Today we are featuring a piece from a story by Sydney Lauer! We would like to thank Sydney for allowing us to share her beautiful work with us! We hope you enjoy!
Hydrangeas
She was taken by surprise.
Olive entered the tiny kitchen to find that her fiance had left her flowers.
Hydrangeas. Blue ones. The same blue of the sky that day.
“Aw, Sal, are these for me?” She haphazardly tucked in the front of her blouse, “They’re beautiful.”
Sal was tying his shoes at the kitchen table, hunched over to knot the laces, his bowtie as crooked as the apartment complex they resided in.
“I was trying to find something not so droopy.” Sal said, “It’s been so muggy the flowers have been wilting at the shop downtown.”
Olive couldn’t have cared less. It wasn’t everyday he went out of his way to surprise her like that.
Everyone said they were too young to be getting married. Olive and Sal weren’t even in their mid-twenties yet; though they felt they were old and wise enough to make their own decisions. While it was supposed to be a marriage of convenience – well, convenient for Olive and Sal, that is – they did love each other in that platonic-soulmate type of way.
“It’s been humid as all hell lately.” Olive shuffled around the dining table that took up entirely too much space in their closet-sized apartment, bending down to smell the Hydrangeas.
“Today’s supposed to be lovely, I hear.” Sal stood to his full lanky height, his pile of hair that shot up from his scalp like newly bloomed sunflowers brushing against the ceiling. He leaned down, practically curling himself in half, and kissed the top of Olive’s head.
“See you tonight.”
“See you.” Olive grinned, “Please ask Mr. Sampson about getting that electrical thing fixed at the jewelers, yeah? Manager’s been asking about it.”
“I’ll do it tonight.” Sal waved her off as he ducked under the doorframe, exiting the apartment into the gray hallway behind him, “Bye, Olls.”
“Bye.”
Without Sal the apartment seemed larger, especially since he was always knocking over picture frames or bumping his head on the ceiling fan.
Olive opened the window to allow the unfamiliar damp Dayton air inside, the breeze rustling the delicate petals of the Hydrangeas. A few dusty blue petals drifted to the table.
Flowers from Sal was one of the only things she had to look forward to nowadays. Sure, she had her shifts at the jewelers, but ever since moving to Dayton she couldn’t help but want more out of the “Gem City.” More out of life.
She and Sal only got engaged and moved all the way from Middle-of-Nowhere Illinois so they could have some fun.
And so they could escape what they left behind.