Daisy's Fortune by Susan Gabriel

Author:Susan Gabriel [Gabriel, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wild Lily Arts

CHAPTER TWENTY

Daisy

Gran and I sit on Sadie’s front porch overlooking the valley surrounded by mountains. A bed of wildflowers waves in the breeze below the porch. Small birds hover among the blossoms, a light hum accompanying their flight. They dip and dive at one another and hover over the flowers.

“Those are hummingbirds,” Gran says.

“Hummingbirds,” I repeat. Another thing I never knew existed, like honeysuckle, lavender, and tree frogs the size of quarters that come out after a rainstorm.

The screen door opens, and Mom rolls her sizeable black suitcase onto the porch. When I was younger, seeing this suitcase made me automatically cry, and though I don’t weep anymore, a familiar heaviness sweeps in on the breeze.

“Well, if it isn’t my two favorite people in the whole world,” Mom says with a smile.

I imagine Gran and I both know she means it, but somehow it isn’t enough. Spending time with people is how you know you matter to them. Spending time and listening. I’m not sure Mom has ever been good at either. Like the hummingbirds, she flits from flower to flower, her songs the nectar for strangers.

“Will you let us know you arrived safely?” Gran asks my mom.

“Of course,” she says. “I’ll call you sometime tomorrow.”

Mom will do as she says. She will call the house and say something sweet to me like how great it was to spend time together, which will make her absence hurt even more. I get up from the swing and roll her cumbersome suitcase down the steps and along the rocky walkway toward the rental car. In a way, I wish I could go with her, not that she has ever asked me along.

Mom hugs Gran on the front porch and then walks down the stone path behind me. Together we lift her suitcase into the trunk. I want to beg her to stay, but I know it won’t do any good. It will just make her feel worse for leaving when she feels she has to.

A makeshift valet, I open the car door for her. Gran joins me, and we stand at the end of the walkway and wave as Mom drives away. As the dirt rises and falls, Gran squeezes me, as though she knows what it’s like to be left behind.

Shortly after, we close up Aunt Sadie’s house and return to Granny McAllister’s. When we arrive, we find boxes stacked by the front door full of Sadie’s things. We find her in the kitchen packing up herbs and tinctures in small bottles. Her eyes are red. A small pile of tissues graces the kitchen counter.

“I thought I’d go back home, so you and Daisy can have more room,” she says, as though she already knows that we are spending the rest of the summer.

“There’s no need for that,” Gran says. “This is your home, too.”

Aunt Sadie pauses. “Truth is, Wildflower, I came to help Nell. I’ve missed my place. Rufus has, too.”

She pats her dog, whose panting smile confirms he would be happy anywhere, as long as Sadie is there.

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