Short Stories

A Bouquet of Words

     Languages. There are roughly about over 6,000 spoken languages in this world. Think about the amount of words that is. Now think about the words that don't have a meaning, or a translation for in your own language. This is what Morgiana Li has come to realize. She was never "good" with words, but "good enough" to get by in her life. She was never too fascinated with words, she only thought of them as a means of communication. As long as she understood what other people were saying to her, and as long as they understood her back, that's all she needed. At least, that's what she thought before she started having this little problem.

     Monday came by fast, and Morgiana went to school as usual. She walked into her club room for her astronomy club. She had arrived early, and decided to pull out a notebook she recently bought. Her school was going to have an open house soon, and all of the clubs in the school were encouraged to partake. Besides just liking stars and space in general, Morgiana had a little trouble coming up with ideas. A couple of minutes passed, and soon enough the rest of the club members showed up, one by one.

     The first one to show up was Dana James, a first year like Morgina. Next was Jared Lane, and Jean Thompson. Jared, was a third year and was also part of the baseball team. Sometimes he didn't show up, but he always made the effort to show up once in awhile. Jean was a second year student, Morgiana didn't know too much about him, but she liked him, and liked being around him. It was kind of obvious that she liked him. The last one to show up was Jenny Schwartz. They were both third years who were going to graduate at the end of this year. Phillip was nice and generous, and Morgiana was glad that he was the club president. Jenny, on the other hand seemed to have it out for Morgiana.

     Dana sat down beside Morgiana, and asked how she was doing, Morgiana replied that she was fine, and then asked her, "Have you come up with any ideas for the open house yet?" Dana hummed as she thought to herself, "I was thinking we could talk about Sabaism." the other four members, who were listening in on the conversation, looked over to her strangely.

     "Sabaism?" Jenny asked, "What is that? Is that even a real thing?"

     "As a matter of fact it is." Dana replied flatly. Both Morgiana and Dana came to a mutual agreement that they both did not like Jenny very much. Dana, being the more bold one of the two, was actually brave enough to talk back to her.

     "Well I've never heard of it, so it can't be real." Jenny mocked, she always acted as if she knew everything. Despite how 'snobby' and rude she acted, she was never called out by the professors or anyone that was around her. Because she was pretty, and came from a good family; everyone treated her well. She had that halo effect around her.

     "Well then maybe it's about time for you open up your world a little more." The two started to throw words at each other rapidly, it was like watching an intense game of ping pong. Morgiana looked over to Jared, who was now standing next to her seat. She asked him, "Do you know what Sabaism is?"

     "Yeah, I just searched it up on my phone." Jared leaned in close to Morgina, and she noticed that he smelt a little bit like lemon. "Apparently it's the worship of the sun, moon, and stars, and the spirits in them. I've never heard about it, but it sounds kinda cool." Morgiana nodded, now understanding what the word meant. Jared, who felt a tinge of happiness in his chest, continued talking. "Hey, do you know what the word soupbone means?" Morgiana shook her head 'no', and so he answered, "It's baseball slang for a pitcher's throwing arm." Jared always looked excited whenever he was talking about baseball. Morgiana didn't know much about the sport in the first place; and so she just nodded again before looking over to Jean, who was helping Phillip unboxing some textbooks. Unknowingly to Morgiana, Jenny noticed this, and smirked mischievously to herself. She stood up from her seat and stood uncomfortably close to the second year student. Jean's face turned a little pink at this, and he cleared his throat, turning away from Jenny. Jenny smiled in satisfaction, and glanced over to Morgiana, who, of course, was watching the entire time.

     Inside her chest, Morgiana felt something. She didn't know what, but it hurt. It pinched; it clenched; it stabbed; it throbbed. It hurt.

     She felt an overwhelming emotion of sadness deep within her. Morgiana couldn't think of a word to describe this feeling. Jealousy? Envy? Maybe, but Morgiana didn't think so. She didn't think that there was even a word to describe this... Indescribable feeling. But there is such a word that could help her describe this: saudade. A word from the Portuguese language that's used to describe a deep emotional feeling of melancholy, or the longing for someone, or something that is absent. Morgiana didn't know it yet, but what she felt was something along the lines of jealousy, envy, and saudade, but it was more than that; possibly even stronger than that. Then, instantaneously, she started to cough violently. The other club members, aside from Jenny, looked over to Morgiana with concern. Before any of them could ask if she was alright, Morgiana made the 'T' sign with her hands before running out of the club room.

     Morgiana ran into the washroom. She was thankful that no one else was there, and that no one would hear her coughing. She collapsed to her knees in one of the toilet stalls, and she suddenly felt that all too familiar feeling, the one where you were about to throw up, crawl up from the inside of her neck. It scratched and it burned; and Morgiana braced herself, as she held her hair back. She held her knees together, closed her eyes, and prepared herself for the vomit that was about to spew from her mouth.

     But what she was not prepared for, was the feeling of something soft brush past her lips; the feeling of something delicate stick to the insides of her mouth and tongue; and the almost inaudible 'plopping' sound of something making contact with the toilet water. Morgiana opened her eyes, and looked into the toilet bowl.

     Instead of seeing a disgusting greenish-brown colour of puke, she saw flower petals. Morgiana had thrown up flower petals. Scattered flower petals, that were of a vibrant yellow colour, had fallen from Morgiana's mouth.
Morgiana knew for a fact that she had never eaten any flowers, in the past hour, or ever in her life. She also knew that what had just happened was not normal. Morgiana wiped her mouth, not that there was anything to wipe away. Feeling gross and a little creeped out, Morgiana did her best to clean up the flower petals, and flushed them down the toilet. After doing so, and washing her hands with some water, Morgiana nervously walked back to her club room. She gathered her things, told the other club members that she wasn't feeling well, and called it a day before heading home.

     Ever since she had coughed up the yellow flower petals, Morgiana had been avoiding going to her club. She was getting chest pains, and she couldn't bare to look at Jenny, or Jean. Once she left school that day and went home, Morgiana wasted no time on going onto her computer to search up what had just happened. Most of the results didn't help her, but after some digging, Morgiana came across a fake illness that perfectly explained the phenomenon that happened to her: A fictional illness where the patient coughs up flower petals when they suffer from a one-sided love. In order to recover, their love must be returned. The patient can die from the illness by the flower petals blocked their airways, and if the love is never returned. Although Morgiana was pretty sure she wasn't in love with anyone, (oh she definitely was) she decided to ask a doctor about her predicament.

     And so, this was where Morgiana currently was. Sitting on a stiff brown chair, in a square brown room, and with a brown desk in front of her. As she waited nervously for the doctor to arrive, she let her eyes wander from wall to wall. On one of them, were several photographs of the previous doctors that worked in the small clinic. The photographs must have been hung for years, Morgiana thinks to herself, the thick layer of dust on the glass is more than enough evidence. With the sudden sound of the door being opened from behind her, Morgiana sat up straight in her seat.

     "Sorry for the wait." A young male voice apologized. As he walked around to the other side of the the desk to sit down, Morgiana noted that he looked even younger than his voice led on. Then, as if he read her mind, he said, "Oh, don't worry, I only look a lot younger than I actually am." He then held out his hand for Morgiana, "I'm Dr.August, and you are?"

     "Morgiana Li." She replied,

     "What a lovely name," Dr.August complimented, "now, what seems to be the problem?" Morgiana took a moment to herself, remembering everything that happened. She started to think about the chest pains that she was recently having, but decided to start off with the illness she read about online. She knew it was a fake illness, but the fact that it actually happened to her was surreal. She took in a short breath, and asked in a small voice.

     "Have you heard of the Hanahaki disease?"