The Lettuce Indictment of 2024

 

🪴🪴🪴

    The grief that spurs from such devastation could not be slightly amounted to a cycle of severe depression. Lettuce was demolished. To be plucked from your stem; a decapitated sprout lies on the desert soil of a miniature cup, composed of deathly plastic. It was here that now lies the grave of Sophia's blossoming lettuce, for it was just a babe amongst the artificial soil, that was birthed by manmade creation.

     Now before I recount the devastation of such an innocent death, it is important that I inform you (dear reader) of my nurturing capabilities. My record of nursing lush vegetation is unanimously successful; I am beyond qualified for a small parcel of lettuce growing. Every morning, I would tirelessly dedicate my low energy levels and exert myself, for the mere fact of watering my lettuce and making sure he received all the love that a sprout could need and more. Within my mind, I would sing my baby lullabies of fertilizer and hymns of the sacred process of photosynthesis; he loved every ounce of affection I would share with him. Under the care of my wing, my child had started to sprout from a seedling into the epitome of health in a growing lad. Amongst the rigid cup of death (plastic), he would stand taller than the school of stalks that surrounded him and kept him company. 

     Everyday, I would leave him in lettuce daycare as I finish my studies because I am a single mother, tirelessly dedicating her life to improve the life of my beautiful, baby lettuce. We were bonded: mind, body and stem. With no anxieties that plagued my mind about my sprout being harmed, I had left him under the guidance of an educator who has sworn an oath to protect his life as if he were his own son. Yet on one fateful day, time had stood still.

     The atmosphere was slightly more frigid than it should've been for a school environment. Hairs on the back of necks stood up, upon entrance of the classroom and the ambiance was seemingly...silent. I can still remember it as if it were yesterday (it was three weeks ago). As I inched to my beautiful boy, I didn't find his body in the condition it should've been. Oh the horror! Behold; my eyes gazed upon a brutal crime scene that involved the homicide of my lettuce. Decapitation. Stem severed. A fragile vegetation found dismantled from the decrepit roots of his small frame. My lettuce was discovered at 7:48 A.M. and was pronounced dead on the scene. 

     The shame. The horror. The rage that had consumed my body. What kind of hellish monster would impose on one's lettuce and brutally massacre his petite body, as if he were a piece of roadkill slaughtered on a highway? What kind of infernal being would do something so iniquitous towards a life that was so unalloyed from the vicious traditions of the world? Such unholy nature has haunted me and warded me away from sleep since his death. There he lay, lifeless and no one around seemed to even notice that his life had been taken so soon. But worst of all, he was discovered, swimming in a pool of dirty water. My lettuce had been drowned. 

     What kind of mother was I to leave my lettuce unattended and to find him dead the next morning? Now, I am no botanist but I know how to water plants. An enemy had found my lush vegetation and had it out for me. Law enforcement later found out that my lettuce was first dismantled from his stem and roots. From there his sprout was decapitated and disposed of like a piece of food-waste left for the compost bin. The killer had left my boy to drown in an overflowing pool of contaminated water that once used to hold the soil from which he was birthed. Another angel had taken flight. 

     It has now been three, excruciating weeks since the light of my life had been taken from me. I've even taken up the habit of chain-smoking in an alleyway, shrouded by mysterious fog and shadows. Though I have taken up overanalyzing the case and desperately searching for witnesses who may have any tips of my lettuce and his murder, no one will cough it up. The case has gone cold since law enforcement said it was ridiculous to focus on a teenager who would've killed lettuce for fun but this is no laughing matter. The only suspect of the case is anyone who has a vendetta against someone named...Sophia. 

     So for now, I will lurk in the shadows until I find you.