What the Orchids Remember
Hola, pues. Buenas tardes, mi nombre es Encyclia cyperifolia, y me llaman la de hojas de Junco.
What? What? Who’s talking there? Cried White Knight in his usual uncontrolled loud voice.
Soy yo! The newcomer was trying to make herself heard above the conmotion her greeting had caused.
Will you please all calm down. Requested Yellow Bird to the top of her small lungs. I will try to talk to her. She is talking Spanish, I know because my grower always talked in that language around me.
Well, we all talk Engligh here! Added White Knight. Why is she now trying to bring that language into our midst? We are all American here!
Do not pay attention to him, newcomer. How should we call you, you said something about leaves? Leaves of what?
Junco, and thanks for helping me, it is difficult when you come from abroad.
Oh, but you do talk English.
A bit, just a bit, only. Replied Encyclia.
Why do you say, abroad? Enquired White Knight with his usual rudeness.
Will you help me, miss? Requested the Encyclia of Yellow Bird.
Sure. Go ahead and I will try to put it in our language.
Yo vine de muy lejos, y de donde yo vengo, no se habla en esta lengua, sino en Español.
She says she came from very far away, and that there they do not talk our language.
Nonsense. Interjected White Knight, this is the only language.
No it is not, White Knight. Why don’t you keep quiet for a while and let this newcomer explain about herself? That is what a true Knight should do.
White Knight mumbled something, but peace was restored in the Orchidarium.
And this is what Yellow Bird was able to understand of the Encyclia’s story.
I lived all my life in a land of forests and mountains, sometimes the nights were very cold, while the days were warm, and many of my neighbors, in the grower’s house, had come from high above the mountains in places where air is full of water, and rain comes very frequently. One day, one of the caretakers there came to me, and took me out of my home.
What does that mean, take her out of her home? Insisted White Knight.
She was taken out of her pot.
Why?
She says she was wrapped as we all have, and placed in a place in the dark. But they didn’t put her home there, she was wrapped naked!
What! What horror is this? Naked? Poor thing! Cried one of the Three sisters. How did she survive that?
That is not all she is telling me. Added Yellow Bird. She was not only set in one of those rolling moving things, she was lifted into something else after the rolling movement stopped, and then came a terrible roaring beneath her. Everything trembled. She felt herself rising, though there was no ground beneath her; because she had no home. Not only was there lack of air, but the usual pressure we feel around us here, she didn’t feel that.
Impossible. Commented White Knight, shrugging. That is impossible.
She says she was brought here in an ‘avion’. I don’t know what that is.
Avion? Asked Wakanda. Maybe she means airplane. I know, I’ve heard stories when I was in my other home. It is something that carries us through the air, when we are very far away.
Throught the air? Even more impossible to accept. Shrugged White Knight.
Ok, believe it or not, that is what she says. She says she comes from a country that is called Ecuador, and that to be allowed to our country they took her to a place where a man checked her all over. She felt so ashamed.
Naturally, added Wakanda. She was naked, wasn’t she? I would have felt like that also. But I see she is in her little home already.
Yes, caretaker placed her in water as soon as she arrived to our house, and later placed her in her own new home. She is very happy now.
Well, she better learn our language soon. Or are you going to be talking for her all the time? Said White Knight.
She also says that while she was resting on the counter, another orchid arrived; a very tall one. She did not come through the sky. She came in sunlight.
Maybe that’s our new friend there. Added Wakanda, pointing to Vanilla with one of her leaves.
And answering your comment, White Knight, I do not care if I do. She seems quite a nice orchid, not like some we know down here. Replied Yellow Bird, but she wants to learn so she can talk to all of us herself. And I say, White Knight, I would appreciate if you kept your angry comments to yourself.
Hrmph. Was the single answer.