------
Poppy was in her front yard,
turning on the water to the hose. She held the end of the hose, and sprayed
water on her plants. It was spring, and they were beginning to bloom. She
looked up when she heard some sort of large vehicle driving up the road. It was
unusual, most people in her neighborhood drove small or medium sized cars, if
they drove at all. It was a moving truck. She hadn’t noticed, the house across
the street had sold. Poppy wondered if she should bake something, go over and
welcome her new neighbor. She turned off the water, maybe later, she was busy
now and had stuff to do.
Poppy
went inside her house. It was small, but comfortable. A picture on the counter
showed Poppy and her two kids at a park. The picture was a year or two old now,
and maybe her wrinkles were a bit deeper now. At least she still had her wavy
hair, even if it was greying. She smiled at the picture and grabbed a sweet
bread for breakfast. Then she grabbed her keys from a bowl on the counter, and
headed out to her car. She glanced again at the house across the street, where
they were now carrying in a couch. She smiled at the movers and slowly climbed
into her car. She pushed her glasses up her nose, and, after checking the
mirrors, began to back out of her drive way.
Poppy
parked carefully. She was a good driver, but everyone said that as you got
older your reactions became slower. She was almost 67 now. There were plenty of
people on this street, and plenty of shops. Poppy took a key out of her pocket,
and walked to one shop in particular. It was new, not completely finished yet,
but there was already lettering on the door that read “Poppy’s flowers.” Poppy
smiled at the cheerful letters and unlocked the door. Soon her assistant would
be here, and they could get started. One shelf was already assembled, but she
needed two more. The display table in the window was ready to hold flower
arrangements. The front counter still needed a cash register. Poppy wanted the
shop to be ready in a few weeks.
The door
swung open, and her assistant Marigold came in. Marigold was in her late 20s,
with her long hair tied back. “Hello, Poppy. You’ll be happy to know that I
just purchased the last two shelves. I found a brilliant deal. Buy one get one
free.” Poppy smiled. Marigold was very competent. Technically Poppy had hired
Marigold as an assistant, but at this point it was more apt to say that they
were partners.
“Excellent.
So we just need to find a cash register and get everything settled as far as
ordering flowers.”
“Don’t
worry about the cash register, I’ll take care of that. However, you are the
flower expert, so you should probably do that part,” Marigold said, pulling a
notebook out of her bag. She flipped it open. “Alright, the other thing is
advertising. I was thinking we could put a coupon in the newspaper, and
advertise our grand opening.” Poppy nodded in agreement. “Alright, I’ll go pick
up the shelves.” Marigold turned and headed back out.
Poppy
grabbed her purse from the counter, and pulled out a cell phone. It was a thick
flip-phone. She flipped it open. She stared at it for a moment. “Oh shoot, I
don’t remember. They said something about a contact list, but how do I get to
that?” Poppy sighed, she placed the phone back in her bag, then left the shop,
locking the door behind her. She looked around, a lot of people were still on
the street. Poppy walked down 3 shops, there was a cell phone shop. Poppy
walked in.
“Hello
Ma’am. How can I help you?” A young man, slightly overweight with thick glasses
asked her. His nametag read “Johnathan.”
“Good
morning. I was wondering if you could help me with something. With my cell
phone. I know it’s really simple, but I don’t quite remember…” Poppy trailed
off as she took out her cell phone. She held it up. Johnathan smiled, and took
the phone, flipping it open.
“What
do you need help with?” He asked kindly.
Poppy
smiled, “The contact list? How do I get to that again?”
“Oh,
you just press this button,” he pointed to a button on the phone, showing
Poppy. She smiled, and thanked him. “Need help with anything else? We could
update your phone if you would like. I’m
sure that you could get a new one free.”
Poppy
shook her head, “I can barely handle this phone, much less a new one. Thank you
for your help!”
Poppy
turned to leave, going out and sitting in her car. She did as Johnathan had
shown her, reaching the contact list, she scrolled until she found the number
she was looking for. It was for a flower farm. She hit the call button.
-------
Poppy was at home a little while later. She booted up her
computer. There was a knock at her door. “Come in,” She called.
Two
voices said, at the same time, “Hello Poppy!” She smiled and looked up. It was
the two children from next door. They were twins, a girl and boy, age 13, and
they liked to come by her house after school because they knew she always had
good snack foods. Also, she was sure their parents encouraged them to help
their old-lady neighbor.
“Oh
good! You guys are here. I need your help with something,” Poppy pointed at the
computer.
