First Day of Spring
Spring was finally here; she could tell from the flowers that welcomed her in the morning. Sally opened her eyes and saw a bouquet of flowers of every colour imaginable on a window sill. She sat up in her bed, stretched her arms and lazily yawned. They have been married for 23 years and still he did that – placing flowers in their bedroom while she slept every year on the first day of spring. She remembered the first morning she found flowers; she felt so blessed and happy that this was the guy she was married to. It used to be so sweet, but now it frightened her; were they stuck in a routine? When did he get so predictable?
‘Might as well put them in a vase,’ she thought to herself. ‘The same vase as last year, and the year before,’ she sighed and walked to the window.
Sally’s eyes were greeted with the richest variety of flowers in their neighbour’s garden. There were white daisies, red roses, yellow daffodils, and some flowers she never even knew existed. The garden was always perfectly maintained, there wasn’t a flower out of place. One thought flashed her mind: ‘Whoever lives there, their lives must be perfect. Only people with perfect lives have gardens so beautiful.’
There was a loud DONG coming from the hallway. ‘Finally’, Mr. Schuster whispered quietly. He knew the sound was coming before he could even hear it. He has been lying in his bed for 20 minutes now. Just lying there on his back and waiting for the clock to strike and announce it was 8 o’clock. He pulled off his blankets, sat up on the edge of his bed and one by one slipped his feet in his brown and worn-out slippers. He hated these slippers, but every time he would put them on, he could hear Jane’s voice in the back of his head. ‘Put the shoes on, Michael. You don’t want to catch a cold, we’re too old for that.’ How he hated these words. He wasn’t old, thank you very much. When hearing them, he would reply with something like ‘You’re the one who is old’ or ‘Better dead than old,’ which would make Jane frown and make him smile. How he missed teasing her.
‘That’s it! Today is the day I find out,’ Sally proclaimed. ‘Enough is enough, Matt. We’ve been living here for ten years and we still don’t know who our neighbours are. Stop laughing at me!’ Why was he laughing at her? Sometimes he could be so annoying! Good thing it was only a phone call or else he would have witnessed the biggest eye roll in the history of eye rolls. ‘Fine Matt, get back to work, sorry for bothering you so much.’ She hung up the call and sighed. It’s not like it was a real fight, he would call back in about 20 minutes anyway, telling her he’s sorry. She knew him too well. But, she smiled, this meant she had 20 minutes to find out who their mysterious neighbours are. If he’s going to call back, she could at least have something to brag about. She didn’t even think, her legs were guiding her; pulling the front door, walking down the driveway, pulling the fence doors, walking up the driveway, ringing the bell. She exhaled deeply. Was she holding her breath this whole time?
DING-DONG. It took Mr. Schuster ages to get to the door, and he tried his best to walk as fast as possible, he was afraid that whoever was standing there would leave. He opened the doors, and there she was – a young woman, looking at him, surprise written all over her face.
Wow. She wasn’t expecting that. In front of her was an old man. His hair was white, he wore big glasses, his sweater was too big on him, and he had the saddest expression she has ever seen. It broke her heart. He was the complete opposite of what she imagined her neighbours would be.
‘So sorry to bother you,’ she said after a while. ‘I’m Sally and my family lives next to your house. I was just wondering about your garden – how do you keep it so beautiful?’
The man was at first taken aback, then he smiled and kindly invited Sally inside for a cup of coffee.
’And then he said: ‘That garden brought so much joy to my wife. Our house used to be full of children and life and there never seemed to be the time to tend to it. After a while, kids moved away, our friends stopped visiting, and then Jane got sick. She always wanted a beautiful garden, so I started planting flowers one by one, trying to make her happy. The joy on her face when she saw something new was priceless. She died the same year, and I still tend to the garden as a reminder, that we have to appreciate people once there are in our lives and that we need to make time for the things we love.’
Matt, what I’m trying to say is, I appreciate you; your predictability and your small gestures,’ Sally said with tears in her eyes. ‘And oh, I’ve invited my new friend Mr. Schuster for dinner.’ She could hear the happiness in her husband’s voice and for the first time in a long time she smiled from the joy that she felt towards her life.