My Favourite Flower

Some mornings on my way to work, I find freshly shed blossoms under a frangipani tree along the way. I gather some of the best ones and arrange them at the base of my monitor.

I once also left a cluster on my secretary's desk, thinking that she'd be pleased to find them when she got to work. Shortly after she arrived, she came in to my room, looking a little worried and, I thought, scared! I asked her if everything was alright. She asked me if I was the one who had placed the flowers on her desk. I said yes. Visibly relieved, she told me that it gave her a turn to see them because, apparently, according to custom, these are flowers of DEATH and she thought it was a sign for her! Yikes.

Anyway, this morning, among an abundance of fallen ones on the grass, I picked up a particular bloom that you see on the right. In all my life admiring the frangipani, some 30 years now, this is the first time I've come across a six-petalled one. It's an anomaly, a genetic mutation, that makes it different from all the other perfectly formed flowers. I couldn't help thinking of Rachel. I showed it to another colleague and she said it was even more beautiful than the others, the way the overlap in the petals showed up more distinctly.

I saw only its difference, she saw its own perfection. I think it's a sign for me.