Mirror Grass
Kai stepped up to the counter in the lobby of the Finch Botanical Gardens and checked his reflection in the glass.
“Just one?” The cashier asked.
“I’m Kai. I’m here for Annie.” He looked up, glancing around the bright room at the wall of plants to the right. Ferns, tillandsia, ficus, and philodendrons all spilled out from the wall to ground. Kai nodded approval, it was an impressive installation.
The cashier raised an eyebrow. “The new guy?” She stuck out her hand, Kai took it and squeezed. “I’m Serena. We all have to take turns at the desk. You’re probably great with people though, so I wouldn’t worry about it. I’ll be your teammate in the Mountain Room, so we’ll talk more later.” She laughed and dropped Kai’s hand, picking up the black walkie-talkie sitting next to the register.
“Serena to Annie, over.”
“Yeah?”
“Fresh meat’s here. Hide all the mirrors, he’s one of those.” Serena winked at Kai. “Wearing his sunglasses inside.”
Kai frowned and slowly took his sunglasses off. “Bright in here,” he said, clearing his throat.
“Send him to the Mountain Room. I’ll be waiting,” the tinny voice on the other end of the radio said.
Serena put down the walkie-talkie and pushed her long black hair behind her ears.
“Do you know where the Mountain Room is?”
Kai smiled, glancing at his reflection again in glass again before walking toward the inner door.
“I’ll find it, no worries. This is one of the smaller gardens I’ve been to. Thank you, Sarah.”
“It’s Serena!” She called after him. He waved without turning around and pushed through the door into the Tropical Room. The Tropical Room was ten degrees warmer than the one he’d come from and much more humid. He fanned the collar of his t-shirt as he walked through, sidestepping children and other patrons as he did. He gave the plants a cursory glance, knowing he’d have much more time later to examine them in detail. There were begonias, orchids, aroids, everything exotic and lush. He felt sweat start to moisten his skin and hurried to the door on the other end of the room. Not that he didn’t look good beaded in sweat, he absolutely did, but he didn’t like his shirt damp.
The Mountain Room, a simulation of the mountainous regions of China’s Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, would be cooler. This was where he was headed, to work with the garden’s famous mountain flora, many of which were critically endangered in their native habitat. Although still a PhD student, Kai’s research into Corallodiscus kingianus, a little known lithophyte, was going to be crucial to showcasing the Garden’s newest acquisitions. Corallodiscus were notoriously hard to grow in captivity, but Kai’s research had shown that if grown in conjunction with moss and at precise temperatures, the Corallodiscus were less temperamental. He had been working on some techniques for co-planting in the lab and had been invited to try them out in the Finch. When he reached the Mountain Room he pulled the door open and strolled in.
He spotted the only people in gumboots and gloves and headed their way, smiling at them, so he didn’t appear too intimidating. He was, after all, an expert. And a good looking one.
“Annie?” He said, broadening his smile. She looked up from her conversation and nodded. The man she spoke to raised an eyebrow at Kai, but remained silent.
“Hey, New Guy, give me one more second. I need to wrap up this conversation. Have a look around while you wait.”
“It’s Kai. And I prefer not to wait.”
“I know your name. And I hear you, but I’m finishing this conversation. Please look around while you wait.” Annie nodded again, smiling briefly before turning back to her conversation. Kai felt his face go hot. He pressed his palms against his thighs to keep himself from balling his fists up, a bad habit he was trying to break. Fine, he was on her dime, anyway. He took a deep breath, tasting the moist air. The Mountain Room was bright and cool, but still humid. Kai refocused himself on the plants.
The Yunnan and Sichuan held some of the most diverse flora in the world. Roses, peonies, hydrangeas, rhododendrons, irises, lilies, orchids, magnolias, and many, many more grew natively in these regions. Kai had been to the mist shrouded Yunnan twice on collection trips and always found it to be a spiritual and arcane place. It would be difficult for a room in a botanical garden to properly capture the essence of the Yunnan, but Kai felt that the master gardeners here had put forth a good effort. He was especially impressed by the addition of Saussurea medusa, a strange, hairy clump of plant growing in a bed of unforgiving shale. The garden was arranged much like the mountain itself, in the center stood an impressive meadow broken up by large rhododendrons and wild roses. Kai could see that the meadow had been planted to ensure there were flowers blooming all year long. A strange dirt trench ran through the center of the meadow, it was broken up by large boulders and was slightly overgrown with grass and reeds. Kai wasn’t sure what it was meant to be, but settled on having the trench explained later.
