Watch the Stars with Me

Chapter 16

A week passes, Fern had decided to move into the little bedroom that Violet had slept in so she could keep an eye on Leon. He's been quiet the past week, hardly even cracks a smile at Fern's teasing or corny jokes. He doesn't read either. He just keeps staring out over the lake.

The day for his leg cast to come off came. Fern drove him and said she would wait for him out front. He suddenly hated this doctors office. The nurses noticed the change in him, he wasn't the friendly young man half of them had developed slight crushes on anymore, he was a grey storm cloud sitting in the waiting room, staring ahead.

When he exited the hospital he still had to use the crutch, but was already experimenting with putting pressure on the leg. Fern smiled big for him. "Look at you! We should celebrate!"

"By going back to the house, sure." He scowls as he walks past her towards the car.

"No way! We've been cooped up there for too long! Come on! There's a big flower garden at the center of town. You'll love it. It's what the town is basically known for!" She tugged on his shirt with a pout.

He raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure this place is know for it's medical break through a, but what do I know. I'm not from here."

Fern grins big before speaking. "That's right! You're not! So come on! We leave this place in two weeks! I bet you'll be there every day!"

Leon took a deep breath when they got to the flower gardens. She was right. This place was beautiful, and calming. They walked through the roses, surprised by all the different colors a rose could actually be. They walked by a large field of tulips, each row seemed like a stripe on a flag to Leon. Fern knew the garden well I made sure to avoid the violets.

On their way out they passed by some flowers that truly caught Leon's eye. "What are these?" He asked as he stopped and cataloged the bright purple flowers with their yellow center.

"It looks like a type of aster, let's check, there's usually a tag someone where." She knelt down to find the tag. "Yes! Alpine asters." She clapped her hands and brushed the little bit of dirt off on her pants as she stood up.

"They kind of look like stars." He mused.

Fern looked thoughtful as she spoke. "My mother says that asters represent patience."

Every day for the next two weeks Leon asked Fern to drop him off at the flower garden so he could walk and so when he needed a break "I will be somewhere beautiful and full of life, so you don't have to worry about me." She had rolled her eyes at his flowery words when he first said them, but after a couple of days, watching his mood improve.

One day she snuck out to see what he did all day in the gardens. He walked, a lot, experimenting with how much pressure and how long he could use his recovered leg. And when he needed to rest, he would stop and sit in the shade by the aster flowers. Every day he did this until the day they left for their expedition.

The day they were to depart Fern told Leon she needed to run one last errand in town before they were off. "And we should probably close the mailbox you've got in town too since we will be gone so long."

Before walking in to the building Fern stopped him and pulled a book out of her satchel. "There's something you need to do sweetie, before we leave this continent for the next who knows how long," she pulls an envelope with Violet Evergarden's name and the address for the CH Postal Company on it, "you need to send this to her."

Leon's eyes go wide before settling into a reserved and saddened state. "What good would it do? She's with him. It would only hurt her."

Fern shakes her head. "You've already admitted, several hundred times by now, that you're an idiot for not telling her. She deserves to know, and you deserve this to."