Roots and Oxygen

Chapter 15 - Perplexing Pothos

"I don't want to sound crazy, but I swear it was glowing!" Sage said, holding out the purple plant pot. The Devil's Ivy hung a few feet over the sides. The leaves that touched his skin were slowly moving back and forth. "I know this plant is different to others, but you cannot tell me that glowing is now normal."

Mrs Beecham stared with brows to her hairline and pursed lips. Her eyes flicked from the Prince and to the plant in his hands, then back again. "...Oh yes," she then said. "It's quite normal at this stage." Sage was shocked as she strode over and casually touched the longest stalk. "It's very healthy. You've been doing a great job."

"Did you not hear me correctly? This plant was glowing so bright, I could hardly miss it. Nothing about that is quite normal." Mrs Beecham's eyes glanced to the shed doors as if she was planning a swift exit. Sage stepped in front of her. "This plant is either haunted or cursed and I think you know that."

"Don't be absurd," she snorted.

Sage had seen her laughing at others. If she really did find Sage crazy, she would be laughing until tears streamed her face. But now, her mouth was a trembling mess as though she fought with her true emotions.

"Well... there's something not right with this plant."

"In what way?"

"It requires more water than a human, it grows unnaturally fast, it moves around my room, wobbles for no reason at all, the leaves respond to my touch, and now it glows bright green."

Mrs Beecham's mouth opened and closed like she wanted to form a strong argument, but she couldn't. She just shoved on her gardening gloves and edged around the Prince. "Are you helping me with these flowers?"

"Is this some sort of illegal plant?" Sage asked, ignoring her question.

"Prince, what are you expecting me to say? That it's alien? That it has a mind of its own?"

"Of course not," Sage mumbled. He put the pot on the worktop. "Maybe I'm just, I don't know, stressed."

Mrs Beecham loitered by the door. "I'm not doubting what you have been experiencing. Plants have little personalities, and some are more special than others."

"I don't know what you mean by that."

"Maybe this plant is just a special plant, and how lucky you are, Prince Sage, to have something so unique."

"That was sarcasm. I don't like it when you do that. There's something up with this plant and you're not telling me." Sage knew what he had seen, and that was a bright green light emitting from every leaf.

Mrs Beecham faced him with a seriousness Sage had only seen when a lawnmower went rogue and cut right through her roses. "I was reluctant to let you look after the plant, and this is why. Though I didn't think you'd notice its quirks. But now that you have, I should tell you not to speak about this to anyone else. This will sound very strange to anyone other than myself."

Sage stared hard at the plant. "So, it is illegal then?"

"In the wrong hands, yes."

"Has it got healing properties or something?"

Mrs Beecham also stared hard at the plant. "You can talk to me about every little thing the plant does, if it freaks you out, but nobody else. Is that understood, Prince Sage?"

Sage looked up. Nobody other than his family spoke to him with such authority. He allowed nobody else to talk to him that way. "Understood."

"Now take the plant back up to your room. I'll be planting flowers for the rest of the day, so come back when you're ready to help."