The Poppy Drop

by C L Bauer

  John Temple, 'Big John', was smiling at her with his head crooked to the side. “What are you doing in there, girl?”

  “I’m working. Get in here and give me a big hug.” He threw his head back and laughed out loud.

  “We both won’t fit in there.” He was pointing at the window. Lily shook her finger at him as he came into the store.

  “John, you knew what I meant.”

  “Yah, but it is fun to tease, especially after Mother’s Day. How’s my girl? Are we going to survive this weekend?”

  Lily molded into his arms as she said yes.

  John was one constant in her life. He was the real reason she actually came into work on Mondays. Her store hours, especially in the winter, were actually Tuesday through Friday but John knew she was catching up on things on Mondays. If he didn’t see her in the store, he’d head to the back door. He was her very own large guardian angel with a gun.

  “How about tomorrow I bring you a burger and we sit outside on the bench. It’s supposed to be a beautiful day.”

  “That sounds good. Around one would be great.

  I have an appointment but I should be done by then.”

  He finally released her. “That’s perfect, little girl. I’ll see you then. You want diet or real?”

  “Real Coke please. It’s May and I need all the caffeine I can get.”

  He saluted her as he turned. “Real it is and I will see you tomorrow. Just yell if you need me.”

  “You know I will.”

  She would yell if there was any trouble. John would be there. The boulevard shops had hired him five years ago to oversee their security. Officer Temple had been an institution on the police force before his retirement. John always said he had to retire because he’d ran so much his legs had extended their warranty. John was the boulevard’s protector; he was her protector.

  Monday was looking up. The list was already shorter and Lily had a luncheon date tomorrow. She was going to eat a burger and have a real Coke, not a diet one. This could be the beginning of a good week.

  Lily stopped in the middle of the shop and looked around. Accomplishing so much, crisis averted and happy thoughts were leaving a lump in her stomach. When things were going well it usually meant that something big was about to happen, usually nothing good.

  “Oh Lord, I don’t need any more problems this week than the ones I already have.”

  Chapter Two

  Wednesday morning, Lily headed to the wholesaler across the river. It was a sunny day with not a cloud in the sky, absolutely stunning as she drove through the Kansas City downtown area. At nine in the morning everyone was already at the law offices and in court. There was never a show at the Sprint Center that early unless the Big XII basketball championships were being held there. Chaos was always created with shuttles, press vans and thousands of fans walking from parking garages, but that was in March. Today there was no traffic at all. City Hall had something going on, Lily thought, as she saw the television vans and their mammoth satellites posted on the west side of Oak Street. She’d watch the news tonight to see what was going on. As she drove across the bridge she smelled the pungent aroma from the water treatment facility. It smelled like bad potato chips. That scent would stay with her until she entered the larger flower cooler and took a whiff of freesia and lilies.

  With a beautiful blue sky above her and the sun beside her, this was going to be another great day. Neal would definitely have every flower she needed, except those roses. He had to have those tomorrow. He had to. That was what he did week after week. He had been in the business since he began driving deliveries at age sixteen. He had been a young man with long hair and the start of a mustache. He cut the hair but kept the facial hair.

  Lily first met Neal when she was a little girl helping her mom in the shop one day. She’d heard the knock at the back door and her mother had said to open it. She did and there he was, this teenager with two boxes of flowers in his arms.

  Lily never forgot him, nor that diamond he had in his ear. He was the first man she ever saw who had a piercing of any kind.

  By the next time she saw Neal she was the owner of the flower shop and was looking for a new wholesaler. There he was, mustache and earring all. Of course, he was older now but he was still that hard working teenager. Originally he wasn’t her sales rep.

  “I hate when that happens and it’s always on the weddings when I have a difficult bride.”

  “I know, I know,” Neal said in a sympathetic tone. He put his arm around her as if he were her older brother. “They’ll be here. I promise. This girl will have her hydrangeas…”

  “And roses!”

  “And roses, Lily. Don’t worry. Now, I’m going to pack this all up and we’ll have you on your way. I’ll call in the morning to confirm they are coming. Then I’ll call you as soon as we get them loaded and headed your way.”

  He knew her idiosyncrasies. They weren’t pretty but they were all Lily’s. As she had told Neal’s former boss last year, “I put myself out for my clients every weekend. I have to be perfect for every wedding. I am the one who is responsible for not ruining my bride’s special day. So work with me.” Neal did work with her.

  It was nearly four Thursday afternoon when the Federal Express van pulled up in front of the flower shop. Lily had already called Neal three times and had always heard “they are coming” before she hung up in disgust. In her mind she understood but there were times like these when she really wanted to look for another job. Could she work part-time somewhere? Seriously, when did she have time for anything else besides this place?

  But she had tried to have a relationship and a career. It had worked for awhile. In all actuality it had been his career that kept getting in the way. She had met him in a church. Of course she had.

  Where else did she go? Ministers were not easy to date, she soon discovered. You ended up dating his entire congregation, well maybe not all but several hundred of the busybodies who just had to know everything that was going on in the pastor’s life. They nearly exhausted themselves searching for everything on the Catholic woman dating their precious 'god boy'. But that was in the past.

