The Flowers

The Flowers

Serena looked out over the garden, so lovely on this bright summer morning. She wanted to savor every moment for she knew her time was short. Before they became new buds everyone learned the history of their kind, and how their life path would flow.

They would grow larger every day, fed by the mother plant. Once in full bud, they would bloom into a flower. That's where Serena was now. Their color and shape attracted flying things that would pollinate them so they could produce seeds. Then, when the seeds were growing, the flower would fade. It was the hope of each flower to see their seed preparing to start the next generation before they faded completely. It didn’t happen often.

Sometimes the flowers would be knocked off or picked before they could produce seed. And of course, often birds would eat the seeds before they could fall.

Suddenly, however, Serena’s stem was chopped! As she watched, many of her friends were chopped too. They all huddled together, scared now because they they could not seed at all, though not all the flowers were chopped so there would still be seeds of their kind.

They were lifted by a giant hand, then gently laid on a smooth sheet of shiny paper. As they awaited their fate, after a while they heard a loud shout of joy. “They're beautiful!” someone shouted.

They were put in a vase and fed for many more days than they would have been had they stayed in the garden. No one had ever told them of this sweet end, and there was no way to go back to tell the new buds, but as Serena and her friends faded, they were very happy indeed.