Crushing Daisies, Killing Roses...

Chapter Two: The Other Women

Mrs Thompson was a bitter woman. Her husband, Dr Thompson, was one of the founding members of the doctor society. This made Mrs Thompson feel somewhat entitled to become, well, a sort of ruler over the other women. No one ever questioned it as, they were far too afraid of getting on her bad side. If they did, then they would be treated like Mrs Ambrose and nobody wanted that.

Mrs Thompson was an uptight, skinny, and quite tall, brunette woman. She was fond of the colour yellow and loved polka dots. She always wore yellow dresses with pearl white polka dots. It was her signature look and she would never forgive anyone if they stole it. Seriously, once Mrs Jackson wore polka dots and Mrs Thompson forced everyone to ignore her for a whole month.

Again, Dr Bloom must have sensed her bitter and vengeful spirit when he was handing out flowers. He did give Mrs Thompson aconite after all...

As for all the other women, only a few stood out. Such as Mrs Jackson, the one who accidentally wore polka dots that one time. Mrs Jackson was actually the only person of colour at the party.

Mrs Jackson was a kind and friendly woman. She had the most beautiful brown eyes and luscious curly, black hair that she dared not let loose. It was tough enough being the only black woman in a society full of white people. She didn't want to give the other women another reason to ignore her again. It took a few years for her to finally get treated somewhat reasonably if you could even call it that. She did, however, get along with Mrs Ambrose as, she was the only person who treated her like a human being, apart from her husband, Dr Jackson, of course. Mrs Jackson was a short woman, but she was no damsel in distress. I swear a few of the other women were rather scared of her.

Mrs Jackson met Mrs Ambrose at the first doctor society meeting she attended. Everyone was quite rude to her, especially Mrs Thompson, who mistook her for the help. Mrs Jackson tried her best not to get angry, but it was very difficult. It was after an incident at this meeting that she decided never to leave her hair untied at another meeting ever again. Someone had accidentally lit her hair on fire with a candle, and no one cared. No one lifted a finger to help, her husband was in another room and Mrs Thompson kept making remarks about how it was Mrs Jacksons fault. "Maybe if her hair weren't so big..." she said as Mrs Jackson ran to the nearest powder room.

Mrs Ambrose heard what had happened and rushed to the powder room to help Mrs Jackson. It was then when they became friends and both of them were happier to attend these meetings knowing that they wouldn't be so alone anymore. They did, however, keep some distance between them so as not to attract too much attention. They had both suffered enough at the hands of Mrs Thompson and the other women who followed her lead.

When Dr Bloom arrived, Mrs Jackson exchanged a brief glance with Mrs Ambrose, perhaps she knew Mrs Ambrose would fancy him and perhaps this is why Dr Bloom gifted Mrs Jackson with a Chrysanthemum. It is very curious how Dr Bloom seemed to all the woman well enough to gift them with flowers that suited them all so perfectly.

Take Mrs Phoenix for example. Her husband, Dr Phoenix, a physicist, was fairly new to the society and Dr Bloom was just invited to join a week ago. There was no way he could possibly know his wife well enough to gift her with a brightly colored marigold. A lot of the other women's husbands were famous in the science community and have had numerous articles written about them and their families so it makes sense how Dr Bloom would know which flowers to gift them. But, how did he know the marigold would be perfect for Mrs Phoenix who was a bright and loud person herself? It could be that Dr Bloom is just a very observant man but, what are the odds?

Mrs James, a rather prideful woman, received amaryllis and Mrs Roberts who was also prideful but more fragile received azalea.

How did Dr Bloom know which flowers to bring to the meeting?