Fresh Ink 2020
PRETTY LITTLE FLOWER Erica Sturges* Some years ago, there was a pretty little flower. This particular flower was always in full bloom: the veins in her stems, so full of love that filled her with life; her petals, so soft to the touch, like the wings of an angel; such a kind, loving, free-spirited little flower. She was absolutely exquisite. But then, the day came where this lovely little flower would cease to be the radiant, graceful, bursting personality she has always been. The sparkling flow of life she used to have within her would soon perish. On one ominous day she met the sly cactus, only disguised as a handsome flower. She was unprepared for what was to happen in the years to come. In the beginning, this disguised flower blinded the little flower with make believe happiness and empty promises, and for a little while, she bought into them, until this masquerade of a flower started to show his true self. A couple of years down the road, the little flower was starting to see what he’d truly become. She slowly started to see his thorns, and when he got upset, the perspiration that came out of him, was to her surprise, not that of water as you would think a cactus would harbor, but of poison. The cactus’s poison was contagious. One drop latched on to the little flower, and her days began to darken. The pretty little flower, once so beautifully in bloom, had been torn. She was not who she used to be. Her skies had turned gray, and her petals began to wilt. The sun that had once shined down happiness upon her didn’t exist anymore. The little flower was broken. The only ounce of happiness that the cactus left her with was a little seedling. And although that little seedling lit up the little flower’s life, she still felt empty and broken deep down inside. All that soon changed when she was taking a heart broken walk and had an epiphany. She realized she didn’t want that life anymore. She had to drain herself of the poison that was holding her 54