Around the meadow was a walkway and around the outer rim of the garden, rock walls simulated the mountainous terrain of the Yunnan. Moss and many of the rock-dwelling plants of the Yunnan grew in the rocky crevices and outcrops. One plant Kai was pleased to see was Pilea peperomioides, often called the UFO plant because its disc-shaped leaves resembled flying saucers. They were extremely rare in their native habitat, but could sometimes be found growing in shady rock crevices. These particular P. peperomioides were very glossy, perhaps because of the humid environment. Kai hadn’t been lucky enough to see one on either of his trips to the Yunnan, he’d only seen them as houseplants. He bent down to study the round leaves and could distinctly see his reflection in them. He’d always heard that the Chinese called the Pilea peperomioides, mirror grass, and always thought it referred to the shape, not the shine. But there it was, his handsome mug smiling back at him, albeit green and muted. He swept a few loose strands of hair off his forehead and grinned at himself.
“Looking good, man,” he said.
“Kai? I see you approve of our Pilea addition.”
Kai stood, flipping his hair back.
“Annie, good to finally talk to you,” he stuck his hand out to the middle aged, master gardener. “Haven’t had the pleasure of seeing one in the wild, I’m happy to see them here. Do they flower in the garden?”
“They haven’t yet, but we’re hoping.” Annie removed her leather gloves and took Kai’s hand, giving it a firm shake. Kai’s eyes slid from hers back down to the pilea, he could still see his face in the leaves, twenty or so handsome young men staring back up at him. He pulled his gaze away and back up to Annie.
“Funny little plants, aren’t they?”
“Very charming,” she nodded, a small smile on her mouth. “So, how’s the place we found for you? I know it’s not much, but hopefully it will work for you for the time being.”
“It’s… a roof. I’ll have to have you and the other master gardeners over sometime. A little wine, a little plant talk. Maybe some dancing,” Kai gave her a half smile.
“We’ll see.” Annie nodded, not smiling back.
“Yes,” Kai, ran a hand through his hair. “So, where do you want to put the Corallodiscus? It looks like you’ve got a pretty full house.”
“Ah, yes, over here.” She led him to a corner of the outer ring to a rocky nook overgrown with moss. “We feel like this space should fit all of the requirements for growing the kingianus, but haven’t had luck getting them to root.”
Kai pulled a temperature and moisture gauge out of his satchel and set it on the moss.
“It’ll take a minute or two to get a stable reading,” he said. Laying his hand on the moss, “Feels too warm, though.” He looked at his watch. “Just a couple of minutes.”
Annie nodded, picking some dead leaves out of a patch of purple Paraquilegia anemonoides.
“I had a good flight here,” Kai said. “I bumped myself up to first class. I can’t stand flying coach, all the kids and cramped seating. You know? I actually have a really hard time tolerating people I don’t know touching me. This is a real issue when I have to travel, but normally a little bottle of whiskey helps ease my nerves.” He laughed.
“I don’t fly much,” Annie glanced at the thermometer, “Think it’s ready yet?” Kai looked at his watch, then at the thermometer. Then at Annie, he had looked her up online, middle aged, single, fit, smart, and not bad looking. He was hoping she would serve as a diversion while he was here. But her personality was certainly lacking. She didn’t even look at him while he spoke.
“Too warm, it’s at 75º Fahrenheit, needs to be at 70º. What I’ve done in the past is use a chilled mister to keep the moss cool. I’ve actually done a lot of experimenting with this. Air flow doesn’t work.”
“Obviously,” Annie broke in. “You’d dry out the moss.”
“Well, yeah, you dry out the moss. So chilled mist is a good method. I’ve also had luck with a liquid cooling system similar to what gamers use in their PCs. I’ve actually run tubing through the moss and around the Corallodiscus. This has the benefit of not raising the humidity, which can be important. But that all depends on the plants around the Corallodiscus. The liquid cooling method is not easy to do, but fortunately you have me here to guide you through it.”
“Fortunately, of course.” Annie nodded, smiling this time. Kai jumped on it.
“You’re smile really lights up your face, has anyone ever told you that?”
“That is generally the case for most people, don’t you think?” Annie started to walk away, “Come on, I’ll show you the greenhouses.”
Kai trotted after her. “So I’m a bit of a gamer myself. I play COD, you’ve heard of it?”
“Nope.” Annie led him out a side door into the morning sun, the air immediately felt hot and dry.
“Call of Duty? No? I’m a God with a sniper.”
“Lovely, I don’t really game.”
