The Forget-Me-Knot

TLC--Try your luck contest Due Oct 24; .5-1k words; include prompt; include word count @ beg. or end

Line Prompt: (Green Prompt)
Use this as the last sentence of your story.
"Only the forgotten are truly dead."

(add a word count at the top or bottom of your story.)
(send the BITEM link of your story directly to me through e-mail.)
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The Forget-Me-Knot


by Indelibleink

Ellie Green turned from her dish drying at the kitchen sink just in time to see a bouquet of light blue flowers thrust inches from her face.

"Well, Donald Jensen Lewis! I do declare. If those aren't the most beautiful flowers a girl could ever want, well then I just don't know..."

Donnie's face turned beet red. He hated to be called by his full given name, even if it was just him and his girlfriend alone in the century home. It just sounded so formal. You see, Donnie's life up to this point had realized fairly limited experience with the ladies, and presenting a girl with flowers was indeed a rarity. So was a girl fussing over a guy like him. Donnie, the stereotypical "nerd" who had spent most of his 43 years working alone at a local R&D firm for a national synthetic fabrics chain, had little to offer in the social skills department.

Ellie, on the other hand, was about ten years younger than Donnie, quite attractive, with a litany of experience (albeit failed relationships) in her past. Having grown tired of her own self-perception that she was more of a conquest than a possible life partner, Ellie found comfort in the more traditional relationship she had developed with the less-flamboyant Donnie. With both of her parents being recently deceased -  her Mom from cancer and her Dad from a massive heart attack - Ellie was lonely in the big old house. The deaths of her parents also left Ellie with running the family hardware store; a daunting task by itself but made even worse by Ellie's disdain for the world of home repair and maintenance.

Of course, it disturbed Donnie that Ellie had asked him to come over so that they could "talk." That's why he had brought the flowers - the special flowers. Donnie had been working on this formula primarily to extend the life of heavy-duty fabrics, but in the course of his experimentation, stumbled upon the impact on plants quite by accident.  Donnie just had to tell Ellie about his discovery; a discovery so new he had yet to inform his employers. He had wanted Ellie to be the first to know.

"These flowers have been injected with a special polymer that will extend the life of the plants a long, long time! So long, in fact that I also made you this..." Donnie reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small box. He opened the box to reveal a beautiful short necklace made up of the same type of Forget-Me-Nots that comprised his earlier gift to Ellie. Ellie was stunned by the incredible beauty of the necklace. Donnie gently slipped the flowers over Ellie's head, and she walked over to the hallway mirror to admire them.

"Donnie...these are some of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen. I will always treasure this. But....I need to tell you..."

"I've been working on this polymer for more than a year." Donnie, sensing imminent trouble, was trying to deflect the inevitable by changing the subject. And, he reasoned, if he didn't give her a chance to talk, he could not possibly hear any bad news. "But, there's one very important aspect to these treated flowers that you need to know. You can nev.."

"Donnie!" Ellie interrupted, as she knew full well Donnie's strategy. She had attempted it herself a couple of times to try and salvage a relationship that was on the way out. Her eyes welled up as she searched for the right words - if indeed there were such words - that might alleviate the pain Donnie was about to experience.

"Donnie, please sit down." Her gaze moved from Donnie to out beyond the kitchen window, as eye contact with Donnie was not preferable at the moment. "You know it's been difficult for me - what with Mom and Pop passing and running the store by myself - it's been real difficult. Last week, Bill Jenkins - you remember Bill from Mom's funeral - he helped out at the store on occasion. Well, he's been coming around lately, and..." Ellie paused for a few seconds to compose herself, tears now streaming down her face and neck, finding a thirsty partner in the flowers that graced her neck. "I didn't know this was going to happen," she sobbed, "I didn't know Bill and I would fall in love...I swear it! You must believe me. Oh Donnie!"  Donnie rose from his chair, and began the long walk through the hallway, and out to his car and into a new life, whatever that was going to be. Behind, he left a woman crying, sobbing, and further saturating the beautiful necklace.

Just as he was passing through the dining room of the old home, he stopped abruptly, as if he had just remembered something important that he needed to do. However, after pausing briefly, he continued on his way out the door.

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A large gathering stood in silence as the coffin of Ellie Green was entered into it's final resting place. "I still don't get it," a mourner mentioned to another as the coffin was covered with earth, "How that young lady could have choked to death from flowers around her neck. Makes no sense..."

"Well, the way I understand it," the other one said, "Was that there was something in those flowers' stems that made them shrink up real, real, tight if they became wet...and they were real strong. Coroner said something about 'high tensile strength', whatever that means."

Just then, Donnie walked past the two, and placed a small bouquet of light blue flowers at Ellie's headstone.

"Sure am sorry about your loss, Donnie. She was a fine lady. We'll never forget her," said the first mourner.

"Yeah," replied Donnie, surprisingly upbeat. "Now, she'll always be alive, and be mine, in my heart. We were going to be married, you know. I'll never forget Ellie. Only the forgotten are truly dead."





word count: 999