Marley's Flower

Marley’s Flower

Summer had resurrected the woods, fabulously so; as a result the house that Marley had dreamed of was nearly obscured by a riot of wild chartreuse foliage. Despite careful attention to direction, it had taken her longer than she had expected to find it. The house’s grey stone exterior blended with its ultra-natural environment. It had stood the test of time, two stories of fine craftsmanship built on the side of the mountain, accessible only by a winding dirt road. In contrast to the freely growing trees and ferns, the house’s flower beds were bastions of painstakingly organized gardening. Rosebushes climbed neat wooden trellises while daylilies, carnations and star gazer flowers were among those Marley was able to identify under the windows, where they erupted in rainbows of color that contrasted nicely with the surrounding greens, browns and greys of the forest and house. The soft crunch of tires on the seldom-traveled road signaled that Sarah was arriving as Marley knelt in front of one of the flowerbeds. Carefully, Marley reached for a particular blossom that had caught her eye and brought it closer for examination. She bit her lip in confusion, wondering if something was wrong with her eyesight. The flower was beautiful, but she couldn’t have said what color it was if her life depended on it. It was as if she was seeing a fantastic new color, something impossible.

She rose to her feet the moment Sarah’s light presence drew near, but she continued to stare at the flower, enamored and perplexed by its blatant contrast to those flowers that she was familiar with.  Not one of the blossoms that had lined the broad path she had taken to the house was of this craft or color; she had been able to, with great confidence, name the make and tone of each flower.  The flowerbed that Sarah had planted did not pose trouble to her, either, until this arrogant creature had craned its neck toward her searching eyes.  She blinked and then rubbed her eyes with one fist, hoping that this would somehow form the blossom into something more comfortable for her to behold; but she had no luck.  It stood proudly in her hand, an unwilting figure whose nature wholly escaped her.

“I’m glad you found your way,” Sarah said abruptly, appearing at the small gate that surrounded the flowerbed.  Marley, although she had expected her friend, was quite startled.  “Did you have any trouble?”

Marley shrugged and stole the flower from sight.  “Well, I beat you to the house, so I must’ve done something right!” She chuckled.  “I don’t know why you insist on using that road all the time.  It’s so narrow in most places.  And the paths that we take both converge into the same road.”

“Yeah, well, I guess I like the challenge, or something like that,” her friend replied with a divine smile.  “Anyway, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it home sooner.  Traffic was pretty outrageous back there, mainly because of a couple accidents.  I swear, no one pays attention on city streets.”

“Oh, no worries,” Marley said.  “You don’t have to apologize; we’ve been friends forever.  I was entertaining myself with the beautiful flowers that you’ve planted here.  I can’t get enough of them.”

“Yeah, aren’t they great?  It took me quite a while to gather the seeds that became the flowers that are here today.  I have a little bit of every part of the world in this fenced area.”

“I can see that!” Marley laughed, squatted down, and observed a yellow carnation.  “But these yellow carnations are still my favorite.”

A warm wind swept suddenly toward the two friends from an unknown direction, tickling the jade leaves of the trees and causing them to dance and whisper like the leaping currents of a river.  As the breeze, invisible but felt, breached her skin like a flaming dagger, she moved her eyes to the spot where she had picked the mysterious flower.  To her astonishment, another flower stood in the place of that which she had taken from the bed; unlike that in her hand, however, this new creature was smaller than those around it, though it bore the same unidentifiable color as the flower that was hidden in her hand.  Her eyes remained on it for some time, frozen in a glare of wonder and frustration.

“It’s pretty hot out here,” Sarah remarked, gazing toward the sky.  She turned her attention back to Marley.  “Would you like to come inside? It should be nice and cool.”

Marley looked at her suddenly.  “Um…no thanks.  I like it out here, in the flowerbed.” She stood again, thought written on her face.

“Is something wrong, Marley?”

She sighed.  “Sarah, there’s a reason I came here, though I didn’t tell you.  I mean, I love hanging out with you, but there was another reason.”

Sarah grinned.  “I had a feeling.  When we talked on the phone, you sounded a bit off.”

Her friend nodded.  “I just had the weirdest dream last night, and it wasn’t like anything I’ve ever had before.  Usually I wake up from dreams without remembering them, or without feeling like they were important.  Last night’s was different.  And the thing is, I just don’t know why.  It seemed like it was about everyday life.”

“Yeah?” Sarah leaned against the fence, clearly interested.  “So what was it about?”

“Well, it’s not anything exciting.  In the dream, I drove to your house, and I must have spent most of the dream standing out here, just looking at it.  I wanted to go inside, but it’s like something or someone had locked me out.  Then I started looking through your flowerbeds, as if there was a key lying somewhere; but I couldn’t find anything.  Apparently it was hidden or didn’t exist, because no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find it.  I just left and drove home.”

