Today, I woke up at 5:30 am to the sound of rain outside. Not just a drizzle, but an earnest downpour. At first, lying all disoriented and sleep heavy in bed, I thought that it would be okay to skip plant evacuation. Especially for those darn adeniums that always need to be removed from rain and placed under some kind of shelter. But then, mom’s sad little face floated up in front of me. She loves her adeniums. Sometimes all I hear from her is, “Adeniums, adeniums, adeniums.”
She would be crushed if the water got to them. So I dragged myself out of bed before sunrise on a working day for a bunch of spoilt ass plants.
“Where are you going?” my sister’s hoarse voice floated out from the grey-blackness next to me. She was staying with us for a few days so we were bunking together.
“Going to save the plants,” I replied, trying to figure my way out in the dark.
“Need any help?” she mumbled.
I told her to sleep and made my way upto the roof. Despite taking the umbrella, it didn’t help. Because the adenium pots were too heavy to hold with one hand, so in the end I had to keep the umbrella aside and get wet while saving them. Mission completed, I was closing the roof door when Mom came up the stairs exclaiming in surprise.
“I’d decided to let them be in the rain today!” she said making a cute face and then hugging and kissing me. “You’re my angel.”
I hadn’t thought about it that way. But it felt really good being called an angel.
“I didn’t want you to be sad about your adeniums,” I said, and had more love showered on me. Even sleep sozzled I was pleased to be adored thus at 5:30 am.
Back in the room my sister too said nice things to me though she was half asleep. Must admit, if I had to wake up at 5:30 am and run out in the rain for plants, it was great to be appreciated for it even if that wasn’t the intent with which I did it all.