Send one your love
With a dozen roses
Make sure that she knows it
From the bottom of your heart
Stevie Wonder – The Journey through the Secret Life of Plants
Legends are born but super heroines are eternal
Tokyo
Juuban Prefecture
Fractious Realm
She was working so hard the blonde scarcely aware that the sun was dipping below the houses in the distance through the double glazed windows that bore the legend, “Silver Tiger lily”, so lost was she in what she was doing the time just melted into a puddle of gold on the horizon.
Naru insisted on giving her the morning off, and taking care of the backlog of V-Day orders and this was one of them, to give her a chance to catch up with her work.
Naru’s mother had diversified into the florist business as a change of pace and the change Naru had told Usagi had paid off in terms of profitability, but more important, her mother was a lot happier and had taken on a business partner for the jewelry outlet and life was better for all concerned.
Tsukino Usagi throwing all her weight behind the shove, pushed the odd package aside, it seemed so heavy, very heavy indeed. The perfume rising from the thick cardboard box made her feel lightheaded. She muttered something under her breath none-too lady-like but didn't care, as there was nobody else to hear her as she massaged her sore shoulder.
She relented, knowing that she'd have to lift the thing eventually; she turned back to the object of her distain and with a herculean effort, she gripped the heavy box and lifted it, her knees almost buckling under her with the weight; she walked with some difficulty and placed it on a bench in the herbarium.
---
Panting, for several moments, she glowered at the silent box that offered her no retort for her murmured cusses while struggling to recover herself.
“There, you’re as tough as old Beryl but I kicked your cardboard butt!” she declared, patting the silent box.
Usagi straightened, rubbing her sore back and dabbed the sweat from her brow.
“You almost broke my back box, later I’ll get one of the guys to help unpack you, you’re probably filled with terracotta something or others,” she mused, wondering how the odd package ended up in the shop without her knowledge and why. Naru hadn’t warned her exactly how heavy it was. She was going to give that girl a piece of her mind for sure in the morning.
Usagi sighed, shrugged it off, and went back to what she was doing.
As she walked away, her clicking heels the only sound, a stirring within the box began to grow more insistent; something was trying to punch holes out of the container.
She blinked in surprise on the threshold, stopping inside the doorway but laughed at herself and kept going.
“Nah, mice!”
---
Flowers brought with them color, a sweet scent, a lingering atmosphere that saturated everything, just so wonderful to fill one’s lungs with the fragrances of myriad fresh blooms that gave freely of their gift.
“Oh, 5 PM, Yes, I am going to get old before my time if I keep daydreaming my life away. I’m hungry too, my tummy is grumbling and must be fed.”
Usagi bundled the last of the Valentine’s Day flowers and placed them carefully into their gift boxes, most of these red roses while humming a new song by the Kpop band Sunny Hill called, ‘The Grasshopper Song’ one of her favorite bands.
She inhaled the floral ensemble, never tiring of the honey-like scent - all part of the magic that greeted her each day she came to work at the florist.
She and Naru would arrange the gorgeous blooms into one or two dozen bunches placing the personalized cards written by love-struck customers who had made their purchases into the decorous envelopes provided free of charge that carried with them the dreams and romantic punch lines that would sink or swim upon the tide of the following day.
So many loved Valentine’s Day, including herself. She cherished it so much, even if Umino had been the last guy to send her flowers before he and Naru hit it off after her best friend had recovered from the death of Nephrite it was still nice to get the flowers and the chocolates even if she’d not seen Umino as anything else other than a friend.
Tucking a ribbon under the soft neck of a plushy bunny crouching beneath the bunch of pink roses with an unusual gold trim, she wished a particularly handsome and debonair young man would do something romantic for her like that; send her something cute and pretty. She smiled and let out a long sigh.
She was curious about the card, and nibbled her lip.
“That baka wouldn’t have it in him, he is Mr. Deep Freeze, and he still treats me like I am a kid. I suppose, in a way, I am. Fifteen going on sixteen, well, in a few months I’ll be sixteen.”
She closed the accounts book and placed the day’s takings in the safe out back.
She heard something, stopped and tilted her head listening hard.
“Sounds like somebody dragging tree branches or vines; weird!”
Shrugging, she grabbed her coat and keys and watched the curious stooped figure staggering out of the funeral home next door. Bizarre, but having a florist next to a crematorium come funeral parlor made sense, on the other side, a baby wear shop and wedding gown designer, so all contingencies were well-covered.
Usagi took one last longing glance at the pink roses and card, it beckoned her for some odd reason she rationalized as merely idle curiosity and rushed to the exit to lock up and switch on the security system. Naru, her best friend had placed the card inside and sealed the envelope before she could see the name of the sender or its recipient. She wasn’t that curious to ruin a pretty envelope that was none of her concern. Usagi knew it would be unforgivable to pry into the message meant for that guy’s Valentine having placed his heart onto the small card inside.
