‘When nature is allowed to run wild, things can go wrong.’
Catherine scooped up what had fallen and laid it all back on the table.
‘Can we fix it?’ I asked, staring at the sad, broken orchid. ‘CanIfix it?’
‘Let’s find out.’ She knelt down on the floor, nodding for me to do the same. I slid off the loveseat in my still-damp jeans and sat across from her, cross-legged.
‘Hold your hands out over the stem,’ she instructed. ‘Now, just like before, I want you to breathe.’
It shouldn’t have been a difficult request but as soon as she told me to breathe, I was lost, overthinking everything, like I’d forgotten how and was afraid I’d get it wrong.
‘In then out,’ she chided with tenderness. ‘I’m not trying to trick you.’
A quiet, nervous laugh stuck in my throat as I settled myself, searching for the same sense of stillness I’d found in the park but it was impossible. I could hold an incredibly heavy tree branch up in the air in the middle of a torrential downpour but I couldn’t mend a broken plant stem in the safety of my own home?
‘Don’t be disheartened,’ she said when I huffed out a sigh of frustration. ‘Your mind and your body need to be in harmony. That probably isn’t the case right now.’
‘Not so much,’ I agreed.
There wasn’t an ounce of peace inside me, only too many questions and not enough answers. Catherine reached across the table, looking more bemused than anything else, and covered my hands with hers.
‘I wonder, what might we be able to do if we work together.’
She held out her hands the same way the blonde woman had in the park and when I pressed my palms against hers, a warm, tingling sensation passed over my skin. At first, nothing changed. The orchid lay on the coffee table, just one or two fibres left unbroken in the stem, one petal falling to the floor like a crumpled-up piece of paper.
‘Stop trying to force it,’ Catherine said. ‘Nature can’t be bullied, only asked and encouraged.’
Simple instructions that were impossible to follow. I focused hard, pursing my lips and forcing my eyebrows together, but the orchid stayed exactly as it was.
‘It’s not working,’ I said, slapping my hands against my thighs.
‘Because you’re doubting yourself. Clear your mind and believe that the orchid will be whole again. Stop trying and know it is done. See it, feel it.’
Clearing my mind was not a top-tier skill of mine. Ever since my dad’s accident it was always racing, always overanalysing, searching for the safest, quickest, most efficient option. The only time I’d been off high alert in the last two months, was when I was with Wyn. The warm tingle in my skin spread all over my body as my mind wandered away from the orchid, filled instead with all the colours of his eyes, the soft grey, the vivid green, the warm golden brown. I pictured the freckles on the bridge of his nose, imagining myself leaning in closer and closer until …
‘Emily, open your eyes.’
I hadn’t even realized they were closed.
The stem of the orchid glistened, bright green threads knitting themselves together, binding into strong, thicker fibres until it was complete again, and the blossoms that had wilted away entirely were lush and healthy. I pulled my hand away frommy grandmother’s to stroke one of the unfurling petals and felt a rush of joy as if we were still connected; me, Catherine and the plant.
‘Oh,’ I whispered, stifling a laugh of happy surprise. ‘We did it.’
‘You did it,’ my grandmother said tenderly. ‘When you have faith in yourself, you can accomplish anything.’
‘Anything?’ I replied.
‘Anything within reason.’ She smiled as the orchid bloomed more beautifully than ever. ‘You will have so much strength, Emily. All you have to do now is learn to control it. You must show discipline.’
I heard her, somewhere in the back of my mind, but I wasn’t really listening, too busy staring at the thriving plant in front of me.
‘I can’t believe it,’ I marvelled, still speaking so softly, afraid to make any loud noises in case it spooked the newly revived flower. ‘We brought it back to life.’
Catherine had no such concern.
‘No, we didn’t,’ she said, speaking sharply. ‘That’s not how our magic works. We cannot bring anything back once it has passed.’
This time I was the one who knew what was coming next.
