Chapter 5
The Plan
The Plan
As soon as Berk hung up with Fannie he raced out of his house and down the street to her house. She had told him that she needed to see him right away and her could tell by her voice that something was wrong. It took him exactly 93 seconds. He had timed himself many times and this was his fastest time yet. His Aunt Nikki let him in and he headed up to Fannie’s room.
As soon as Berk entered Fannie’s room he saw it. In her hand Fannie held four flowers. Three were gray and without color. One of them, however, seemed to shine forth in a color beyond description. Its color was outside the bounds of Berk’s imagination.
After an awestruck moment staring at the flower in Fannie’s hand, Fannie cautiously asked Berk what he saw. She was unsure if he was staring because he saw the same colorless flowers her mother had or because he could see the colors as she did.
“What is… where did you find that… that flower?” Berk stammered. “It is like shining or glowing in the strangest color I have ever seen. What color is that anyway? Why haven’t I ever seen that color before?”
Fannie nearly started to cry with joy. Finally someone could see the colors she did. Finally she could share the joy of these new treasures with someone. “You can see the color of these flowers then?” she asked.
“Sure,” Berk said. “Those three are a kind of colorless gray and this one,” he said pointing to one of the four flowers, “This one is some color from another planet or something.”
How strange that Berk could only see one of the colors. “I call the color peritwinkle,” said Fannie. I made up the name of course because there is no other color like it on Earth.”
Fannie told Berk the whole story of how she entered the cave and picked the flowers and was carried away to the queen. She told him of her sentence and how now she could only see the four new colors and her whole world was shades of gray.
When she finished, Berk sat tapping his finger on his chin. He was thinking. “I think we need to find a way to help these flowers make other people happy or at least to help them believe in the unimaginable again,” Berk finally surmised.
“Take me for instance. I came over here and I saw that flower and now I actually believe everything you just told me you have been through today,” Berk Said. “Honestly Fannie, if I hadn’t seen the color of the flower, I would probably think you were just making this all up to be dramatic and I probably would have gone home and not thought of it again.
“But this flower shining out at me has made me think maybe there are lots of things out in the world I don’t know about yet. I mean you go to school and you learn your colors. You think you know them all. Now you are showing me one I couldn’t even have imagined yesterday.
“I can tell you one thing for sure is that this little peritwinkle – is that what you called it?” Fannie nodded. “Well this little peritwinkle flower has definitely changed how I look at things. I think you just completed your first task. This flower has seen new places and it has made my life richer just for sharing its color with me.”
Fannie thought for a minute. “Maybe that was what the Queen meant about the flowers extending their beauty only to those with pure and believing hearts. Maybe the flowers can only make the lives better of those who could see their colors,” Fannie told Berk.
Berk nodded in agreement. “So all we really have to do is find people who can see the color of the flowers,” Berk concluded. “I have a plan already. Let’s start by testing to see how rare it is for people to see the colors. That should be pretty easy. If someone can see the color of those flowers we will definitely be able to tell. I couldn’t stop staring at that flower when I first got here. We should be able to recognize that kind of reaction.”
“Great idea,” said Fannie. “We could go to the mall. There are lots of people there. I bet my mom would take us there. I have been saving my money and finally have enough to buy a new Webkins. Mom has been promising to take me to buy one for 2 weeks now. I am sure I can get her to take us after dinner if I butter her up right.”
“Now that’s what I call a plan!” Berk said. “I’ll go talk to my mom about letting me go. Call me when you get the okay from your mom.”
Berk said goodbye and raced home in 76 seconds—a new record. Yes something in him had changed seeing that flower. He not only believed Fannie more, he believed more in himself.