She sighed.
As if somebody had seen her peeking, or at least wanting to, a woman’s voice came from the darkness behind her, a gasp as if half shocked and half embarrassed. Usagi spun around. There was nothing there.
Something sweet saturated the air, kind of like honey she figured yet that only made her more hungry. After slipping on her coat, shoulder bag, grabbing her keys she locked up.
Eyeing the undertaker who looked as if hit over the head staggering to the door of the funeral parlor.
“Mr. Somogori, are you okay?” she asked, as a light drizzle began to fall. He did not answer, and kept fiddling with his huge set of keys, staring with a blank look plastered on his long thin face.
Usagi shook her head, turned on her heel, and set off down the street.
‘None of my business if he’s drunk, but its after hours, so maybe he’s just tired, but he looks out of it, but I am a girl on a mission…food! Here I come!’
“Yes, the Bunny is hungry and about to hop to Crown Arcade and then homeward bound for mom’s delicious sushi and rice balls!”
Smacking her lips, she skipped down the path.
A pair of large opalescent green eyes with gold irises watched her disappear into the distance through the window of the Silver Tiger Lily Florist.
---
Usagi was glad at the chance to work and earn money to learn new skills that would hold her in good stead as she finished college, tackled university and met a raft of new friends and strengthened existing friendships.
She also knew these disciplines wood hold her in good stead for the arrival of The Crystal Kingdom.
It was tough living without Chibi-Usa especially after all they’d been through together, the girl more than just her future daughter; Chibi-Usa was also a friend. Usagi missed the little girl so much.
---
Cindy, an English exchange student, and single mom, waved from her booth where Jacinta and Yersinia sat eating ice cream. Usagi smiled at the little girls and held up her own silver spoon laden with strawberry ice cream in salutation and giggled, as had the children along with their mother.
Usagi had spent the previous morning with the young mother she’d befriended at the flower shop organizing a special day out for her new friend and the children along with several other young single parent families. She and Naru planned it with Rei and the girls taking a group of Juuban preschoolers on a walk in Azabu Park. She thoroughly enjoyed herself and though overjoyed to spend time with these little munchkins, a tear or two drifting down her cheek when the little ones went home with their parents and guardians would always appear as the sight reminded her of Chibi-Usa.
Motoki had organized a musical show, the girls, dressing up in all manner of magical costumes: Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, to Goldilocks, and the Tooth Faery completing the ensemble delighted the onlookers.
Minako made the perfect Goldilocks but for the hemline of her white Smokey-blue dress, much shorter than it should have been, but only the adult males noticed that – they would. The thought made her laugh at her friend's antics.
The turtles though were the showstoppers, and so darn cute to boot. These ancient creatures, half a dozen little animals were Motoki’s pride and joy, coated in glitter as these marched around the pond much to the delight of the youngsters clapping and squealing with fascination at these determined plodders obviously in their element.
---
Mamoru stood at a distance, briefcase in hand, dark trench coat with the collar upright giving him that Bond look, watching the girl with the odango marshaling her theatrical troop and smiled a secret smile.
He tried to look inconspicuous, but Motoki saw him and mouthed to drop back a little. Usagi’s eyesight was sharp she might see him and get suspicious as to why he was there when he should be at the university.
He nodded and stepped back into shadow.
The surprise, if it were to succeed, required Mamoru to keep a low profile. He had to keep up the mask of indifference around the petite blonde who worked three days a week during the semester breaks at the flower shop. The plan, such as it was, to continue goading her, he had down pat.
Mamoru just loved getting a rise out of her, this, making his day as was his favorite beverage, coffee.
---
On his way home back to his apartment block, he made a detour, deciding to walk past the flower shop to see the gift box Naru had carefully concealed from the Bunny’s watchful gaze, she’d never guess it was from him and come tomorrow he would be most satisfied with the results of his subtefuge.
Mamoru, roused from his musings grabbed a light pole as the ground shook beneath his feet for a few scary seconds.
“What the hell was that…, earth Quake? Boy, I hope not. Hmmm, maybe I should be making my-“
The walls of the funeral parlor sprouted several huge cracks, and he felt a little giddy, his hands pulsing with a hazy golden light. Something was wrong, but as he tried to puzzle it out, he heard a loud crash, and then a scream coming from the funeral home, and decided to call the police on his Blackberry.
When he looked up from the device’s screen at the façade of the establishment, there were vines as thick as tree trunks wrapping themselves around the building.
Without warning, his body began to itch and the pain was so bad it was unbearable, not only that but the pollen that was falling from the sky was making him sneeze. His instinct for self-preservation told him to run and he ran.
TBC
