The Language of Flowers

Posted on Sat 30th Mar, 2013 @ 6:05am by
Edited on on Sat 30th Mar, 2013 @ 6:16am

413 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: http://sb109.sim-station.net/index.php/sim/missions/id/3
Location: Scent of Love
Timeline: MD 04 0700

"Be careful with that!" Flavia warned Herodia, her twelve-year-old eldest daughter. The girl was carrying an arrangement of pink roses, white carnations, yellow tulips and lavendar statice with greenery. Because it was in a round white glass bowl, it was breakable and Herodia was notoriously clumsy. "Thank you," her mother said kindly, taking the arrangement and placing it on a shelf in the stasis display case.

Herodia smiled proudly and said, "You're welcome. Daddy let me carry it, even though it was glass. He said to tell you he's almost finished with the orders and ask what you'd like him to concentrate on today.

Flavia looked at her daughter thoughtfully. "What would you suggest?"

"Me?" the girl asked, surprised. Then she took a moment to think. She'd lived around flowers all her life, even though they'd only been on the starbase about six months. She looked at the flowers in the stasis case, and then at the calendar. "I think he needs some bouquets with red and white carnations, maybe with candy striped ribbon and some baby's breath and that shiny green leaf I like."

"The Autumn Fern?" At Herodia's nod, she asked, "Why did you choose those?"

"Well, it's the day before White Day, and I think there will be a lot of people who come for love bouquets. Carnations aren't so expensive, and red ones mean my heart aches for you and white ones mean pure love. Ferns are just magic, and Baby's breath means a pure heart. I think if I love someone, I want them to have a pure heart," the girl said.

Smiling, Flavia said, "You're absolutely right about that, and don't you ever forget it, either. Alright, tell your dad to make ten bouquets you've described, and then another ten with Dandelions, those deep blue Forget-Me-Nots and Bajoran Lilacs."

Herodia frowned, "Bajoran lilacs? What's their meaning?"

"I don't know if the Bajorans ever had a language of flowers, Sweetie. That's an old Earth thing, maybe exclusively. But we can give it a meaning if you like," her mother suggested.

"Okaaaaay," her daughter said, thinking about it. "Dandelions mean faithfulness and Forget-Me-Nots mean True Love, sooooooo, how about if the lilacs mean ... Remembrance! Like Rosemary."

"I think that fits perfectly," Flavia agreed, and watched her eldest child skip through the plants of the floor display. Today, she was still a little girl, in some respects. Tomorrow, or the day after, all too soon, she'd be a young woman.

 

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