by Pat Dowd
The next morning she woke up with her mom saying, “Something has happened to your dad, he is laying there not breathing, go down the hall to the pay phone and call the ambulance, the number is on the front of the refrigerator with the rest of our numbers.” Candice although scared and nervous grabbed a quarter out of the change bowl in the kitchen and ran down the hall to the phone. Lucky for her nobody was using it. She stuffed the quarter down the slot and dialed the number. It seemed to ring forever but after the sixth ring a voice came on the other end. “Kramer’s Ambulance Service, can we help you?” they said. Candice told them what was going on so they said that they would send someone out right away. By the time they arrived there was no chance to revive her dad. From the temperature of the body they knew that he had been dead for a while and there was no hope. They took the vitals just to be polite but there was not a spark of life left in him. They loaded him on a stretcher and put a sheet over him all the way over his head and carted him away to the morgue where he would be put on ice until the coroner had time to determine what the cause of death was. Candice was confused, her mind was spinning, was this the result of the man in the park or did her mom put a pillow over his face and smother him while he slept? She was scared and did not know what to do. Should she tell her mom what went on in the park or should she just think about it for a while? She chose the latter.
That evening she went to the park just before dark to see if the man had come back. She wanted to ask him if he had anything to do with her father’s death and if anything was going to happen to her or her mom. She waited until dark had set in before giving up on waiting for the man to show up. She went home to see if her mom was acting strange in any way like her dad did the night before he died. She did not notice anything wrong so she went to her room and listened to the radio for a while before going to sleep. The next morning she woke up and heard her mom stirring in the kitchen so she went in to see what was up. He mom was dressed and ready to go out. She had a skirt and blouse on with medium heals and her hair was neat and fixed rather conservative for her mom along with a minimum of makeup. She was loading a small purse with her wallet and personal things when Candice walked in. She asked her mom where she was going. “Since your dad bit the dust, I am going to have to find a job or we are going to get kicked out of the apartment and be living on the streets.” Her mom said. Her mom picked up her keys and left the apartment. She could hear her catching the elevator in the hallway right outside the apartment. Candice threw on some clothes and got out of there herself. She was almost late for school.
When she was about a block down the road she saw a commotion in the street in front of the local bus stop. She slowly went by on the sidewalk trying to look through the crowd to see what all the commotion was all about. A police officer asked the people to get out of the street and up on the sidewalk. When the crowd started to break up and move up on the sidewalk Candice noticed that her mom was lying on the street not moving and there was blood spattered on her legs and her white blouse. Her heart liked to jump out of her chest as she stood there in shock at what she just saw. Then she ran over and screamed, “Mom, that is my mom!” The policeman grabbed her and said, “No, don’t go there, she is gone and you can’t help her now.” She was pulled away and was put in the back of a police car and left all alone. She tried to get out but the doors were locked from the outside. There were no handles or buttons on the inside for her to get out with.
Now she was really scared, was it that guy in the park or was it just a coincidence that both her parents were dead within twenty four hours of each other? She had to know. After the police talked to her and finished their report, they let her go and told her to stay available in case they needed to get in touch with her later, then they took her mom away like they did with her dad the day before. That afternoon she went back to the park at dusk and looked for the man in the black outfit with the scarf and hat on. She sat there for a while with her eyes closed trying to figure out what was going on. Then like he did before he came walking slowly towards her. “I fixed it so there would be no more fighting in your apartment anymore, I hope you are pleased. You can’t say that I am not a man of my word?” He said. “Yes, she said, “I am glad I don’t have to listen to all that fighting anymore. What about me though, I can’t pay for that apartment and utilities by myself, I don’t have a job and I am still in school?” He told her not to worry, that it would all work out, all she needed was a little patience. “You have to have faith in me,” he said. He told her to go home and wait a few days and then come back and let him know how she came out.
A few days went by and then something happened. She was on her way home from school when out of nowhere an armored car went by and turned around the corner where she was standing. The door on the back of the truck opened and a bag which looked like a small laundry bag fell out and landed by her feet. She immediately reached down and snatched it up and tried to hide it somewhat by holding it close to her body. She did not know what was in it but was not about to look into it right there on the street corner. She then high tailed it to the apartment which was only a block away and ran up the stairs to her apartment. By then she was breathing hard and felt her heart pounding in her chest like a wild cat trying to get out of a gunny sack. She threw the bag on the kitchen table and fell into one of the chairs trying desperately to catch her breath. Her head was spinning, “What did she get herself into,” she thought?
