The Sweet-Scented Osmanthus Tree Said, My Mother Is Not Dead

I was four years old when I first heard plants talking. The day my grandma's sweet-scented osmanthus tree was cut down, it said: "Your mother is not dead, she is under the cellar of the old house." My mother "died" of illness when I was three years old. The whole family has been saying this for fifteen years. But a tree doesn't lie. The cellar door was sealed shut with cement. There were fingernail scratch marks on the wall. A dying pothos plant in the corner said: "Your grandma... Replaced your mother..." I broke open the cement. There are traces of someone living inside. And my cell phone rang.