Secret Tulips

Even a single tulip becomes a garden when it is gifted with love... A story about the secrets of Jane and Joseph who loved each other but never got a chance to live their love life...

The clock was striking eleven that night when Joseph broke out of his bed to complete his piece of poetry. He heard a buzz in his phone. The screen displayed ‘Jane’, his seven months younger best friend. Joseph answered with ‘Hello!’ There was vast silence on the other side.

‘Jane, are you there?’ asked Joseph.

‘Yeah…’ she replied with a low voice.

‘Is everything alright?’

‘Yeah, actually I wanted to say you something…’

‘Carry on…’

‘Uhh…I don’t think I can say you over the phone. So let’s talk at school tomorrow.’

‘Okay, as you wish. We’ll talk tomorrow, bye…’

‘Bye. Good night.’

Next morning, Mrs. Tennyson opened the door, entering into Joseph’s room. Joseph was sleeping peacefully. Mrs. Tennyson arranged the whole room in a proper way, replacing the piece of paper with Joseph’s writing back onto the table. She then removed the window curtains and sat beside her only 17 year old child, kissing him on his forehead.

‘Get up my son, it’s time for school’, she said.

‘Good morning mom,’ said Joseph in a sleepy voice.

‘It’s already 6 a.m. dear, get ready soon.’

‘Okay, mom…’

On the way to school, Jane stepped into the bus and sat besides Joseph. They shared smiles as Joseph, as usual, handed over an orange tulip to Jane. Jane’s face lit up.

‘You wanted to say something Jane, right?’ asked Joseph.

‘Most probably I had forgotten the stuff’, Jane replied, with her eyes still on the tulip.

‘That’s fine’, Joseph told smiling.

Right during the break, both Joseph and Jane sat together in the garden with their lunchboxes. The cool breeze was blowing gently, as Jane took a spoonful of noodles and put into the mouth of Joseph. Joseph was so much happy that he grew inarticulate. The whole situation had become a relatable realm of silence. Joseph was curious about Jane as he had already figured out that there was some secret with Jane which she wasn’t disclosing. Jane, being calm and innocent by nature always wanted to keep secrets within herself and her diary so she didn’t reveal that. When Joseph forced her, she inadvertently told that she had written that in her diary. Joseph was totally surprised as he didn’t ever know about the secret of Jane’s having a diary.

Joseph too kept 2 different secrets from Jane. One of these secrets was that he loved Jane, beyond her imaginations. But he never tried to disclose this secret because he was scared of losing Jane.

‘Can I get that diary?’ asked Joseph.

‘Very soon’, replied Jane.

‘And last night I wrote something for you…’ said Joseph being shy.

‘The poem must be as wonderful as the previous one…’ replied Jane smiling.

They turned towards their classes and finally met after the school. As usual they sat in the bus, heading towards their respective homes. Jane’s stop arrived first. She wished Joseph ‘good bye’ as she got down of the bus. Their eyes were filled with tenderness. Jane was constantly watching Joseph’s bright eyes through the window of the bus and thinking about the next orange tulip. The bus moved forward in no time but still Joseph was trying to be dipped into Jane’s innocent eyes…

That night Joseph got a call from Jane. But surprisingly, it was Jane’s dad on the other side.

‘Hello sir’, answered Joseph being nervous.

‘Joseph’, replied Mr. Williams by sobbing.

‘Is everything alright, sir?’ asked Joseph.

‘Jane…’ Mr. Williams told in a low voice.

‘What has happened to Jane?’ asked Joseph seriously.

‘Jane had faced an accident, Joseph. She is in a critical condition and is repeating your name a number of times…’

‘What! Don’t worry sir; I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.’

Joseph took the car’s key from the drawer and drove to Jane. He was driving really fast just as his heart beat faster. He was much worried for Jane. When he reached there, everything was over. Jane was lying on her bed, Mr. Williams was crying. Even though Jane was the foster child of Mr. Williams, he loved her just like his own daughter. Joseph was stunned. He could not believe his eyes. His heart was frozen. His legs did not move and his hands were dropped in agitation. Mr. Williams held Joseph’s hand and cried louder. Joseph’s heart skipped a bit and he began to shake Jane’s hand.

‘Jane, I know you are kidding. But this is not funny. Jane, are you listening to me, please get up! Just see, I am here to share my secrets with you… Jane… please say something…’ said Joseph shivering.

Tears fell from his eyes when there was no reaction of Jane. He was coming to the reality, which had turned his life upside down.

‘Jane, my dear, please see, your best friend has brought so many orange tulips for you…’ said Mr. Williams as he sat down crying, on the floor.

After two days of Jane’s funeral, Joseph had stopped writing, eating and sleeping. He just shed tears and read the poems which he had written for Jane. He regretted that he could not gift her those poems. He regretted that he could not gift her one more orange tulip. He regretted that he could not tell her how much he liked her and that he could not share the second secret that he was writing a novel for her.

The novel was all about the friendship of Jane and Joseph which later, turned into love for Joseph. Joseph was going to complete the book, the day Jane would accept his love.

