Parade Des Fleurs

2

Amadea Oberlin had been the heart of Parade des Fleurs, and Sophie's grandmother. As the original owner, she'd passed down the shop to her daughter and son in law, who in turn decided to manage the shop with a couple of friends they'd met in university - a pair of newlyweds who had left fragments of their souls scattered across the globe, selling strange pottery, up cycled jewellery and various street foods at festivals and fairs in every continent imaginable. However, when they realised they were to be bringing a small human into the world, they thought that settling down somewhere might be the best way to ensure their child to grow up without getting lost in some hippie - marketplace in Marrakesh. 

Sienna and Jacob Sharpe, Alistair's parents, had known nothing about flowers. However, they did know a thing or two about business and bartering, and so all the paperwork was thrown into their arms as soon as they stepped off the plane from Shanghai. Alistair had always watched with wondrous eyes as his parents argued and negotiated at the flower markets in the city centre, early in the morning. You would think that the place would be deserted, but it seems everyone had the same idea - the early bird gets the worm. And even if it seemed like the stallholder was the most stubborn person on earth, Alistair's parents always walked away with the exact flowers they were looking for. 

And people say magic doesn't exist. 

Sophie Oberlin's parents were Sienna and Jacob's oldest friends - the ones they got drunk with in college, got high with, studied with, partied with, travelled with. They were like a second set of parents to Alistair. They were the ones who looked after him at the weekend when his parents were away charming (or yelling at) some flower stall owner in the city centre, and the ones responsible for his green fingers. Alistair had always found traces of magic throughout Parade des Fleurs, but every time he went near any one of Sophie's family members, he could swear he felt his fingertips tingle. Sometimes, Sophie's mother showed him how she cut and arranged  the flowers into neat bundles, tying them up with garden twine and swaddling the stems in purple wrapping paper. Sometimes they would let him write the notes, which were then tied to the wrappings. However, Alistair only being five years old, they soon realised not everyone would find hilarity in receiving a bouquet of flowers on valentines signed in a child's wobbly scrawl. But even when he was demoted to simply stamping the logo onto the note cards, Alistair didn't mind. He was still part of the magic, after all.

And so, even though there were two families running Parade des Fleurs, it felt like just one to Alistair Sharpe. However, Alistair released pretty early in his life that he didn't see Sophie Oberlin as a sister. He was seven when he realised that her hair was not the colour of rotting autumn leaves and carrots like he'd told her, but the colour of fresh marigolds and the shade his cheeks would turn whenever he saw her.  It may have taken eight years, and a lot of teasing that was mistaken as maliciousness (Which Alistair only initiated to masque his actual feelings), but eventually, Sophie realised that Alistair was more than a neighbour. In a moment on the fire escape which involved an unexpected shower of rain, but created enough sparks that could have ended up in both of them getting charged for arson, Alistair finally gathered up enough courage to kiss Sophie Oberlin, who was so surprised she couldn't pull away - not that she wanted to. And that was that. At least, that's what Alistair, who couldn't shake the smile off his face for days, had thought. 

He didn't know what made Sophie leave for that boarding school in Italy. Was it the kiss? No, it couldn't have been, because since that evening on the fire escape she'd kissed him every morning while greeting him with coffee. But it didn't matter, because she'd chosen to move away from the flower shop, and she'd chosen to move away from Alistair. Yes, perhaps it was because the particular boarding school was one of the top music schools in their region, but back then he didn't want to be happy for Sophie. He'd tried to write, and he'd tried to make her stay, but in the end Alistair knew you couldn't deprive roses of light, because if you did they would wither away. And so, Alistair let Sophie go. It wasn't a breakup... but it was a breakup. 

When Sophie Oberlin left them, had been a year ago. That particular year, a lot of bad things had happened - but none of them were bad enough to bring Sophie Oberlin back to Scotland. For example, Amadea had developed a tumour in her brain - but it wasn't just Amadea's head that was messed up. Everyone knows that if the human heart is having problems, the rest of the body begins to follow in suit. Essentially, that's what happened to Parade des Fleurs, because it was that same year the shop had been burgled - the rain had also been so bad it Parade des Fleurs went from the parade of flowers to the river of flowers, carrying each and every penny out the doorway and casting it away into the drainpipes. With each unfortunate incident Alistair tried to call Sophie, tried to convince her to come home, but was met instead with the familiar beep of the voicemail. 

A year later Sophie had faded from Alistair's memory, and her hold on his heart had loosened so much it was clinging on for dear life. Maybe, he could let himself get over her.

That was the exact thought on his mind when Alistair heard a banging on his bedroom window. He looked over, and there she was, wearing a summer dress and stripy sandals in late winter. Just as colourful as ever. She was holding a black tote bag, but Alistair suspected there would be more luggage that she couldn't haul up the fire escape steps waiting by the back door.   

"ALISTAIR IT'S ALMOST NINE! DO YOU WANT YOUR ASS TO BE HANDED TO YOU? WHY ISNT THE SHOP OPEN YET?"

He knew that she would be back. Her grandmother had died a week ago, how could she have stayed away? Alistair tried to restrain the thought of if she really cared then she would have been there for the funeral, because he knew there was a reason. There had always been reasons - Alistair had just wanted a reason himself. A reason to be angry at Sophie Oberlin.