"I don't know how much they cost!" one of them suddenly exclaimed. He turned in circles, asking his brother, "Where is she?"
His brother caught sight of me standing behind the counter watching them, a sentimental sort of smile on my face, and said, "There you are, girly! She's right here, she's right here!"
His brother turned around and flashed a charmingly innocent smile at me. These two men � both of whom had to be at least my height (5'9") reminded me of seven year olds. And I, despite my abrasive, bitter nature, adore kids.
"We need flowers!" the first brother said. He seemed to be the leader of the two. "We want to put flowers on our dad's grave. We were � we were there this morning, but there were no flowers. The army's supposed to put flowers on his grave."
"Oh?" I asked, lifting my brows with interest.
"Yeah, the army is supposed to put flowers on his grave but they didn't. We were there at nine o'clock this morning and there were no flowers! I'm mad. The army's supposed to put flowers on my dad's grave, but they didn't when I was there this morning! Would you be mad?" he asked.
"Oh yes," I said, "I'd be mad, too."
"The next time I see them, I'm going to kill them."
"That's an awful lot of people to kill!" I exclaimed, trying not to giggle.
"Yeah..." He looked down at his feet for a moment, then his train jumped the track completely and he asked, "Are you in high school?"
Through the brief conversation that followed I told him that I'm going to be a senior next year at AHS, and he revealed to me that he works at the high school in the stadium. We talked about the construction on the high school and what a lovely school it is shaping up to be. Then, without warning, he jumped back to flowers and asked, "How much do these cost?" He pointed to a 6-inch potted Mum, which was around fifteen dollars.
"We want something in the seven dollar range," the leader of the two said. So, I showed them our options for that price range and, in the end, they walked away with a small potted rose bush. Or, at least one of the brothers walked away. The leader stayed behind for a moment as his brother disappeared into the crowd of shoppers, telling me of he and his brother's plans for the day. When he looked up and saw his brother was gone, he exclaimed, "Holy cow! He left without me! That little�!" and he dashed away.
A few minutes later, one of my supervisors (Kenny G.) walked up to the floral counter and said, "Hey, Trouble!"
"I�m not trouble!"
"Sure you are," he replied, "you're Britt's sister, aren't you?" he put his hand over his heart. "That means trouble is in your blood!"
I doubt it. I'm about as ruthlessly rebellious as a pocket full of daisies.
Anyway, Brandon just got here and he's hungry. I have to take care of him because, apparently, that's my job. He buys things for me that I don't need (but I most certainly appreciate and want) and I feed him when he's hungry. Which is always.
Maternally,
Victoria "I cut you!" Anderson