The Regret Wish And the Century Plant

The Agave Americana is definitely from Earth. It’s also known as a century plant because it only blooms once every 100 years (roughly) and then dies.

The Agave Americana only blooms once a century. It bloomed early, which means it will soon die.

Glass smashing against concrete dragged sixty-seven-year-old Ruth Gardener from a dream vacation with Presidential Front Runner Senator Thomas Edwards. She sat up, glancing around her as a familiar voice screamed, “I told you I didn’t want eggs anymore!”

A fearful voice replied, “I am sorry, but that’s what your wife put on the menu for breakfast.”

“Where is she?” the same familiar voice demands.

“In her room sleeping,” the fearful voice notified.

Before Ruth could blink, her door burst open, and Thomas Edwards entered her room. His red and white robe was open, revealing blue silk pajamas hiding his pot belly. He marched towards her bed and slapped her across her face twice, grabbed her by the neck, and screamed, “I told you to remove the eggs from my breakfast menu. What are you trying to do, kill me before I win the election?”

Shocked at his behavior, Ruth slapped him back, and he staggered backward in shock as she bolted out of bed.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” She screams, messaging her cheeks where she was hit. Then, glancing around to identify her location, she wondered why her dream seemed so real, because she felt the pain of his slap.

Shock held Thomas in place. His hands were on his face, covering his jaw where he was hit. He eased towards her, and she reached for the lamp nearest to her, pulling it so hard it pulled out of the socket in the wall. He halted and stared at her as she glared back, fighting to understand what the hell was going on. Where the hell am I? Why didn’t he recognize me?

Why is he attacking me? Is this how he treats his wife? Her instincts demand.

“You don’t recognize me?” She called out as he turned and walked towards the door, mumbling expletives.

“Yeah,” he halted at the exit, turning around to face her. His hand was still caressing his left jaw. “You are the witch I married instead of Helen, who really loves me,” he said, walking out.

“I am not married to you,” she called out, her eyes subconsciously staring at the oversized diamond ring on her left finger.

Thomas paused at the door, rotated one hundred and eighty degrees, facing her, and said, “So your drug addict son, who cooks the books at his company, isn’t mine? Your four-time divorced daughter who is sleeping with her young daughter’s boyfriends isn’t mine either.”

Shock popped Ruth’s eyes, and he continued, “What about Thomas Jr.? He is over thirty and can’t decide if he is gay or straight. I have to be paying and threatening the media and others to protect their dirty secrets. Tell me the truth, are all those three disasters mine?”

“I am married to Jerry Gardener, who is dead. I have two daughters and one son who never broke the law,” Ruth recalls her life. “My kids are law-abiding citizens who made their parents proud.”

Thomas grinned at her and demanded, “You think this is a dream? Jerry left the country when you turned him down for me. Helen left too when I chose to marry you. Somewhere in the middle, they met and are happy with their family. I should have stuck with Helen. At least she has class and raised her children to be an asset to their country and parents,” he said in regret, walking out.

Ruth’s life replayed as she recalled her wedding to Jerry and his funeral. Their three children, too.

This is a dream, she keeps repeating as she paces around. Her eyes caught an image of herself in the dresser mirror nearby.

Paralyzed by shock at how tired and old she looked. A familiar plant on the dresser beside her wedding picture of her and Thomas grabbed her attention. Jerry, her real husband, gave it to her on their tenth anniversary. It was the Agave Americano, a.k.a. the Century plant.

Ruth remembered that it was blooming before she went to bed last night. So, how did she get here, being married to Thomas? She recalled Jerry telling her that the Agave Americano blooms every one hundred years. That’s how long our love will last.

So, what happened? Her heart asked as her eyes were pulled again to the wedding photograph of her and Thomas.

She reached out to touch the beautiful, soft, yellow petals, and something grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her in!

Ruth woke up in a bed of flowers. She bolted up, glancing around, calling out, “Hello. Anyone here?”

Staring ahead, she realized that all of the flowers were the same. They were the Agave Americano or the Century Plant. Amazed, she walked around touching each flower until she found a glass door.

A familiar figure pulled her closer.

With popped eyes, raised brows, mouth agape, and shock racing through her body, heart, mind, and soul, her eyes touched Jerry, her husband, and their children around their living room table. ‘Happy Birthday, JJ. Jerry Junior hangs in the air behind the table in yellow and orange. His favorite color. So was the cake, cups, spoons, forks, napkins, etc. His clothes were in his favorite colors too.