“How weird,” Sarah replied.  “And you actually felt motivated to come here? Most people would just say, ‘Whatever’ and forget about it.”

“Yeah, and normally I would.  But it’s like….Well, you know how it is.  It’s like the feeling you get when you have one earring and you’re searching forever to find the matching earring.  Nothing can take the lost earring’s place, because they’re the perfect set for the colors of the clothes you’re wearing.  You dig through all of the earrings, and you need to find the matching one quickly if you plan to look your best.  That’s what I felt in that dream.  But instead of finding what I was looking for, I just left.  It’s so aggravating!”

Sarah chuckled.  “It sure sounds like it.  And you think that the answer might be here?”

Marley shrugged.  “I don’t know.  Maybe I’m going crazy.”

“No, I’m glad you looked into this! You might be surprised, but you’re not the first friend of mine who has had a dream like that about my house.”

Marley raised an eyebrow, feeling as if she had stepped into a realm wholly unfamiliar, as unfamiliar as the flower in her hand.  “Other people have talked to you about stuff like this?”

“Yeah,” said Sarah; “this house is really popular!”

Marley turned to the house and captured all of it that she could between the foliage and lofty flowers.  Its walls, feet thick, reminded her of the fortifications of castles she had heard of in old stories.  Well-armored and sitting on the summit of the region’s highest mountain, this fortress could likely elude the strongest soldiers; common tools of the world, no matter their prestige and reputation, could not dent the invulnerable walls that loomed before her.  She was not so much frightened of the edifice as awestruck; for years it had been battered by storms and heavy, pestilent rains, but for as long as she could remember, it had remained unchanged.  Sarah’s father had constructed the fine walls with his own hands, she had said.  With the flawless knowledge of a learned carpenter he had drawn up the blueprint, laid the foundations, erected the walls, sized the numerous rooms, and topped the building with a thick roof.  He had required no aid in its construction, but it appeared as if a group of ancients, versed in the lore of wood and stone, had joined together in crafting an impenetrable stronghold, the epitome of their talent.  Marley noted the multiple windows across the surface of the walls, and identified their intricate design as exquisite, almost fantastic.  Bright light shone against and through them, overcoming the nearest dimness created by the laden boughs of the trees of the forest.

“It is incredibly beautiful,” Marley admitted.  “I don’t know if I’d want to live in it, but it seems like I was desperate to in my dream.  I wonder why?  Maybe the beauty of it just really sticks out to me and your other friends.”

Sarah shrugged.  “It’s possible, I guess.”  She gestured at Marley’s hand.  “What do you have back there?”

Marley’s heart sank; she was instantly embarrassed that she would have to present something she did not comprehend.  She revealed the flower to Sarah.  “I hope you’re not mad, but I picked this flower.  I was looking at it for a little while, and I just couldn’t pin down what kind it was, or what color it was, for that matter.  So I picked it to get a better look.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Sarah said with a smile.  “Can I take a closer look?”

Marley brought it closer to her friend’s face.  “Weird, isn’t it?”

“Oh, so you’ve found that one,” Sarah replied.  “I guess it is odd, if you compare it to all of the other flowers.  Maybe they’re the weird ones, and this one is normal.” She laughed.

“What color is it?” Marley inquired, her voice already weighed with near exasperation.  “Since I got here, I’ve thought of every color I’ve seen and learned.  I can’t even link it to a nearby color, like I can with others.”

“Maybe it’s just a new color,” her friend answered simply.

“A new color?” asked Marley, her eyes betraying her astonishment.  “We’ve discovered all of the colors already.  Haven’t you seen that color wheel thingy with every possible color?”

“Yes, I have, but I wouldn’t say that it has every possible color, just every color that we know of.”

Marley sighed.  “Maybe, but after years of the world being exposed to color, you’d think that a color like this would be on the color wheel.  Sarah, this flower…it just doesn’t fit.  It’s annoying me.”

“Why can’t you accept it as a new color?”

“Because that just isn’t logical, Sarah,” she pressed, twirling the flower.  “Look at all of these other flowers you have here.  I can name all of them, and I know every color, even if the color is a bit off.  But this one…stood out.  I don’t know what color it is.  I don’t even know what type of flower it is!” She took the blossom from Sarah’s face and looked closely at it again.  “You planted all of the flowers here.  Where did you get this one from?”

Sarah shook her head.  “No, I planted all of the flowers around you, but the one that you’re holding, I didn’t plant that one.  It was already here when I began to grow flowers, though I didn’t even notice it until all of the others were grown already.”

Marley looked at Sarah momentarily, clearly confused.  “Are you sure you didn’t plant it?”

“Yes.”

“Well, someone had to plant it.  Flowers don’t grow from nothing.”

