My whole wide world were the dark smooth hardened bland folds of my home.

I wasn't fully alone , I could feel my great mum's presence. And by mum I mean our great green mum, under whose fingers of leaves we kids live by. You could say she is my mum who takes care of me but not my biological mum.

When I was born, I enlarged my biological mum's stomach way too much that she died. Great mum told me that I shouldn't feel like a killer because that's how our divine design is like. Sometimes I wonder what my biological mum would have approved of it all.

When it's day, there's a bit of light in my home compared to night. I wonder how it's like to feel naked under the sun. I also hear many chirps and tweets of birds to which I dance dangling along with wind as my leverage. Great mum says that when the right time comes, when my home gets so sweet, the birds or other beasts would carry me off to unknown lands and I would become a great mum myself if all things go well.

But I want to choose the land by myself and not be decided by these birds or bests or winds! I told this to my great mum one day, that I need to have rights. After all, those humans aren't relying on winds or anything while they wanna build their homes?! If they have rights why can't I too ?

Great mum grew silent before answering, "Daughter only understands this - while human children take their rights and use them , they destroy our realms which also indirectly affects them - they become more invulnerable to pandemics when our realm is affected. They use their rights but become blind to the consequences."

"But they haven't gone extinct yet, great mum, they're still alive and thriving," - I persisted.

Great mum sighed and retired to attend to my other siblings while I pondered.

----

Soon time passed and I grew restless to see beyond the dark corners of my home , into the nitty gritty real world! But all the same I wanted to find a suitable place to be a great mum!

One of my sibs, Carla, ever the pragmatic one, uttered in great exasperation, "Give it up, that's practically improbable wishing. Our homes are mangoes and if we want they can't be coconut ?!?"

I replied, "You can't understand me Carla , we are different even if we have one great mum."

Carla didn't talk to me ever since, which is fine by me. None of them really gets me, I suppose.

----

As days passed, my home became more soft and luscious, sweeter, and I knew I was ripe enough to be carried away by birds or beasts or humans.

Oh wait- what if I could reason with a human to plant me in a place I choose ? I couldn't help but ponder out loud this late realization which felt like a big discovery to me.

Great mum replied, "Child you need to hide your ripe home beneath my fingers of leaves and wait till your home is fully ripe just so that humans don't pluck you, and that way there are more chances of kind birds carrying you away into better places."

"But great mum I know I'm ripe now, I can really feel it ! I wanna be carried away by human hands soon, I can't wait-"

"Humans are likely to sell your home and not give you a chance to be a great mum."

"How about a human kid ?" I still insist because I was so fired up by my discovery and I started to have strong convictions against great mum's reasoning.

Great mum sighed and muttered, "Ah alas you have started to ripen and started to gain the peripheral iceberg of knowledge and might make the same error as I did."

"What did you do great mum?" I curiously asked.

"I'm sorry child I can't reveal this, if I did, then you and all your sibs would lose trust in me as a great mum" Great mum swayed sadly.

Was she crying ? Or was it the winds ? Either way, I didn't pursue further on the topic.

However I was annoyed and irritated and exasperated. My relationship between my great mum and me distanced like the finger leaves and toes roots. I went ahead on my whims dangling dancing so often for some human to take notice.

Great mum saw my rebellion and tried to distract me from my goals, like making my sibs talk to me. Each time I managed to get them bored so much, thanking my ineptitude to be interesting.

Finally, after what seemed like eons,  one morning, I heard a loud guffaw of a human teenager and without much further ado I went about on my jiggling moves and tricks. They sounded like they were having a picnic from their chatter.

To my utter delight I felt the coarse hands caressing my home. Well in reality, they just jerked it free from the great mum but it's all the same to me as warm caress. Soon I heard them say lots of things I didn't understand.

"Oh this mango smells so good. Honestly if I were a chemist, I would take up the aromatics in this mango and start a business unlike you, Theo dissecting dead bodies. How grotesque is that?!"

"Well you find it okay to eat the pregnant womb of a plant , I only intend to dissect dead humans for justice."

"What the damnation are you spouting about ? So you would not eat mangoes ?" The human teenager laughed and I did too. Humans can be clever with words.

"I told you already, I am against it." Theo rolled his eyes.

"Alright, I dare you to watch on as I eat this mango"

"You wouldn't dare--"

With one swipe, my home got torn, in gushed the flowing streams and rivers and brooks of  blinding sunlight. I was blinded for a moment. 

Had the world always been this bright? Why wasn't I out already? I was annoyed at myself for the much delay I caused due to my subservience. 

The next few moments were literal earthquake of being volleyed out between Theo and the other human's hands. 

"Give the mango back to me Jack! You need not harm it."

"Hell nah, you can watch me eat the dead remains of a flower and dissect it in my mouth."

Theo and Jack continued in their conflict and I wondered when will I meet my new home : the soil. 

word count 1082

published on 8th oct 2024