A Walk in Petunias

It's Time To Come Home

I look back at the moment when I was humming and singing a song as I walked along a dirt road in the forest fields behind my cabin home and silently praying the sun wouldn't go down until I walked in my front door. Little did I know at the time but I would never see it go down ever again. This is my story of finding the light in even the darkest crevices of this world.

In a destitute town northwest of the city I came from, there I sit in a rocking chair knitting a beanie and humming a song. The same song from all those years ago. I ran up to the door and burst through it with such a fierce need to speak to Bernie the local florist in Mayberri Farm. He would always bellow out a hearty laugh when I burst through the doors as he knew that I was going to beg for some seeds for my garden at home even though he was skeptical I could look after them. "Oh please! please let me have some Petunia seeds uncle Bernie?" I would ask in a sulky tone. "Come on now darlin' you know I know you can't look after em" Bernie would always say to me. He always asked why I needed them so much but I never told him why.

Grandma Hattie was in the nursing home for Dementia and I know how much she loves Petunias but I couldn't afford to buy her a bouquet of flowers every Sunday. So, I figured I would asked uncle Bernie to give me some so I can pick them for her as I knew she wouldn't be around much longer and it would break my heart to never see her smile again.

I'm only a small girl of a 5'2 frame with curly light brown hair and hazel eyes. People always thought I was younger than I am. At 12 years old people thought I was 8 years old and now at 21 years old I was still treated as that 12-year-old who was treated as an 8-year-old. I huffed and puffed but I could never get Bernie to give me those seeds so my mischievous mind said I could just take one little seed and return it to Bernie with more seeds later. I just knew I could grow those flowers and make grandma Hattie smile while proving to Bernie that I wasn't a silly kid anymore.

That night I snuck into the doggie door of uncle Bernie's florist shop and took the Petunia seed out of his seed tin. Maybe that was the biggest mistake. I knew lying and stealing was never any good but I thought for good reason that it was acceptable. I was doing good for someone else. Well that's not how sheriff Miller saw my act of ungodliness. I was caught as soon as I crawled out that doggie door and looked up to sheriff Millers smirk on his round face.

After 3 days of community service and a big talk to uncle Bernie I found myself with no flower seeds or any dignity, or had I? I walked along the dirt road trail in the forest to my cabin. I didn't hear the footsteps behind me probably because of my hums. I was humming because I had grabbed the Petunia seed off sheriff Millers desk when he was making a coffee. I figured he probably thought he dropped it anyway.

Staring at the Petunia seed in my hand I didn't realise where I was walking and I tripped on a branch along the path. I kicked it out the way and looked to the sky as the sun went down praying it would stay lit just a little longer. A hand reached out and tapped my shoulder. I turn and see the grin of a man three times older. He smiles at me and asks my name, being polite I reply with "My name's Jenny". "What a lovely name you have Jenny, I'm Jeremiah" He extends his claw like hand. I reach out to shake it hesitantly and he grabs it with a force and pulls me forward. I was almost face to face with Jeremiah, our shoes touching toe to toe.

He lets go and laughs. I frown at the confusion of what was funny. "You shouldn't be out here so late sunshine" he smirks. I turn around and decide to keep walking. No point given the light of day to a rude stranger. He follows me seemly unfazed. I keep walking until I hear a scraping sound behind me. I turn around and he grins or smirks I couldn't tell but he a had a knife and a sharpening block in hand. I look down without much emotion trying to remain calm. He says this to me and I'll never forget "It's time to come home" and then I'm down on the ground and all I see is the sun just before it sets.

9 years later

I woke up to the sun streaming onto my face that next morning in the hospital and I finally knew I would get to see the sun go down that night and for the rest of my life. Grandma Hattie was sitting on a chair next to my bed smiling at me with tears in her eyes. I'm sure she didn't know who I actually was but the nurse brought her to me and she agreed without question as if she knew exactly why she had to see me. Grandma Hattie never missed a Sunday of Petunias and uncle Bernie retired and left his flower shop to me.

What had really happened you ask?

I revisited the basement I was held in 11 years after I was taken. I stare at the wall to my right. Drawings of suns everywhere. I never knew how much energy the sun can give us until I had to live without it. Jeremiah was a butcher one town over from ours. Turns out he lost his daughter in an accident along that very dirt road. She had tripped and broken her neck while walking home at sunset. I too had almost followed the same fate and Jeremiah thought I was just like his clumsy daughter Tilly. He wasn't such an aggressive man but he didn't know what he wanted from me other than to be with him forever. I lived in the basement of the butcher shop for 9 years. I got out when I was 30 years old after I had finally decided to end my life. Jeremiah did the right thing and took me to the hospital even though he ended up sentenced to 45 years in prison. His last words to me were "It's time to go home now Tilly".

Two years since waking up in hospital I decided to go back to the dirt road behind my cabin only to find that it had overgrown with Petunia flowers. I smiled as I knew it only takes one seed to grow a field. It was finally time to come back home.