the flower

one summer during college i worked as a checkout girl at the safeway in richmond, virginia. each day this man, who was about 28, would come in and purchase a single flower. one day it would be a rose, the next a tulip, and then maybe a gerber daisy-he always mixed it up-but day in and day out he would stand in my line and buy his flower. eventually he talked to me about it. her name was emmy. she lived down the block. he loved her.

months passed and the man continued to come in and tell me of their relationship and its progression. i found myself looking forward to his stories of love as it could only bolster my own opinion of the art. i can't recall if i was in a relationship that summer but if i was, we'll take my foggy memory as an indication of its insignificance. i liked this mystery flower man because he was consistent. solid. maybe a taurus, like me. something you could set your watch by.

and then one day he just stopped coming in.

i still wonder what happened. did they get married and move away? did she get tired of flowers? did he break her heart? anyway, i hope she still has them, dried and tucked far away, in some shoebox in her kid's closet.