That was Jerry’s idea for their children’s birthday. Shock pulled her closer as Helen Thomas entered with a homemade deep-dish pizza still in the dish—JJ’s favorite pizza with pineapple and barbecue chicken.

As the steam rose in the air from the pizza, Ruth reached out to hit the glass, screaming, “Hey! That’s my family!”

The image eased back. With every step she took towards the glass door, the image stepped back as if mocking her.

She fell in another attempt to hit the glass. In frustration, she eased up as tears flowed.

A voice like thunder said, “You got your wish. Now it’s time to go back.”

“Go back where?” she called out, glancing around.

“Back to your life with Thomas Edwards.”

“But I am married to Jerry Gardener,” Ruth argues.

“Last night, before you went to bed, you watched the news on CNN with Thomas winning the Republican Nomination for the president of this country. You wished you had married him instead of your husband, Jerry Gardener,” the voice reminds.

Shock held her, tears flowing as she swayed her head left to right, her heart asking, ‘How could you have known?”

“Every cry of sadness, regret, envy, loneliness, happiness, etc, echoes in many dimensions. Someone will find a way to respond.”

“What dimensions? There are no other life sources on the other planets.”

“You humans really believe you are alone,” the voice thundered.

“I am sorry,” she wept. “I just missed my husband so much, and seeing Thomas alive and remembering that we used to date years ago, I wished out of loneliness.”

“What about Thomas’s wife, Helen? Did you think of her?”

“I am sorry.”

“How about his children?”

“Their lives are messed up anyway,” Ruth defends her memory, going back to the last time she met him.

Thunder roared, and the voice said, “That is your life with Thomas. Not hers.”

“You mean I dodged a bullet?”

“No, Helen did.”

“You are punishing me for a simple mistake?”

The voice said, “You touched the Century plant while you wished.”

“How was I supposed to know that it grants wishes?”

“It used to bloom every century and grant good wishes.”

“Used to?” she demands in shock.

“Because of climate change and how humans are destroying the earth, it is now blooming every thirty years. Now it grants regret and payback wishes before it dies an early death,” the voice informs.

According to legend, the Americano Agave, a.k.a the Century Plant, blooms every one hundred years and grants wishes before it dies. Thanks to what humans are doing to the Earth, it’s now blooming every thirty years."

“You are not making sense,” she called out standing up. “How can a plant grant wishes.”

“Before humans begin to harm the Earth through greed, all life forms would prosper and be happy.”

“So it’s a plant rebellion,” slipped past her brain and shot through her mouth.

“Brilliant, isn’t it?” the voice said. “And humans don’t have a clue what is really going on. Now imagine what will happen to humanity if more plants and animals decided to fight back. Humans will pay for their destruction of Earth. But don’t worry, you aren’t alone on this route,” the voice said as she heard a click and saw the lives of several family and friends replayed.

“But that’s Aunt Verna, Cousin Christine, Cousin Theo, Uncle James, Mrs. Hill, Theresa, Joseph and. . . . . . .How did this happen? Why? How come no one knew?” Ruth cried out.

“They knew.”

“So Uncle James was married to someone else before, but he never mentioned being married before,” Ruth recalled the hell her Uncle endure at the hands of his wife.

“Life is never without mysteries,” the voice notified. “She knew as you do now. When you go back to your life, you take nothing with you.”

“You mean I will forget Jerry and my children?”

“You take nothing back,” he stressed.

“What about my family and friends? Won’t someone remember something?”

“Because you get your regret wish you go back to a parallel world you created by being envious and jealous.”

“So, if my wish was to heal, not harm, I would have created a better world for myself?” she asked.

“Imagine how wonderful our world would be if more humans want to heal and not harm.”

Ruth collapses in tears, begging, “Please, give me back my life. I swear I will be satisfied with it and remove all regrets.”

Lightening flashed as the petals of the Century plant attempted to close and the voice said, “Regrets are a part of our lives. But when jealousy, envy, and greed are added to it, someone must be taught a lesson. If you had the power to take away Helen Thomas’s life you would. You wished for it, and now your regrets gave it to you!”

Thunder roared as all petals of the Century Plant snapped shut as something pulled Ruth in.

She woke up in her bedroom crying, staring at the wedding picture of her and her husband Senator Thomas Edwards!

Our lives are the way it is for a reason. Find the reason and change what you don’t like. Many times we envy others for their lives, unaware of the hell they are hiding behind that smile or the bullet we dodged with the life we are living. Please, don’t allow regrets to destroy your life.