America: 50☆Stars (Vol. 3)

Episode 31: Ephemeral Flowers (Part 1)

"Ack! Cough! Cough! To heck with cleaning!" Kentucky covered his mouth, waving away the cloud of dust that fell from the top of the wooden bookshelf. "Man, I should've taken West's advice and be a terrible Southern brother to Old Ginny. I wouldn't be cleaning her storage room had I listened to him. Then again," his belly grumbled, "how could I refuse free food from her?" He began to remove books from the bookshelf.

"How are things going?" Virginia entered the musty storage room, curious to see how the cleaning was progressing.

"It's going great." Shortly after taking a hefty dictionary off the bookcase, the entire second shelf collapsed along with the books that were on top of it. "... Welp. It was going great."

"Oh, that's not good." She went over to gather the books that were scattered around the floor. "Hopefully, none of them are damaged."

"I doubt any are in good condition." He crouched down to help grab the books off the floor. "These books have seen better days. There's dust all over the cover, water damage on the yellowed pages, a bit of mold stuck along the edges, some specks of insect crap in the cracks, and...a flower?" He blinked his eyes at the blue daisy that fell out from between the pages of a book. "Gosh, what's a pretty flower doing here?"

"May I see it?"

"Uh, sure." He gently handed the flower to her, watching her gaze closely at the beautiful blue bloom.

"Amazing..." Virginia awed at the bright blue daisy held between her delicate fingertips. Pinching with slightly more force would surely bend and snap apart the thin yellow-green leafless stalk. It certainly wasn't made of plastic, nor was it made with a wire inside the stem. Without a shred of polyester in its long petals, the flower was no doubt real. Its brilliance after spending who knows how long in the dark crevices of a book remained somewhat of a mystery. How such a special specimen survived in the shambles of her storage room would probably never be known. Still... "What a peculiar everlasting flower."

"Everlasting flower?" Kentucky cocked his head.

"Everlasting flowers are usually known as daisies," she explained. "They're known to retain their shape and color after being dried for years. They're the opposite of ephemeral flowers."

"Efrem-what?"

"Ephemeral means transitory or quickly fading. For example, ephemeral flowers are flowers with short lifespans." She stared at the flower in her hand. "Blue daisies aren't one of those flowers. They're perennial plants. They tend to prosper in warm climates such as South Africa where they're originally from."

"Huh..." He scratched his head. "Ain't that nifty to know."

"Indeed. I learned about them in a book I read some time ago. It was rather fascinating to read. Did you know in the language of flowers daisies symbolize happiness, innocence, purity, true love, and new beginnings?"

"I know now."

"It makes sense why they're popularly associated with mothers and children," Virginia chuckled. "Of course, there's a lot more meaning to daisies than what I've told you. This blue daisy for instance has its own particular meaning."

"What is it?"

"... I don't know."

"You don't know?"

She shrugged. "I can't seem to recall. My memories are quite hazy. Still..." She softly smiled at the blue daisy in her hand. "Maybe it's the colors, but it sorta reminds me of America."

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"Virginia, this is America. He's going to be your little brother from now on. I expect you two to behave and get along from now on"