Amidst The Reverie (boyxboy)

Chapter 6: A Strange and Beautiful Flower

On Sunday afternoon the power was out, the heat sticking to their skin. They've decided to eat their lunch outside, bringing a fold-up table and chairs. Drinking lemonade and eating sandwiches and then watermelons for dessert. 

The daffodils and the sunflowers in the garden in their backyard were in full bloom, a shower of radiant yellow as the beams of the afternoon sun graze the garden. 

His mother, with her hair in a bun serving him plates after plates of food, occasionally laughing at his father whom tries to recreate every single person in his office. Eli laughed, and eat, and smile, and laugh again. 

After lunch, they've lounged in the long bench in their patio.  His mother sitting, reading in silence. Eli put his head in her lap, watching as the leaves dance to the hum of the soft breeze. His father in the other bench, silently taking a drag off of his cigarette, his other hand holding a glass of lemonade, his legs crossed.

This is what Eli is missing. This life. The silent comfort. The vibrant garden. The picnics underneath the sun. The laughter and the silly jokes. His mother and his father. 

He smiled softly as his mother played with his hair, her eyes still focused on her book.

"Could you read it to me?" 

And his mother did. Telling the story of Sophie, a girl that had an interesting ways to learn things, she learned about the greatest of philosophers though she really didn't knew why, she had a lot of things happened to her that she didn't understand why it did. She was a girl so curious, she figured out that she was living inside a book. She was a fictional character, living in a world inside her author's mind. 

"What if you slept? And what if in your sleep you dreamed? And what if in your dream you went to heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if when you awoke, you had the flower in your hand? .... Ah, what then?" 

His mother's voice softly whispering in his ear. The poem searing into his mind. 

"What does it mean?" he asked softly, nonchalantly. 

"Darling. If I knew exactly what he meant then I'd be a genius." His mother teased him, her fingers still playing with his hair. He hummed.

"But it would be wonderful, wouldn't it?" She asked, putting her book down for a second, looking at him with fondness and care. 

"What is?" he asked, looking back at her with wonder. 

"Taking a hold of something in a dream and bringing it into reality." She smiled at him then, and he smiled back. For a while they didn't say anything. Then she picked up her book again, reading it. Her hands in his hair still. 

And he hummed, closing his eyes. Thinking of the strange and beautiful flower, the things that he wanted to bring into reality. 

Monday morning wasn't much eventful. He spend his lunch with Olivia, informing her about his successful essay about her. He got an A. She congratulated him, offering to celebrate in a cafe, but he refused. 

"Mateo's been sulking." He said, shaking his head slightly but a small smile playing upon his lips.

"He's like a lost puppy without you." She laughed, as she clean her tray of food. 

Eli nodded fondly "Yeah." 

And so that's how he ended up with the lost puppy after dismissal, his arms latching into Eli's body, never letting go.

"You could let go of my hands, y'know?" Eli commented. Sitting in the passenger seat, Mateo holding his left hand as he drive. 

Mateo didn't respond, still holding his hand he kissed the back of it. Butterflies fluttered inside Eli's stomach.