Flowers
“We have at least three hours left,” Jackie said gathering up the flowers and throwing them in her basket.
“But we’re four hours away from home,” Sam whined. He started crying and it was obvious there was nothing she could do to stop him.
“All right, come on.”
The field was an expanse of hay bales and yellow grass eaten down by cows. There were a few wildflowers growing next to the irrigation river that ran through the field. The sky was a velvet purple and growing dusty. The moon glowed gold while the apricot sun sank below the gray horizon.
Jackie held her brother’s hand in her left and the basket of flowers rested on her right. She knew if she had started earlier with gathering flowers, she would not have been in such a rush, but as it was, eight hours was a long time to leave her mother on their own. Only twelve with the possibility of being orphaned shadowing her footsteps, Jackie had seen too much in her life to remain innocent. Her face was slightly wrinkled and her blue eyes grew dull with the light. She let go of her brother’s arm and tugged the ribbons out of her hair so it would warm up her neck.
Sam whimpered.
“Jackie, I’m scared.”
“Why don’t you carry the basket?”
He took it from her and held it stiffly in his hand. Sam was nine years old and only knew his one parent. His black hair reflected the yellow off the light creating a halo above his head. His blue-brown eyes nervously shifted from shadow to shadow with every click and rustle along the way.
The small house came up suddenly as a light went on in the front window as they walked. Someone glanced through the window and then quickly opened the door to run and greet the two children.
“Oh thank goodness,” a dark haired woman cried. “I didn’t know where you were!”
Sam started crying as well, but Jackie just returned the embrace.
“Don’t do that again!” she said and then got caught up in a fit of coughing. She gasped for breath between loud rasps until something red splattered the ground in front of her. She stopped and panted loudly.
“Come on,” she said quietly, “let’s go into the house.”
“We got you flowers,” Sam said tear glossing his eyes.
The woman smiled. “Thank you,” she said. She put her arm around Jackie and held Sam’s hand as they went into the warm house, the basket of flowers still firmly clutched in Sam’s hand.
