A Springtime Dandelion Wish

He picked me up from my favourite place to get Pho, It was in the middle of a heatwave but my brain was feeling soupy so I fancied it poetic enough, one of the few sentiments I could muster in that mood. “It’s been one of those days” my voice echoed, my breath stinking of cigarettes and fresh rolls with avocado. “Tell me about it...” he unleashed on me his problems which took a high priority compared to my baby woes from average joes. I felt a little sunburnt partially from the heat, partially for even imagining I could relate.

The magnitude of his attitude helped me shake my mood. All that was left in that passenger seat was my dropped jaw and my well known disease of empathy.

“Let’s get some ice cream”

I dragged his beaten and defeated bones to a new parlour that opened up around the corner. Half a scoop of bubblegum and half a scoop cotton candy had us both feeling dandy, well known fact, Ice cream always pairs well with sympathy.

However right when we hit that B12 and sugar high, one text brought him back to that ground zero lowest of low

Now, I’m an expert in handling that high, navigating your sugar ebbs and flows so when I saw his crash and felt his low, I could tell his stomach was churning with thoughts amidst the dairy like treat, the rainbow sprinkle speckles and that obnoxious heat. I had to move fast.

I bent down and plucked a dandelion between my finger and thumb. A hundred seeds n 'dreams ready to be spread, ready to find their roots and thus cause a hundred more blooms.

I was transported to myself as a child, holding a single stem. I remembered how I only ever dedicated one wish for all a hundred of those seeds. Every time I would pick up the weed I'd close my eyes, pause in thought and really think of what it was I always did want. I always saved the deepest dreams and wonderful wishes for those spring days. Determined that out of all 100 chances, one was bound to stick.

Beside my friend who was beside himself, I realized how strange it was that we wished on the blossom once it's dead. The ultimate symbol of what we expect to come from the ashes. Our deepest secrets, our whispering hearts wishes, 90% chance of sticking, in one blow.

I gave what remained of the wishes to him and demanded him to make a single one. It didn’t take much persuasion, for often when we are feeling our spirits sinking, like weeds, we will attach ourselves to anything.

I watched him him close his eyes and pause in thought before blowing all those wishes away to their future destinations. It was his pause that showed me, that this was the wish, this was the one bloom deep down in his mangled heart he wanted, wished and willed to catch. I couldn't help but smile, neither could he.

A couple weeks later I let that child like optimism drift away again. I was in that mood of moods. I was stuck in traffic in my overheated car, the one with no AC, the air was as stagnant as the thoughts in my head.

I felt the breeze come in and hit the beads of sweat at the back of my neck, and while that should have sent a chill down my spine, I just felt numb that time.

That's when I noticed a hundred different dandelion seeds carelessly floating down that still highway. I watched them dance in the breeze, off cars, such beautiful chaos, before falling to the other and much greener side of the road.

That was when one daring dandelion seed drifted into my car and gracefully landed right on the top of my right thigh. A chill ran straight to my bones.

I could feel it's magic.

I placed it on the tip of my finger, searched the depths of my soul past the bubbles and sweet tooth, to the truth. I found the one wish my spirit wanted more than anything to land.

I whispered it to the ash, the single seed that remained of that dead weed and let it fly away in the air as I drove off. This time, I didn't need a hundred chances, I knew and still believe that wish so deep, will keep.