Daisy's Garden

Time. Time has a funny way of creeping itself into crannies of life, of slipping between the finely sealed cracks and mortars of oneself. I recall, way back, when friendships were blooming and blossoming into something just far enough that you ran around and laughed and tested those boundaries. What happened to ’em, those boundaries? What happened to those days of old when a boy and girl could laugh and play, poke fun at one another and just be kids? I tell you what happened kid. Time happened. Time and sour jealousy.

Friendships grow like a seed in the dirt, just rain and sun, it starts to grow and eventually it buds into something worth having. What then is so hard about those friendships, why is it that when you think things are going in the way they need to, it just falls apart like a bud didn’t get enough water or sun? I tell ya, it’s because of time. Don’t matter none what you have in the greenhouse, don’t matter what kind of manure you keep in that back shed, some flowers just ain’t meant to grow. So don’t let it get ya down kid, but instead learn from it, learn to have a greener thumb. Learn how to tend the soil, learn how to care for that rose inside the cage of bone, and one day that rose won’t have thorns that only hurt those around it. One day, that rose will grow tall and bright, and the thorns will become a bramble bush that surrounds the garden and keeps the birds away.

Lemme tell ya about one such flower. Beautiful as carnations on a spring day, with hair as vibrant as the fall leaves and eyes as bright as the sparkling glaciers up north. Her lips were the softest shade of pink any azalea would be jealous of and her skin was just as pale as arum lilies after a morning dew. Yeah kid, that that sink in a bit, you’d have thought she was a sprite upon seeing her, but she wasn’t. This gal was the bees knees kid, and she meant everything to me, even back then when we was kids foolin’ ’round in the fields.

Now, I ain’t no saint and I sure as mud ain’t perfect, but she was what I saw as perfection was meant to be in physical form. I wish I could go back to that point and stop the stars for eternity, just to get more fun in with her, before time turned that flower of mine into a sour patch. Ya see, when time starts to slip between the grains of sand and gets into the soil itself, the rose starts to wilt if it ain’t cared for, and when the soil is bad then the whole bed needs to be tilled for fresh air. That’s what it was, the bed had gone bad, the soil turned sour and next thing I know this precious flower had withered before my very eyes and my thumb turned black before I knew.

Now don’t you be laughin’ at this old codger kid, but let me tell ya what happened, just to ease the air. Hold on while I get me another smoke, this ones all burnt down to the rim.

We was seven or eight, neighbors at the time, and neither of our Pa liked the other much. Some kind of bad blood between the two, but it didn’t matter none to us, that was grown up mud we weren’t allowed to know. Now, just for sake of commodity, we’ll say her name is Daisy. Now, Daisy and I liked one another, as you can probably guess from the way I talk ‘bout her. But it was more than just a like I figure, cause before we was ten she was leaning on me something fierce. She liked to lay up on me, resting her head on my lap and blushing up on her cheeks when she did, and I sure as mud did too when we was like that. I guess deep down I knew it wasn’t just a friendly lean, but I wasn’t all too bright back then. Anyways, Daisy and I started out small, holdin’ hands and poking fun at one another in our own flirtatious ways.

Well, her Pa caught sight of us one day under the tree out back and he went a steppin’ to my Pa. My Pa didn’t care for salesman, didn’t care for trespassers none neither, but this man came trespassing a sales pitch bigger than them preachers on the side of the road. My Pa didn’t know me and Daisy was getting friendlier by the day after chores, shoot he thought we was just kids having fun, not like we could get up to nothing grown up. Both our Ma knew what was happening, could see that bud growing between us and the seed had already been settled in the bed, but nothing a kindly woman could say to those kinds of men.

Now, before you go jumping feet first into the mud, just wait. Daisy wasn’t lost on that day, but in a way the bed started turning sour. Not everyone has a green thumb and her Pa sure as mud didn’t know nothing ’bout manure, except how to spit it from between his teeth. Anyways, her Pa come trespassing with accusations about how his Daisy wasn’t gonna be one of us, and how the only man she’ll ever have and need is her Pa. I didn’t figure it then, but Pa knew something wasn’t right by the way he spit his manure. It stank worse than normal and it started to poison the soil. Pa told him to step off, that she was welcome on our land and that she would always be welcome. That didn’t sit well with Daisy’s Pa, in fact nothing sat right with him, I just never thought he’d til the land in such a hateful way.

