The lost orchid
By Drishika Shah
I turned around and saw a spooky shadow and it vanished. A cold shiver ran down my spine. There was thunder and tremendous lightning. At first, I thought that someone was playing a juvenile prank on me as I suffered from phasmophobia but then I started to realize it was all real. I started to walk towards the place I had seen the shadow. I felt a very atypical feeling as though someone was stalking me. I told myself, ‘There are no ghosts or repulsive creatures in this world’. I couldn’t walk an inch. I sat down, reclining my head on Aunt Belinda’s tombstone. Dora, my pet dog, lay down with me, touching my cheek.
Suddenly, I heard someone calling out my name. To my utter relief and amazement, I saw my mom standing there. I rushed to her, clasped her arms, and held her tight. Mom wasn’t responding, her palms were frozen. I looked up to her face and oh horror!! There were cotton balls stuffed in her nostrils. I fell back with a thud. For a moment, I had forgotten that my mom and Aunt Belinda were identical twins. The white orchid flowers I had placed at my Aunt’s tomb swayed brightly and sprightly on Aunt Belinda’s hair. Aunt Belinda murmured in a hiss-like whisper, “Didn’t you know I was the last white orchid, endangered and facing extinction?” I didn’t understand a thing. “See you soon in the garden of white orchids”, said Aunt Belinda with a smile as she faded away into fumes. The fumes seemed to beckon me. Something fell on my feet. It was the white orchid flower.
* * * * *
When I opened my eyes I found my mom and dad looking at me with sleep-deprived and anxiety-stricken eyes. I gathered from them that I had been unconscious for a week. Dora had guided my dad to me on that fated night. I tried to collect my thoughts. The word “endangered” reverberated in my mind. Suddenly, it all made sense. Aunt Belinda had been perturbed ever since the Australian government declared the white orchid flowers belonging to the species achlorophyllous saprophytic as “endangered and facing extinction” in 2016. Like this peculiar species of white orchid flowers, my aunt too was never exposed to sunlight or to the world. She was a complete recluse who shunned the world of colors and lights. Her only love in life was the White Orchid. A day before her death, she had told me that our white orchid bloomed for the last time. I fell into an eternal sleep where I met Aunt Belinda in a garden of white orchids.
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Drishika Shah is 13 years old and is in 7th grade. She is from Madhya Pradesh and loves writing poetry, reading books and doing Kathak.
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