Turtle Channel!!!

It was now nearly 3 in the afternoon. The young girl had just rested for 20 minutes. ‘I will try again’, she thought, ‘and if I fail, I will return with the orchid’. She took the deepest breath she could possibly take and dove, straight as a bullet, into the center of the lake. As her eyes fixed on the flower at the bottom, she began kicking her legs fiercely, propelling her body towards the plant. Her lungs began to hurt, but she had just only passed the halfway mark. She pushed further and her lungs hurt even more. ‘Just a little bit more, just a little bit more’ she told herself repeatedly.

‘Just a little bit more…’ as her hand reached out for the flower. She was now very dizzy, and her lungs felt as though they were on fire. Her chest felt like it was exploding!

‘Just a little…..’ and she passed out. Her body slowly floated to the surface.

Lucky for her, she was faced up when she reached the surface. She had floated there for almost an hour before she regained consciousness.

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed, “I have to get back to the village!”

She swam to the bank of the waterfall. She climbed up the bank and instantly remembered the flower at the bottom of the lake. Feeling sad that she had failed, she looked back sadly at the lake.

At the other end of the lake, a red flower floated. It wasn’t…..it was…IT WAS the flower! She had succeeded in pulling the flower up! Even though she had passed out and almost drowned in the process she did manage to get the flower in the end!!! Shaking with excitement, the young girl dove back into the lake and swam unsteadily towards the flower. When she finally reached the flower, she took a long look at it. It was indeed red, with light spots of rosy pink. It was a large flower, almost as large as her arm’s length and smelt as sweet as the first day of spring. What a beauty!

She swam back to her bag and replaced the orchid with the new flower. She was so happy that she ran all the way back to her village! All the way back, she could not stop envisioning the villagers’ expressions when they saw her flower. She started to wonder which of the princes would marry her. She would be a princess! Would her dress be satin? Would it be silk? And she would carry a beautiful scepter made of gold, diamonds and gems! Her life would never be empty again!!

She was almost at her village when she felt the urge to look at her flower again. When she opened her bag, her eyes became very large and her jaw dropped. The beautiful flower was no longer red! Once bright red petals were now brown, and the sweet smell it emitted was now the smell of rotten eggs! What had happened?

Minutes passed by as the sun began to set. The young girl just sat staring at the once-beautiful flower. She had already thrown away the orchid. The beautiful flower from the bottom of the lake was dead. She was now flowerless. Even if she were to find another flower from just anywhere, she would not make it back to the village in time. The rancid smell of the flower filled the air. It was hard for her to imagine how a sweet smell could turn into something so awful in just moments after its death. Although it was the most beautiful flower when it was alive, it was certainly one of the ugliest when dead. And it died so easily too!

She slowly got to her feet and picked up her empty bag. Dejected, she slowly made her way back to the village and acceptance of her future life in the convent and the Sisterhood began slowly seeping into her heart.

(To be continued…)