The Prince and the Plant Whisperer

Kicked Out by an Eccentric

[~Posted 7/12/21]

[A/N: Whoa! P&PW fan art sent by randomhomie05! WHAT!? Wattpad always messes up my tagging, but this chapter is dedicated to this amazing reader who turns out to be a talented writer AND illustrator themselves! Consider this a glimpse of Kai imagining herself and Lukas under The Umbrella]

As a month neared, Nina started getting better.

Kai tried not to think about how much school she'd already missed.

But you've had mixed feelings about college anyway! Maybe this is fate, giving you a way to pull the plug on school?

With the help of an flimsy metal walker, Nina was now taking slow strolls up and down the hospital hallway. She sipped miso soup for breakfast. For lunch Kai brought her egg-salad sandwiches from the deli down the street.

Nina was grumpy. She wanted to get back to the nursery, but doctors kept saying, "We'll be needing to monitor you just a bit longer, Ms. Araki."

Whenever doctors had stepped out of the room, Nina turned to Kai, and grumbled and grumbled. "They just want to rack up a big bill," she grumbled. "This whole hospital's a racket," she grumbled.

Kai said, "But you couldn't even walk or talk last week!"

"And now I can." protested Nina. "So now? If they're still keeping me here, it's a racket."

Then the elderly woman pressed her wire-rimmed glasses up toward her face. "Kai," she said, seeming suspicious. "How long have you been here?"

"Umm," said Kai. "Not that long."

Not that long, considering you're my only family now.

Nina gave Kai a look. Then she breathed in and, with a effortful spasm of her body, the old woman shouted. "Leave!"

Her gnarled index finger was pointing to the door.

"Huh?"

"I said, leave! I don't want you here anymore. Go back to school. I'm tired of this."

Kai was almost hurt.

But Nina had always been stern. Even at the nursery. In fact, Kai once read the online reviews of Mt. Airy nursery. According to a summary panel, users tended to call the owner "grumpy..." and "...eccentric..." and "...sometimes a weirdo.." even though "...the plants here are top notch..." and "...I swear, her plants have their own green thumbs..."

At the very least, Nina had always been very independent. If anything, she'd mostly "put up" with Kai's presence in the beginning. Back then, Nina's acceptance of Kai had been almost grudging. Mostly, the older woman was too absorbed in her hibiscus cultivation project to pay Kai any attention.

But then, gradually, Kai's help became welcome—though she never could put her finger precisely on when things changed.

Except now.

Now, Kai's help was very, very unwelcome.

"If you don't leave and go back to school," said Nina, "I'm going to summon the nurse and have her kick you out."

As a threat, Nina hitched up the sleeve of her hospital gown, then jabbed her finger in the direction of a red button on the hospital bed.

"I can't believe you!" Kai felt so bitter she was almost laughing. "I've been here with you for a month? And you're kicking me out like this?"

Nina's eyes blazed with triumph.

"A-HA!" the old woman yelled. "A month. So that's how long you've been here. Way too long. Get out!"

Kai suddenly felt like a horse being shooed away from a pond.

Nina added more calmly, "Go back to the hotel. There'll be something there for you."

Kai felt she couldn't fight Nina on this. This was clearly what the old woman wanted. And if a bedridden, infirm elderly woman decided that her one wish—her single, most ardent wish—was to never see your sorry-ass self again, well—

—you had to go along with it.

So Kai caught a cab back to her hotel room. It was a simple, budget inn with firm mattresses and thin gray comforters. It'd been clean. And close to the hospital. Perfect.

But between the hotel stay, and the cabs to and from the hospital, Kai's savings-account balance was getting close to zero. A week ago, she'd decided not to flinch if she started going into credit-card debt on the trip.

I'll stay here for ten months if it helps.

Except now Nina was sending her back.

On her small bed, Kai ate a granola bar for dinner and watched four episodes of a Korean TV show, before closing her laptop with a sharp bang.

Why are K-Drama hospital scenes always so tragic and sweet? Kai thought to herself, feeling cross.

Not like today—when I got unceremoniously booted out of the hospital by a mean old lady!

Maybe Nina's grumpiness was contagious.

She found herself trying to picture being back at school.

Being back under her furry white blanket in bed. Or sitting on the bay window alcove, reading about perennials. Cramming all the equations and assignments and vocabulary quizzes she'd missed.

That day she'd left: she was going to meet Lukas. Out of the blue, her mind was swarmed with the image of the upperclassman's dark eyes, and his silent, oddly warm smile. 

The "intimacy experiment" report he said he wanted to show her.

That'd been a month ago, now!

Her memory flashed again: the brief moment she'd stood there, under his umbrella.

Like an imp making mischief, her mind morphed that memory into a new vision—an imagining of something that didn't come to pass. She's standing there, again, under the umbrella, inches away from him. The rain drums down on the black nylon above them, as he puts his arm around her, and walks her to the library, in the storm.

That meeting they'd planned, and she'd cancelled.

Who knew what he was doing now. Or thinking.

Right then, interrupting her thoughts, an envelope slid onto her hotel room's carpet from under her door.

"Left for you at the front desk, miss!" a valet's muffled voice trilled from outside.

Opening the envelope, Kai found a note from Jose, Nina's right hand man at Mount Airy Nursery.

Dear Kai,

Nina called.

She had me use Mt. Airy's business account to buy this for you.

She told me to remind you that it is non-refundable. It will be WASTED if you don't use it. Nina told me to capitalize and underline the word WASTED. Yeeps! <_<

Anyway, I'm sorry we're not going to get to say goodbye this time around. But thank you for all your help this month. I hope we'll all reunite at Mt. Airy down the road.

Best, Jose

And along with Jose's handwritten note, there was a one-way, non-refundable plane ticket with Kai's name on it, back to New Haven.

Leaving at 8AM tomorrow.

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🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

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