Saturday, May 24, 2008

The Tulips




Little sprouts poked out of the ground in the front yard just as the last of the snow melted a few weeks ago. They got taller each day, and when Janis and Grover visited, Janis suggested they might be tulips. I can't remember if they started to bloom that weekend or not. I absolutely love them.

One weekend I was sitting on the sofa, looking out the window. To my great dismay, a boy around 8 or 10 yrs old walked up and started picking tulips. I ran out and caught him in the act; he started to run but then inexplicably stopped right in front of me, holding the tulips, as if hoping that maybe this was a better choice than running away. All it did was give me a chance to say in a really strange voice, "Don't pick people's flowers." I sounded like Natalie Portman as Queen Amidala, or maybe Cate Blanchett in Lord of the Rings. "One ring to rule them all." I then tightened my lips into an angry half-smile. The little boy said "Okay." I felt so scary and mean. But mostly I was angry and hurt that my gorgeous tulips could have all disappeared if I hadn't happened to be looking out the window at that moment.

But it doesn't matter what happens to them now, because I have photos, and apparently they are going to come back year after year and there is nothing I have to do to make it happen.

1 comment:

Lois Rosewood said...

I liked to draw tulips as a kid, I guess because they were easy to draw. You have quite a few tulips! I really like the two-color ones.