Dandelion

A dandelion is saved from the summer.

   The sun beats down on a withered glade. The air is hot and hazy as though a fire burned from somewhere nearby. The ground is dry and cracked. Dead grass is scattered in tufts ignored by even the heartiest of  herbivores. The glade is quiet and appears lifeless except for a single dot of yellow surrounded by a small oasis of green.  As I approach I hear someone quietly weeping and I see the dot of yellow gently shake. I move closer and the dot of yellow resolves itself into a dandelion. It is small and hardy. Its leaves withered and yellow at the edges like old lace. Its head is bent and  shaking slightly. I kneel to look closer and the  dandelion's head snaps up in surprise. Her eyes are large and amber colored, brightly lit as though the sun were passing through them. The silence stretches between us. Insects buzz around indifferent to our standoff while a faint rustling can be heard in the trees. “Why are you crying, dandelion?”
   The dandelion's eyes grow wider, her leaves slack in terror before sobs take her over once more. “Come now, there's no need to cry. Tell me what is wrong.”
   The flower throws its leaves up in despair and exasperation.“No need to cry?” She screams in a voice so faint that the gentle brushing of leaves in the wind was like static on a poorly tuned radio over her voice. “The ground is dead! Autumn will come and my children will have no place to take root.”   She looks at me again with eyes like honey while enormous yellow tinged tears leak down the petals of her face.
   “I think I have an answer to your plight, mother dandelion.”  But she ignores me and stares into her leaves as if they might hold an answer for her sorrow. I return later in the evening with an old coffee can and a gardening spade. The sun is setting over the trees and the haze has lit up in the brilliance of a burning sunset. A deep crimson light painted in oranges and browns colors the glade as if the sun were determined to finish off the last life here with the only fire it could throw between itself and the earth.
   I find the dandelion again. She is still with eyes wide staring into the  fire of the setting sun.  “I have come back with my answer, mother dandelion. I will save you from the summer. You will come and live with me in my garden.”  She slowly turns her head towards me, eyes still lingering on the sun. Her sorrow is painted like blood upon her petals. The sun setting in her face. “Why do you care human? I am a weed, in one summer I will fill your garden with my children.”
   "It is because I am human that I care." And with that I pushed the spade into the dusty earth and took the dandelion home. The dandelion put up little protest. The setting sun had caused her petals to close. Her eyes drooping the last thing she saw was the darkened glade diminishing with the sunset.

   I planted the dandelion in my garden and went to sleep that night peaceful. When I awoke I went to greet the dandelion but she did not open up. I called her but there was no answer. I watered her but went ignored. Many days passed and she would not open. I feared that she may have died and worried that I had done the wrong thing till the morning of the summer equinox. The day Autumn starts I found the mother dandelion crying once more. Her head was full, a white puff of seeds ready to drift away with the wind. “Why do you cry now, Mother Dandelion?” I asked. “Because there is hope.” She replied, “As long as you are here there will always be hope.”
   A breeze ruffled her leaves and she shook her head. Her main of white disengaged and became a cloud of feather light down drifting to land amongst the potted plants and raised beds. The dandelion sighed and looked at peace. A mothers smile turning the corners of her mouth. In spring my garden will bloom again and be full of bright yellow dots of hope.

Author's Note

I'm open to anything to you have to say.

Reviews

[Jenny Nelson]

It's a very clever idea. A wonderful piece about the requirements of humanity with a lovely message of hope. I enjoyed reading it, and it was well done.
Nice!

[A-Lovely-Anxiety]

Wow!! Nice flow, even tone, innocent imagination!! I loved it. Please continue writing, I'd love to read something else!!