INNOCENCE (Completed)

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I was working on a citrus tree the next early morning when Katie suddenly ran towards me and stopped, out of breath.

"Katie, are you okay? What's going on?" I asked, worried.

She smiled brightly at me then ran away after handing a small piece of paper and said, "A message for you."

I looked at the paper in my hand before I placed my basket down. I read the paper's contents and smiled.

It wrote:

"Same place. Same time. I will be waiting. -Daniel"

He had told me yesterday that he would do his best apology and wait for his word. This must be it.

'I wonder what he'll do. I'm sure I'll be surprised as always.'

I folded the paper and kept it in my pocket and I head out and placed the fruit at Aunt Martha's place in exchange for a pie to take with me at the mountains with my mom. I hurried to the stables, hopped on Orion, and rode home.

My mom was already in the truck and honked at me as a signal to follow her. With me and Orion behind the truck, we crossed a path towards the mountain and stopped at the bottom. My mom parked the truck while I tied Orion to a nearby tree before we took huge flower baskets with us. We then climbed our way up the mountain until we stopped to turn in a cave and walked towards a field of wild flowers that secretly laid on it's very end. There was a huge hole on one side of the ceiling that gave the the flowers light and a small mountain stream that gave it water. I have been there often with my mother to pick fresh wild flowers. The field looked lush and full of color. It looked simply beautiful and breathtaking. It always looked magical like always. I've always considered it a miracle of nature.

"Eve, pick up about a hundred of each of them." my mom said.

"The usual?" 

"Yes. Start loading your basket sweetheart." my mom encouraged as she headed toward the left to pick tulips.

I head towards the right and start delicately picking up daisies. I counted and placed each flower in order after the other before moving to another kind of flower. I picked about six types of flowers when my mom called me to stop and eat lunch. We ate quickly and continued. I picked another four types of flowers and finished just before the time we needed to leave. We managed to place four of the loaded flower baskets into the truck and came back for the last two.

"Sweetheart, let's go!" my mom called out as she picked her last basket and walked ahead of me.

"Coming!" I picked up my basket and started to leave when a sparkle caught my eye.

I put my basket down and walked towards it. I bent down before a rock that had a single isolate flower beside it. This flower was peculiar and it must've been rare because I have never seen it before. It had delicate soft pure white petals overlapping one another with a small golden-like glowing center and it had a glowing aura around it. It was as if it was engulfed by light. Another object that caught my eye was the thing that laid beside it. It was an old key. A small key with a weird old-looking crest formed with expertly intertwined metal. I reached for it and observed it as I held in in my hands. It was beautiful.

"Eve! What's taking you so long?" my mom called out as she went back the cave to look for me.

I shoved the key in my pocket and carefully picked the flower to show it to my mother.

"Mom, look what I found."

"Wow! It's beautiful! Where did you find this?" she said as she took the unique flower in her hands.