Daisy and I were laying under the grand oak in the back, we heard some yelling and arguing, which wasn’t new between our two folk. It wasn’t til we heard the gunshot that we knew something was wrong, and sure as Satan himself it was. We went to running back to the house and there on the front porch was my Pa, lead between the eyes and memories spilling into the soil. I’ll never forget my heart screaming in agony, course the screaming came from Daisy and my Ma, I didn’t have the voice to make a sound. I remember falling to my knees and begging The Lord to let Pa wake up, to bring him back to us, but no amount of praying was going to bring him back.

I don’t recall much the rest of that day, or year for that matter, I do recall Daisy and her Pa up and run off shortly after it happened. Left her Ma high and dry in the sour patch he dug. She and my Ma were together since then, sisters they were and remained as such until the end. We buried Pa out by that oak where Daisy and I would play, Ma told me it was in his will that he be buried where his boy began to love the garden. I s’pose in his own way he knew ’bout me and Daisy, but never talked ’bout it.

Now, you do your best to stop them waterworks ‘efore they open up, kid. Go on, take a spell to dry your eyes and chin up, this memory ain’t over none. While you’re doin’ that, let me catch another smoke ’efore we go on.

Years had gone by, chores still had to be getting done and fields needed tending. Ma and Auntie, that’s what I started callin’ Daisy’s Ma after Daisy’s Pa up and run off with her, did the best they could ‘round town to make a living. Ma worked in the schoolhouse, teaching little girls to be homely ya’see, and Auntie went to work at the factory, canning whatever farmed goods were brought in. It was tough, I had to stop goin’ to school and til the land to grow crop for us to eat every night and all the while Ma and Auntie taught me what they knew each night. Monday morn to Saturday evenin’ I was out in the fields tending the crop and puttin’ my nose to the books. Sunday of course was God given day of Rest, Ma and Auntie made sure we gave thanks to the Lord for what blessings we did have and continued to ask for strength.

Well, several years come ’round and I’m a young adult, maybe fifteen or so. I was heading into town to sell off extra crop we had and there she was, sitting on the side of the rail tracks next to the step spot you use to get on the train. Platfer, or something like that. Anyways, I knew that red colored hair anywhere, and that light skin of hers just shown like a patch of snow in a field of grass. I stopped and walked over to her, she had been cowering against the tracks for Lord knows how long, and she was shaking like a leaf in a gust during the winter. She wasn’t wearing much, just enough to keep her covered up and she was thin as bone, heck, she was dang near the same shade when she saw me.

She looked up at me with those beautiful glacier eyes and just bawled, tears falling from her eyes like melting ice coming down the mountains in the spring. I sat with her, tried to give her a hug like we used to, but she pulled away and covered herself like a caged animal. I knew something wasn’t right with her, something was taken from her and she needed to clean up in order to get it back. I told her I was going to take care of her, help her get back up from whatever ditch she had been in, but she wasn’t Daisy no more. That was really the day that the soil had bore sour weeds, all the beauty of the flowers had been overtaken by filth.

Well, after some time I convinced her to come home and of course Ma and Auntie weren’t there, so I let her take some time in the bath. I had chores that needed to be done and left her to her own devices and demons. Looking back, that might’ve been the wrong thing to do, but I thought it best if she was left alone in a place that should’ve been familiar. I gave her some clothes and leftovers we had in the old ice box, told her where I would be if she wanted to talk and went about my business. It must’ve been hours ’efore I realized she was sitting at the oak Pa had been laid to rest at. I went and sat with her, not too close ya’see, didn’t want to spook her. I didn’t know what she had been through, but I could tell it wasn’t none good and she was scared.