“Well, you’ll have to come over and play sometime. I bet you’d be great. I’ll show you all the tricks. I’ll be able to get you playing like a pro in no time.” He bumped her shoulder with his.
“I’d rather not, I don’t like guns.” The greenhouses were two long white buildings that stretched out behind the big glass dome of the gardens. Annie walked quickly along the path between the main building and the first greenhouse.
“Ah, it’s just a little game. No harm in it. You know studies haven’t linked game violence to actual violence, right?”
“Kai,” Annie stopped and turned to him. “I’m not gaming with you. Ok?”
Kai bit back the standard, reflexive response that sprang to his lips and nodded.
“Sure, something else then.” He tried to remain outwardly calm, inwardly he was fuming. No one turned him down. Not even married women.
“Ok, so here is greenhouse One, that’s where we’re growing the Corallodiscus kingianus. They’re growing just fine in our clay substrate, but as soon as we get them into the rock wall they die.” Annie typed a code into the key pad on the greenhouse door. “Once we’re done here, I’ll show you to the office, they’ll get you all the codes and your badge.” She pulled the door open and the air changed again, warm and moist.
Kai cleared his throat. “I’m surprised they’re growing in here, it’s way too hot.”
“We’ve got them at the end, next to their own cooled mist system, which we did try on the rocks, just didn’t work. They seem happy out here though, they even flowered this spring.” Annie led him down a long row of wooden tables packed with nursery pots of a wide variety of plants. As they walked down the row, Kai looked with awe at the display, carnivorous plants, ferns, orchids, all kinds of plants. Even the mirror grass he’d admired earlier had a section. As he passed them they seemed to light up, shinning at him and reflecting his face. He felt a warmth inside that made him nearly laugh out loud. He forgot his irritation at Annie. He stopped and gazed down at them, they seemed to be looking back up at him. A little field of his own face.
“Kai?”
“Oh, sorry.” He tore his gaze away and trotted down the aisle, “They’re so mesmerizing.”
Annie furrowed her brow. “I mean they’re cute, but mesmerizing is going a bit far.”
“What do you mean? They way they reflect your face back at you, and kind of follow you, it’s remarkable. I’m not surprised they’re such popular houseplants.”
Annie put her hands on her hips and looked past Kai to the pileas. Most of their leaves were facing up, toward the light above them.
“They follow you?”
Kai looked behind him, “Yeah, I mean maybe they don’t, but it’s, I guess an optical illusion or something.”
“Huh, I never noticed.” Annie shrugged, “So here are the kingianus. We currently have ten, we’d like to get at least half out on the display rock. They’re growing well in here and we have decent interest from rock gardeners to purchase pups. We can propagate them just fine, but until we can get them to actually grow on a rock, we don’t want to sell them. The Finch prides itself on being an educational facility, if we can’t educate people on proper growing techniques, we don’t sell a plant.”
“It shouldn’t be a problem. First we’ll need to decide what kind of cooling system you want to go with, then we can go from there.”
“For that we’ll need to sit down with the director. She controls the budget, so she makes the decisions. We’ll meet with her tomorrow. For today I’m just going to show you the ropes, show you what you’ll do day to day in the Mountain Room, and introduce you to Serena. She’s the other Mountain Room caretaker here. Sound like a plan?”
“You mean Sarah? I met her.”
“Her name is Serena, I think I know my employee’s name. You ready to go?”
Kai’s hands tensed, he pushed them against his thighs, “Yes, let’s go.” He was genuinely excited about the opportunity. He’d mostly worked in greenhouse labs and done consulting from his laptop, taking care of an entire specimen garden was a big step up in his career. “Lay it on me.” He rubbed his hands together.
Annie rolled her eyes. “First, to the office.”
The garden was quiet, gentle morning sun filtered through the glass dome above and only the sounds of water dripping from irrigation lines and trickling down rocks could be heard. Kai had gotten to work early, eager to get started, to ensure he was stealing all the praise Annie had heaped on Serena the day before during his orientation. He was, after all, smarter, better educated, better spoken, and better looking. He tilted his head and gazed in the mirror grass’ little mirrors, the large round leaves tilted with him. He was definitely better looking. He tilted his head the other direction and the leaves followed. It was so cute that they did that. And weird Annie didn’t notice. Unless, the mirror grass only responded to beautiful people. That could be it. Only he was beautiful enough to attract the plant. He wondered how the plant ‘saw’ him, photoreceptors maybe? Like the mimic plant, Boquila trifoliolata. That plant could see and then mimic the shapes of other plants’ leaves, astonishing in its own right, but this mirror grass could not only distinguish a human face, it had preferences. If he were to demystify this behavior, he’d be famous. The most sought after botanist in the world. It was just kind of weird that no one else had ever noticed. It was such a popular houseplant, someone had to have noticed the mirror grass reflecting their faces before.
