Hibiscus
I lock the front door and grasp Eva’s hand and we begin the three-minute walk to the bus stop. Walking past the little garden in front of the house, she extends her hand to the hibiscus plant and plucks a flower. She did the same yesterday - and two days ago.
“Why did—” I start to talk and stop myself.
Would she give it to me again?
She holds it as if it’s breakable till we reach the school.
I kiss her cheek. “I love you.”
“Bye, Mom.”
My eyes are fixed on the horse art on her backpack as she runs toward her class. Then she stops, turns, extending the flower to me as she returns. I take a few steps forward and collect it. She leaves.
Unlike yesterday and two days ago, I keep it. She’s only five, but I believe - there’s a meaning.
On our way home in the afternoon—on the bus—I put my mouth close to her ear and say, “I still have the flower.”
She looks at me and smiles. “I’ll give you another one tomorrow.”
“Why?”
She says nothing, blinking her innocent eyes.
“You don’t want to tell me?”
“Last week I took a flower,” she says. “And when we got to my school, you collected it. In the afternoon we found Teddy. I want the flower to bring me another puppy; I want to have two.”
I pull her close. “Well, it’s just a coincidence that you plucked the flower, and we found him at our doorstep.”
***
As I unlock the front door, Eva says loudly, “Mom, see!” I turn and she’s pointing toward the hibiscus plant. There’s a puppy lying under it.
Word Count - 284
Thank yoou very much for participating. Ithink you are a good writer!
Kindly let me know your thoughts on the story. I have been waiting for it since I posted :-)
Thank you, @swissclive.
In my own opinion, one of the most fluent of the about 75% -i hope i have my estimate right-of the stories i have overall read since @swissclive brought to life this story-300words initiative.
My sincere endorsement
Oh Jeff thank you! This is a lovely little piece of magic. As @ebitularmbert said, "subtle." I am overjoyed my initial sense of foreboding was unjustified, and actually it made the end even more rewarding. Well done!
Thank you, Jess :-)
This is a sweet story. I hope Eva doesn't wish for a third puppy. 😊
LOL! Me too!
Or a pony, or...
Now I'm thinking of that horrible "Monkey's Paw" story!
Oh no! Where could those puppies have come from? (Somewhere detectives are on the case for a puppy thief.)
Lol. Maybe... thank you, Brisby.
Lovely little piece, @jeffways. Magic is such powerful stuff, especially in small doses.
Thank you, sir.
Thanks @ebitularmbert!
Sorry it took me so long to get to the piece! I usually only have 1-2 days a week where I try to cram in as much "curation" as I can manage, and I didn't get to this last week :<
Anyway, I quite liked this piece. I liked that I wondered why the hand was "grasped," and then it felt so natural when we discovered it was a mother and daughter.
I'm also really fond of humans as a story-creating engine, and this form of proto-causality is quite mythic in its formation, so that idea in and of itself was worth the price of entry to a much bigger story.
Cute, concise, and clever. Good job!