Lilly and the Queen of Flowers

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 Filipino

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Lilly and the Queen of Flowers
A Filipino Story by Jo Macklin

On a dull, grey day in May with the rain pouring down as usual, Lilly walked
through the park near her house. The dark clouds in the sky reminded her
of how much she wanted to leave England and go and live in another, more
appealing country.

‘My parents are so selfish,’ she thought. ‘Why can’t they just do this one
thing for me and move somewhere else. Anywhere other than this dull, wet
country where there is nothing to do!’

Lilly looked around at the grey and miserable park and noticed that there
were barely any flowers blooming even though it was springtime. ‘Even the
flippin’ flowers don’t want to be here,’ she declared. ‘And I cannot believe
that we are not even going on holiday this year!’

Suddenly, Lilly heard a swishing and clattering noise up ahead. She looked
up and saw an old lady hurrying about between the trees making a fuss
over something Lilly could not see.
Ever since her family had moved into the little house nearby, Lilly always
came to the park to think. In fact, she considered it to be her very own
private park and was quite put out by the appearance of the noisy old lady.
It was for this reason that the young girl felt a tinge of anger towards the
stranger who was disturbing her peace. Lilly held her head very high, and
put on her most serious grownup voice as she walked over to the old lady.

‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘I don’t know whether you are aware of this, but this
happens to be my park and…’
But before she could finish, the lady turned and smiled at Lilly and the
young girl was suddenly struck dumb. The old lady’s skin was so perfect
that it seemed to glow, and she had long flowing hair that was made out of
hundreds and hundreds of wild flowers!

Lilly stood staring at all of the different kinds of flowers spilling down from
the top of the old lady’s head. There were some that she knew, like roses
and tulips. But there were lots and lots of flowers that she had never even
seen before in her whole life, especially not in dull old England. They were
all the colours of the rainbow: purple, red, pink, blue, white, yellow,
orange… every colour you could possibly imagine, all mixed together in a
magnificent glistening mane. She wore a pink and white dress, long and
flowing, and a cross around her neck made of silver.

‘Who…who are you?’ Lilly enquired, the wind quite taken from her sails by
now.

‘There is no time for all that,’ the lady said hurriedly. ‘We have to go!’

And with that she grabbed Lilly’s hand and pulled so that the young girl had
absolutely no choice but to follow.

After what seemed like an eternity of being dragged from one tree to
another, stopping every so often while the strange lady touched a plant or
examined a flower, Lilly eventually found herself in an area of the park that
she could not remember ever visiting before.

‘Where exactly are we?’ Lilly asked, completely dazed.

This part of the park seemed to stretch for miles and miles and was
covered here and there with pockets of tiny flowers. The old woman said:
‘This, my dear, is where it will be held!’ Then she skipped off between the
flowers, touching them once in a while with a long stick with feathers on the
end while Lilly followed close behind as best she could.

‘Are you dusting?’ she asked. ‘Are you dusting the flowers? That is very
strange, isn’t it?’

‘Well of course I am dusting, my dear. How on earth am I going to get these

flowers up to scratch in time for the festival if I do not dust them? We are
not in the Philippines any more you know!’

‘Okay, strange lady person, could you please tell me what is going on?’

The old woman looked at Lilly as if she were a little simple in the head.
‘Santacruzan, my dear. It is only a day away now. But you know this surely.
Have you prepared? You must prepare or your flowers will be seriously
below standard!’

Lilly was, if it were at all possible, even more confused. ‘Who are you and
what is Santacruzan?’

The woman beamed at Lilly. ‘I am Reyna Elena, or Queen Elena. But you
can call me Elena. It’s shorter and we don’t have a lot of time! Would you
like to introduce yourself?’

‘My name is Lilly. I’m not a Queen or anything as glamorous as that. Just
plain old Lilly.’

Queen Elena seemed almost upset at the remark. ‘What a rude thing to
say, young lady. Everybody knows that there is no such thing as a plain
lily!’

Suddenly, Lilly heard a rumbling sound coming from the other side of the
trees. She felt her ankles shudder and her legs shake as the noise got
closer and closer. Queen Elena jumped up and down and clapped her
hands together. ‘Eeek! Here they come, here they come! Now the festival
preparations can really begin!’

Through the trees came a very large group of people all dressed up in
colourful costumes. The women wore beautiful long dresses decorated with
flowers and strange objects, and the men wore shorts and funny hats also
covered in flowers.
‘Come, come,’ said Queen Elena, ‘now you can meet the group.’ Then she
stepped forwards and addressed the assembled men and women who had
gathered in the huge clearing. ‘My dear friends, the festival is but a day
away and I am pleased to announce that Miss Lilly here has offered to help
us during the celebrations!’

Those at the front of the group approached Lilly and shook her hand and
patted her on the back and told her how welcome she was and how nice it
was to meet her.

Lilly did her best to smile and shake all of the hands, but she was a little
perturbed. ‘I’m confused,’ she told Queen Elena. ‘How will I be able to help
you?’

‘Your name is Lilly, is it not? You own the name of the most influential and
charismatic flower of them all, do you not?’

‘I suppose so,’ said Lilly, not really knowing what else to say.

‘Well then, you shall make the best host for the celebrations, I am sure.
Now won’t you please let me continue.’ Elena turned once more and faced
the group.