When she finally calmed down she got out some scissors and cut through the ties at the top of the bag, slowly opened it up and then peaked in to see what was there. In there was more money that she had ever seen in one place in her life. Hundreds of twenties bundled in packs stacked one on top of the other. There must have been thousands of dollars in there. Should she call the police and report her find? Would there be some kind of reward for finding it? She did not know what to do, so she closed up the bag and hid it in the closet behind the Christmas ornaments where nobody would find it easily. After spending the rest of the evening thinking what in the world she was going to do about the money, she decided to go to bed and sleep on it.
The next morning she went down the stairs, walked across the street and got a newspaper out of the machine in front of the apartments to see if anyone was missing money or if there was any robbery near by. There was not a word about any of it. She looked at every page twice and there was nothing. She called in sick to school and spent the day at the kitchen table counting the money and carefully putting it back in the bag as she got through it all. There were about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in the bag give or take a few bucks. She was as happy as a girl could be and decided to keep her stash so she could live on it while she finished school and lived her life like a real girl should.
That evening she went back to the park hoping to run into the old man that helped her turn her life around. She waited over an hour but nothing happened. Then just as she was about to leave, she noticed a note stuck to a tree next to the bench that she used to sit on. On the note was a stick figure picture on it of a man wearing a fedora and a scarf. Under the picture was the words “You are welcome, goodbye and good luck.” She felt alive for the first time in her life. She went home partly skipping and running all the way hardly slowing down as she came through the door of her apartment and down to her room. She flopped down on the bed with her mind spinning as to what she was going to do the next day to get her new life started. First she was going to do some shopping so for once she could go to school in style. There were not going to be any kids looking down at her while making fun of what she was wearing ever again. In the days to come it all worked out in the best possible way. She felt like a million dollars and lived on happily ever after.
The End
Flower In The Crack
Last night I dreamed I was a flower trying to grow up through a crack in the driveway. It was a breezy day to start with and there I was just a seed sitting on a flower in a field on a beautif
ul day in the first month of spring. All around me there was new growth and wonder as far as I could see. It was my favorite time of year. As I swayed in the breeze I did my best to hold on but I knew in my heart that my destiny was to be somewhere else. At last the wind calmed down and I got a chance to relax for a minute. I was tired from using my all my strength to hang on all day. I became tired and drifted off to sleep. The air felt wonderful around me with the sun gently warming my outer layer as if I was one of its children on a picknick in the park. I felt happy and disconnected from the hectic world just a few blocks away. It was beautiful here and it would be forever the place where I would call home.
The breeze suddenly became a wind and I was lifted from my resting place and sent along aimlessly through the blue sky and around the few marshmallow clouds that hung in the sky like ornaments on a tree during the holidays. Where I was going I did not know, I was at the mercy of the wind and had no idea where it was going to take me. What was my new home going to look like I wondered? Was I going to be hidden behind a fence post or on the edge of a cliff where rain could take me away and drown me in the raging stream below? As you could imagine, I was scared to death and wished it was all over and I was safe in my new home. I longed for some moist cool earth where I could lay shaded by blades of grass while the light spring rain ran slowly over my body making me wake up to be bigger and stronger every day.
I felt like I was tumbling along for the longest time before things began to calm down to the point where I was close to landing in my new home.
My flight seemed to last forever but when I got up the courage to peak out and see where I was, I felt myself bounce off something a lot harder than a meadow or a garden. It felt more like a street or a sidewalk. When I stopped rolling along I unfolded myself from the ball I was curled up in. I stuck my head up to get a better look but all I could see was darkness and above me in the distance was a thin blue line of light. As I got use to the darkness I began to see the concrete walls that surrounded me on all sides and began to realize where I ended up landing. I was stuck in a crack in the concrete. What could I do now? How was the wind going to come down here and lift me to safety? I was scared, could I just die here and no one would ever know I ever existed? I was at the lowest point in my young life and I felt sick all the way to my core.
After an hour or two a car came by and stopped right above me. The thin blue line of light disappeared above me. The light must have been the sun shining on the top of the crevice I was in the bottom of. The car parking above blocked the light and I could hardly see anything at all. I could only hear the people that were in the car getting out and walking away. I heard a wooden screen door slam shut and a woman’s voice saying, “I am so glad you all are here, I have been waiting all day for you to drive up.” After a bunch of hugs and greetings they all went inside and it became quiet once again. Why didn’t I call out and say something while they were there in the driveway where they might have heard me and rescued me from this awful place? I must have panicked and not been thinking clearly. Now all I could do was wait and see what was going to happen next.
