Garden in the coffin

Darkness rises as the sun traverses the center of the sky. She descends into the pit of gravel below.

The room is filled with the scent of perfume and the softness of satin blankets. Nice and cozy for a long journey ahead, if there is any. She nestles inside them, feeling no suffocation. No time exists in her world.

She hears neighbours fighting next door. It might be a couple. All she wants is to enjoy these little quiet moments with herself.

But how can she? She can't unhear the howling from the next room.

She closes her ears tightly with her fingers. Suddenly, a pair of ferns sprout from her ears. They look like her favourite long earrings. The sounds fade to a whisper.

She can't believe the magic she has just created. She laughs, showing her white teeth. The room floods with light—a cool, soft glow like morning sun before it reaches its peak.

Another magic trick unveiled. She grins and experiments with different intensities, controlling the light with her emotions.

A strange discomfort blooms in her chest. She opens it like a door to see that her heart has stopped beating. Carefully, she removes it from all the connecting wires and plants it in the soil. She waters it with a few drops of her blood.

Within a day or two (though time means nothing here), the seed sprouts into a baby plant. The plant turns into a dahlia and starts producing buds with green stems still intact. She wishes they would turn out to be white, her favourite colour.

She hears a knock on the door. She doesn't want to open it, but the knocking starts echoing throughout the room. She opens the door without opening it. A small white rabbit bounds into her room, running around, going out, coming again and running around. She senses its hunger and offers a deal: food in exchange for help growing a garden in her room.

An unusual wish in an unusual place—the rabbit grooms itself thoughtfully, considering the request. 

Without any options, the rabbit agrees. She plucks fresh buds from her dahlia and feeds the rabbit. The rabbit grins after its best-tasting dinner in recent times. A soft, amber light fills the space.

The buds glow like fireflies in the snow. 

The rabbit asks what kind of plants she wants to start in the garden.

After a very long explanation and demand from her, the rabbit sighs and wishes it hadn't knocked on her door in the first place. Though with no choice, they both prepare the soil for the garden.

She wants roses that look like her beautiful face.

Jasmine in the colour of gold.

Tulips in red, but their bulbs packed with tight yellow filaments. She doesn't want them empty and void.

Orchids shaped like heart pendants.

Ferns and moss in all the available and unimaginable colours.

Hibiscus with the sweet fragrance of mango blossoms.

Lilies that shift colours at her touch.

Then the rabbit asks the practical question: "Where will we find these impossible plant seeds?"

She smiles. "We don't find them. We become them."

She plucks her long black hair strands and plants them in the soil to grow ferns of all colors.

Her tears of joy become jasmine seeds that shimmer gold.

A few drops of her blood become heart-shaped orchid seeds.

The rabbit shakes its fur, and hundreds of lily spores drift out.

She peels the red paint and pieces of wood from the room around her to turn them into hibiscus and red tulip seeds.

She pours her blood into the roots and watches them grow. 

Together, they create a garden of life. A Garden in the Coffin.

As their garden flourishes, something extraordinary happens.

The door of their room glows like the full moon. It begins to glow with the same soft light as her laughter, even though she isn't laughing.

They both open the door, but instead of a hallway, they find a vast meadow where sun and moon exist together at the same time. A million doors float in the distance—each one leading to someone else's hidden room, someone else's secret garden.

"We're not the only ones," she breathes.

As she takes her first step onto the meadow, a long trail of flowers, ferns, and fireflies follows her into the vastness.

The rabbit follows as it sees many other animals jumping from one room to another.

The room she leaves behind remains, waiting for the next person to witness it.