Gabriel Cuomo

INT. THE GREEN ROOM - SUNSET

Art, a young botanist, walks down a long, glass hallway. She looks at the dense green vegetation outside; a bit of daylight is left. She flips open her gold pocket watch, closes it, and quickens her pace.

Art pushes through the double door. Above it hangs a hazard sign that indicates no human dancing. She notes it.

Art scans the room. A house of thick glass divides the green mass outside from the plants inside. Each plant dances to its own noiseless beat. She notices a row of flasks across the room filled with a dark magenta liquid.

She begins walking, pauses, and starts again. Each step is awkward, rhythmless. At one point the rippling plants almost entice her into a beat, but she resists. She stutters her way across the room and reaches out for flask. Something clings to it. One of the dancing fronds curls around the flask’s neck. It appears to be wooing the flask. She sucks her teeth at the vine. It doesn’t release. Art clears her throat. Nothing. She tutts, calls, and coos. Still nothing. She furrows her brow and ponders for a moment. Then she c***s her head, looks down, back up, and performs the tiniest jig. The dancing frond rears back. The bush behind it slows to a stop.

Art stares. She isn’t moving. The plant is motionless. Everything in the room has stilled. The lack of rustle is loud. Then a small rustle sounds off from the corner. Then another, and a wave of pulsating grows from the plants and extends back into the frond. Art smiles, nods, and releases her breath.

She pulls the Erlenmeyer to her face. The fluid now glows electric pink. The light creates a shadow of sticky sap leftover from the frond. Art removes a wipe from a small protective case in her immaculate leather lab coat. She wipes away the sap, careful to get every smudge of the sticky substance. She reaches into her opposite pocket, Opens a separate container with a hazard sign that reads “not for lunches” and snaps the soiled cloth inside.

There is an audible crack of glass. All the plants stop dancing. Art freezes.

(Continue story in Link in bio) @ Atlanta, Georgia