Skunk in the Flowers

Posted on Mon 10th Oct, 2016 @ 8:04pm by

826 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Cloak & Dagger
Location: Scent of Love, Deck 635
Timeline: MD 2: 0930 hours

Flavia was humming to herself as she put buckets of flower deliveries into the coolers, removing any that had lost their freshness. They were still good enough to grace her own family's table for a few days, but not to sell to customers. She took a deep breath as she turned away from the doors, always loving the scent of mingled floral notes. Suddenly, she was coughing uncontrollably. She bent over, resting her hands on her knees as she tried to bring it under control, her eyes watering.

Finally, she thought she could speak and hollered, "Ianus! What are you doing? You don't have that chemistry set down here in the shop again, do you? I've told you and told you that needs to be handled only in a lab, under supervision!" She coughed again, but not as badly.

"Ianus, answer me!" It could only be her third child. At 9, he already thought he knew everything. Truthfully, he did know quite a bit, but not enough to be playing with foul smelling chemicals without an adult.

"Ianus, you know what's going to happen if I have to come get you!" Flavia yelled again, heading in the direction of the front of the shop. No matter where she looked, however, her son was not hiding. Either her nose had grown accustomed to the odd scent, or it had dissipated, but what was it? If her son hadn't caused it, what had? She hoped she didn't have some gel tack, or whatever engineers called it, that was going bad. The shop had just been completely remodeled for her to move into with her floral and gift business.

The door opened and a woman several inches taller than Flavia entered. She was slender, brown-haired and brown-eyed, not particularly beautiful, but quite pleasant to look at, especially as she looked up and smiled.

"Good morning. Are you looking for something special?" Flavia asked, instantly putting aside her concern over the strange smell that had caused her coughing fit. Business always came first.

"Yes," the woman answered, "and no."

"Then I'm sure I can help," the florist laughed.

Smiling the young woman held out her hand to shake. "Jenna Clark. I work at Orchids & Jazz, on deck 600. You may have heard of it?"

"Oh, yes, I believe I have," Flavia nodded. "Supposed to have wonderful entertainment. Are you looking for flowers for the tables?"

"Not today, but I'll certainly suggest it to Jade - Miss Lantz," Jenna answered, casting her eyes around at the wide variety of plants and bouquets. "Oh! Is this an orchid of some kind?" she asked, wandering toward a tri-lobal flower with white petals turning toward red-veined at the ends, and each lobe containing a deep red flute.

"Yes, that's one I grew myself. I call it Panamint. Do you like it?" Flavia asked.

"Oh, yes. I could never buy one like this, but please don't sell it until Miss Lantz has seen it. I am almost positive she'll want to add it to her collection." Jenna dropped her hand, which had only hovered over the bloom, and turned back toward the florist. "I'm looking for something much more modest, perhaps cut daisies to cheer my quarters? You have that stuff that makes them last a while, don't you?"

"Up to two weeks for cut flowers, but you can have a budding plant that will last much longer and bloom for you again and again," Flavia assured her, as they walked toward a display.

Jenna stopped and wrinkled her nose. "Really, I don't mean to be rude, but ... well, what is that smell? It doesn't seem to fit in a florist shop!" She sniffed delicately again.

"I know. I thought it was my son experimenting with something, but I couldn't find him, so I'm not sure what it was. I hope it wasn't something failing in my newly installed systems!" Mrs. Smith sounded a little worried.

"I think," Jenna sniffed a third time, "it smells like some kind of burned wiring ... though of course, on a starbase like this, there probably isn't anything like that. It just reminds me of something from my colony world ... not nearly as advanced as this place!" She smiled and reassured the other woman, "I'm sure it's nothing."

"I hope you're right," Flavia said. "Now, about the daisies?"

"Yes, and I think I better stick with the cut flowers. I seem to have whatever the opposite of a green thumb is. Miss Lantz can grow anything, but I daren't go near her orchids!"

Flavia smiled and wrapped up six stems of daisies for the woman. After she'd left, the florist went back to searching for the source of the strange smell, but it seemed to have faded too much to locate an area where it was stronger.

"Very strange," Flavia muttered, glancing at her Panamint and hoping the young woman had been exaggerating her ability to cause harm to plants.

 

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