Abby
I sat on my couch that night looking at Ian's drawing of the inscription from the Old City while I waited for Lena to arrive. The collage of flower drawings that formed the large tree was beautiful. But something was off. I was obsessed with flowers as a child, and I knew the ones in the inscription well.
Behind some groups of flowers, the drawing of the tree didn't fit into the larger picture. It was as if Lena had forced puzzle pieces into the wrong places. She must have been in a hurry when she hung them.
A few of the flowers lay on the floor. I picked them up, attempting to repair the damage of my episode earlier.
As I seated the pages, another mystery emerged. The pictures fit into place, and yet the flowers were still out of order from the original inscription. Ian had a photographic memory. He wouldn't make a mistake like that.
I frowned, cocking my head. The out-of-place flowers must have been placed there on purpose. But why?
Something else was strange, too. Some of the flowers repeated. Why use the same flower twice?
An idea hit me. I went to my study and pulled a notepad and pen from a drawer, then brought them back to the coffee table. One by one, I listed the different types of flowers starting with those that I knew for sure were out of place. If there were one thing I'd learned from the Eastern philosophy of the Ancient Hebrews, it was that everything's connected whether we sense it or not. And at that moment, I sensed it.
When a pattern didn't immediately emerge from the list, I started to think maybe this was all just coincidental. But another idea came to mind.
I began writing down only the first letter of each flower's name. The first several letters were gibberish, but when I reached the flowers that Ian had placed out of order, words began emerging. Then a sentence.
I love you, Abby.
Tears from my melting heart formed in my eyes and the hole inside of me grew. It would hurt even more if I found another message in the flowers. Regardless, I continued my search.
It was all I had left of him.
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Winter's Edge
AdventureUsing powers can age you, kill you...or drive you mad. Ian Sharp knows none of this when his destructive powers wreck his house near Denver and nearly kill his sister...because no one knows powers exist. He's forced on the run the day before graduat...
