A growing reminder

 

Romila had not expected a plant to grow in that particular spot in the backyard. But it did. 

The sapling sprouted and soon developed into a plant. It was only when the plant began to flower that Romila became uneasy.

That first unique looking flower with four petals - two blue ones and two brown ones. Just like.....Her eyes. 

Why had that plant started growing in that spot? Romila wondered every day. 

Her husband, Pramod and her son, Aakash began noticing a change in Romila. She had grown distant and quiet. Earlier when she came home from work, she would sit with her family and talk about her day, ask about theirs. But now, she would spend hours sitting by the window of the guest bedroom, and stare at that strange looking plant that was growing in the backyard. 

At first, Pramod had assumed that his wife was fascinated by the plant. But he soon came to realise that she was fearful of it. She wouldn't go near it and would only look at it with the eyes of a mouse regarding an approaching feline. 

On one occasion, Aakash had picked a few of those strange but pretty flowers from the plant and gave them to his mother. Romila had shrieked when she saw them and slapped them out of Aakash's hands, making the poor kid cry. She realised what she had done and hugged her little boy, while telling him how sorry she was. After the child had calmed down, she asked him to never touch those flowers again. 

Pramod grew increasingly concerned. Several times he had asked Romila what was wrong, and why she was so disturbed by that plant. The plant that was growing into a tree at an unusually quick pace.

Romila just shook her head and told him it was nothing. 

All the while she was haunted by those same questions. Why did the plant start growing in that exact spot? Why did it have flowers that looked like Her eyes? 

One day, Romila decided to have the damn thing removed. She called a gardener and asked him to uproot the plant and get it out of her house.

Curiously, try as hard as he might, the gardener could not uproot the plant. Though young and strong he was, he just couldn't get that strange looking plant out of the Earth.

Romila thought of telling him to cut it down, but she knew it was futile. She somehow knew that it would grow back. 

In just a few weeks, the plant had grown into a tree. A beautiful tree with unique looking flowers and even leaves. Blue and brown. Just like Her eyes. 

Neighbours and even people from other parts of town would gather outside the house to look at the unusual looking tree. Romila grew increasingly agitated and would often snap at those people, telling them to stay away, to leave her and her family alone. This would result in arguments with her neighbours and Romila, and by extension Pramod and Aakash too, becoming socially isolated. 

The breaking point finally came when the tree's flowers began turning into fruits. Very hard fruits that were impossible to eat. 

However, what vexed Romila wasn't how hard the fruits were. Rather, what they looked like. The face that she saw in it's bumps. 

She picked up a fruit and examined it, before running to her husband and crying hysterically.

"LOOK! PRAMOD LOOK! IT LOOKS LIKE SHALINI!! IT'S HER FACE!! IT'S SHALINI'S FACE!!" 

Pramod, who was utterly confused, just asked, "Your sister, Shalini?"

"Yes!!" Romila replied, now breaking into tears, "it has her face. The fruit has her face...." 

Pramod tried to calm his wife down.

"Romila, sweetheart your sister is gone. She passed away... Darling I know you miss her but..." 

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Romila screamed at him, "she's the one who's doing this. That's tree.... it her.... she's doing this to torment me...".

She kept staring at the fruit in horror. In its bumps she saw her sister's face. Her beautiful sister with blue and brown heterochromic eyes. 

"Romila please! Calm down! You're not making any sense."

But Romila wasn't listening to him. She had collapsed to the floor and was sobbing, as he mind replayed what she had done less than a year ago. 

"It was right there! That's where I killed her! Right where that damn tree is! That's where I did it!" 

In utter shock, Pramod asked "you... killed her? Romila what are you saying?"

"Why couldn't she just let me have this house? She was single! She did need such a big house! I told her it should have been left to me. I have a family to raise! Why couldn't she just let me have it? WHY?" 

Romila suddenly got up and ran to the tree. Clawing at it's bark, she screamed "Shalini! Get out! Get out Shalini! I killed you! This house is mine! MINE!" 

It took her husband and several neighbours to contain her and eventually she did quiet down. 

Romila would remain quiet for the rest of her days. She simply stared ahead and didn't say a word. Not even when Pramod would go to visit her in the mental institution. 

As for the tree, it soon withered and became one with the soil. It's purpose had been served.