I believe I may have posted this story already, but that was a long time ago and I have since then revised the story. I hope you like it! Spoiler: Flowers (revised) A young girl rides her red bike around town at a fast pace. She hurriedly parks her bike at the parking station outside of a busy florist shop. She rushes in the doors and past customers, disheveled, and grabs the first bouquet she sees. It was big and bushy, with many brightly colored flowers. These are so pretty! Mommy will love these, she notes to herself. As she opens the door to leave, the small metal chimes on the door jingle, and several customers watch as the girl leaves without paying for the bouquet. The woman at the counter, the owner of the shop, attempts to chase after the girl but then pulls out her cell phone to call the local sheriff. Within the next few minutes, a single police car arrives at the florist shop, and the woman tells them which direction that the girl went. The sheriff then drives off in the direction of the girl. The girl hastily, yet gently, places the bouquet inside the woven basket on her bike. She quickly puts on her helmet, hops on, and speeds down the sidewalk, barely avoiding several people. She calls out "Sorry" and "Excuse me" over and over. Soon enough, she sees the sheriff car chasing after her. It was then that she realized that she never paid for the flowers. Oh no, I never gave the store lady any money! she thinks to herself. She pedals as fast as her young legs can take her. This is too important. I can’t stop now. I will gave the flower lady the money later, she quickly decides. After a few blocks, she sees the police car getting closer. She hears the siren getting louder and louder, then trips on an uneven bump in the otherwise smooth sidewalk and falls off her bike. She stands up and brushes off the dust, noticing a small scrape on her knee. It hurt slightly to bend it, but she had to continue running away from the sheriff. She gets back on her bike and pedals for a few blocks, but the pain from the scrape becomes too unbearable. As much as she loved her bike, she couldn't continue riding on it. She leaves it in a small patch of grass off the sidewalk, so no one would step on it. She’d have to run on foot now. She grabs the bouquet and bolts down the sidewalk as quickly as she can. Each step causes her more and more pain as the scrape opens wider and wider, but she had to continue walking. Some flowers had fallen out of the bouquet when she fell, but it didn't matter to her, as long as there were still some flowers left in the bouquet. The stinging of her cut causes her to cry, her salty tears dripping on her blue jacket and her black shorts. The sheriff, seeing that she went on foot, parks his car near her bike and gets out. “Hey! Little girl!” he calls out, frantically waving his arms to try to get her attention. “Where do you think you're going, without paying for those?” The little girl didn't respond, not even turning around to face the authority. “Excuse me little girl! Do you hear me? You won’t be in any trouble, so long as you explain—” he stops as he sees where the girl was going. Suddenly, he realizes what is happening. He takes her bike and attempts to return it to her. The girl keeps running, even as her knee begins to bleed. “I’m almost there!” she calls out to no one, huffing and puffing. As she reaches her destination, she slows her pace and attempted to make herself look presentable, combing through her unruly hair and taking a deep breath. She walks through the front entrance of a cemetery, lined with various plants and bushes, and after passing a few rows, she kneels down in front of a tombstone, and set the flowers down. Upon seeing her mother’s name written on the tombstone, she becomes emotional. “Happy birthday mommy. I love you mommy,” she says with a quivering voice, a few lone tears trickling down her face. “I… I got y-you some flowers…” she stuttered, inhaling sharply. “See, there’s green ones, and yellow ones, and pink ones, and purple ones, a-and even a rose.” She points to each flower and takes the rose out of the bouquet. “I remember you told me this one was your favorite…” her voice trails off. “I miss you mommy…” she mumbles through a cracked voice. Unable to hold her emotions in anymore, her head crashes on the cold, smooth tombstone and she begins to bawl, tears streaming down her face onto the rose. Spoiler: Alternate/additional ending (I wasn’t sure if I wanted this as the ending or not, but here’s this little part. Let me know if you like this ending better.) After what seemed like hours to her, she finally lifts her head and wipes her damp face with her jacket sleeve. “I just wish you were here…” she whispers, barely audible. Something off to the side catches her eye, and she looks around. She notices that her red bike was moved right near her. There was a note attached to it as well. “Who brought my bike over? And what’s this paper doing here?” she wonders aloud. She takes the note off the bike and reads it. On the paper were just two words. “I understand.”
