Chapter 3.31 The Lotus Blossom
--Somewhere south of the equator--
“Do you see this beautiful flower? Can you see how each petal is perfect, unbroken and adds to the beauty of it all?”
The little girl looked up at the large white flower cradled in her grandmother’s hands with wonder.
“Yes, grandma.”
Her grandmother had ordered it specially two days ago from the flower stall, telling her it would be hers when they returned to the family’s small run-down apartment. All afternoon she had wanted to ask for the flower, but she had been good and waited patiently all the way home.
“Take the flower in your hands.”
She reached out and carefully cradled the perfect white form in her cupped hands, feeling the cool waxy touch of the blossom against her palms as the sweet scent wafted up to her nose.
“Thank you! It’s beautiful, grandma...”
Her grandmothers smile seemed to fade as she spoke again.
“Now, crush it with your hands.”
The child looked up at her in shock.
“Go ahead, just curl your fingers and crumple it.”
Reluctantly she did so, feeling the small pops and crunches as the flower collapsed in her grip. Grandma knew what she was doing...
“Now open your hands again...”
The little girl stared down at the ruined flower in her hands, a look of concern on her face for the first time.
“Now, can you make the flower perfect again? Can you fix it?”
She pulled at the broken petals in concern, doing nothing to improve matters, and reached out to her friends to ask them for advice, her eyes shining just a little as she did so.
Down the hall a young girl and a mother before her time heard the innocent question and felt tears prick her eyes as they shone. A nurse at work in the city hospital felt her eyes flash and her stomach sink as she recognized the query, one she had seen go wrong far too often. The query spread, hundreds hearing the little girl’s call as she asked the innocent question ‘Can I fix the flower?’ unaware of what was to follow.
Those who heard knew what came next.
The instruction that she was not a person, but a thing, an object to valued only for her ‘womanhood’ or lack thereof. That no man would ever love her if she had sex before marriage, because just like the flower in her hand she would worthless, a crumpled worn out thing to be discarded. Men were people, men could do as they liked, but women, little girls like you? They must preserve themselves until such time as a person deems them worthy of purchase and wedding.
Only a fraction of a second had passed as all this thought took place between people scattered across a continent. The little girl did not feel the spike of anger, of nausea at what was happening. She did not feel their resolve harden as a consensus was reached.
No.
Not again.
Not today!
Contact was made with a plant biologist and she assented to help. One of the visiting earth ponies cringed and offered guidance. Those who knew the housing complex remembered a sludge filled drainage pond behind the apartment complex that was always covered in a sheen of green algae. Everyone agreed to lend a little of their strength and magic to the plan.
And several seconds after she reached out, a calm sure voice, the voice of all who had heard her call spoke back to the little girl.
‘Yes, you can make it whole again. Go to the pond behind your apartment.’
With a growing smile the little girl ran for the door of the family apartment, calling out to her grandmother,
“Yes! Yes I can fix it! Come on, grandma, come on!”
The grandmother stared after the running girl in confusion, her mouth hanging open. This was a hard lecture that she hated to give, but a long life had taught her the harsh ways of the world, and as much as it hurt, the sooner it was done, the sooner it was over. Her granddaughter was better served to learn this lesson from a loving grandma than from a harsh world outside her door.
A door she had just vanished though with a beckoning wave.
“Hey, where are you going? Come back here!”
When she reached the door to the shared hallway the door to the stairs at the end of the hall was already swinging shut behind the rapid patter of small shoes.
“Come on, grandma! The pond! The pond by the fence!”
Grumbling, she made her way to the elevator and rode it down to the ground floor hoping she wasn’t going to chase too far. Ten years ago she could have run after the little girl, but now?
At the ground floor she walked down the dim access hallway to the back of the building where the pond and the dumpsters sat. Several half dressed children ran past her down the hallway laughing and shouting as they played. She stubbed her toe on some bit of debris hidden in the shadows and stumbled for a moment before someone caught her and steadied her balance.
“Do not be too hard on her.” A warm elderly voice said close to her ear as some unseen woman helped her to her feet. The grandmother turned to give this meddler a piece of her mind, but found no one at her ear. A glance down showed a small boy perhaps five years old looking up at her, his eyes glowing brightly in the darkness and illuminating the dark hallway in a dim white light.
“The old ways served us well, but they are not needed anymore.” The voice of the old woman spoke out of the child’s mouth as he looked up at her. “Go. See the gift your granddaughter has made for you.”
The glow faded and the child grinned, turning and running off after his friends and leaving the grandmother leaning against the wall of the hallway, her heart racing in her chest. With considerable effort she shook her head in bewilderment and pressed on toward the back of the building, opening the doors out onto the grimy alleyway in the fading light of the setting sun.
Her granddaughter sat in the center of the filthy pond up to her chest in the slimy water, her eyes shut in concentration as she cradled the white blossom in her hands. Where it touched the water, a dim glow seemed to flowed out beneath the surface, spreading as she watched and slowly the flower began to unfold itself. Large green leaves appeared, spreading across the surface of the pond as the lotus grew and spread, the film of algae being swallowed up by the expanding greenery. As the leaves reached the edges of the pond thick stalks rose slowly from the water, swelled, and blossomed forth into dozens of perfect white lotus flowers as her granddaughter slowly opened her white glowing eyes and smiled up at her beloved grandmother.
“Look, grandma! I fixed it!”