Clever Magazine, "Summer '06, Green Vengeance " (www.clevermag.com)

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The Green Vengeance

by Melody Lee

I stretched myself and basked in the sun. Ah…life is good. From my position, I had a bird’s eye view of the beach. It was no wonder, since our unit was in the middle of the twentieth floor.

I inhaled the air which carried a wisp salty scent of the seawater, and felt the sap of life stream through me like nectar. I leaned towards the sunlight, letting the heat warm me when I heard a sliding sound. Someone was opening the glass door to the balcony. I smiled as I watched Cassandra stepped into the balcony, a red plastic water bottle in her hands.

“Hello friends, how’s your day today?” Cassandra asked cheerily.

I watched my mates bobbed their heads in answer to her question, and not wanting to be cast as being ungrateful, I followed them. Cassandra’s lips curled; apparently she was pleased with our gesture, although she knew our little insignificant movement was caused none other by the sea breeze.

Cassandra tipped the water bottle and let the water flowed into the potted soil. I watched as my mates almost sighed in pleasure. I watched them in envy, but knowing her procedure, I knew I would be always the last who would get her attention since I was lined right at the end.

As I watched until my mate next to me got her fill of water, I straightened and beamed. It was going to be my turn soon.

Finally, Cassandra turned her attention to me, her eyes twinkling as if we were her children and she was the proud parent. “Oh, my. Look how you’ve grown! There’s even a small bud sprouting.”

I beamed brightly and bobbed my head more vigorously. The leaves on my body shook, and the bud bobbed up and down with the movement. Cassandra laughed softly. “Wonderful. In a matter of days, I’m expecting the flower to be fully bloomed. Oh my, this is – this is just wonderful.”

Cassandra poured more water into my soil, as I slurped it greedily. My other mates watched me, knowing I got the most attention from our owner.

When Cassandra had finished watering us and trimming our branches, she walked out of the balcony, humming softly to herself. It was always a pleasure to see our owner to be in such a great mood. It wasn’t a surprise to us lately to see her in such a jovial mood because we knew she was in love. We knew because we saw her talking with someone over the phone almost every night and she had that dreamy look on her face. It wasn’t difficult to tell a person who was in love. Their expressions and body language gave them away. In a way, we were just like the human beings; we were at our prettiest when we were happy and well fed.

“How I envy you, Hibiscus, your flowers are always red and bright. If only our breed can sprout flowers too,” Aloe Vera said with a sigh.

“Aloe Vera, though your breed doesn’t sprout flowers, but your saps are known to soothe burns and acts as a natural moisturizer. All of us have our own strength and weaknesses, so you don’t have to envy any of us, ” I told her.

“Exactly. And we also can be quite dangerous too, a single bite on us can be a lethal dose,” Oleander smirked.

Next to me, Amaryllis nodded; other plants like Jade Plant, Orchid, Bromeliads followed. Several other plants just looked on and listened to our conversation. We chatted and enjoyed the sunlight until darkness fell.

* * *

Cassandra swirled the wire playfully as she talked on the telephone. She was expecting the call and there was a glow on her face.

“Hi hon, I’m just back from work,” Mark greeted her tiredly as he threw himself onto the sofa as he loosened his tie with his other free hand. His shirt reeked of alcohol and -feminine perfume. He caught a lipstick stain near the edge of his collar when he pulled his tie. He almost breathed with sigh of relief. He was damn glad to note Cassandra wasn’t around to note this little mark on his shirt.

He had first caught sight of Cassandra when they were at a pub one evening two months ago. He was hooked on her easy-going personality and her mass of sexy wavy hair. It didn’t hurt to see she had beautiful legs and a slim figure too, he noted. So he went over to her table and introduced himself, grateful that there wasn’t anyone with her at that moment. She had told him she was early and was expecting a lady friend. To his great delight, it turned out that her friend had a last minute call from her boss who told her she needed to stay back for some urgent work. That was how he and Cassandra got acquainted and ignited the sparks.

Before Cassandra, he also had a string of girlfriends who regarded him as their lovers. Each of them didn’t know the others existed, thanks to his glib tongue and his easy charm.

