Uma's dreams - prose

As Tomas stood in front of the oak tree, its blooming branches surrounding the both of them, Uma was looking at the flowers beneath her chair. How strange it is for a regular wooden red kitchen chair to be in the midst of a valley of flowers. Faint pink primroses, elegant violet bluebells, and luminous little daffodils chased each other. Then, Uma glanced ahead of her and Tomas where crocuses and daisies were scattered beneath the oak branches that were kneeling from their own weight. Her mind was fixated, carefully observing the extraordinary abundance of flowers (she had never seen anything quite like it), that Tomas’ hoarse voice felt alien and unwelcome in the peaceful silence of the afternoon. “Bees are such tragic creatures.” Uma, perplexed, stared at Tomas’ back. She was too focused on the glorious flowers around her, that she almost forgot about her confusion. How did she get here? When? And the most dreaded question - why? 

Tomas, however, gave no sign of willing to answer any of Uma’s silent questions, and instead proceeded with his ‘bee philosophy’. “It’s miserable to think that the queen bee has to fight for her life and position, whilst her only purpose is to lay as many eggs as possible. Drones, the male bees, are essentially killed when they mate with the queen. And the female worker bees have to do all the hard work, collecting honey, maintaining the hives, keeping the order.” His voice was brimming with contempt, yet also pity. Uma wondered if he was hinting at something bigger, but her head was too heavy to carry, her limbs ached ferociously, and her thoughts were all jumbled up. She was too fatigued to figure out what he meant. Tomas finally turned away from the tree, and was now facing her. He was only a few metres away from her, yet she could barely hear him. His gaze was piercing, and she could feel that he wasn’t quite observing her movements, but instead staring directly at her soul. He was analysing it, and she was curious how it was possible as she was simply staring back, speechless. Static.

All of a sudden, a strong gust of wind thrashed up the heavy oak branches, and they engulfed Tomas and Uma, consuming them whole. Uma often thought about how some trees grew to such enormous sizes. It couldn’t possibly be just minerals from the soil… As Tomas slowly dissipated amongst the branches, a new breeze lifted up the multitude of magical flowers thrown around the meadow. The colours danced and sang their melodies, and gave the air a sweet aroma. It was all enchanting. And intoxicating. She longed for more of this view, but the longer she speculated the closer she was to her own destruction. Uma wondered, “Perhaps, this is what serenity tastes like.”

/milana