I lay there looking at the darkness above wondering if this was the end or was there some kind of miracle waiting in the wings to save me and make things good again. Now and then there were faint sounds in the distance but not much happening anywhere near me. I drifted off to sleep then after a while I was awakened by a crunching sound in the dirt. I even began to feel my feet being moved around in the soil below. It was dark and I could not see. I knew it had to be some kind of bug or insect moving around in the dirt looking for something to eat for a late night snack. Was I to be eaten up by some creature before I even get a chance to grow up to be a beautiful flower like my ancestors did for generations before me? I could see my life flash by me as if it were the end and there was no hope for survival. I had by now excepted the fact that I was going to die. It is a funny thing, up until now I would have been panicking and scared to death over this but now that it was all facing me I almost felt a kind of peace and the drama seemed to have been squeezed out of it all. Then the rain came!
The rain came down just before dawn and began to slide down the walls of the crack I was stuck in the bottom of. The moisture began to slide down and settle on my skin slowly sinking in. The bug was trying to get out and climbed over my mid-section and placed one of his hind legs on my head pushing me down lower in the hole. He then made his way up to the top of the crack and went on his way. The water that was starting to fill the crack began to make my whole body swell up and move at a snail’s pace up the sides of the concrete. I felt the rough concrete cutting into my sides as I rose up towards the light above. I could not stop myself and the pain was getting unbearable. It was like being just below the surface of the water in a lake where you were doing all you could to reach the surface of the water from below, kicking and clawing but the surface seemed to not get any closer no matter how hard you tried.
After what seemed to be a lifetime I heard the car up above start up and drive away. The sun was once again shining above the hole and I could see that it was not going to be that long until I could get my head above the crack and see the world above. I struggled for a while longer. My excitement kind of muffled the pain so I managed to squirm out of the crack and stick my head out, take a deep breath and enjoy the moment. I stuck my hands up as far as I could stretch them and let out a cry of joy in the air. It was ecstasy!
The day went by and I was as happy as I had ever been. The growing had pretty much come to an end and the pain of scraping along the walls of the crack started to subside. It was with every moment becoming better and better. I had grown up in the middle of the driveway which gave me a great view of everything around me. There was a little house about twenty five feet away from me where you could hear the laughter of little kids and all the activity that went along with it. There was a feeling of love and kindness in the air. The children decided to play hop scotch on the concrete about ten feet away. They seemed to be far removed from the violence and deception that they would have to deal with in the years to come. For right now they were shielded by all that kind of thing by innocence and youth. There were children playing, neighbors riding their bikes along the street and dogs wandering along the sidewalks skillfully aiming at every tree or fire hydrant along the way. I was in heaven, this was more wonderful than I ever thought it could be. I could not wait to share this with any other flowers that might land by me within shouting distance.
The day rolled on, soon I heard the sound of a car coming along the street in the distance. It slowed down as it approached and turned into the driveway. I was just sitting there bending back and forth in the slight wind. The car came to a rest just a few feet away from me then a man got out and greeted the kids with hugs and kisses before he headed towards the house.
All of a sudden, one of the children spotted me in front of the car and ran towards me saying, “Look, there is a flower growing right there in the driveway.” She stopped and knelt in front of me slowly pulling on me trying to get me out without breaking me in the process. I tried to resist but she was too strong and I could feel my feet breaking away from the little dirt that they were in. I felt my body coming out into the air as she gripped me tightly along my sides and lifted me out. She stood up and headed towards the house pawing over me as she went. We came into the kitchen where her grandma was standing by the stove cooking the evening’s dinner. “Look grandma, I found a flower growing in the driveway. Can we put it in some water to save it?” Grandma wiped her hands on her apron and then walked over to a cabinet where she pulled out a single flower vase adding some water to it and then gently placing the flower inside. At first the flower looked a little weak but after a few hours it began to perk up once again and stand tall while it sat there in the middle of the table for all to see.
Everything was once again as good as it gets and I was feeling like a million dollars. I was there right in the middle of all
the action in the household and for once I felt like I had a real home. Two days of bliss went by and then on the third morning when I woke up I could hardly lift my head. I felt weak and nauseated as if I were falling apart and losing my consciousness little by little. Was this going to be the end, is this all of the life I have left, a fading end without any means of saying goodbye to anyone or any time to get my thoughts or my affairs in order? I felt cheated and depressed to the point I just wanted to scream out to the world but inside I did not know what to say. I neither had the energy or the stamina to scream out. I was getting a vile taste in my mouth as my eyes were slowly losing focus. It was time to face it, the end was near and I was going to have to except my fate. The sad part was that I will never get a chance to live long enough to seed and start a new generation of flowers like my family did before me. It was the end of a dynasty and the end of an era. All I had left was the beginning of the silence of eternity. I did not know if I would be able to handle it or not. I felt myself fading fast as I was slipping into the darkness. All I could hear was my heart pounding in my chest and all I could feel was the hand of death on my shoulder guiding me somewhere I did not want to go but I was too helpless to resist.