The City’s Only Flower Shop by Caitlyn Carrie

The man stepped up to the cash register with a single flower in his hand and read the young woman’s name tag. Her name was Lisa, and when she looked up from counting coins, he was drawn back into a memory. The man hesitated and Lisa saw what she thought may have been recognition on his face, though she had never met him. The cash register chimed as she rung up the daisy, but before she could hand the man his change, he asked “can I talk to you for a second?”. Lisa looked around the empty shop. It was slow this early in the morning, and she thought she could spare a few minutes for this slightly nervous looking man. “Sure”, she said, and directed the man to one of many small blue tables.

As Lisa sat down across from the man he said, “Sorry to bother you, it’s just that you look so much like my wife did”. Lisa didn’t quite know how to respond. In the silence she noticed a viny plant hanging precariously above the man’s head and wished she had hung it more carefully.

“Sorry” she finally said, “I don’t think I know you”. The man had been twisting the flower by the stem as they spoke, the one he had bought just as an excuse to come in. Places like this always reminded him of his garden back home. “Are you ok?” Lisa asked, noticing his fidgeting, and the man pulled himself back to the present.

“I’m alright, thanks” he said, “these are the nerves of a man trying to raise a twelve-year-old on his own”. “Ah” Lisa said with a small laugh, wanting to seem understanding although she had no kids of her own. The man decided he had to take the chance and asked, “What was your grandmother like?”.

Lisa, as he expected, looked surprised, but to his relief she answered with, “She was wonderful, she had to be if she started this place”. The man looked up at the room. It was a flower shop, the only one in the city, but there were also tables and chairs inviting anyone to sit down among the plants and take a break from the overwhelming world outside. He knew it must have really taken someone wonderful to create a place like this. The man glanced down at his pocket watch and saw that he was ten minutes late for the work he traveled here for, but that didn’t much concern him.

“Thank you, Lisa,” he said, “you’ve helped me more than you could know”. She didn’t understand what she had done for him besides sell him a daisy, or why he cared about her grandmother, but she smiled and said, “It’s no problem at all” and the man left the store without even giving Lisa his name.

Outside on the street, the man turned the dial back on his pocket watch and went to ten minutes before.

by Caitlyn Carrie

Caitlyn's story was selected to be published on the Writer's Theory blog for the month of June. The June topic was A Chance Meeting with a Stranger. Caitlyn did a fine job of setting a captivating scene and ending on a great hook. Be on the lookout for July's story submission topic in our newsletter.  We might publish your story in future posts!