The Flower

One day, a woman was watering her plants. The garden appeared normal, until the flowers started to shake. She could also see the dirt forming what looked like a whirlpool. When she looked at the strange whirlpool, she noticed something coming out of it. It looked like a strange monster made out of plants. The monster let out a loud roar, and then all went black.

When she opened her eyes again she started to look around. Everything was blurry at first and she felt a bit groggy. After a couple of minutes she started to get used to the new environment and see things clearly. There were strange looking plants of all shapes, sizes and colors. She saw people in a distance, some unknown and some familiar faces. The air smelt like the most fantastic flowers she could imagine, and the wind was warm and welcoming.

She had no idea where she was but somehow that didn't matter. It felt safe and she had a strange sensation… of… freedom. It was a long time since she had experienced these feelings. Usually she felt lonely and kind of bored, almost as she had been trapped in an endless loop of gardening, sleeping in the hammock and having afternoon tea, with her cat as her only company. It was not unpleasant in any way. Who could really complain on such a peaceful life? But it wasn't really much of a life either, and every time she built up courage to get out of her house, she seemed to end up back in the garden hammock again.

Now she was in a different kind of garden. It was nothing like she had ever seen before. Apart from the amazing flowers and trees, she could also see all kinds of animals, wandering around freely. There were beautiful and strange looking sculptures, weird buildings and machines, butterflies big as birds and elephants in the size of small dogs.

At the far end of her view, there was a road that seemed to lead through endless fields. She felt a strong need to head in that direction and started walking. But something didn't feel right. Something was… missing.

She turned around and saw a shimmering, blue flower that pulsated with a bright glow, like a steady heartbeat. She was immidiately drawn to it and stared into it's center. All of a sudden an image appeared in the flower, as clear as real life. She saw people standing around a hospital bed, crying and comforting each other. In a split second it all came back to her, the accident, the hospital, doctors and nurses. The machines humming and her family crying.

The people around the bed was her husband, her two children and her five grandchildren. The body in the bed was hers but she was no longer there.

She felt sad and happy at the same time. Sad for her family. It hurt to see them cry. Happy to finally being set free. Her time stuck in a hospital bed was over and she could move on. A tear fell down her cheek and landed in the shimmering flower. She whispered "Good bye my sweet angels. Everything will be ok. We will meet again some day."

For a second her husband and the youngest of the children turned around, as if they had heard her. They somehow looked straight at her, before looking at eachother, grabbing on to eachothers hands and turning around again.

She started walking towards the road again, happy, free and adventurous.