Old Strings Broken

Old Strings Broken [Part 2]

  June isn’t usually like that. Usually she is sweet and caring but when it’s about floristry, she’s a tough as a bull. She’ll ramble on and on about keeping the right temperature for certain flowers, tending them and if you don’t exactly do the way she wanted you to she’ll lecture you till you finally get it right. Well, I don’t think June means it, flowers are her passion and as the owner of her own store she has to make sure she can make a living.

“June, leave the poor girl alone. She’s doing her best on a day with thirty degrees,” Tom gave me a side way glance and winked. “So why don’t we let Cassandra off since we don’t have many customers waiting eh?”

One whole hour to myself and what was I exactly going to do with this one whole hour? Frankly, I don’t think I need it, instead I rather work to prevent myself of thinking of a certain person. Even if I work myself to death, everything reminded me of Jace and each minute that slowly dragged by I’ll turn around calling out his name to show him my screwed up mess then realizing he’s no longer at my side. How I missed those previous Summer Fetes when we’ll just mess around in the stall till June throw a rampage at us and Tom swoops in to save us.

I walked around Bellbird Park.

 The usually peaceful vast green lands were disturbed afflicting the yielding serenity of Mother Nature. On every other occasion, when there were no major functions such as field games or festivals, you can taste the beauty of nature, fall into the sound of wild bird calls, the fondling creek close, the whispering trees brushing the variant blue sky and the jaunty voices of children embracing the goodness of nature.

Today was an exception. Rows of brightly coloured framed tents and stalls were lined up along the open area of the local park. Children ignored the first three rows of the merchandisers and dashed to the further down the hill where the bright inflatable giant slide, merry-go-round swing and many other games stalls. Their delightful little voices filled the air with squeals and shouts and with their boastful mothers hanging about.

A couple of kids were letting out ear pitching screams as they ran past me squirting water pistols from each other. One girl ran around me using me as some kind of shield then fled away leaving me with random damp spots dotted all over my tank top.

Another sound caught my attention; it was a lot distinctive from the other children. A young boy was crying behind me. His friends had left him behind as he stood there crying over a broken water gun lying on the lawn.

“Hello,” I said softly to him as I approached. “Please don’t cry. I’ll get you another one from the lucky dip alright?”

The boy sniffled and nodded. The boy led me to the tent where he got his first one. I dug into the back pocket of my jeans and pulled a couple of dollars, then handed to the man. My hand moved around the mysterious box, looking for a triangular shaped parcel and putting aside those that didn’t fit the picture. When I finally found the one that was most appealing to me, I pulled it out and handed to the boy who was still sniffling. Then my heart lighted, as I watched his lips quickly up turned with cute little dimples on each side of his cheek. He gave me a hug, a total stranger a hug then chased after his friends.

I was caught in the middle of sighing in relief. I gulped as I saw Jace and Taylor approaching, too engrossed with each to other to see me yet. My heart was backed into pieces and stomach twisted in agony. Quickly I looked for a way out. I darted into the closest closed tent and peeped between the flaps. I held my breath as they walked past. My heart burned even more as unless possible thoughts if whether he had visited June’s store while I was gone to check up with me or not.

I counted one to twenty making sure everything is kept clear before slipping back into the late summer breeze.

“My, my, I can see your little pink is trembling. Your soul mate must be close by.” A velvety voice said behind me.