I DO BELIEVE

Claire parked near the greenhouse, just sitting and staring a while through her windshield at the sign that read The Greenery. So this was where Ahnna had worked. Claire had been clerking in a florist shop for the last year in the little town where she lived. It wasn't what she wanted to do, but it was easy, and had been pretty much all she'd been up for ever since her double mastectomy two years ago. Her mother had died from breast cancer at the age of  37. Claire had developed it when she was still in her early 20's. Her hair had grown back and with her reconstructive surgery, no one who hadn't known her before would ever know of the battle she'd been through.

Her grandmother had mostly raised her at her small home just outside the town and it was there Claire had learned about gardening. She'd inherited her grandmother's green thumb and worked happily with the older woman for many years, learning all the ins and outs of the ways of flowers. Even though she was quite lovely, Claire had never dated all that much, not really sharing the interests that seemed to matter to most of the young males in the area. She was a patient, introspective young woman who liked folk ballads, primitive art, and writing poetry. She was simply not very 'cool.' And then the cancer had struck and the first years of her 20's had been devoted to surviving that.

Day before yesterday her phone had rung. It was Ahnna's former boss, Joimus Meridius, asking if she'd be interested in working at the big new greenhouse in the Glen. Claire had never seen it, but she knew many people from her town drove over there to buy flowers and plants. It was arranged that Claire would come out this morning, a Saturday when she didn't have to work at the florist shop, and see how things went in person.

She liked the idea of working in a greenhouse. That would be much more like the days at her grandmother's. The florist shop, though it smelled great, was limited to cut flowers alone. She loved the soil, wanted to work with living plants as well. Yes, this could be just the right thing for her. She turned her head, looking out the side windows. It was a lovely place with a large barn just over there and fields stretching out toward the hills. Beyond the greenhouse she could make out an amazing rust-colored home settled comfortably in a sea of flowers. Yes, she decided, I do believe I could really like it here!