Sarah’s eyes wandered over the assorted flowers within the fenced area.  “Yeah, that one is unique.  There is something extremely beautiful about it.  I mean, all of the flowers here have their own beauty, but that one seems superior.”

“That was my first thought,” Marley replied, bitterness carried on the notes of her voice.  “But it’s getting so frustrating, I’m starting to think it less beautiful with every passing minute.”

“Something has to make sense to be beautiful, then?” asked Sarah.

Marley did not avert her gaze from the enigmatic specimen in her hands.  “It was a joke.”  She was silent for a few moments.  “I’m sorry I’m making such a big deal about this, but this is really bothering me.  I mean, Sarah, look at where we live.  Nothing new or exciting ever comes from this place.  We know everything there is to know; every animal, plant, mountain range, insect, and flower has been catalogued.  But this flower comes along, and it’s completely evading all logic that I have.”  She took the figure from her view and pointed to the house.  “That’s a grey house.  We both know it’s a grey house, because for thousands of years everyday people have seen the color, named it, and become familiar with it.”  She pointed to a tree.  “The leaves on that tree are green.  A preschooler would know that; it’s in our consciousness.  Any adequately schooled person, no matter his background, will name the color of those leaves in his own language.  But this thing is different.  It’s not colorless, because it would be invisible.  But it’s not any of the colors that you see around us, either.  Not even a slight shade of a color we know.”

Sarah nodded.  “As I said, it’s a new color, Marley.”

“I disagree, because someone else would have noticed it and catalogued it by now.”

“Maybe it has been catalogued, and not many people paid attention,” Sarah proffered.

Marley’s face contorted with doubt.  “If it had been catalogued, the color would be common knowledge, and we would both be able to identify it.  That’s not the case.” She stared blankly down the road that disappeared into the forest.  “This is just insulting.  I probably shouldn’t even bother trying to figure it out.”

“Marley, I love you, but maybe this is just something that can’t easily be understood.  Maybe you should just take it for what it is: something new, something different from what you’re used to.  If you start looking at it through the scope of what you already know, you’re probably going to stop noticing its beauty and see it as something ugly, something contrary to nature.”

“I can’t do that, Sarah,” her friend replied.  When Sarah’s shoulders fell back in resignation she asked, “What, you want me to treat such blind acceptance as gospel? Now I love you, too, but I could never agree that it’s a new color.  And I’ve told you why.  Walk from land to land, and you’ll see the blues, reds, blacks, whites, purples, and greens that you’re familiar with.  Now where will this color show up?” She lifted the flower back into view.  “It won’t show up anywhere.  And the flower itself? It doesn’t look like anything you’ll ever find growing in any land.  I don’t know what this is, Sarah, but I don’t think it’s a flower.”

She approached her vehicle, which was parked some ways down the road, beside Sarah’s. With more force than was necessary, she cast the mysterious blossom down the road the moment she reached the edge of the flowerbed.  Sarah looked at her, her eyes filled with pity; then she looked at the flower, a strange but infinitely gorgeous creature, abandoned but not shed of its glory, power, and diversity.  She did not pick it up, for it was not hers to give or take; she had picked one of her own in the same flowerbed, with the same features, years ago.  This one in particular was Marley’s flower, and would remain, on that seldom-traveled road, Marley’s flower for as long as Marley would return.  Storms and pestilent rains had often drowned the bed of flowers in which that mysterious blossom had nestled, but when the clouds had parted and Sarah noted the deaths of the latest batch of flowers, Marley’s flower had remained unchanged.  Sarah left the fence and walked toward her friend, her eyes clothed with imploration.

“Won’t you come inside for a little while, before you go?” she asked innocently.

“No,” said Marley, “I’m sorry, but I really need to get back to my house.  I wish we could hang out longer, but I just have some things to do.  It was nice hanging out with you, though.”

“Yeah, same here, Marley.  But what about your dream? Don’t you think it’s important?”

As Marley opened the door to her car, she looked at her friend and shrugged.  “I don’t know.  Nothing really worth thinking about, I guess.  It was immature of me, to be bothered by something so ridiculous.  The mind can do strange things to a person.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Sarah agreed.  “And if it keeps bothering you?”

“I’ll just have to ignore it,” she answered, taking one last look at the abandoned flower on the ground.  “Have a good day, Sarah.”

“I will, Marley.”

Sarah sighed, turned away, and ascended some stone steps that escalated to the smooth door of the house her father had built.  She entered silently, and Marley watched with a strange sense of remorse as the door closed securely behind her.  Surprised by the abrupt emotion that welled from her heart, she calmed herself by saying, “It was just a dream, Marley, and nothing more.” And with those words, she got into her car and charged over the blossom.  She then hastened down the road lined with flowers, down onto the broad road that twisted down the mountain, down into the city.