Perfect Love and Perfect Trust

Yarrow

Yarrow has many medicinal uses, but many personal as well. When one needs a friend, a shield, yarrow is there wherever you need it. It heals many wounds and ailments and provides comfort when needed. When one wields Yarrow, they are invincible. (Not really.)

Once, maybe five or ten years ago, Sophia would have had trouble keeping up with Teddy. He could run way faster than her clumsy legs ever could, and no leash could keep him from chasing whatever caught his attention. She couldn't count how many times she had been walking him around the neighborhood, only to look down and realize he had shot off his collar like a bullet. He would often be found in a stranger's backyard, barking up a tree or at their roof.

Now, however, with the Sun beaming down on the cracked pavement of the parking lot, he calmly limped beside her, with a slight penchant for straying to the right. He's tired. It had been years since she had been here to take him on a walk, and her parents were never the type of people to spend long periods of time outside. Her mother was pale and hated how easily her skin burned, and her father was allergic to mosquitoes. Needless to say, the old fool hasn't had a steady exercise routine in the two years she had been studying psychology in Alabama.

They had left Charlotte's blue suburban home about ten minutes ago and had another ten left in the trek to the park. Sophia changed direction, no longer walking parallel to the highway on their right. Instead, walking towards a familiar sight. Kelly's. A run-down little grocery store between a decrepit dollar store and a family-owned donut shop. The front was decorated with disorganized shopping carts in sloppy lines, a couple of vending machines, and multi-colored newspaper stands. Sophia walked towards the vending machines, fingering the change in her pocket. At her command, the vending machine spit out a chilled bottle of water and an off-brand soda. She sat on the ground by the newspaper stands. The front page gossip was about the Fish Festival next week. She poured some water into her hand and held it out to Teddy, careful not to spill any on the concrete and waste it. He lapped it up quickly, as well as three more handfuls.

"Ah yes, throwing fish is fun enough for an entire festival." She rolled her eyes and rubbed the dog's floppy ear.

"I met my wife at the Fish Festival, twenty years ago." She looked up to see a bald man in his forties had stopped next to her. She smiled at the wistful look in his eyes. It was nice to see a sprinkling of happiness in the ramshackle town she had grown up in. He had a cooing baby, swaddled in a frog blanket in his arm, and had the hand of a small child wrapped in his.

"That's wonderful!" She spoke to the father. Sophia then glanced at the girl holding his hand. "That is a cool shirt!" The girl smiled shyly at her. The shirt had a dalmatian on it, surrounded by rainbow soccer balls. The man stepped towards the store and disappeared into the squeaky automatic doors. Sophia stood up and patted Teddy, who had decided to lay down in the shade. He reluctantly stood up. She put the bottles in her purse and started walking once more, wincing as her trainers scraped the jagged ground.

Fifteen minutes later, the pair arrived at the park. They should have arrived sooner, but Teddy sat down to stare at a frog in a ditch halfway there and had refused to budge.

Sophia leaned down to Teddy's collar and unclasped his thick blue leash. She rolled it up and put it in the back pocket of her light blue denim shorts. They walked quietly side-by-side down a well-worn footpath to the familiar pier. Teddy occasionally stopped to smell a particularly interesting patch of grass, while Sophia occasionally stopped to gather particularly interesting plants. All around them ran dirty children, laughing and yelling. Parent's sat on benches, reading the Sun Herald or playing on their phones.