“Hey, Kai, what are you doing?”
Kai looked up to see Serena standing on the walkway with a bucket and trowel. Kai felt his face get hot. He looked down, Serena’s face wasn’t in any of the leaves. Clearly, she wasn’t good looking enough, either. The mirror grass must be very selective.
“Oh, just, I thought I saw aphids.” He cleared his throat, “Where do we start?”
“Ew, you didn’t right? See aphids? Oh my God that would not be good.” She rushed over to the mirror grass and knelt down. Carefully inspecting each leaf.
“No, it was nothing, honestly, just need coffee I guess.”
Serena looked up at him with a scowl. “Yeah, I don’t see anything. Geez, way to freak me out, thanks.” She stood up. “As for where we start, we go around the outside rim first, we’ll work in opposite directions, basically checking to make sure the irrigation is working and that all the plants look good, remove dead leaves, check for pests, trim unruly growth, that kind of thing.” She pulled a second bucket out of the one she carried and handed it to Kai, inside were gloves and a trowel. “We’ll start at that door and meet at the door on the other end. Then I can show you how we take care of the meadow. It’s a little bit trickier. Any questions before we start?”
“Nope, I got it.” Kai took his bucket and set to work. As he worked he tried to not to think about the mirror grass. He needed to stay focused on the Corallodiscus kingianus, he did have a meeting with the director later, and he needed to be prepared. He had picked the side of the garden with the rock where the kingianus would eventually be planted so he could spend a few minutes inspecting it. The moss was thick, he could definitely run a liquid cooling system through it with no one even noticing. And since distilled water was used in the tubes there was no risk posed to the plants if it leaked. The systems weren’t large, one could easily be hidden. Cost would be the only issue, a good cooling system could run the Finch upwards of seven hundred dollars, more if he needed a lot of tubing.
Kai moved on to his next plant, this would be a simple project, he’d get the kingianus growing on the rocks in a couple of weeks and be a hero. Then his real work could start, the mirror grass. He had to know its secret. As he worked his way along he came again to the little planting of mirror grass, growing out of a rock crevice. The little disc leaves moved as he checked all of the plants around them, doing his best not to get distracted. But they followed with their glossy round leaves, and reflected his beautiful face as he moved. It was so hard not look. He was so perfect. His face held perfect symmetry. He’d always considered himself ruggedly handsome, and he had a perfect jawline.
“Kai, you’re doing it again.” Serena stood next to him, her bucket full of dead leaves, her glasses a little foggy. Kai looked at his bucket, it was nearly empty and he’d only made it a quarter of the way around. Serena gently nudged him out of the way, looking down at the mirror grass. “I mean it’s cute, but there are definitely more interesting plants to stare at. And I don’t know how you’re seeing your reflection, the leaves are not that glossy. I don’t see anything. Have you been in the pitcher plant room? Geez some of those puppies are weird. And wait until we get into the meadow, I swear I can stare at the Cypripediums for entire minutes. I love to draw them, actually. Do you draw?” She had begun to move along the path, working as she talked. Kai followed behind her, being taller, he took the plants above, kicking himself for being so focused on success that he had to give Serena the upper hand in this menial work.
“Yes, I draw. I had drawings in a botanical art exhibition in San Francisco while I lived there. I’m quite good. I could probably give you some tips.” He plucked a withered flower off of a Corydalis hamata.
“Humble, aren’t you? Anything you’re not good at, Mr. Universe?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“Wow, I was joking.”
Serena chattered while they worked. Kai, looking back every now and then to the mirror grass, as he tried to stay focused on what she said. Every time he looked there were a few leaves turned his direction. As they reached the end of the rock wall he felt an overwhelming urge to shove his trowel in Serena’s neck to stop her constant blabbing and run back to the mirror grass.
Instead he followed her to the meadow.
“So there are stepping stones throughout the meadow, but they’re kind of hidden and it can take awhile to memorize the route.” She stepped over a rope railing and into the grass and flowers. “Just follow me and step where I step. We do a little less in here since many of these plants are annuals and we want to honor their life cycles. Just wait until winter, we drop the temps and simulate snow, it’s magical, really. Cold, but magical.”
