Odd Little Flowers

                                                      Odd little flowers
                                                                          By PL Bobek
                                       
         Stephanie walked hand in hand with Megan along the salt and pepper shoreline.  Megan let go of her mom’s hand, kicked off her flip flops and ran into the shallow water, jumping and splashing as little children do. Stephanie watched the tree line of the adjacent forest searching for a deer or fox to scamper towards the lake for a drink. 
“The forest looks dark today Momma”, Megan said.
         “It sure does,” Stephanie replied.
They walked further down the beach enjoying the fresh air and the beautiful lake scenery.  Being from a big city they rarely made it out to the country so they had planned to take advantage of their surroundings as much as they could during the few days they had to be there. This was an unexpected trip, but I guess the reading of a will and all that goes with a family death is usually unexpected.
“Momma, look at the flowers. Aren’t they pretty? They’re purple and that’s my favorite color.”
         Stephanie looked at the flowers and nodded yes to Megan. She knew most of the wild flowers that grew in this forest, the normal ones for this region, but these were different she did not remember these? This lack of memory bothered her some but then again how much could she expect to remember much about this lake since she was only a small child, a little bit older then Megan, the last time she was here.
Then suddenly Stephanie recalled a family picnic from her childhood, it took place in a field of these flowers. She had often gone on picnics with her Great Aunt and Uncle when she lived here. Then she felt scared, her arms were covered in Goosebumps but she was not cold. Stephanie recalled more about the this picnic, it was the last one she went on with her Great Aunt and Uncle; before her parents had hurriedly packed up a few of their belongings and their little family far away. Being a child she really had no questions about why they were moving so abruptly, none that she recalled anyway.
When Stephanie was in middle school she had an assignment, she had to to write her autobiography for her English class. This is when she first began questioning her mom about her birthplace and the move. Her mother believed that Stephanie was now old enough to hear the real reason they left their home on Diamond Lake; well at least part of the story. It seems they moved shortly after her Uncle Paul, her mom’s brother, was tragically killed. Her mom did not go into actual details just that it was an unusual accident. The accident had put a great strain on the family while they lived at Diamond Lake so they had decided it was best to move away.
         “Momma can I pick some flowers to bring to Auntie Liz’s grave, it would have made her smile, right.”
         “Sure Megan baby, but just a few, it’s getting late and we have one last meeting with the lawyers; we can stop and put them on her gravesite on the way.” Stephanie replied.
         Megan had picked a small handful and carried them tightly in her small fists all the way back to the small house. They looked up at the sky as they walked, the sun was shining and not one cloud could be seen in the beautiful blue sky and yet the forest still seemed unusually dark for that time of day. Stephanie turned around abruptly when she heard a twig snap behind them, she had assumed an animal was coming out of the forest. She looked closely but did not see anything. She could tell there had been something there because there was still movement among the lower branches of the pine trees. Stephanie shivered, and then she grabbed Megan’s hand, pulling her a little so she walked faster. When inside the cabin Stephanie firmly shut and bolted the door.
         The rest of the day went as planned, a very brief visit to the cemetery to drop off the freshly picked flowers and the last meeting to settle her Aunts Liz’s Estate. Stephanie and Megan had a simple dinner, hamburgers and fries from a local fast food restaurant and then off to bed early; they wanted to be well rested for their last day at the lake and then the three hour ride home.          
         The next morning Stephanie grabbed the newspaper from the porch, she read the headlines in the Lake Diamond Daily Examiner.” A local businessman was found dead near the forest by Diamond Lake. It is suspected he was killed by an animal.”
         Stephanie shuddered, her memory returning to her mom’s explanation as to why they moved. This more detailed explanation was told to her when she was a senior in high school. Her mom explained that there were stories, folk lore as it’s called, of a creature or creatures that occasionally inhabit the forest near Diamond Lake. These stories told of other mysterious deaths, similar of how her uncle was actually killed. The police reported it as a backpacking tragedy, but her family knew that could not have been the cause since her Uncle Paul did not backpack, and in fact he rarely visited the forest beyond their own porch. He wasn’t much for wildlife, but this one time he had made plans to go fishing, a birthday outing for his best friend. Uncle Paul went to meet him that day and he never returned. The incident was kept hush- hush by the local police. Nothing more was done to find the actual cause of his death, one that would satisfy the family. The local police considered it a closed case just a few days after it happened, their records remain as a backpacking accident/animal attack. Uncle Paul’s body was never found. That’s when the family moved. Stephanie’s mom said the police did recover Uncle Paul’s backpack and returned it to the family; there were remnants of the field where they had found him, the petals and stems of these flowers similar to the ones they picked yesterday, were found on the backpack there was also blood stains and some unusual fur intermixed with the dried blood. The family felt it was odd that it had not removed by the police as evidence. When the family asked the police about the stains they just ignored them and said the case was closed and for the best interest of everyone it should remain that way.
Megan came running into the small living room where her mom stood holding the newspaper; Stephanie was still frozen in the spot where she began reading the headline.
“Megan lets skip the beach today and go home right away I really miss dad” Stephanie said to her as she gave her a hug.
         “Me too Mom, but can we first stop and pick some of the pretty purple flowers?”
         “If we pass that field on the way to the highway, sure we can.” Stephanie answered her, all along planning a route that went the opposite way purposely avoiding that field.