Cassandra glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand next to her bed. The digital clock told her it was near to midnight .

“You’re just back at this hour? God, your boss must be a workaholic,” Cassandra mused and stifled a yawn.

“Trust me, he is.” Mark replied easily and poured himself a drink. He took a sip of the golden liquid and savored the taste. He closed his eyes and let his mind wandered off back to the time he spent with Annie earlier. He could almost hear Annie’s sexy throaty voice at his ears when Cassandra interrupted his thoughts.

“So are you coming over to spend the night?” Cassandra asked wistfully. On some nights, he would go over to her place for sleepovers; she was expecting tonight was no exceptional.

Mark sighed and drained the glass with two mouthfuls. The iced cold liquid cooled his body and his mind as well. He wasn’t in a mood to disappoint Cassandra, since he enjoyed her company so much. He wouldn’t want to end their relations in a hasty way.

“Right, give me twenty minutes, hon,” he slurred lazily, using his charm again.

Cassandra smiled and whispered good-bye. She got up from bed, ready to welcome Mark with open arms.

* * *

I woke up at the sound of the chime of the doorbell. From where I stood, I could see clearly through the balcony glass door to the living room. I saw Cassandra sprinted from the sofa and rushed forward to open the door.

I cast a look towards my mates and noticed I was the only one awake. I tried going back to sleep when at that moment I saw a man step into the house. He gave Cassandra a kiss on her lips as they embraced.

I smiled. So this man was the one who was responsible for her jovial moods and dreamy looks, I noted.

“You look tired, hon, you want any drink?” Cassandra titled her face towards Mark and asked softly. Her face then changed when she sniffed something on his shirt.

"Have you been out drinking?” Cassandra asked casually.

“Yes, I did. I met several clients today, that’s why I’m dead tired, but I’ve made up the time for you hon, aren’t you grateful to me?” Mark replied. He turned to steal a kiss from her but she backed away.

“I’ll make some drinks for us, go and relax on the sofa,” Cassandra said and disappeared into the small kitchen.

From the lights shone in the living room, I could tell he was a very good-looking man. I wanted to reach out to him when I heard some strange sequence of metallic tones vibrate in the air. I saw him reach to his pants pocket and pull out a metallic looking object.

He flipped it open and spoke softly, “Hi love.”

Someone on the other line spoke and I saw him chuckled softly, “Sure I do. I always enjoy every minute with you, sexy.” There was more chuckling from him.

Cassandra chose this moment to walk out from the kitchen; I could see her hands holding two glasses. She stopped short when she heard the soft flirty tone came out of her lover’s lips and froze.

Uh-oh. I could sense trouble was brewing when I noted Cassandra’s distorted face.

Mark’s back was still facing her and he was too engrossed with the conversation to have noticed her silent arrival. After two minutes, he ended his call and turned around, surprised to find Cassandra standing by the balcony’s glass door. He put on his easy smile and shrugged nonchalantly, “It’s my boss. He’s asking me how the discussion went earlier with a client.”

“I see,” Cassandra smiled sweetly. She held out a glass of beer towards him which he took with a sigh of relief.

Mark drank and emptied the glass within a minute. He wiped the frosty moustache from the beer above his lips and grinned. “This is great, hon, what beer is this? It has a weird taste though.”

Cassandra curled her lips and replied, “Carlsberg with a dose of Oleander, dear.”

“What’s that?” Mark asked curiously.

“Poison,” Cassandra answered sweetly.

I saw the horror look etched on Mark’s face, and applauded at Cassandra’s deeds. The commotion woke some of the plants, including Oleander.

“You’ve done all of us a big favor, Oleander,” I whispered out loud and turned to see Mark staggered towards the living room while Cassandra followed. He was screaming at her to get an ambulance before he gagged.

With a sleepy voice, Oleander asked, “Who? Me? What’ve I done?”

Instead I chuckled, “You’re a hero now, Oleander.”

I knew Cassandra store some of the saps from Aloe Vera for the moisturizer, but I didn’t know she kept some of Oleander’s killer leaves for emergency use too. I wondered if she keeps my dried flowers for bookmarks.