Kai followed Serena as they tiptoed through the meadow, careful to only step on the stones and not crush any plants. They checked the irrigation and looked for pests, only cleaning out dead material that wasn’t seed bearing. Kai was mostly able to keep his eyes off of the mirror grass as it was too far away now to see his image in it. But he couldn’t stop thinking about how famous he would be once he had unlocked its secrets. Could it be taught a preference? Trained to dote on its owner? After they had checked the meadow and made sure the doors were unlocked for visitors, Kai was shuttled off to the director’s office to discuss the Corallodiscus kingianus.
The director was an older woman, her gray hair lay over her shoulders in long braids. Her office was small and shabby, but well lit, with a large window overlooking the grounds of the garden. A huge Ficus benjamina stood at the glass and vines of all types draped over her bookshelves.
“Hello, Kai, I’ve heard great things about you.” She reached across her desk with a freckled hand.
“They are all true, of course,” Kai said, sitting in the seat across from her. Annie sat next to him.
“That remains to be seen. It’s only your second day,” Annie said dryly.
The director laughed, “Annie takes her work very seriously.”
“As do I,” Kai shrugged.
“Well, the reason you’re here is-“
“The Corallodiscus, of course. As I’ve explained to Annie, the reason they aren’t rooting is that the rock is too hot, but I can fix that.” Kai flipped his hair back and leaned over the desk, his back to Annie as spoke to the director. He explained in detail how his system would work and what kind of budget he would need. “This will be the fifth installation I’ve done this way and they’ve all been successes.”
“Well, I don’t see as we have much choice, nothing else we’ve tried has worked. And we have enough collectors interested in the plant that I think we could recoup the cost. I’m green lighting it, I’m very interested to see how it works.” The director rose. “I have to run to another meeting,” She turned to Annie, “you’ll keep me apprised of your progress?”
“Of course I will,” Kai cut in. “While you’re both here, I need your cell phone numbers. I prefer to communicate through text as much as possible. It’s so much more efficient than meeting in person.”
The director raised her eyebrows. “I don’t generally hand my cell out to the apprentice gardeners. Annie will give me all the information I need.”
Kai let out a short laugh. “I can’t stress this enough, I prefer efficiency in everything I do and I won’t accept anything less. Your cell numbers are required.”
The director went visibly stiff.
“Gloria,” Annie cut in, “Perhaps Kai and I could use your office for a little chat.”
The director’s face was cold as she responded, “I think that’s a wonderful idea.” She turned and exited the room.
“What exactly is wrong with you?” Annie looked at Kai, tapping her outstretched fingers on the desk.
“I have preferences, that’s not a character flaw.”
“You do not demand people’s personal phone numbers. It’s extremely rude.”
“It isn’t rude to ensure your needs are met.”
“I can’t even believe I’m having this conversation with a grown man. It’s rude to insist your needs are met at the expense of another person’s boundaries. That’s beyond rude, honestly.”
Kai sat back in the shabby green tub chair and looked Annie long in the eyes.
“I think I know what’s going on here, you’re jealous because I’m an expert and I’m coming into your garden and doing something you couldn’t.”
Annie stood. “You communicate to the director through me, is that understood?”
Kai laughed again, “Oh, absolutely.” He knew where the director’s office was, Annie couldn’t follow him around all day. He’d get his time alone with her. He stood and made his way to the door. “Just so you know, I’ve already made an amazing discovery here in your garden, and you’re getting none of the credit.” He opened the door and left.
On his way back to the Mountain Room he passed a large window, his reflection in it sneered, its mouth split too wide and too black. Kai shivered and hurried on, how was that even possible? He needed to see the mirror grass again, it was the only honest reflection in this place. He headed back to the Mountain Room.
It didn’t respond to a single visitor, not even children. That didn’t seem possible. And if he couldn’t find anyone else it responded to, how could he run any kind of proper study? There were hundreds of people a day filing past it here at the gardens, and so far, watching from the other end of the room, Kai hadn’t seen the mirror grass so much as twitch. He felt a tap on his shoulder.
“You’re supposed to be helping in the greenhouse. We don’t babysit in here all day, just walk through periodically to keep an eye on things.” Serena, pointed him to the door. Kai looked back at the mirror grass, it seemed to droop as he walked off. It didn’t make any sense. In the window in the door separating the Mountain Room from the Tropical Room Kai’s face glared at him, his nose dripping off of his face under fierce eyes. Kai hurried through.
