Desperation (Part 2 - Carrot Weed)

The second test for staff selection had begun. And because the test was going to be evaluated individually, Maria and Jane couldn't surprise the judge with their teamwork like the last time. Each of them was making their bouquet separately, in fact, everyone in that hall was busy designing their own bouquet with full dedication.

Jane went to a flower stall and picked up a yellow flower and a maroon flower with a thorny stem. Then she went to another stall and picked up a blue flower with little leaves on its stem, and a red striped yellow flower with a thick stem. She then used a blue ribbon to tie all the flowers together. On the other side, Maria didn't know about the history of Drachma in detail as Jane did. So, she decided to make a bouquet with a very generic meaning. She went to a flower stall and picked up 5 tulips of different colors i.e. pink, red, yellow, white and blue. Then she tied all the flowers with a white ribbon. She was prepared with her bouquet, so she went to Jane to have a look at Jane's bouquet. She found out that Jane was still trying to figure out something. Jane was so occupied with her thought process that she didn't notice Maria standing near her. So, to get Jane's attention, Maria asked, "What are you so worried about?" And she continued while looking at Jane's bouquet, "Your bouquet looks really good."

Jane looked at Maria and replied, "I don't know, I feel like I am missing something." She then saw a bouquet in Maria's hand and said, "Anyways tell me about your bouquet."

Maria smiled with a little hesitation and answered, "It won't be as good as yours. But now that you have asked, I don't have an option, but to tell you…As you can see all the tulips are different looking in a lot of ways, but they are all tulips at the end, and the white ribbon represents unity because we all know that white is the mixture of all colors. Similarly, this bouquet represents diversity as well as similarity at the same time."

"That's quite nice," Jane commented.

"What about your bouquet?" Maria asked.

"Well, I selected four flowers which grow only in certain specific parts of Drachma. So, my flowers represent east, west, north and south area of Drachma, and the blue ribbon represents unity which was achieved by Ivanov the first," Jane replied.

"Amazing, as expected of you," Maria praised with a smile.

Upon receiving genuine praise, Jane blushed and said with a smirk, "Stop your flattery, Maria."

And with that, the time window for the bouquet making test closed. Maria and Jane were happy that they prepared their best bouquet, but the rest was up to the Head of Staff. After a few minutes, evaluation started where every candidate was going with their bouquet to the Head of Staff and explaining it to him.

After a few candidates, Jane was called for evaluation. And while Jane was going for evaluation, she was still worried that her bouquet was still missing something, and she was unable to figure out that. But, on the way, she saw a small weed flower with white petals and yellow center had grown just below one of the flower stalls. And just after watching the flower, a smile appeared on her face. She went and plucked that weed flower from the ground. She put the weed flower at the center of her bouquet, in between the other flowers and walked toward the judge with confidence.

She presented the bouquet to Yegor Netto, the Head of Staff. Yegor took the bouquet and looked at Jane. "So, Jane is it?" Yegor questioned.

"Yes Sir," Jane answered with a nervous smile.

Yegor then looked at her bouquet and said, "So, the yellowish daisy represents hope, bluish morning glory represents love, tiger lily represents purity, the maroon tulip represents passion, and a carrot weed flower? That's pretty unique…Hmm, so….your bouquet says, if we unite and share our knowledge with others, we can even help rise the weak. Am I close?"

"No Sir," Jane said hesitantly and then continued with a burst, "but it was a great deduction."

"I knew it," Yegor shouted mildly and then continued after a small pause, "So, what does your bouquet says?"

"All the different flowers in the bouquet grows only in certain states of Drachma. The Yellowish daisy grows in the west, the maroon tulip grows in the north, the bluish morning glory grows in the south and the tiger lily grows in the east. So, all the different colored flowers in my bouquet represent different regions of Drachma," Jane then stopped speaking when she saw Yegor's smile. She got a bit nervous.

So, Yegor said, "Please continue."

Jane took a deep breath and continued, "Regarding the carrot weed flower...It holds a story of its own. When Ivanov the first came to Othon for the first time, it was a very poor village devastated by a recent war. In the village, he encountered a small girl, trying to eat a rotten piece of bread. And within a few moments, he pulled out a fresh loaf of bread from his luggage and offered it to the girl. But, the girl didn't take it instantly. She pulled out a carrot weed flower from the ground and thanked him by giving it to our King before taking the loaf of bread. When our King asked her why she did that, she replied that her parents had taught her to thank anyone who helps. Our King was so moved by the action of that girl that he decided to stay there and turn the village into a paradise, like it was before the war. He started repairing houses for the people, provided them the resources to hunt, cultivate and travel to nearby villages. He made it a primary location of the places he conquered. Finally, when the unfortunate day came, and our King passed away, everyone in Othon offered carrot weed flower on his grave and thanked him for what he did for them. Until this day, we offer carrot weed flowers on his grave to thank him, because this flower is considered a ray of hope, which our King was. So, the carrot weed flower in my bouquet represents our first king, and the hope of whole Drachma, Ivanov the first. And the blue ribbon represents the unity that our king achieved by uniting different countries to make them a single country which is now called Drachma."

