Alright, here's the second of five parts of the entry for the Some Kind of Character contest.
EDIT: The italics aren't working well. There are parts that were in italics that aren't anymore. Sorry. I hope it doesn't effect the story too much.
_______________________
Word 005: Tulips
Georgiana- 1935
Georgiana Parson was the mother that every child in North Carolina wanted to have for their own. She gave her daughter Tulip just the right amount of attention; never over-protective but not once neglectful. She was the one who cooked dinner for anyone who came by, helped whenever she was needed and was always doing something.
“Tulip, darling?” she called, bent over a neat line of flowers outside, picking weeds. “Can you get my gardening shovel for me?”
“Yes, Mom!” Tulip cried from inside.
Georgiana smiled at all her lovely tulips she tended. She loved them so much she even named her daughter after them. Fondling the ivory-like touch of the petals, she remembered her teenage years.
She had befriended a young man that no one else had before. They became quite close over the years; to the point when both were certain they were more than a friend to the other.
“What’s your favorite flower, Georgiana?” the boy had asked one day while the two were dipping their legs in the river just after the snow had melted.
Georgiana didn’t know. She had never paid much attention to things like that. What could she say?
“Tulips,” she said after a while, throwing a rock and watching the ravenous water devour it in seconds. “I like tulips.”
He gazed at her for a long time. “Tulips.”
A week later he brought her a single tulip and a cheap ring around the stem. “Will you marry me, my tulip?”
Tulip came bounding out from the house, carrying the small shovel. “Here, momma!” she said, handing it to her mother.
Georgiana smiled. “Thanks, dear. Would you like to help me pick weeds?”
Tulip grinned with enthusiasm. “Oh, yes!”
“Oh, yes!” she cried, beaming. They hugged and kissed for a very long time until Georgiana ran off to tell her parents of the news.
When she informed her mother with rushed giddiness, her mother just stared at her. “Peter Ainsworth, Georgiana?” she said incredulously after a long pause. “Georgiana, he’s worthless! He never went to college, he doesn’t have a job! How will the two of you ever manage?”
They moved. Georgiana never saw Peter again.
Georgiana never got over Peter. She still loved him, even though she hadn’t seen him for years and she was in a decent marriage. She wondered if maybe somewhere in the world, he still loved her too.
Georgiana loved tulips.
Gender:
Points: 3214
Reviews: 137