Forget Me Not

"That's the last of them." Victor tossed the thorny remains of a blackberry bush into a garbage bag and wiped the sweat from his forehead with a dirt-caked glove. His muscles ached as badly as the lump in his throat, but he refused to show any weakness as he dragged the last of the decayed foliage to the curb.

Just like his father would have wanted.

"Thank you so much for helping out, dear." His mom's voice cracked as she dabbed at the tears dripping into her wrinkles. "I'd do it myself, but there's a reason they called him the Green Thumb and not me."

The garden had decayed alongside his father. Where there had once been rows upon rows of berry bushes whose harvests had stained their mouths purple every summer, now there was only dead grass that crackled underfoot.

That and what was left of his father's finest work.

The tree had been beautiful, once. Branches sculpted into the delicate arches of a heart had housed countless bird nests, and its white blooms had kissed the sky each spring. Its trunk had been as sturdy as his father, withstanding everything from droughts to lightning strikes without so much as a scratch.

But those days were behind it. Now all that remained was a barren, twisted corpse as gray as ashes.

Victor tugged on his father's gardening gloves. The worn leather hugged his hands loosely, leaving the tips drooping off his fingers. Sucking in a deep breath, he pressed his palm against the bark where his parents had carved their names and shut his eyes.

No matter how hard he pushed against the cold wood, nothing happened.

His mom's hug was as warm as it was shaky. "There's no saving it, sweetheart." 

 That's when the tears came. Not when he'd had to help identify the body. Not when the president himself had come to give his condolences to the hero's family.

Victor cried when he realized even the earth had given itself permission to grieve before he had.

"I'm sorry," he muttered hoarsely. After all this time, he was still nothing like his father. Powerless. Weak.

"There's nothing to be sorry for, sweetheart." His mom offered him a shaky smile as she wiped his tears away.

They embraced each other like intertwining vines, too fragile to stand on their own but strong enough to weather the pain of their grief together.

Pushing through the barren earth, forget-me-nots bloomed where Victor's tears landed.