Story: Shifting Flora

This story was commissioned by Cat Tassini. It was written by Michael DiBiasio-Ornelas, via Last Site Press. To order your own Custom Short Story, click here.

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She had been alone at the florist for six days when the plants began to move.

At first, Quinn dismissed the phenomena as a clear hallucination. Plants moved, to be sure, but they didn’t travel. It was simply another hiccup from inside her oft-hiccuping brain. The plants were where they always had been -- her perception had moved. Her memory had shifted.

Still it was unsettling.

Two days later saw a worsening of the situation. This left her only four days to go before Nina returned, so Quinn determined to make it through. She could leave any time. She didn’t have to remain in the apartment at the back of the shop. She could go home, and return only for the watering. That was all she had been asked to do.

But the watering took a very long time, and when the plants weren’t moving they were beautiful to look at, and to touch, and comforting company. 

She wished they’d stop moving, without any hint as to why, or where they were going. But it also made her curious. Were they trying to tell her something?

A Venus flytrap straightened its back in plain view of her. Then she knew it was real. Even if the other plants were not moving they were moving to her so it was real.

She spoke to the flytrap, curious more than afraid. It did not answer. She watched it for a long time and, once, it moved again, as if to look at her -- but it did not indicate anything further.

The vines outside had crawled down to cover the windows, and the glass door out front. Someone peered through at one point, even though the store was closed, but Quinn stayed very still amongst the moving plants -- which seemed to wrap around her, protectively -- and the person went away. Were the plants accepting her? 

When Nina returned she remarked that the plants looked well, and she thanked Quinn. She also said that Quinn looked pale, and a little thin. When was the last time she had eaten? Gone out? Nina didn’t ask these questions but Quinn asked them of herself after her friend’s remark.

Back in the world, she felt tired and bare. She missed the plants. She called Nina and asked if she could buy several of them and bring them home. Nina offered to gift her some plants but Quinn insisted on paying at least a modest amount.

“I want a lot of them,” she said.

The new plants grew around her, and moved freely now about the apartment. Eventually, they ran out of room. Quinn, feeling stifled along with them, called Nina. She asked for the contact info for her suppliers. 

Two weeks later Quinn moved close to the botanical farms outside the city, and took a job at one of them. Her new place was cheaper and bigger and there was room there for the plants to be themselves but also for her to seek out better balance with them.

She began to go out more, again. To do more things. She made new friends, and slowly grew accustomed to their moving around her. They moved more quickly than the plants which was startling at first but she determined to try it out awhile longer.