"The Chlorokinetic Guthrie"

"The Chlorokinetic Guthrie"

"So you are really going to do it." - said Cissie in a voice suggesting extreme amazement. The teen's eyes grew narrower; the corners of her full lips twitched for a moment, and for an instant, her face in the light of the sunrays falling through the wide open gate of the barn looked like the one of benign, amused Buddha restraining himself from an outburst of joyous laughter.

"It could be always something worse" - added Joelle in a slightly scoffing voice. She too repressed laughter swelling in her; it could be heard in the tone of her voice and the tiny movements of the muscles of her face tanned by the Kentucky sun. She took a quick look at her brother's new girlfriend Flora, sitting on the floor of their barn, pretty as always in her green attire. She looked really flourishing, blooming with health and although she didn't say anything, it looked like she was amused at the whole conversation as well – though for different reasons than Lewis Guthrie's sisters were.

"You could always have ended up with a worse mutation" - consoled Liz, not less amused than the rest of the Guthrie girls, however she was hiding hers better. "Like with the ability to make your own hair explode and fall off."

"Or the ability to make your feet grow big – real big – and making your hands get real small at the same time" - chirped Chloe, who being silent until now, joined the conversation with vivacity.

"Or making your eyes turn orange – and that's all" - chuckled Cissie.

"Turning your teeth vanilla flavored ice cream – and they won't grow back afterwards any more" - added Joelle, still looking at Flora.

"Controlling the length of your nails" - said Liz.

"Communicating mentally with goldfish" - chuckled Chloe.

The next three minutes were filled with the four Guthrie sisters making up the craziest mutations to pester their brother. Until the aforementioned one, having took the last offended glance at his vile sisters, expressing not quite brotherly feelings towards them, put his fingers into his ears, moaning at them to stop. The subject of their talk wasn't exactly the funniest thing to joke about. This was at least what he himself thought about it because the Guthrie ladies didn't seem to share his look on this issue. Nor did his mutant siblings – Sam, Paige, Melody, Jay and Jeb. Or maybe rather, it should be said: Cannonball, Husk, Aero and Icarus because that was how they were called in this mutant school of them. Jeb was the only mutant sibling – but for Lewis now – who didn't join the Xavier's school. But even Jeb, though he still lived with them on their family farm, didn't show too much support to Lewis, mocking his small mutation problem. He, similar to their sisters, was doing his best to come up with codenames for Lewis which were going to be funny but weren't because as innocent as they were, brought bad associations to the boy, making him recall his problem. Names like Chlorophyll, Green Finger or Plant Man. Or Flower Power. It was Cissie, his twin who come up with this last "funny" name. Lewis was the only one who didn't laugh at this. He swore to himself that if his malicious twin sister ever happened to manifest powers too, he would give her a taste of her own medicine. How could she be so sure she wasn't a mutant herself? She was only fifteen, nobody could guarantee to her that in the closest future she wouldn't wake up one day endowed with powers on her own. And who said her powers were going to be practical and powerful? Mutations were different, after all. Actually Cissie Guthrie, the same as Chloe, the other sister had a very big chance of turning out a mutant, given that out of all the members of their large family only Liz and Joelle were those who reached adulthood not manifesting any sort of powers. Mutation ran in this family.

Different kinds of mutation. Jeb could control electricity. Paige, known also as Husk, could shed her skin, revealing the material her body turned into – from glass to stone. Melody, Sam and Jay were in turn capable of flying. And now himself. Last month, Lewis Guthrie discovered that he was capable of mentally communicating with plants. All plants. Including the geranium which was standing on the windowsill in the room Lewis shared with Jeb. It was he who always watered it. Jeb was always forgetting about doing this so the duty of delivering the water to the geranium was all up to Lewis. It was he who watered it and talked to it, assuring it what a beautiful plant it was. He read that talking to plants helps them grow better. The boy didn't know if there was any grain of truth in this but decided to give it a try. And meanwhile, out of a sudden, soon after he discovered his power, it talked to him! Actually, it wasn't "it", as the plant identified itself – herself – as a girl. A girl plant that chose a name for herself – Flora – and wished to be known by Lewis and his siblings under this very name. It wouldn't be that bad if not the fact that Flora was madly in love with Lewis! He was always so nice to her, admired the softness of her red petals and the deep of their color. How much the teen wished he never watered that stupid plant. He should have let her wither away instead of talking to her of all that bullshit about how pretty she was. Because, indeed, Flora started to get prettier and prettier, as if she was going to become as beautiful for him as possible. She even grew new flowers.

But all those sweet words only Lewis could hear – and he was grateful to the Providence that none of his siblings got the power of chlorokinesis; some of the things Flora told him were really dirty, making the poor boy blush all over – were nothing if compared to what came next. The plant proclaimed herself Lewis Guthrie's new girlfriend! She demanded from him being kissed, hugged, told compliments and asked out! All those things Lewis could do with her if Flora the Geranium was a real girl in whose veins flowed blood not chlorophyll. He could just tell her to forget it and he would do it if not one fact he couldn't ignore.