‘As I said, Miss Lilly will be helping us with the festival this year as she has
very particular talents that we do not possess. She is from this land and
knows it well.’ Queen Elena turned to Lilly. ‘Miss Lilly, we have all come
over here from the Philippines, a wonderful place full of warmth, love,
celebrations and freshness in the air! May is a magical time in the
Philippines. After the long season of scorching hot sun, May is the time that
the glistening dew drops finally begin to fall and we are graced with the
delicate fragrances from the flowers that bloom in our country.’

‘You mean it starts to rain,’ Lilly said, a touch of disappointment in her

voice. After all, she had had enough rain to last a lifetime.

‘You say it like it is a bad thing, my dear. We savour the rain where we
come from. It is a wonderfully fresh and glittering blessing. It is life!’

Seeing that the young girl was quite confused, a few of the elders at the
front of the group took her by the hand and offered her a seat on a nearby
tree stump. Then Queen Elena cleared her throat and began the story of
the festival:

‘I am the mother of the most courageous boy in the whole world! My son
Constantine and I have had many great adventures! And now, every year
at exactly this time, we organise a historical Filipino festival to celebrate
such adventures! Our festival, the Santacruzan, is just one of the glorious
Flores de Mayo: a whole month of celebrations, festivals, parades and
pageants, all during the wonderful season of our beautiful flowers.’

‘That sounds lovely,’ Lilly agreed, ‘but what are you doing here if this
festival of yours is in the Philippines tomorrow?’

‘Ahh!’ said Queen Elena, ‘That is the interesting bit. You see, there are so
many beautiful families from the Philippines that have moved over here to
your land, this place you call the United Kingdom, and we must make sure
that they do not miss out on the celebrations, of course. We are here to
bring Santacruzan to all of those who have settled in your land.’

Lilly had to agree that it was a very good idea indeed, but she was still
puzzled ‘You want to have a flower festival… here? But there are not many
flowers here, especially not in May. And the ones that do come out are all
sad looking.’

That was when Queen Elena stretched out her arms in an expansive
manner and smiled that radiant smile of hers. ‘Look around you, my dear. I
think we will manage just fine.’

Lilly followed Queen Elena’s outstretched arms and realised that all of the
old woman’s dusting must have paid off. There were millions upon millions
of beautiful flowers for as far as the eye could see. They were perfect in
every sense, not a single petal out of place. And the smell that carried on
the breeze was enough to make the young girl quite dizzy.

Lilly said: ‘I never knew that flowers could look so fantastic!’

‘This is not my first time you know, dear. I am really rather good when it
comes to flowers. So, will you help us with Santacruzan? We will need all
the help we can get.’
Lilly looked around at the large group of people in their colourful clothes, all
awaiting her decision. How could she say no! She nodded her head and
Queen Elena quickly clapped her hands. The whole group jumped about
clapping and then, quite suddenly, formed a very straight line so that
Queen Elena could introduce each of them to Lilly and explain what their
role was going to be during the festival.

‘Now, my son Constantine you already know about. He will be by my side

throughout the parade. And this lovely gentleman here is Methuselah,’ said
Queen Elena as she helped along a very old man pulling a cart with what
looked like a frying pan on top of it. ‘He will be on his cart with…’ she
turned and whispered to Methuselah. ‘Did you remember your sand this
year?’

The old man held up a small bag of sand and winked. ‘He will be on his cart
with his sand…’

And so it continued, Queen Elena introducing and Lilly smiling, right the
way through the whole crowd. Then, right at the end, eight ladies came
forwards all wearing long white dresses with wings on their backs. They
were all holding something different in their hands.

‘Ah yes, how could I forget. These are my gorgeous Ave Maria ladies. They
all represent something beautiful in the world. Reyna de las Estrellas, for
example, is the Queen of Stars, representing the beauty that sparkles in
the night sky. These ladies are the real attraction of the festival… apart
from me, of course.’

Lilly was most taken with everybody, but when she looked at her watch she
suddenly realised that she was in real trouble. She turned to Queen Elena.
‘I’m really sorry but I have to go. My mum will be wondering where I am. I
will be back in the morning to help with the festival, you can count on that! It
really was lovely to meet you all.’

Queen Elena smiled and nodded. ‘Quite right, quite right,’ she said. ‘Not fair
to make your mother worry. You have a safe journey home and we shall
see you in the morning.’

Lilly waved to the crowd and thanked Queen Elena for a lovely day. Then
she turned and ran home as quickly as she could – through the gap in the
trees and out into the familiar grey park where it was still raining. She ran
out of the park and along the street and up her garden path and straight
through the front door to her house as quickly as her legs could carry her.

‘And where have you been?’ her mother asked as soon as Lilly stumbled
breathlessly into the kitchen. ‘We’ve been worried sick!’

‘I’m so sorry, mum. I lost track of time. It’s been a very, very strange day.’

Lilly’s mother looked concerned as she ruffled her daughter’s hair. ‘I know
you don’t much like life in England right now, or living here in London, but
things always get better, dear, I promise. Maybe next year we will go on
holiday in the summer, hey.’

Lilly smiled at her mum. ‘I don’t know,’ she said, ‘I decided today that
England isn’t so bad after all. There are lots of people from all over the
world here, even from as far away as the Philippines. And who knows, I
might even grow to like the rain.’