Hanakotoba

Talk to me in the language of flowers.

   She gets flowers every week. She always expect them, and they always arrive in time�"4 pm, Thursday. Lillian doesn't know why her brother would go to such lengths. Sending flowers while he's living in Japan and constantly moving must be hard.

   She once called him to talk about a phone call would have sufficed, you know! and he laughed, saying that she was just lazy and wouldn't open up a book or look it up on the internet. She huffed and they talked about other things.

   In the next calls she did not ask him about the flowers again.

   Most of the time she'll get lilies�"all sort of varieties. Japanese lilies, Tiger lilies, Siroi lilies. Usually a small paper would be attached under the bouquet, noting the Latin names and a short letter containing his thoughts. She always thought that they are quite melodramatic.

   Two weeks ago she got white roses. It was on a small, dark brown vase with a light cream ribbon. The paper was an intricate white paper with black nouveau frame.

   Mme Plantier. Sometimes I see things that made me doubt the world but you remind me that nothing could ever be wholly dark.

   Then last week it was sunflowers. A simple metal bucket�"she wondered why he'd get that�"with a blue ribbon with white crosses. The note was a faded notebook paper, slightly yellowed from age.

   Helianthus annuus. Every time I wake up I feel glad I was part of the family.

  

   It is 3:56 pm, Thursday.

   'Waiting for those flowers again, Lian?' She looks up to see Danielle tapping her fingers on the table. She shakes her head before shrugging.

   'Well, I guess. Maybe. Sometimes I just wonder how he could get it right at 4.' Danielle rolls her eyes.

   'Is that really important that you spaced out when we're supposed to write a ten pages essay? Come on, Lilly, focus. I know you love your brother and he's probably out prowling in the dark alleyways doing things and all but seriously, this paper is due next week.'

   'I don't think I follow you.' Danielle throws her hands to the air before slouching over the laptop. Lillian grins and pulls it to her side, opening a browser and clicks on bookmarks.

   'Relax, Danny, I've got it covered. I'll find all things I ever need here.'

   'You better. You're the one who should be writing it anyways�"I don't know why I even let myself get roped into this.'

   'You're the one who proposed to help me, missie. You can stop complaining.' Danielle huffs. Lillian shrugs and returns her attention to the laptop.

 

   'What's this, Luther?' Her brother looked up from his notebook. Lillian peered from his side, staring at the long line of Japanese text. He smiled, patting his thigh. She climbed up.

   'This is Hiragana. This line right here,' he said, pointing at the top one, 'is Hanakotoba. Can you guess what it means?' She shook her head and looked at him. He underlined the first two characters.

   'This is Hana. In Hiragana, generally a character is used for a syllable. What do you think it means?'

   'Hana? I don't know.' He chuckled and ruffled her hair. She pulled on his sleeve, pouting. He calmed down, the grin fading into a smile.

   'It means flower. Kotoba,' he lined the last three characters, 'means words. Hanakotoba roughly means language of flowers in English. It was widely popular in the western hemisphere during the Victorian era. Now you just learned one more thing today.'

   'But why are you writing the meaning of flowers?'

   'A lot of reasons, I guess.' He tickled her tummy, laughing as he avoided limbs flying everywhere. It was fifteen years ago, and they were fifteen and eight.

 

   When Lillian opens the door, the bouquet is sitting on the steps, waving slightly as a breeze picks up. It's 4:02 pm. She brings it back inside and places it on the table, next to the plate of biscuits and teapot. Danielle eyes it.

   'I guess with all these flower thing going on, I can see why you chose to write about why people associate certain flowers with certain things.'

   Lillian gives her a non-committal shrug. Danielle sighs and plops back, taking a chocolate covered biscuit. Lillian continues to work on her paper.

   'Okay,' Danielle says after thirty minutes, 'I'm getting curious. What's this flower? It looks pretty strange. Well, not strange, but I don't see it often.' Lillian glances at it. Bright red flowers in a brown pot. There are no ribbons, but there are tufts of grass on the soil.

   'Lycoris, I think. Grows around Japan and friends.'

   'And the meaning? Didn't your brother, like, look them up or something? No offence, I thought it's a pretty strange thing to see from someone like... him. Well, from males in general.'

   'I don't remember. I'll look it up later. Now shush, I'm writing. Two more pages and I'm done, and that'll take at least another half an hour. No talking, okay?'

   Danielle rolls her eyes but says nothing.

 

   Lycoris Radiata. The paper is a normal one, plain white. No decorations. Lycoris grow in the path between us, but remember only the good things.

 

   She grabs her phone, frantically punching the speed dial 2, saying pickuppickupLutherwouldyoupickup�"

   'Hello?'

   'What do you mean�"'

   'I mean exactly what I mean, Lilly.' His voice fades in the end, and she knows that he's not playing with her.

   'Don't worry though,' he says, 'I'll be back tomorrow.'

She's not sure what to make of it.

 

It is said that if you see someone you won't been ever again, they will bloom along the path.