Lucinda Guthrie's garden established the opinion of one of growing the biggest vegetables in the whole Cumberland County. Everybody passing by commented on how good – and delicious – looking they were. For the last ten years, Mrs. Guthrie entered her produce in the local vegetable contest taking place every year. And she won every time. Even if it wasn't the first place, it was the second or, at the very worst case, third place. Lucinda beamed with pride. But it wasn't just the matter of pride, because the money she won was also very important. Making ends meet was difficult on the Guthrie farm since the death of Dad Guthrie, even now, when majority of the kids were at the institute.

However it seemed that the good days for Mrs. Guthrie were coming near an end. And all of this because of Lewis' stupid self appointed "girlfriend" who threatened him that if he didn't do all those things she wanted him to do, she'd talk to all the plants from his mom's garden, convincing them to wither. No, not to the extent that they would die but to look so unattractive that Lucinda wouldn't be able to enter them. Lewis knew Flora could do it, as well as he was aware that he wouldn't be able to convince the vegetables not to follow the gardenia's order. His power wasn't well developed yet and the best he was able to do was talk to them – just talk, not control. He suspected he might develop this latter ability in the future but it was well… the future and Flora's threats were at present time. He thought the safest option would be throwing Flora into the fire or crushing her but he couldn't force himself to do this. It would be wrong. Flora was a living being, which certainly deserved a life. He shared his thoughts with his siblings, in hope some of them would be able to give him better advice – brain storming was considered an effective technique since the times of Alex Faickney Osborn – but he miscalculated. Lewis was sitting in their barn now, exposed to the sneering comments of his sisters (never before did he hope so much that Cissie and Chloe, the youngest of the numerous Guthrie clan would end up with some really nasty mutations) and in his heart slowly swelled hatred for the girls. The boy was sitting on a pile of hay, looking at his sisters and his "girlfriend" which, like a small kitten or a puppy, was now being stroked by Joelle who was smiling maliciously at her brother – her smile widened a bit with every stroke of her long, tanned fingers. To him she resembled a shark at this moment. The boy closed his eyes. Behind his eyelids there were dancing the visions of the deteriorating garden and the money they would lose if he didn't do what he should do. Yes, out of a sudden he knew this, the same as his siblings did, what he had to do. They knew from the very beginning what he would – and should - do about this, in spite of all this mocking. Lewis stood up, reaching his hands for Flora.

"He's going to do it, I told you he would" - said Cissie in a triumphant voice, turning back to the rest of the siblings.

"He would try not to!" - said Elizabeth. "We can't afford to lose the money by his silly whim! I told you girls, if he didn't want to do it, we could always convince Jeb to use his electricity control powers on him." She let out a short chuckle, as if the vision what Jebediah could do to Lewis in the case he didn't want to follow his plant girlfriend's caprice, was the funniest thing in the whole world.

Four pairs of eyes were following Lewis when the boy slowly came to Flora and carefully took the plant in his arms. The green thicket of the twigs and big, round leaves with brown bordering covered with delicate fluff, shielded his face from the curious gazes of his sisters. The long brittle twigs gracefully fell on the teen's arm, as if the plant was embracing Lewis. The boy hugged Flora back, exerting himself for an unnatural smile towards the sisters observing him with satisfaction.

"So can you tell us what exactly you are going to do with this plant?" - asked Cissie, getting more serious.

Her twin brother got stiff for a moment, closing his eyes one more time, as he opened his mind to Flora, establishing a connection with the geranium. For half a minute the youngest Guthrie boy listened to the plant engaging in this silent conversation unheard by Lewis' sisters who kept observing him, like four carnivores fixing their eyes on their prey.

"And?" - Joelle was the first to ask this question to her brother when he opened his eyes, having a strange look on his face. "What did she say? What does she exactly want?"

"First, I am taking her for a long, romantic walk. Second, I must introduce her to everybody as my girlfriend. Well, I will have to if I don't want the garden to wither away but nobody said I have to tell people I am a mutant." the teen forced himself to produce a parody of smile. "Not that they would have been surprised given our family, but it's safer to be seen as a creep, not a mutie. Well, if Mom wins the money for getting the first place for her vegetables, then we will be like rich – at least, what is understood as rich in this town - and the rich get to be known as eccentric not creepy." Lewis swallowed saliva and bared his teeth in bitter smile again, laughing unnaturally. "But that's not before I take her for a walk, hug, kiss and tell her sweet words. She said that then she maybe would change her mind on destroying our garden."

With those words, the boy kissed the plant right on the top of its red flower right before his mouth. The delicate petals twitched for a short moment, like their owner was satisfied with it. Lewis stood there for a moment, trying to smile, after which he turned round and came out of the barn, still holding Flora tightly. His sisters were looking at their sibling as he was going, making his way towards the town. He turned back one more time to wave at them. After which, he bended once more and planted a kiss on one of the leaves of Flora. The face of the young chlorokinetic was shielded by the luxuriant verdure but Lewis' sisters could see he hugged the flower pot with Flora more tightly – before he sank his face in the leaves again, covering the gardenia with juicy kisses all over. For a moment, the boy looked like Billy Burliss from The 21-Inch Sun episode of Amazing Stories, the guy who was helped by his plant at writing a sitcom for television – save for the whole plant fetish.

Four Guthrie sisters were watching their brother as he walked away until he became just a dot in the horizon, amused by this unusual sight. They observed in silence the small figure of a teenage boy every now and then kissing the plant carried by him until it disappeared in the horizon. Until Joelle broke the silence:

"I told you it could be always something worse. It could always have been a cactus."