All of a sudden, Joseph remembered about the diary which Jane was to give him. He put on his slippers and drove to Jane’s house which was then only Mr. William’s house. Joseph asked Mr. William about the diary but even he had no idea about that. They both searched for the diary in Jane’s room where Jane did not live then. They found a locked drawer and began to search for the key which was hidden in a wooden box. When Joseph pulled out the drawer, he found a number of orange tulips covering a white colored diary. Those tulips were the ones which Joseph used to gift Jane since long. This filled Joseph’s eyes with tears… Mr. Williams left him alone in the room thinking that he was interrupting the privacy.

Joseph began to read the diary. He was reading with high concentration and did not even let his eyes get distracted from Jane’s writings. The diary told about the friendship of Joseph and Jane! Right from the day they met, till the day of Jane’s accident, everything was penned. Joseph became so happy that he began to cry, He was just unable to believe all those. Then he found a page having tulip petals all over and an envelope at the centre. The envelope had a note.

Beloved Joseph

It had been so many months of our friendship and I am blessed to have got a person like you. Every time your eyes met with mine, my heart filled with tenderness. Every time you wrote a poem for me, my heart filled with emotions. You have won my heart through your care, smile and each orange tulip. Fact is that it’s a secret and I am unable to tell you even when I had tried and failed a number of times… Still, I had won much more being with you. It’s never enough to thank you … Since a few days, I have been searching for the answer to a secret and I have got it just now. It will be unfair if I keep it a secret even from my diary. So with all my emotions, feelings, truth and simplicity, I say "

Joseph, I truly love you, from the depth of my heart… I don’t know of you feel the same for me but I promise, one day I will disclose this secret too…

With love,

Jane…

After reading the note, Joseph cried harder for two hours continuously. After a week, he had finally completed his novel. Joseph named the novel, “Secret Tulips” as an honor to Jane. He plucked an orange tulip from his garden and drove to the graveyard along with the novel where Jane’s grave was situated.

Memorizing each little moment he had spent with Jane, Joseph placed the tulip and the novel upon Jane’s grave and prayed, “May the Secret tulips bloom for Jane right there in heaven so that she would realize how unique our friendship is…”

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

This is my first fiction and only you can help me to improve...
If you think that I have the capability to do better, then please criticize your best...
Of course, you can appreciate... Suggestions are most welcome...
Enjoy reading!!!
Moral - After reading this story, you must be thinking about the review. But I would be more happy if you learn something than writing a review. My first attempt to let you know that future is uncertain and unpredictable. Do what your heart says. Never wait for the perfect moment, just take it and make the moment perfect....
Thanks for reading : )

Reviews

[Cyprian Van Dyke]

Touching story. Had me to the end. I could feel the emotion in Joseph strongly and of Jane. For a sad story it was beautiful.

[Chris A Jones]

Beautiful story. Well written and you are right. Why wait for a moment that may never come. Thank you for sharing.

[Anindita Janhabee]

Thanks a lot for the visit sir.......

[Jyoti Yadav]

I just loved this writing... So many feeling with a small piece of writing. It was like watching a complete romantic movie. I loved it.

[Anindita Janhabee]

Thanks a lot for reading and reviewing... this is the best award for me..

[tanmay7551]

I feel, This is the best of your work so far. No offense - every child is dear to parents but just a personal choice here.

"Even a single tulip becomes a garden when it is gifted with love.."

These lines worked like a coffee for me, my lazy eyes are so active now. Very touching story about young love. Death part was tragic but I could not spend time in sorrow as the flow of the story kept me wondering about the next-next-next and the next line till it was completed.

Wonderful, as always written with passion!

[Anindita Janhabee]

Thank you so much for your uplifting words. I am very happy for having such a nice reader of my works....
I'm glad you liked it.... I'll always try to keep that activeness alive in my writings. Thank you very much one again....

[Ayushi Sharma]

each line of your fiction has made me to read more and more and death of Jane was too much painful....

[Anindita Janhabee]

haan it's the twist that came in their lives, I wanted to show that distance doesn't matter in love, it's true that she's dead but ultimately both of them knew they had loved each other intensely and their love will never die no matter what...

[Ayushi Sharma]

no #Anandita dis is not relatable to me....actually I use to write love poems nd I m emotional in nature..so my eyes filled wid tears....no need to say sorry .. really awesome .

[Anindita Janhabee]

Me too... my genres include emotions, imaginative etc...
thanks once again...

[Ayushi Sharma]

this is awesome and u can write much better den dis one....

[Ayushi Sharma]

this has made me cry ......as I have gone through each line I became full of emotions and my eyes started filling with
tears with each line of this text....

[Anindita Janhabee]

am so sorry if this was relatable to you...
but thanks for feeling the emotions within nd for the review...

[Ashish]

Every time I determine that this time no matter how emotional the poem/story was ..I will not involve myself in it..
But every time your poem/story makes me emotional and that's the quality of your writing..

Well I am also new to world of writers..so dont know much ..
But still I can give one suggestion..

though it was small ..you should add a little description about your characters..

Apart from this I don't have anything to suggest rather I had learnt from your story

[Anindita Janhabee]

I highly appreciate your views.... I'm glad it touched your heart...
i always wanted to touch readers' hearts with my writings... and glad to have done for one...
thank you so so so much...

[Ashish]

It is natural with you.. Just keep writing..

[Khitish Kumar]

Its a natural story