take me with you, dear dandelion

blue for grief settled in our bones

blood for the anger ages old

pink for wishful thinking and hope

white for the dead to cope

purple for love and trust

red for the sinful lust

and unlike popular belief

black for the signal of better times

for the universe was nothing but darkness

before it exploded to form life

*

The stars were bright. No, bright was the wrong way to describe them. The stars were luminous, their glow standing apart from the vast, empty universe.

 A young boy sat at his windowsill, gazing at the glorious velvet sky. He hoped for better days, away from the cave he lived in, was forced to live in. He thought about the possibilities of having a friend, about the joy it would bring him to share his daily findings. Every day, he wished to the stars that he would have a friend. A loud shout shook him out of his lonely thoughts, and he made the effort to get off his windowsill. While sliding his foot off, he noticed a glowing ball of happiness. It looked like a dandelion, yet its glow was something the boy had never seen before. Plucking it from the dirt, he hid it in his pocket, careful not to crush it. When he was satisfied that it was not visible anymore, he continued his journey to the interior of the cave. Unknown to him, he was not alone in his tiny, cramped cave, where another was watching carefully.

*

The sky was navy blue today. Adin had checked, more out of habit than curiosity.

More often than not, Adin found himself sitting on his windowsill. Since the day he had found the ‘glowing dandelion’ as he liked to call it, he had felt strangely drawn to the windowsill. The sky always remained the same, unchanging, yet different in so many ways. The days Adin was hopeful, the colour of the sky would change from its navy blue, to the shades of dark purple and pink. The days he felt sad, the sky would turn dark blue, almost impossibly dense. Adin had seen the sky turn colours for a decade now, since the day he was old enough to climb up on the windowsill. Not once had the sky lost its colour, and neither had it ever been completely dark.

“You seem lonely,” came a husky voice from behind him. A scream was about to wrench itself out of Adin’s mouth when strong yet slender hands covered his mouth.

“Please don’t scream, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, I’ll just leave,” the young boy rambled. Slowly trailing his eyes onto the boy, Adin looked. The strange boy looked as old as Adin himself, and looked scared out of his mind. He was just an inch taller than Adin. His eyes were captivating, almost dancing. But his skin was what stood out to Adin. His skin was lucid, if that was even possible. Shaking himself out of his shock, Adin furiously whispered, “Who-o are you? How did you get up on my windowsill?” The other boy simply shook his head in laughter and said, “Please calm down. I didn’t mean to scare you. My name is – Yuka. I think you should be my friend!”

“Yuka? That’s a weird name. How can I be your friend? I don’t even know who you are!” exclaimed Adin, in disbelief.  “Well, why don’t you tell me who you are. I don’t know who you are either!”

Puffing his chest, Adin says, “This is ridiculous! My name is Adin, and this is my windowsill. This is my lonely house, more like a cave, but it is my house. I live here with-”, his voice trailed off. Getting himself together, he continues, “It doesn’t matter! Who are you?” Yuka, exasperated said,” I told you already. My name is Yuka. I want to be your friend. I love the sky and I love flowers.”

Adin decided not to question it. His mother used to say that if a man liked flowers, he was to be trusted, because men who liked delicate things had good hearts. Then he wondered if that was why his mother liked Father, but quickly shook the thoughts out of his head. He did not want to think about Father, especially not now.

“You like flowers?”, Adin questioned. Yuka, excited nodded. “I actually found this flower, well, a week ago,” said Adin, pulling his ‘glowing dandelion’ out of his pocket, “and I haven’t been able to find this anywhere. I don’t even know which species this is. For all I know, it is one of a kind.”

On seeing the flower, Yuka choked on his spit. Coughing, he asked, “Where did you find that?” “Right here, on this windowsill,” Adin replied, expectantly. “Well, I don’t know what that is either. Why don’t you ask around in a library?” Adin’s excitement visibly disappeared. “I don’t really have friends, nor do I really leave this house. My only friend is the sky and the stars. Father is mean, and I don’t want to get on the bad side of Father,” whispered Adin.

Yuka’s face softened. Leaning closer, he said with a voice filled with wisdom, “Listen to me carefully Adin. The sky and stars seem like friends to you because they are. They will always be there for you. They will guide you. Your dark present will eventually pass over, and you will finally be able to breathe. But till that day comes, the stars will be there for you. Just do what you always do, and you shall find happiness.” A shout from inside the house startled both the boys. “Follow your heart, but if you can’t do that, follow the stars,” Yuka said, voice becoming increasingly impatient. Adin was split up. He really had to go back before Father got angry. Yuka, sensing his unease, said, “Go. You know where to find me.”

Adin hurriedly got of the windowsill and disappeared inside the house. When Adin finally got a chance to escape the cave, he came back to the windowsill, but Yuka was nowhere to be seen. He had disappeared into the night. In his place though, grew a single flower. Adin thought about Yuka’s words, but they made no sense to the oblivious, naïve boy. Adin did not bother check the sky.

 A ‘glowing dandelion’ swayed in the wind. The sky danced in the glory of complete darkness. Black at last.

*

Years passed, yet Adin wouldn’t know that. The day he met Yuka had disappeared from his memories. All he remembers is that that day changed his life for the better. The single ‘glowing dandelion’ had given Adin a sense of change. He had run away from the cave in the cover of the black sky and continued to run till exhaustion took over him. He had run away from Father, from the haunting memories of his dead mother. In the morning, he was found by a group of teenagers, who took him to the Child Rescue Centre. For the first time in his life, he was free.

Now years in the future, he as pursuing botany, trying to find the species of the flower that brought him his freedom. But no matter how much he looked, the flower was resilient, not giving any indication of where it might be from. It was, in all sense, otherworldly.

That night, Adin looked up at the sky. He had discovered that the sky was just one colour. When he was a child, he had dreamt up the fantasy of the sky changing colour to keep him company. The sky was black, pitch black. It never changed colour. It was a constant in his life, and he relied on it. Adin looked back down. It was time to go to bed.

Somewhere above him in the pitch-black sky, a star smiled remembering the small, lonely boy.