Just Be Happy

Posted on Mon 26th Apr, 2021 @ 9:37pm by

854 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Business Not At All As Usual
Location: Scent of Love, Deck 635
Timeline: MD 7, 1040

Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. ~~ Guillaume Apollinaire

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As she dusted the great variety of vases on display near the artwork in the Touch of Home section of the shop, Flavia was mindlessly humming. Her brain wasn't thinking of anything in particular, wasn't even concentrating on dust as the feathers flicked over the tops of vases and shelves. Her fourteen-year-old daughter, Herodia, followed the sound of music from the back room of Scent of Love and spoke to her mother.

"You seem happy today," she remarked, plunging her hands into her apron pockets. "In fact, you've seemed happy a lot lately. What's going on, Mom?"

Stopping in mid-stroke of the feathers and mid-note of her humming, Flavia turned to her daughter with a smile and a puzzled look. "Shouldn't I be happy?" she asked.

"Well, yes, of course," Herodia rolled her age-old teenager eyes. "But exactly what is making you so ... so flightly ... so giddy, lately? All of us are happy in our family ... except occasionally the big booger, Terminus, but we don't all go around humming as we work. So what's up? Are we expanding? Are you and Dad taking a vacation? Oh, please tell me you are getting a baby sitter for everyone else, if you're going off on a romantic holiday!" She rolled her eyes again.

Her mother dropped the duster and leaned over to put her hands on her knees as she laughed. "Oh, my gosh, sweet eldest daughter, you do come to the most interesting conclusions." After a moment, she came back upright and wiped her eyes, another giggle escaping her.

"Well, see what I mean?" the teen accused. "You're giggling! You're 42 years old and you're giggling! Something is going on, I'm sure of it."

"Let me know when you find out what," Flavia smiled. "I don't know of anything. I'd love to take a vacation with your father. We haven't done that in ...." She looked thoughtful. "I think since before Claudia was born ... more than eight years. Wow. Maybe I should suggest it to him," she grinned slyly at her eldest child.

"Mo-o-om! Come on! Fess up."

"Truly, Herodia, there's nothing to confess," her mother took pity on her. She put her arm around her daughter's shoulders and turned her to look out at the main part of the two sections of the shop. "You see all this? We have been so blessed since we moved to this starbase. You might not remember our last shop, since you were only ... six? But it was about a quarter the size of this one, on a very small base. We did alright, but it was not a place of families or permanent residents, for the most part. There wasn't as much need for bouquets, and not many people bought plants for their quarters. We didn't have Touch of Home at all."

"I know that part," her daughter said. "We just started that here about three years ago."

"That's right, and we could do that because, here in the 109 Promenade, we have flourished. People live here, like in a city, and there's plenty of business. We've made friends. Our family has grown, and ... well, it seems to me as if we have everything we could ever want. Why wouldn't I be happy enough to hum, to sing, even to shout?"

The girl looked around the two parts of the shop. It was true they did a good business on the starbase. They had a nice home in a lovely section of Perry Gardens, where many shop owners and working class civilians lived. She and her siblings had everything they needed and many things they wanted. Was that enough to make her mother so happy that she mindlessly hummed as she worked? It didn't have that affect on Herodia, but then ... maybe it should.

She slid out from under her mother's arm and turned to look in her eyes. "Really? That's all it takes to make you so happy?" she asked, wondering what was wrong with her that she wanted more.

"Really," her mother said. "You're young, Herodia," she added, as if reading her daughter's mind. "It's right that you should dream your own dreams, maybe bigger dreams than your dad and I have fulfilled. Don't feel bad if the things that satisfy us aren't enough for you. These shops are our dreams. Your dreams may reach to much more distant starts. That's as it should be.

"Your dad and I came from a far different place than you do. You've been to Gatria, and met your grandparents. You've seen where my childhood was lived. You've been brought up very differently, a child of the galaxy instead of a child of Gatria. You will have to dream your own dreams and find what makes you hum mindlessly." She reached out and enfolded Herodia in a hug.

The bell rang as a customer opened the door into the flower shop. Flavia drew back and patted her daughter's shoulder. "For now, bloom where you're planted."

 

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