  “Finally. Abby, the hydrangeas and roses are here!” Lily yelled as she signed for the flowers. The delivery had come directly from the airport because of the late hour. She noticed the wholesaler’s address had been scratched out with her’s added so it meant Neal hadn’t even seen them.

  The first box was filled with the garden roses. Perfect, they were absolutely perfect. “We need to get these in water,” she said as she handed them off to Abby.

  Then Lily opened the box of hydrangeas. Her heart sunk.

  “Oh God.” What else could she say? Abby came running to look inside the box.

  “Oh God,” was repeated by both women, one a prayer of petition, the other an exclamation. Inside the box lay thirty white hydrangeas, shriveled brown blooms on each stem.

  “What happened to them?” Abby asked. “They have ice packs, solution packets on them. Have you ever seen anything like this?”

  She looked at her boss but she already knew the answer. Lily just shook her head. Tears were filling her eyes. She rushed to the front desk and searched for her phone, searching for the emergency number of Neal’s boss. She called.

  “Bill, we have a huge problem. I just received my flowers. Well, the roses are fine but every last one of the hydrangeas are dead and I need them for a wedding on Saturday. I have to have those flowers.”

  She heard Bill saying all the right words, that they would be there tomorrow afternoon. Would that be good enough? Well, it was going to have to be good enough. What else could she do? It wasn’t time to call the bride, yet. He would have them here by tomorrow night and she would just work all night long if necessary. Fortunately she only needed them at the reception. But how would she sleep tonight?

  “What do you want me to do with these?” Abby was holding several limp, dead stems.

  Lily wiped the tears from
her face. “We trash them. Just save the ice packs and get those in the freezer. We can use them on future weddings. Flowers go in the trash and the box in the recycling bin out back. That’s all we can do with them. Oh, and take a photo of them first so they can see what they looked like when we got them.”

  “Yes, boss.” Abby disappeared out the back door.

  Well, the bad thing had happened. Now the rest of the weekend would go off without a hitch, especially if her hydrangeas arrived in time. Lily collapsed in her desk chair.

  What part-time job could she get? Maybe it was time for a different career. She hadn’t been a florist all her adult life. She had other skills. She could begin again.

  “Oh God,” she said prayerfully.

  Abby and Lily worked for a few more hours until it was dark. They would come in early tomorrow and begin again. On her way home Lily received a call from Bill explaining that he had contacted the grower and they were already preparing the flowers for an overnight trip to Kansas City. They had no idea what happened in transit. She could only imagine how much the shipping fees alone were costing Bill and the growers. She was assured that if they couldn’t get them in, he was already searching the open market to get what she needed. With that news, she calmed down enough to eat a late dinner and go to bed, sleeping a few hours before her alarm rang.

  By the time she reached the store she had said a full rosary of prayers. Her stomach was churning more than usual. Weddings were definitely ulcer makers. She kept reciting “everything will work out”.

  At noon a delivery truck was outside the shop’s door once more. A signature, a snip of the heavy tape around the box and an opening of the lid displayed thirty perfect stems of white hydrangeas. Crisis, again, was averted and another happy bride would be guaranteed.

  Chapter Three

  The weather was absolutely perfect for this wedding, Lily thought as she and Abby loaded up the van.

  “Don’t forget the extra scissors.” Her command sounded louder than usual in the quiet alley behind the shop. “Did you hear me? I didn’t mean to yell.”

  She faintly heard the phone ringing. Abby had apparently left her to reach it. Good, the command hadn’t been heard at all. She continued to load boxes. Mary Lee, this first bride of the day had selected pink. Pink. There were some nights Lily dreamt in pink. She wasn’t quite sure why but most of her pleasant dreams had a lovely hue of pink stroked over each vision.

  Were there not other colors? Not only for her dreams but for most weddings. Last year it had been purple. Every bridal guru in America had assured every gullible soon-to-be Mrs. that purple and all shades purple was the go-to color of all weddings chic. Or you just couldn’t get married! Hmmm, the Kansas State alumni were fine with purple, but the University of Kansas soon-to-be- weds hated the complete idea. Over and over, Lily had heard, “Isn’t there a shade of purple that isn’t really purple? My fiancé went to KU. He’s a Jayhawk and he just won’t allow purple in the wedding.” Rock Chalk all the way, except there was NO shade of purple that wasn’t purple. What were they studying in Lawrence, Kansas?

  Abby soon returned with the extra scissors— she had heard—and another box. “Here’s for the pews and I already packed the bows.”

  “Thanks, honey. So who was on the phone?”

  “Well, it was kind of weird. Neal just called to tell us they had a break-in overnight so if we need anything today they’re going to be shut down. The police are swarming the place. I told him we were good.”

  Lily continued to check the van. “What did they take? Flowers?” She laughed out loud. “I mean do they have a crazy bride that went over budget?”

  “He says that’s what they don’t understand. Apparently they took nothing. The place was tossed but the expensive equipment is still there. That’s why they don’t understand why the police are going nuts, dusting for prints, looking through packing slips and searching in their computers.” Abby went back into the shop for one more box.

