The White Rose
Tracy Seeger
My plan was to cook a romantic meal for our first anniversary, an evening for both of us to treasure. Soft music, candlelight, fresh flowers, and our favourite food – mexican fried chicken, with strawberries and cream to follow. I should have known it was a bad idea. The horoscope that day for my star sign, Scorpio, had warned that something I considered beautiful would turn out to be full of deceit. I always read my horoscope, but I didn’t usually pay much attention to it. This time though, it proved absolutely correct on that one point. I wandered peacefully around my garden, intending to gather a bunch of flowers for the table. I was very proud of my flower garden, and spent many weekends lovingly tending the beds and bushes. It provided me with the retreat I needed, full of amazing scents and colours and textures.
I bent down to smell a stunningly perfect white rose, then recoiled in terror as a spider suddenly emerged from the centre. With legs at least an inch long each, it began to stride across the delicate petals, sending fear and panic like an arrow through my heart. I rushed back inside, and when Cass returned home I was still shaken, the oven cold and empty. We went to our favourite restaurant instead. We had come here on our first date. It had a Wild West theme, and on the walls were old posters advertising such things as a rodeo, a shooting contest, and of course a wanted poster. Over mexican fried chicken I told Cass all about my thwarted plans for this evening. As he laughed and kissed me softly on the cheek, I noticed the vase on the table held a single perfect white rose...
Copyright © 2009 Tracy Seeger. All rights reserved.