Childhood brought me the most wonderful memories that I would always cherish. The time I spent every summer to pay my grandmother a visit would probably be set on a pedestal in the treasury of my memory.
I remember leaping through the car door as soon as it halts in front a huge ancestral house I grew to love.
If I could just reverse the flow of the sand, I would relive how I gaped my mouth as I surveyed the pillars of stained concrete, cracked window pane, and vines creeping the bare walls of an old abode. However, it was not the sight nor the feeling of lightness that captivated me, it was the sudden whiff of a rosy scent that the passing wind send through my nostrils.
A scent like no other.
Like a sudden jolt to heaven just to be left in the clouds.
Overwhelming, but at the same time a calm lullaby I could never sing.
Up until now, I cannot fathom how an olfaction could touch a person so much.
After waking up from my reverie, it was a natural instinct to pursue where such thing is emanating. Only a couple of steps is what it takes to pass a narrow corner to the hidden yard.
And there I saw a cloak of gray bundle that seems to be my grandmother, I halt my steps as I take in the timeless beauty of her as she stare motionless at the vast field of breathtaking white flowers blushed with pink.
"Magnificent, right?" she uttered the words so carefully while I thread lightly towards her direction.
"It is a charmer, the land must be fertile for it to spread this wide." I told her as I sat beside her.
"Would you believe me if I tell you that this marvelous sight before you is a grave?" My head made a sudden turn as I look at her with disbelief.
"You're kidding me,"
"I'm too old for jokes,"
"Well, whoever plant this must have showered it with so much love for it to be this lovely," she smiled while looking aimlessly as a response to what I said.
"Yes, his love must have been so overwhelming that the flowers took it and grow," and the she looked at me with such sadness I have never seen before "but I hope your grave would never grow flowers this beautiful."
------
Two decades had past and I finally understood what she meant that day.
My tears had already diluted the picture of two lovers captured staring at each others eyes.
I staggered aimlessly in the field of white and pink while holding my chest as I cough up the very same flowers I used to admire.
I laid on the heap of flowers stained with the red liquid my lips cannot hide.
Eyes blurring.
Lungs suffocating.
Heart aching.
Mind wondering, how something so beautiful... could symbolize the tragic death of a man who just love someone...
And at last I coughed the last petal of love... where the flowers bloom... and my heart beats painfully...in love.
+++++++
Note: As you have noticed (or if not), this is based on a fictional disease called Hananaki Disease. The name literally translates to flower+vomitting(or throwing up), this occurs when someone(do not happen to everyone) is in a one-sided love, a flower would grow on the lungs therefore causing them to vomit or cough it. It could only be cured when the one they love reciprocate their feelings, if not the flower would continually grow until it blocks the airway leading to death.
I'll leave into your imagination who's the first Hananaki deceased had died and created that field and who that person is to the character's grandmother. Peace out.
Ps. No pic coz I can't find pics, maybe I'll draw it someday.
