It’s all right.” With that, he moved aside and walked in the opposite direction. Sidra glanced at him curiously then shook his head and entered into a small garden, smiling as four smaller children ran towards him to hug him. “Big brother!” “How was school?” He grinned, “It was okay. I hope you did okay too.” “Yes! The teacher praised me today, big brother!” “Good. Let’s cook lunch for everyone, okay?” He entered the small house and got changed, his smile fading slowly. There were only two types of people in that world; those who are bullied, and those who are bullies. No further categorization was needed, he knew. If the world could be a colour, it would be yellow, venomous, dirty, acidic and scorching. Sidra started cutting the vegetables. Trees were a symbol of life and fertility for a long time throughout the history of humankind. While the name itself was rarely used, when it was, girls were named Sidra, not boys. For that very reason, Sidra was always bullied because of his name that he didn’t choose. As time went by, the bullying became a part of his daily life, and a few bruises and punches mattered very little to him. While the words of others stabbed his heart, he learned to heal in silence and tears, a weakness he could never overcome. Another reason why he was often bullied was because of his heterochromia. His coloured eyes made him stand out, and it terrified most, making him always the odd man out. Since then, he decided to cover one of his eyes, but Sidra didn’t mind living by himself. As long as he had his supportive family with him, he was okay. But then… He lowered his knife, his hands shaking as tomato sauce fell on his skin, its red splattering across it. He washed his hands in the sink before dropping the vegetables in boiling water with seasoning. The only thing left for him was a flower shop his parents used to take care of and four younger siblings to raise all by himself. He once had an older brother, but the latter disappeared mysteriously. Sidra's uncle took custody of the children, but where was he? Nowhere to be found; it was better than having an alcoholic adult with violent tendencies at home. Sidra looked through the window, seeing rain falling. He smiled as he smelled the wet soil, inhaling deeply as cold pleasant moist wind stroked his skin. Another reason why he was often bullied was skin problems that he could never afford to cure. With time, his appearance mattered little. Nothing did matter as long as he could make sure his siblings led a happy childhood and grew into dependable independent adults. That was the goal Sidra set for himself the moment he no longer had a soul to rely on. It was odd for the rain to fall so abruptly, but it wasn’t the first time. The weather has been unstable over the past six months, according to the weatherman. Things were not improving, but people simply got used to the roughness of nature. “For generations and centuries, trees were viewed as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge, power and safety. Their fruits carried a power like no other, and their leaves provided shade against the hottest suns. They were also a symbol of fertility. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, only then did they understand the concept of fertility and childbirth. Then, you may think that intercourse and sin are interrelated, but I disagree. I would say that this is all within us, something that we cannot deny, but we cannot generalize this, of course. Controlling desire all lies within how much self-discipline we can exercise in order not to become a danger to society and or ourselves.” “Beautifully said; trees truly have great significance and depth in terms of symbolism.” “Absolutely! For example, the great tree is a mysterious concept in and of itself. We don’t know much about it, only the fact that it lies at the end of everything. What is everything? What is the end? We don’t know. That gives trees a mystical unknown dimension that one might look forward to, but then again, it all depends on what we–” Sidra shut off the radio and sighed as the rain picked up. “It seems like I can’t open the shop today.” Thunder roared, and Sidra felt someone clinging to his legs. He laughed, seeing his siblings. They all peeked at him with puffy wet eyes. “Can we... Can we spend more time with big brother?” “Yes, you can.” “Yay!” Their faces brightened up as they began setting the table and giggling. He looked at them, his gaze softening. “All right, food is ready! Today, I used the fish that our neighbour offered yesterday! Be sure to eat gratefully.” “Yes!” They gathered around the wooden table on the ground and ate. As the storm passed, it was already bedtime. They slept on the ground as they didn’t have a bed they could use. Sidra covered them and sat down studying until later at night. He fell asleep on the table, the conversation his classmates had before class playing in the back of his head. What if...? “If the world was to end...?” Sidra opened his eyes to look up at the ceiling, a strange encounter with a homeless man resurfacing. It was back when he has been to the mountain to look for new exotic seeds for his shop. The man seemed delirious and afraid, but he refused to go back with Sidra to the city. The teenager could only leave him behind after agreeing to a funny promise to make the stranger feel better. To help him if the world was to end... Help him do what? The black-haired sighed and rolled on his side, pouting. Whatever his heart was restless about, it needed to let it go. It was no more than food for his imagination; as if the world was going to end! “Forget it. I have an early start tomorrow,” Sidra muttered as he drifted back to sleep. That was the only way to move forward. The stranger was probably eaten by wolves or found by the police anyway. Hopefully, he was safe. The next morning, a Sunday, the sun shined brighter and hotter than the days before. Sidra got up at six in the morning and stood in front of the mirror, watching himself in silence. He stroked his green eye and saw his lips curving in a smile. “You’re just different, Sidra. You’re not ugly. Smile, for your siblings,” he whispered as he covered his eye. He opened up the garage beside his house and observed the several plants and flowers stacked up on top of one another. His neighbourhood wasn’t very far from downtown, so it wasn’t a bad idea to open a shop beside his residence. It was more comfortable as well, and he could keep an eye on his young siblings as he worked. He took out the shelves and began placing the flowers on display. He stopped in front of the tree in his garden and smiled, caressing its trunk. “Good morning to you. I hope you had your fill of water yesterday, because today, it’s time to work!” He grinned. “If you work well, I will remove the dead leaves today instead of tomorrow. How does that sound?” He rolled his eyes as a tree leaf fell on his head. “Whatever you say, you grumpy thing.” “Excuse me, is the florist open yet?” Sidra turned to his first customer with a smile. “Yes, coming!” ________________________________________________________________________________________________________                                                                                 To be continued...