  Lily couldn’t think about all that craziness right now, she had her own. “Abby, I need the order. Let’s go over it one more time.”

  “I know, I know!” Abby yelled as she ran to the back table. “I checked everything over but I know you have to do it yourself. Oh, and I packed extra hydrangeas for the aisle and a few roses…just in case.”

  “Thank you.” Lily appreciated Abby not voicing her entire opinion which would have included a detailed list of her boss’s OCD behavior. On the other hand, Lily preferred to describe herself as thorough. You could never be too thorough when working with brides, their mothers and weddings in general. It shouldn’t be in your vocabulary to just “go with it”.

  She looked carefully over the order and nodded her head. “It looks like we have everything. So I will see you later. You have all the phone numbers for that pick up wedding but they should be here in about thirty minutes. The red garden roses are perfect for later. I already looked over the bouquets. I’ll see you at the church as soon as I’ve finished down at the hotel.”

  “Have a good wedding. Oh and I brought a dress to wear. You said it was a small but classy wedding, right?”

  Lily nodded as she got into the van. “Great, yes, we don’t have anything at the reception so once I get there you can go on.” She knew Abby had a date that night with a new guy she’d met over at the coffee place near the university. Actually she had known him in grade school but everyone did change, didn’t they?

  With the drive down Broadway uneventful and the decorating quiet and uninterrupted by anyone in the wedding party, Lily walked over to the bride’s room to show off the bouquets. They were classic round style with hot pink roses and white spring fillers. As she unwrapped each individual creation the bridesmaids were all making different delightful noises, from “ooh” to “ah” and even the occasional “wow”. The best comment was “I’ve never had a great bouquet like this when I’ve been in other weddings.”

  The bride peeked her veiled head from around the bathroom door of the suite and smiled. “Is mine here?”

  “Nope. I forgot yours.” Lily quickly swept out a large gathering of all hot pink roses, each bloom sprouting a crystal as big as a one carat diamond. Too bad the crystals weren’t real.

  She was sure the screams could be heard on the street outside. “I love it. Mom, look. Look at my bouquet. It’s exactly what I wanted.” She grabbed the flowers out of Lily’s hands. “Oh it's so heavy. I didn’t expect that. Thank you, thank you. I love it.”

  She kept repeating her praises as she handed the bouquet off to one of her bridesmaids and gave Lily a big hug.

  “I’m so happy you like it.”

  “It’s,” the bride looked around the room at the other flowers. “So much more than I thought it would be. You have made my day.”

  “No, you’ve made my day,” Lily responded. “I’m so happy you love them. I thought they looked great too. It’s one of the prettiest weddings so far this year.”

  “I’m one of the best weddings! That’s what I wanted!” And now the woman who was to be married in less than an hour was turning into a giddy teenager who was getting revenge on her playmates. Time to go.

  “I’m headed down to the reception to decorate. You have a fantastic day and a better married life.”

  The bride and her mother were jumping up and down and just threw a nodding look to Lily. They were now in the wedding zone, similar to the old television series, “The Twilight Zone”, but not as deadly, or at least not as deadly to those who did their bidding and did it well. God help the cake decorator who put the wrong design on the cake or the hotel that didn’t have the suite ready or even the photographer who made the bride sweat. The wedding zone was filled only with happy thoughts by the bride and her mother, sometimes her father and some of her attendants. There was always the one girl who stayed in the corner texting her boyfriend, mad that he couldn’t make the trip or that the bride wouldn’t let him sit at the head table with her.

  They had been going
out for three months, why couldn’t he? But it was the bride’s wedding. When she got married she would be better to her friends. Lily shut the door to the room and saw the one girl in the corner, texting. She wasn’t smiling. Lily smiled knowingly.

  The hotel delivery and set-up was easy enough with balls of hot pink roses staged from table to table. The head table was adorned with the now infamous white hydrangeas. White and hot pink shouted out from the reception room. It was striking, but all that pink reminded Lily of the movie Steel Magnolias. Thankfully, there was no blush or bashful shades to add to the show or to look like a liquid treatment for an upset stomach.

  Lily made her way down Ward Parkway, probably the most beautiful drive in all of Kansas City. It’s tree-lined, six lanes divided by a grassy median was laden with fountains and ambled past some of the biggest and best houses in the city. You couldn’t just gawk unless you were a passenger. Most of the speeds on the Parkway exceeded the civilized world’s expectations of safety especially as you rounded Meyer Circle. Notorious over the years for countless accidents and deaths, the Circle boasted one of the city’s many fountains in the center. The street path had been shaved here and there and now the house on the southwest corner hadn’t had a car fly into its front room in years. It took only fifteen minutes for her to reach Abby and their other wedding. She found her unwrapping the bridesmaids’ bouquets as Lily entered.

  “The bride already took a look at them and she loved them…especially the garden roses!”

  Lily heaved a sigh of relief. Ms. Difficult has melted. “Good. I’ll take them back to her in a second and then you can get on your way.”

  “You know they have a coordinator here and she’ll probably take over for you. You could have all night off.”