Mistress of petals

“The assignment was to write a piece using the magical realism narrative mode.”

The gates leading to the castle’s biggest room looked very scary. They seemed to swallow the light and heat and chew them like bubble gum. Every now and then I heard a roar from inside and cold dark air came blowing to where I was standing. Behind me stood my princess. She looked scared too. Her prince was inside the castle and she wanted to rescue him.

I adored and served my princess for as long as I can remember and as always, I was ahead of her, doing my best to protect her. I only had flowers with me. Lots and lots of pretty coloured flowers. My queen and our most loyal servant told me it was time. I had to go inside. I swallowed my fear and entered the dark room. My skin felt the evil before I could see it. The butterflies in my stomach froze instantly. It was completely dark for a while. Loud music started playing but it was unlike anything I ever heard on the radio.

The moment I entered the room the flowers I had in my hands began to whither and fall to the ground left and right. They were grey and shriveled and it made me feel sad. I tried lifting my eyes once but found a bunch of heads with no bodies, sitting on top of each other, with sunken cavities in their skulls. I was terrified and looked back at my feet. There were people all around. I was aware that they were staring at me and I sensed how they wondered if I would be capable of making it till the end.

Maybe it was because of my tiny frightened steps, maybe because of the loud slow music bouncing off the walls or the strong smell of incense, but the trip to the front of the room took forever. I stopped in front of the big throne where the tall evil man was standing. I knew from our previous try yesterday morning that at this point I had to go away and leave her alone. I sat on the one seat available, on the left side, the closest to the aisle and saw my princess leaving our servant behind and going to the evil man, next to her beloved.

I felt God’s soft touch around my shoulders, the all familiar kiss on the head and the feminine voice whispering in my ear:

‘Isn’t she extraordinary?’ the voice said.

I tried to look at her but I was incapable. My eyes ran onto the face of the angry man dressed in a black robe and wearing way too much jewelry to be decent. He had a big beard that hid away any sign of what he was thinking. His eyes were dark and scary. He wore a funny hat too. What made him really frightening was his tiny red tongue. Every now and then he would stick it out quickly, left and right, most probably to take out the hair from his mouth. I didn’t understand a single word coming out of his mouth. He was mostly singing. He had a very bad voice and was reciting in a strange language. He had no microphone and had to shout so everyone could hear him.

My princess was looking down. Away from her loved one. She couldn’t hold his hand like she did every time when they were together. She couldn’t fall into his arms like she did when she was not feeling well. I felt despair conquering me. Why did she have to go through this cruel ritual to prove her love? I knew she loved him and I knew he loved her.

I turned my face down and noticed my petals, lying on the ground between the two rows of people. I felt sad. They were alive only a minute ago and now they were grey, trampled by feet and dead. The big tear that was in my eye from the moment I entered the castle, fell to my cheeks and glided to the tip of my chin where it dropped at my feet on a rose petal. A wave rippled over the dead leaf and flowed from one side to the other, white to red, red to white, eating out the grey.

I chuckled. It was magical. I pushed my little shoe towards it, trying to move it to see if I was not imagining the change. The petal flew away before I could reach it. It touched another petal and it too became rosy and white and came to life. I imagined what would happen if I could make them touch each other and slowly, they started to lift off the ground and fly away, caressing the other petals in their way, lifting them in the air alive and beautiful.

I heard the voice again hugging me and whispering from above ‘You are the mistress of the petals’ and it made me realise they were indeed listening to my thoughts even before I knew what it was I was thinking. I suddenly remembered my princess and the evil man and turned their way. He was making her kiss an old dusty book and doing that disgusting thing with his mouth again. I had to do something to protect them. And then, before my eyes, a few petals took off towards my princess and one by one, circled her and her prince. I started smiling and soon more and more petals joined them, flying around them. It was beautiful. They were keeping them safe. They lifted their faces off the ground and started smiling. The sweet prince lifted his princess’s veil, took her in his arms and kissed her.

Everyone in the castle stood up and started clapping, filling the room with smiles and cheers. It lifted their kiss into the air. The spiraling petals took the kiss and carried it to the ceiling, illuminating the beautiful paintings hidden by the darkness, revealing naked baby angels playing around their mother, singing and dancing. The robbed man behind my princess looked up towards the flying petals and raised his hands in adoration, his face transformed by the miracle. Behind the beard was now a laughing man, two rows of white teeth so wide apart I was afraid they would come off. My princess turned around and rushed towards me. I couldn’t help myself anymore. I ran and threw myself in her arms. She lifted me up and spun me three times in the air like she always used to do when she was in a good mood and kissed me for a whole minute all over my face.

‘You did great with the flowers, little sis! You did great!’