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| One day when I got home with the flowers, I asked her what was her favorite flower of all the flowers in the world. Being a little boy of eight, I didn�t know how many kinds of flowers there were. Surely, I thought, there must be three or four different kinds of flowers growing somewhere other than these wildflowers. Mama sat down at the table, placed me on her lap, and said, �Johnny, I guess the most beautiful flower that I like is the red rose.� �I ain�t seen no red rose around here, Mama.� She just smiled and said, �No, child, I haven�t seen any either.� �Why a red rose, Mama?� �When in full bloom, a red rose has a perfume that is . . . well, I can�t describe what kind of perfume it might be called, but it is like the smell of the air after a rainfall. The petals are soft to the touch, yet brittle if you squeeze them too hard, and the stem has thorns to protect the rose from harm. |
| �A red rose is a token of love between a man and a woman. The only rose I ever got was when your pa asked me to marry him, and that was fourteen years ago.� |
| �What happened to the rose, Mama?� She smiled. �I have it in the family Bible, of course.� �How much does a red rose cost, Mama?� �Oh, I don�t know. Maybe three or four dollars apiece.� �Wow! I have never seen that much money at one time.� Mama laughed. �Would you wait till I am older and get a job, Mama?� I asked. �Then I will buy you a red rose.� Tears came into Mama�s eyes, and she hugged me tightly, kissed me on the cheek, and said, �Surely I can wait that long.� We both laughed. |
| One spring day, as usual I stopped and picked some flowers to take to Mama. I was by myself that day, as Billy and Mary Sue were sick, or so I was told. I listened to a bird chirping high up in a tree, then another, and another and another. They were all chirping to each other. Two squirrels ran up and down a tree, chasing each other as if playing tag. I started skipping and whistling on my way home. As I got to the yard, I saw three cars parked there. I had never seen any big cars like these before. One was red and white with big red lights on top. Then I saw a star stamped on the side of another one and knew it was a police car. The third car was so long it must have carried ten or twelve people in it. I peaked in the side window, but there were no seats in the back. |
| I went up on the porch where Pa, Billy Ray, and Mary Sue stood waiting. �Hi!� I said. �I got some more flowers for Mama.� I ran into the house hollering, �Mama, I brought you some more flowers.� But Mama was not there. I ran back to the front porch where Pa was standing. �Pa, where�s Mama?� I asked. Pa knelt down and held his arms out to me. �Come here, child.� Billy Ray and Mary Sue knelt down with us. �What�s wrong?� I asked. �Where�s Mama?� Pa said, �Johnny you are a little young to understand all this, but Mama has been sick, and the doctors did all they could for her.� �Is that why Billy Ray and Mary Sue stayed home today?� �Yes,� Pa said. |
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| �Mama ain�t been sick,� I said. �She was here when I got home from school yesterday. She�s been right here every day.� �The doctor has been coming to give her medicine while you kids were at school ,� Pa explained. �She didn�t want you children to know about her illness.� �If the doctor gave her medicine, then she�s gonna be all right. Can I go see her? Is she in bed?� |