37. Remember this day, Siri

I loved those evenings. Taehee and I had a lot in common, we enjoyed each other's company. Kai and I always made fun of Grant, we had the same antics, the same cockroaches in our brains and the same sense of humour. Dav seemed like an adult big brother. Even though he was only a few minutes older than Kai. Still, of all of us, he was the most established and formed individual.

“What unusual animal would you have?”

Grant immediately frowned and said, “None. I'll never get a pet.”

“ Why?” I couldn't help asking.

Circul Junior looked at me and inquired in surprise: “Have you forgotten? I'm allergic to anything that moves.”

There was so much reproach in his gaze that I didn't have the heart to say anything sarcastic in reply.

“Okay, next,” Dav revealed a new card. “Grant, you've had it again. ‘Which flower are you?’ It's a two-person task. Who's it gonna be?”

“Siri.”

I almost threw a sofa cushion at the guy. Is he trying to get me completely drunk on this healthy drink?

“So what kind of flower are you?” Kai leaned back in his chair, ready to listen.

“Edelweiss.”

“No, you're more of a black batflower,” I interjected.

“Why?” Kai and Taehee asked almost in unison.

Dav had just brought a botany reference book from the library.

Circul opened the table of contents and flipped through a few pages.

“Here. ‘A very rare mountain flower called edelweiss is a sign of fidelity, of love. It's very unusual. The Erians say it is a silver flower. To the people of the Kingdom of Rith, it is the star of the Moon Mountains. Like all mountain flowers, it loves sunlight. It grows in the snow on the edge of the high mountains. Not everyone can see it, let alone pick it. It is a rare plant, only those with love in their hearts can find it. You have to be skilled and strong to reach it. But the one who loves unforgettably will get it. But he must also be worshipped. Only mountains do not yield to everyone, much less their summits...” read the guy.

“It's beautiful, but it doesn't sound like you,” I grimaced and reached for the book. “The black batflower is the devil's flower...” I announced inspiredly, “a flower that looks very much like a black bat hanging from a twig, waiting for night to come. Especially when closed, these wonderful plants resemble ‘bloodthirsty bloodsuckers’. When the strange flowers open, the resemblance to the bat fades, but a new association emerges – long cosmic tentacles growing out of the calyx, trying to grasp everything within their reach. The length of these filiform serpents can be up to forty centimetres, creating a feeling of endless terror and no possibility of hiding from the plant monster...”

“Where do I look like that?”

“You also frighten people with your temper. This flower is disliked and even feared in the realm where it grows. And it's black, like your eyes.”

Grant glared at me angrily; he didn't like it when I tried to piss him off. So what? It was his own fault, who was responsible for the sour taste of grass in my mouth?

“No, that's not good enough. Let's have some normal flowers that everyone knows and that don't hurt personalities,” Kai handed me back the reference book he'd been looking at while Cirkul and I exchanged glances.

I sighed and opened the first page I came to.

‘The foalfoot (mother-and-stepmother)... the underside is fluffy and soft – ‘mother’, and the top is smooth and cold – ‘stepmother’. People say: “A mother loves as the summer sun warms, but a stepmother does not – she is cold as the winter sun”.

This plant has another rather rare peculiarity – its flowers appear before the leaves. The Ritanians call it ‘son before father’.

It grows well on the remains of fires, where there are no competing plants, and the excellent fertiliser – ash – encourages its rapid growth. If you dig up the ground in the part of the forest, especially the spruce forest, where it grows, you will find charcoal – the trace of a fire long ago...’ I read to myself.

Ash... it grows in ash, Grant's eyes and hair are that colour in the light if you look closely from a distance.

“Foalfoot. Kind on the inside and rough on the outside. Like flower petals,” I smiled, remembering the few times Circul Junior had clumsily protected me. He'd tried to cheer me up when I'd been too sad, and he'd always made me angry when I'd been apathetic.

I also remembered the way he'd laughed in his sleep, the way he'd looked at Mati in Oblivion, not at all cruel and prickly. There was still room in his heart for gentleness and generosity, unlike his father, who was ruthless to the core.

Grant's eyes brightened, but only for a moment before I continued, “And he also does things first and then thinks about them and deals with the consequences. It's like the foalfoot. This flower blooms first, and then it has leaves.”

“Okay, Siri. What kind of flower are you?” Kai asked.

“Dandelion,” said Grant.

“Why's that?” I wasn't keen on the role of this unattractive plant.

“The dandelion, like the white lily or the marigold, can serve as an accurate clock. In clear summer weather, its inflorescences open at six o'clock in the morning and close at three in the afternoon. The Erians, for example, used to keep track of morning and afternoon time by the flowers that grew nearby – they are poppies, dandelions and...” Grant read. “You can also use Siri to check the time.”

“How do you do that?” the younger Asanor asked, laughing.

“Siri's stomach always rumbles at lunchtime, she starts yawning at eight o'clock in the evening, but falls asleep at two in the morning. And she doesn't wake up until eleven,” he told us.

I had no idea that Grant-Pomegranate had learned my habits so thoroughly. I looked at him and couldn't think of a single thing to say. What did he love, what did he like? I only knew his dislikes, like Midi's smoothie, dumplings, alarm clocks, parties and animals.

“Okay, Grant, you've won Siri again. Siri?” Kai served me another glass of disgusting smoothie.

I gave Circul the scariest look I could muster, held my breath and drank it all in one go. It seemed I had more than just bad luck in my games of rock-paper-scissors with my enemy number two. That smiling bastard had managed to beat me at everything.

The lot had fallen to the guy again, and I was no longer surprised. Grant had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and so he went on with his life, throwing his luck around.

Dav picked up the forfeit card, ran his eyes over the lines and for the first time that evening he burst out laughing: “Drink any juice/milk/soda out of a saucer.”

“There's no juice, but there's Midi's smoothie!” Kai jumped up from his seat and brought a second pitcher of green sludge.

“Well, that's not fair...” Circul made a pitiful face.

We emptied a shallow plate of biscuits and filled it to the brim with the housekeeper's drink. Karma had finally caught up with Grant. We cheered madly as we watched the guy prepare to drink the disgusting smoothie.

But in the end, as if nothing had happened, he carefully drained his plate. He didn't even grimace!

“Oh, right...” Kai chuckled bitterly. “You can't taste the flavour.”

Grant sat down in his former seat with a satisfied look on his face.

“Shall we continue the game?”

We nodded silently, frustrated and deprived of the epic spectacle.