That night, alone in his apartment, Kai could think of nothing else besides the mirror grass and his reflection. He stood in front of his bathroom mirror for an hour trying to understand why he looked so much better in a plant’s glossy leaves than he did in an actual mirror. He’d never had this problem before, he’d always loved his face. But he did look better in the mirror grass, of that he was certain. In the bathroom mirror his eyes bulged and his cheekbones looked too sharp. He felt better, too, when he was around the mirror grass. He couldn’t eat dinner that night, the food was bland and felt wrong in his mouth. In bed his own beautiful face haunted his dreams, never looking quite right. In each dream there was something just slightly off about his reflection, one eye was higher than the other, his smile went lower on one side, a tooth rotated ever so slightly out of alignment. He awoke early and unrested.
In the gardens, he stood again in front of the mirror grass, at peace, whole. His face shone like Phoebus. The grass beamed up at him. He could be happy forever here, perfect, forever. He heard the door open on his left and noticed a ripple in his beautiful reflection. It was the intrusion of the outside world that made him ugly, but he was still a part of that world. So what did he do? The grass just returned his gaze, it offered no answer.
“I had a feeling I’d find you here,” Serena’s voice was stifled by the mist swirling in the Mountain Room. “I hope you’re ready for a wet and wild day, we get to turn the river on.”
“The river?”
“The Yangtze. Obviously, there are the three, parallel rivers in this region, IRL, the Yangtze, the Mekong, and the Salween, but we only have so much space. All of the gardens have a water feature, so here, we built a river. It’s a little crazy, but pretty fun. Come on.” Serena led him over to the middle of the meadow. “The Yangtze” was the dirt trench Kai had noticed before. It stretched the thirty feet across the meadow ending at both ends in walls, on one end was a gutter and on the other a waterfall. “The water essentially goes in a loop, going down the gutter, cycling underneath us, and then getting pumped back up via the waterfall. We used jets and strategically placed rocks to churn it up like some of the rapids on the Yangtze. It’s been under repair for a leak, but I got the go ahead to turn it on today so I thought I’d show you how. We only run it when we’re here, so if you get here first every morning, you can turn it on. Assuming you can pull yourself away from the mirror grass.” She grinned at him and laughed, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“Just turn it on.” Kai was interested in the river, he’d love to get underground and see how it worked. From where they stood the trench was only about three feet away, but there were no stepping stones, so he couldn’t get any closer without trampling some Arisaema candidissimum and their strange flowers.
“The control box is here, in the ground.” Serena squatted on the stepping stone where she stood and dusted dirt off of a metal plate in the ground next to it. She pulled up a ring and lifted the plate. Underneath were a red button, a green button, and some numbered buttons. “Red is obviously off, and green is on, the numbers correspond to the speed of the water, five being fastest, and one being slowest. You have to start at one to get it going, but then you switch it to three, and then to five.” She pressed the number one button and it lit up. Then she pressed the green button. Kai felt the ground rumble and could hear the mechanical workings underneath him. Within sixty seconds water began to spill down the waterfall at the left end of the meadow. It wet the dirt and picked up small stones and pebbles as it spilled into the trench. As more and more water flowed in, Kai was a little worried it would overflow the bank, but he hadn’t needed to be, the water stayed in bounds even as it rose higher and higher. Serena pressed number five and jets in the sides of the bank whirred to life, pushing the smooth flowing water out of shape. Kai stood to get a better look over the flowers and grasses. As he did, his reflection rose to meet him.
It was not beautiful, it was distorted and monstrous, torn apart by the water. Rage rose in him. His hands closed into fists. He stomped off his stepping stone, trampling Arisaema candidissimum and their delicate flowers as he went.
“Kai!” Serena screamed. “What are you doing?” She hopped to the stone he’d been on, pulling her walkie-talkie out of her belt and almost dropping it. Kai jumped down into the river, it was only three feet deep, but the current was surprisingly swift. He gazed at his furious and broken face and balled up his fist, brining it down on the water.
“Kai, stop!” Serena screamed. He could hear voices coming from the black box in her hand as he pummeled the water. He would destroy it. At that moment a jet beneath him kicked on, the force of it threw him off balance and he fell backward, striking his head on a rock. The water swallowed him, jets above him, like hands, held him under. He thrashed, enraged. He was favored by the mirror grass, he was perfect. Only he was beautiful enough for their attention. He did not deserve this. He opened his mouth to rage at the river, and it flooded in. The water would bloat his features, turn him pale and discolored. Kai’s last thoughts were of the mirror grass, he hoped they wouldn’t have to see him dead.