The forest souls
By Lehon Karube
“Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature” – Gerard De Nerval
Cold winds rushing against of my skin, the winter air freezing my breath however I enter the classroom and all the frosts fall off. Every step I take, the warmer I get; feeling the air get lukewarm but as I hear my footsteps echo in the hallway, my breathing started to get shorter, my heart pounding so hard and my ears turning red.
At that moment, in front of the classroom door, I couldn’t focus, nothing was clear: what should I say? What kind of introduction am I going to make? Am I going to make lots of friends? What kind of school life am I going to live?
All those questions filled my head and my sight getting dizzy but suddenly a hand helped me out of that situation; a large hand which calmed my heart in a second.
“Come on now, everyone is waiting.”
I felt relieved from those words, took the first step into the classroom; every student quietly sitting in their desks waiting for my arrival.
“Ok I will now introduce a new student to our class, Iris Bittersweet. Your seat is the desk in the back...”
I quietly walk across the classroom and sat down in the chair and realize that my desk was next to a window showing a pathway deeper into a forest. However as days pass, the flowers around the forest would change:
Dandelions to Freesia, Honeysuckle to anemone...
But how, how can these flowers change, they have nothing in common to each other or their surroundings. This was not possible, I asked the teachers however they saw nothing but the few amount of trees that grew beside the school grounds, they saw no flowers but I could see the vibrant coloured flowers which grew around the forest.
I needed more information to understand this occurrence; this was too unfamiliar to me. So I walked to the library and grabbed all the books related to flowers, I spent days searching for the hints however nothing was relevant to this mystery. Countless of days pass and I was about to give up after reading the last book related to flowers.
‘Flower meanings’ as I read apparently dandelions meant Faithfulness, Freesia meant Trust, honeysuckle meant Happiness and Anemone meant honesty.
Although I had required all the information of flowers in the library nothing was related to this illusion.
Night came along quickly and my sleepless nights ended after worrying about the flowers. Gently I close my eyes and let my mind rest, throughout that time of dream there seemed to be a soft melody being sung, I ease my ears and listen to the beautiful notes. Gradually my feet walked by itself and carried me to the forest near school but still I kept walking eventually deeper into the forest. Treading upon the old roots with my bare feet, along with some oleander which had fallen from its trees. I’m was certain that Oleanders meant caution but I was mesmerized by the chant and continued walking deeper and deeper into the darkness.
Further into the forest and the louder the soft tune would sound, the farther the exit became and eventually turned into glimpse of light which soon disappeared into the darkness. Nothing was able to be seen but I followed the melodic tune which led me to the core of the forest, where many blue flowers glowed in the bright moonlight, Hydrangea.
Hydrangeas included only a few substances of poison in their leaves, they symbolized heartfelt emotions.
However I stepped onto a small crack in the flower patch and slipped deeper in the flowers, scratches and bruises all over my body, bleeding from the wounds which I had suffered deeply. I was about to lose conscious but the moon wouldn’t let me; the moon shone upon my horrid body and looked down on me. What a small existence I was to the moon…
Slowly the Hydrangeas would shrivel and turn into dust and through the soil, small Orchids started to grow;
With my last breath I said:
“Lilies, they symbolize the innocence that has been restored to the soul of the departed.”
As I lay in the bed of sweet fragranced lilies they cover my body and what was left was single flower, a white Lilly. The colour of virginity, purity and majesty.