Short story: Friendship

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There was a very beautiful garden, full of lovely flowers and wonderful creepers. A section of garden had really very sweet fragranced and beautiful flowers. Of those flowers, a few were roses of marvelous colours. One could get a feeling; each rose was competing with the other … each believing itself the best.
One of those was a yellow rose, which was very much contended and happy with its life, in spite of knowing its life was not more than a few days. It really was a wonderful flower compared to its neighbours. It never knew it was so beautiful, but always believed that world was a beautiful place to live and was happy for having lifted spirits of so many who watched it.
One day, it happened that a few butterflies, moving from a garden to other, reached that garden. Seeing so many flowers, butterflies were delighted. Of those, was a colourful butterfly, which got attracted to a yellow rose. It flew to it and was about to suck its nectar, the yellow rose pleaded not to take away its nectar as it had only blossomed only a day before. Seeing such a sweet flower, speaking in such a sweet way, the butterfly couldn’t turn down its plea.
It moved to other flowers. Later it came back to yellow rose to listen to its sweet voice and enjoy its fragrance. In matter of time, they both became good friends, sharing their experiences and feelings. They happened to meet daily for next two days, while the yellow rose was still the best in the garden. The butterfly was happy to have such a wonderful friend, so was the yellow rose. Rose also allowed the butterfly to taste its nectar a little. It really tasted exotic and butterfly was delighted. Everything went on well. The butterfly used to complete its hunger from other flowers and move to the rose and just tasted its nectar a little and enjoyed its company the fullest. They together set an example through their rare friendship.
The day came, when the butterflies decided to move to other garden the following day. The rose never had a thought about parting from its dear friend.
It thought they would remain friends for as long as they would live. Butterfly in the beginning felt bad about parting, but it could not resist itself when it heard its friends speaking of more sweet fragranced flowers in the garden some distance away. On the day of parting, the butterfly promised the rose of visiting it daily and spending sometime with it. The rose felt very sad about parting from its dear friend but still had the confidence and trust on butterfly and its promise. It consoled itself and was happy that it could at least meet its friend, remaining days of its life.
But it turned the other way. The butterfly was busy making new friends in the other garden. It had hardly time for even thinking of its far off friend. The rose waited a day and the next day. Still it could not find its friend. It started losing hope and found it difficult to be the same energising flower. It started to dry off, its petal started dropping and sweetness in its nectar and fragrance was lost. It still had a little hope to see its friend, but that day never came. Meantime another butterfly coming from the other distant beautiful garden visited this garden.
Knowing about the yellow flower and its butterfly friend, understanding the plight of the yellow rose it tried its best to lessen the pain of the rose. It spent most of its time with the rose sharing its wonderful experiences and caring for the rose’s plight. Though the rose missed its old friend, it now understood the true meaning of friendship. Friendship doesn’t mean only sharing, but understanding. Though hardly any days were left, it tried its best to live them to the fullest. It was happy that it had found a true friend, who would stay by its side and truly understand it. It tried its best to reciprocate the same. Neither the sweetness of nectar nor the sweetness of fragrance, but it was the sweetness of their company that brought them together. Those were the most memorable moments of their lives. Each treasured its new friend and their friendship.
One sunny afternoon the yellow rose’s nectar had dried completely and there was no more life in the flower.
Its new friend missed it a lot, but consoled itself that it could make its friend happy for some time at least and lessen its plight. The gardener and the people who visited the place too felt the absence of the yellow rose. None knew whether the old friend of the rose returned anytime or not.
Everyone admired the friendship of the rose and its true friend though it could not last for long time. This became favourite story of all the forthcoming generations of the flowers of that garden. Together the yellow rose and the butterfly set the right example of rare friendship.
A few days later, new bright and beautiful yellow roses blossomed, reminding everyone the tale of the rare friendship.
Till today, yellow roses puts forth the true spirit of friendship. A friend is one who bothers to care, to share, to understand, to bear, to support, and to love.

-Internet

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