By: Laura Somma EEB2
In the balcony of an anonymous flat, a pot of agapanthuses was installed one beautiful spring evening.
The pot itself was a terracotta brown, nothing special, and that’s why the plant appreciated it. But the plant appreciated it even more because it was big, and tall, and placed near the railing: one of the sunniest parts of the balcony. And apart from being sunny, the plant had an excellent view of the street, and the square beyond it.
In fact, the plant witnessed many things thanks to this propitious and strategic positioning, not many of which it didn’t appreciate duly. But, one late August night, the strangest thing happened.
The plant felt a bit itchy, because of the recent incursion of ants, who had made a nest nearby (and had picked the balcony as a favourite hunting spot). They were crawling all over its leaves, a most irritating occurrence.
Said night, down in the street, the plant saw a human dressed in dark clothes, walking about with three tires, and a lubricant container placed in a shopping cart. Nothing special, so far. The plant had seen many such inexplicable behaviours, and knew they were part of human nature.
The human stepped into one of the buildings directly in front of the plant, who did not appreciate the disappearance of potential entertainment.
Next thing, the plant saw an eerie glow coming from one of the windows. The glow was a warmer colour than the yellow lights that humans usually used.
Fire. The beast at humans’ feet, that couldn’t help but bite the hand that fed it unwittingly.
That was one of the last things the plant saw that night. It knew that soon it would be its turn to burn and be consumed mercilessly, mindlessly, pointlessly. Its will to survive was useless here.
***
Despite its pessimistic certainty, the plant was still alive the next day. But it couldn’t know that it was already so, because very little sunlight could reach it. And yet, this was enough to keep it going until it was free of the debris…
When it looked back on the incident, the plant wondered whether this was merely a lucky happenstance. And yet it had to be, because why would Destiny bother itself for such an insignificant being as it?
Not even humans did.