“What
about it? We showed you how to create an email account and do a web search,”
said the girl, Sienna. Anton, her brother, poked his head out of the kitchen,
munching on something.
“I
know, I know, but someone I want to order flowers from has a website. They said
that I should look up all the flowers I want on their website and then place an
order from the website.”
“Shouldn’t
Marigold be the one helping with this?” They asked in unison.
“Well,
she went to go pick up shelves, besides, I should be able to do this.”
“Right,
okay, well let’s have a look.” Anton pulled up a chair and Sienna looked over
their shoulders.
“What’s
the name of the company?” Anton asked. Poppy took out a piece of paper where
she had it written down. He typed it into the search bar, finding the website
quickly. “Alright, here is their list of flowers.” He clicked again. Poppy
nodded. “Just select which one you want and then it should ask you for
quantity. Type in how many you want. Then you’ll have to go to the shopping
cart.” Poppy nodded again. She began to look through the flowers, while Anton
and Sienna ate. It took a bit, and by the time Poppy was done, Anton and Sienna
had pulled books out of their backpacks and were reading in the living room.
“I’m
done selecting,” Poppy called.
Sienna
came over this time, and she clicked in the corner of the webpage. “Okay, this
is you’re shopping cart. Once you have everything you want, come to this page.
Click checkout, double check everything. Then enter your credit card number.”
Poppy nodded. She took out her wallet, and carefully typed in each number. Then
she hit the finalization button.
“Alright.
Is that it?”
Sienna
looked at the screen again. “Just enter the address to be shipped to, and what
day you want it by.”
Poppy
did as instructed, entering in the address of her new shop.
“Okay,
I think that’s everything!” Sienna smiled.
“Thank you!”
Poppy smiled back.
“No
problem, tech help for food seems like a reasonable deal,” Sienna joked.
Then
there was another knock on the door. This knock puzzled Poppy as she wasn’t
expecting anybody else. She got up and walked to the door, Sienna following,
curious. Poppy opened the door, and there stood a man. “Yes?” Poppy asked.
“Hello,
my name is Owen. Owen Morris. I just moved in across the street. I realized I
forgot to ask anyone when garbage day is. I saw that you were home and came by
to ask. What day garbage day is, I mean. Also I thought I should come over and
introduce myself.” Owen looked to be around Poppy’s age, he was also wearing
glasses, and a plaid shirt.
“Of
course. I’m Poppy, and this is Sienna. She and her brother Anton live next
door,” Poppy pointed. Poppy and Sienna shook hands with the man. “Garbage day
is every Thursday.”
“Right!
Thank you!” Owen smiled at them both, then turned and walked back to his new
house.
“Owen
Morris…” Poppy muttered as she closed the door, then she suddenly looked up. She
knew the name. It came back to her as she saw the man’s retreating back, and
thought back to his face. He had looked a bit familiar. She was sure she had
met him before. As a matter of fact, Poppy thought he was probably her first
patient.
41 years earlier
Back before Poppy had ever really considered opening a
flower shop, back before computers and cell phones, when she was young, she had
met Owen Morris. Poppy had graduated from medical school and was working as a
resident at a hospital. It was her first day, well technically her second day
as the first day had mostly been an introduction, and she had been the doctor
assigned to Owen. It was supposed to be a simple case, make sure the
antibiotics were working, and make sure he didn’t have any serious problems. Poppy
was a good student, but she was inexperienced. Owen had a bad reaction to
something, and at first she had no idea what to do. The monitor hooked up to
him was beeping furiously and she had called for her supervising doctor. Then
she remembered a lesson from medical school, a lesson from probably 3 years
earlier, and she quickly went into action, getting his airway clear and
injecting him with something to suppress his adverse reaction. Due to the
reaction, Owen had to stay in the hospital for another 3 days. In that time
Poppy got to know him a bit. They talked and she got to describe to him how
terrifying it had been for her to have to save his life. She knew that someone
else would have stepped in if she couldn’t, but that would have been a bit
terrible for her reputation.
----
How
strange that he was her new neighbor. She was sure it was him, it had been
ages, but he had the same eyebrows and eyes, the same general facial structure,
the same exact name. He probably didn’t remember her. Oh well, this
neighborhood was nice, but it wasn’t like she talked to all her neighbors a
ton, except Sienna and Anton. Who knew, it probably wouldn’t matter anyway
since she probably wouldn’t talk to Owen again.
-----
Yes, kind of a slow start, but hopefully it will get more interesting.
~Suzuna
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