Sunflowers On Christmas

Matthew Williams loved his little floral shop. He didn't care that it was built between a dance studio which always had the music on way too loud, and a tobacco shop, which meant that the side room he used as his office always smelled of smoke. To him, this was a tiny piece of paradise. He had enough customers to keep himself afloat, and he also spent a fair amount of his time in silence in the back room, arranging new bouquets.

His dog Kuma always laid down right at the counter and barked just as the 3:40 train went past. Kuma looked like a polar bear, with long white fur, and he was gentle to everyone who ever came in. A few times, young mothers had panicked when the large dog walked over to their children, but Kuma would just lay down and wouldn't protest anything. He sometimes even took the smallest children for rides on his back.

Matthew always made sure that he had a bouquet of sunflowers in the window within two minutes of Kuma's bark, because without fail, at 3:44, a tall man with silver hair walked by and stopped for a minute to admire the sunflowers.

Matthew had first noticed him about four months ago on a hot August day. He remembered it well. He'd had the door propped open due to the heat, and only had his most heat tolerant plants on display, while the others were in the back, the only room he could keep cool with the air conditioning. He'd had a large bouquet of sunflowers in his window, from his own home garden, in fact. The man had stopped at the window to examine the flowers for quite a while, and honestly Matthew thought he was going to come in and buy them. Instead, he'd smiled and walked away, as though he had found his own little piece of paradise.

When Matthew had had to remove the bouquet later in the week, the man had walked by and stopped, but that day his face fell and he kept on walking.

From then on, Matthew had made sure there was always a bouquet of sunflowers in his window.

Winter was here, though, and Matthew was beginning to worry. Soon there wouldn't be anymore sunflowers for him to order without going bankrupt.

And he still hadn't worked up his courage to ask the man to go on a date with him.

Kuma ran into Matthew's tiny apartment and instantly curled up on his dog bed, and was asleep within minutes.

Matthew had eaten a sandwich in the shop for dinner. It was nearly Christmas, and he'd kept the shop open late in order to make sure everyone who had ordered flowers picked them up. He sighed as he headed over to his medicine cabinet and pulled out his pills.

He took a large dose of anti-anxiety medicine everyday, but sometimes it couldn't keep the stress and headaches away. He took his Tylenol and then headed to his bedroom.

As he washed his face, he looked up at himself in the mirror. He had huge bags under his eyes, and a frown that he thought might be there permanently now. He sighed. How much longer could he keep going before he collapsed? His father had been out of the picture for years, his mother was dead, and his half-brother was a complete and total opposite of him, and he could barely stand to be in the same room with him for more than fifteen minutes. Alfred meant well, but he was easily distracted, and Matthew guessed he must be the most uninteresting thing ever placed in front of Al.

He collapsed into his bed, and soon felt sleep steal him away from the world.

Christmas Eve came, and Matthew's window display was filled with poinsettias and Christmas cacti. He'd hung a banner which proclaimed "Happy Holidays!" in his window.

The only thing which might distract the passerby's eyes from the usual Christmas plants was the large bouquet of sunflowers in the window.

It was fairly late in the day, about six in the evening, and snow was beginning to fall. Yesterday's thin layer of snow had turned grey or brown over the day, and Matthew reveled at the white layer he'd be able to walk home in.