Ma and Auntie came home ‘round sunset, and the whole time we had been out in the field by Pa’s grave, Daisy didn’t speak none the whole time we sat there crying and rocked. Auntie saw her first, dang near went pale as a sheet when she saw her and run to hold her girl, but Daisy just tried to run from her, screaming and kicking out like the animal she became. I tried to talk sense into Auntie, but she was too caught up in her grief and prayers to listen. When Daisy scratched her, Auntie finally stopped and listened to what I had to say. She apologized to Daisy for scarin’ her like that, tellin’ her that she done missed her girl and worried something fierce every day she was gone. Me and Ma just sat and listened, watching at Auntie and Daisy slowly coming to terms with one ’nother.

It was many years after that Daisy finally started talking to us like normal folk, nearly back to the way she was ‘efore that sour day. Auntie tried to talk about her Pa, how she left him and where he was, but Daisy shut herself away tighter than a trap and went back to being the caged animal. She would lash out, bite and claw at anything that came near. Eventually she opened up more to Auntie but still wouldn’t give everything away. Now, you is thinking about askin’ if she slept in bed with me, the answer is no. I gave her my room to keep her at ease while Ma and Auntie had their room. I didn’t mind none sleeping in the den, it was easy to keep an eye on the door for Daisy. We didn’t have no hound, but I could hear the old door creak in the dead of night anytime the wind tried to blow through the window. She was safe in that room and with me out guarding it.

It was around the fall, if I recall correct, when she finally opened up enough to let me close. I was sleeping on the sofa in the den, felt a hand creeping up my arm and woke up in the dead of night with Daisy standing over me with tears in her eyes. I tried to ask what was wrong, but she just pulled my hand and we walked out back to the oak and Pa. We sat in the night for a bit, which wasn’t all bad neither ’cause it was a strange warm night. Which was good, ’cause Daisy wasn’t wearing more than a nightgown and caught my eye wandering up across her body. I didn’t mean nothing by it ya’see, but I couldn’t help but have feelings for her. She didn’t like the way I looked at her first, but said it was fine since we known one ’nother for long time.

We sat with Pa, talking the night through and counting the stars, holding hands like we was kids all over again. We was adults now, ‘round nineteen by my recollection, and both needing something together. She told me what happened to her Pa after that day. How he run off with her in tow and kept on runnin’ to the border. She told me what he did to her all them years back, and kept doing, and how she couldn’t feel anything inside herself for long time. Her Pa was sick in the head, Satan had him by the neck and fed him vices to indulge in, vices I dare not say and will take to the grave. You understand kid, right? There’s just some things best left alone in this world, and somethings best left silent.

Anyway, she told me how her Pa fell asleep one day after getting into the bottle early, his sins done and she lay there praying for a miracle. It just so happened that her miracle came in the form of her Pa’s gun, layin’ on the side table with a single bullet next to it. She said it was the hand of the Lord who put it there, ’cause he always kept it on him, but somehow this one time it was just left for her. I don’t have to tell you what happened kid, you can guess for yourself what she had to do, and you’d be right. She went and did it.

I didn’t ask her nothing that night, ’cept for one thing, and she said yes to that. This here wedding band is all I have left of her, and of that night, we made love under the stars and married next winter. We had two fine boys who I taught to til the land, care for it and provide for it. Taught them that giving to the land was just as needed as you taking from it and they took it to heart. They took up our farm come eight years back, been tending it ever since. They got families of their own now, a fine folk they are and proud to be from me.

Well kid, there’s something I was meaning to tell ya, but got caught up in the past. Time has a funny way of coming back round ya’see, it likes to dip and dive around ya, and when you least expect it just shows back up like a budding flower. Ya don’t know it’s there until it blooms and shows off it’s colors, but one thing is for sure, it lets you know.

Ya be sure to tend to your garden now kid, and don’t let time get you down, it’ll come back around when you least expect it. But, I best be getting along, can’t let Daisy wait much longer for me. I’ll see ya ’round kid, and take care of your soil now, ya hear. Don’t let it get sour on ya, just remember to let in some air once in a while and she’ll be good to you.

So long kid.