[Nexus 100] 011. Red

[shimmerandsing]

011. Red
Word count: 240
Rating: G

There is a flower shop down the street from Alison's apartment building. It isn't in a direction convenient to anywhere else she usually goes. All of the grocery stores, the train station, and the Nexus portals are all in the opposite direction.

Still, she routinely finds herself making excuses to travel in that direction. Taking long routes instead of direct ones just to pass by the bright windows and breathe the fragrant air that wafts out through the perpetually open door.

Through the windowpane she watches the slight woman behind the counter arranging flowers. Her favorites. Bright, red roses the size of an open palm. She can smell them even at this distance. A sweet, warm scent that reminded her of many days past.

There were often roses on the dining room table when she was growing up. It wasn't until she was older that she came to realize that the presence of roses meant a cease-fire between feuding parents over some argument or another. Before that, they had just been an unexpected flood of red in an otherwise dull and pale world.

She smiles and returns the wave that the woman in the shop gives her. They know one another by sight now, although Alison has yet to go inside. She waits until the arrangement is placed in a sunny spot in the window before she turns toward home, and the scent of red roses trails in her wake.