The Petal

Once upon a time there was a petal - pink, smooth and free. It loved to travel to different places with its friend, the wind. The beach was its favourite place because he loved the sand, the sun and the water with its neverending view. But soon people started to notice the petal. They thought it was odd for it to hangout at the beach. They said: "Shouldn't the petal be in some garden or better even in a bouquet for someone's wedding?" The petal was oblivious to this. It was a wanderer, a gypsy and had the sould of freedom. From where it saw things, nothing was odd. Sure it liked to visit the garden to meet family and friends but it knew its true home was the beach. Wind and the petal spend days on the seashore making sandcastles, talking to spirits and making jewellery with seashells. The petal also loved to read and would pick up stray bits of paper that people left behind and was very knowledgeable but unaware of the vices of the world.

A big man had been observing the petal for days and the fact that the petal would roam the beach wouldn't go well with him. "It is unnatural," he thought, almost pitying the petal. He took the petal home and put it in a beautiful crystal vase thinking that's where he deserved to be. The petal was adventurous and started to explore the place but soon got bored and wanted to go back to the beach. But it was stuck in the vase and started calling out to its friend, the wind but wind was no where to be found. The petal decided to sit down and wait, hours and days passed and the petal started losing itself. It lost its pink colour and the smoothness was replaced with wrinkles. It started to look like a gloomy brown. It started sleeping a lot because it had nothing to do. The big man sat on his couch, proud of his good deed. He helped nature put things in order after all. The petal lay at the bottom of the vase, sleeping soundlessly because it was dreaming of the ocean, its home.