After listening to Jane, Yegor took a deep breath and sighed. "You truly know our history, and after understanding the meaning of your bouquet. I think it is one of the best bouquets I have seen till now," Yegor smiled.

"Thank you Sir," Jane smiled back.

She was so happy after receiving the comment that she wanted to shout out of happiness, but she controlled her emotions at that moment.

Soon Maria's turn also came. Maria was nervous about the bouquet she created, she was walking toward the judge when she noticed that one of the petals of the red tulip had fallen. So, she touched the center of the flower, and as soon as she touched it, the remaining petals of the red tulip fell on the ground. Watching that, Maria panicked, she couldn't understand what she should do. When she was unable to find a solution she tucked the withered red tulip below the other tulips, making it look like the stem was used to tie other flowers together. She was able to solve the look of the bouquet, and she was lucky that the meaning she created for the bouquet did not change even after one flower withered. She walked toward Yegor with a bit of nervousness on her face.

When Maria stood in front of Yegor, Yegor smiled and said, "So, we meet again Maria…you cleared the first test, and that even by becoming the topper. It was the right decision to give you the opportunity to appear for the test after all."

"Thank you, sir," Maria responded with a smile and gave him her bouquet.

"Now, let us see whether you are worthy enough to get to the next test or not," Yegor looked at the bouquet for some moment and continued, "Hmm…all tulips? The bouquet looks good with a good combination of color even though the flowers are the same…good work. Now let me interpret your bouquet. Stop me if I stop making sense," he smiled looking at Maria, and Maria just chuckled.

Yegor then said, "Hmm…so there are four different kinds of tulips, maybe they represent five different brothers, the pink one represents a happy person who enjoys every moment of his life, yellow represents the person who is a thinker, who takes each step in life very carefully. Blue is mysterious like the depth of the sea, this person doesn't share their intentions…now white represents the honorable of them all. But, then I saw a withered flower holding all the flowers together, I guess, that is the mother who sacrifices herself to hold her family together. Am I interpreting it correct till now Maria?"

Maria was amazed that the Head of staff interpreted her bouquet very differently. She felt that the current interpretation was better than her interpretation of the bouquet. So, she thought it would be a good idea to go with Yegor's interpretation. "That's very much accurate sir," She replied with widened eyes to look more convincing.

"WHAT! I interpreted it correctly? Looks like I have improved after interpreting so many bouquets," He smirked and continued, "Well, I was unable to figure out the significance of the white ribbon. Can you please explain this?"

Maria was trapped now, she thought going along with Yegor was the right decision, but now that Yegor asked a question whose base was created by himself, Maria was trying to figure out an answer which would align with his interpretation. And fortunately, she quickly came up with a decent answer. She answered, "The white ribbon represents the father, and he is also trying to hold his family by helping the mother. As you can see the mother is a tulip, but she is a different kind of tulip, while the father is white which contains all the colors, part of which his children inherited."

"Nice," Yegor responded.

Yegor seemed like he was impressed by her answer, and with that Maria's evaluation ended. After some time, the evaluation process finished and the candidates were waiting for the results. Many candidates were very sad because they were disqualified for using more than 6 things in their bouquet. They were still hopeful that they would be given one more chance because of the huge number of disqualifications.

Soon the result came, but this time there were two lists, one with the candidates who qualified for the next test and other with the list of candidates who did not qualify, and the reason behind their rejection. Maria and Jane first saw the rejection list and found out that 25 out of the 30 rejected candidates were disqualified due to the use of more than 6 things in the bouquet. They felt relaxed that their name was not on that list, which meant they qualified for the next test. Then they had a look into the other list of qualified candidates, and again Jane was the number one on the list. Maria was also expecting to be in the upper half of the list, but she wasn't there. She looked down and down the list, still, she couldn't find her name. Then she saw number thirty, and there she was. She was embarrassed.

She looked at the happy face of Jane and said with an embarrassed face, "Looks like I qualified only due to heavy disqualifications."

"Doesn't matter, you are still going to the next test. Let's celebrate," Jane smiled.