PRIM

P R I M

a short story

by Gabriela Bergstrom '27

“The basic elements of this piece of fiction contain suspicious plants, suspicious drivers, and Callen, a suspicious teen who may or may not have some issues. The teen protagonist and his parents move far from their hometown and - since my favorite writing genre is fantasy -- discover that their new home is not what they expect. The“seed” for this short story“blossomed” from wanting to create a plot with lots of nature elements and scenery.”

"This is ridiculous, Mom!” yelled a boy to his mother.

The mother sent a warning look. “This is a good moment to stop getting a sharp tongue and be quiet,” she warned. “Besides, it's a nice town, which means not lots of confrontation. Given ya ’ year so far…”

“Oh yeah, the news of expulsion from a school totally spread around the entire world,” replied the boy with a sarcastic tone.

“Watch it. Take a nap or something.”

“Dad, come on, talk some sense to this woman!”

His father was currently passed out in the middle of a nap in the passenger seat.

“First and finally, I am ‘Mom’ to you, not ‘woman.’ Now quit it.”

The boy, Callen P. Cleevis, settled for not testing his mother any further and instead stared out the window of the yellow van. The vehicle was very old, and his parents didn't seem very keen on buying another one, even though this van had its moments of busting its engine. Don’t bother asking for their reasoning.

And the ‘ridiculous’ thing here was that they were moving from their hometown in Ohio — taking a week’s trip to arrive in some random island town on an island off of Denmark. Did they even realize how far they were from that place? No point in fighting about it now since it had been at least five minutes.

Not to mention the entire reason they were probably moving in the first place. An incident had happened at his old school where he had thrown something at some people who were giving suggestions about what the ‘P’ stood for.

Don’t ask.

Now Callen had thought of throwing a projectile across the classroom, but he didn't. Nor was he close enough to grab something too. But everyone claimed he got up from his seat, threw something that went towards the window, causing it to shatter. And the weirdest thing about the whole incident — he found a bunch of sprouting flowers — a mix of purple ones growing on the back leg of his desk!

The flower detail even got weirder. No one he asked said or remembered anything about flowers under the desk, and they were clearly visible. He sat in the very front, so everybody should have seen them.

And as an addition to the Great Flower Mystery, his parents could have just sent him to a different school in the area. But NO, they must move to an entirely different place and school. He sort of got why this was happening; he had (kind of) wrecked the window of a school classroom. And the flowers were weird. But when he told his mom, Molincene, about the plant part, (his mom’s family had a knack for creating the strangest names for their children) went more berserk than a person ought to when they hear about purple flowers growing from school floor tiles. She had insistently urged them to move to the town in Denmark. His father, Joseph, after hearing the story from Molincene, became the most serious he had ever seen his dad.

Not like his dad was serious anymore now. He looked very silly while he was sleeping. His glasses were even falling off, with his brown hair sticking to his forehead.

Well, time to see what happens now, Callen decided.

The route sign, with tall weeds and foliage growing around its base, read: WELCOME TO PRIMBURRY. The broad white letters were significantly peeling off from time and harsh weather.

The Cleevis family’s van pulled into the town of Primburry. Callen could see why the place was named how it was. There were many flower beds decorating certain areas of the town in different colors: pinks, reds, whites, oranges, yellows. They were everywhere like crazy.

The ratio of buildings to flower patches could never be matched. Compared to the numerous counts of primroses, there were barely any buildings at all. The only ones he could spot while they were driving down were a grocery store, a school and its playground, a flower shop, a plaza, a library, and a post office (that Callen soon happily discovered had a built-in joint arcade; hence, a reason Callen then slightly forgave his parents for moving here). There was, behind the playground, an area of woods. It seemed to be quite big, most likely the biggest area in town.

Currently, they were driving to Oceancreek, the only neighborhood in Primburry. At this point, Callen knew that there wasn't going to be more of one thing in this town -- except this one detail: how small the houses were. Think regular town-houses, but even smaller and times it by two.

Once they had arrived at their new house, The Cleevis family spent the rest of the afternoon hauling all the boxes they fit in their car before the trip (the rest were on other moving vans - they would arrive later in the week). Right after, Molicene tasked him to buy flowers from the local plant shop a few blocks down. She claimed the kitchen needed some pop of color.

“Strange timing for the need of flowers, but guess I can explore some more now,” Callen mumbled to himself while leaving through the door. His mom had handed him a twenty.

“Straight to the flower shop. No detours to the arcade, mister. You ain’t gonna use the rest of it,” she called out from inside. He headed over to the arcade. It would be fine, seeing as the botany store was right across from the arcade. Though he thought he should probably buy the flowers first before playing video games so that Molicene wouldn't notice the little change from the twenty. Just use the leftovers and claim flowers here aren't cheap, he thought. Callen was midway down the walk over to the post office/arcade place, or what the correct term it was. His memory was correct; the flower shop was right across the street. About to cross, he checked for cars.

Now that he thought about it, he wouldn't really need to check for cars or wait for traffic to subside anymore. He hadn't seen anybody around — anywhere. No cars in the lots, no people in the plaza, sidewalks, nowhere. Back at his old home there would always be at least a couple of kids running around in the grass. Molicene was right, much less confrontation. With that, Callen crossed the street.

The flower shop sign read Wendall’s Botany. Buying the flowers would not take too long. He’ll grab them, leave, dip to the arcade-

“You shouldn't lie to your mum.”

Surprised by the sudden voice from behind him, Callen hit his head while opening the door. He turned around to find a messyhaired girl standing behind him.

“Uh…I-I’m sorry?” He asked, rubbing the spot that was bruised from hitting the door.

“You shouldn't lie to your mum.”

This was…awkward.

The girl’s style was considered messy. Her eyes were green, hair cut short to her shoulders with thin streaks of white and light purple seeping through the blonde. It appeared unkempt as if she hadn't brushed it for a while. She had band-aids on her elbows and knee— possibly from tripping over stones and sidewalks? There was dirt on sections of her jean overalls and shirt, displaying a print of a white rose design on its side pocket.

“So who are you?” Callen attempted to ask. But with no answer, the girl only pushed past him and entered through the door.

“Wha- excuse me!” he exclaimed after her. Callen followed her path into Wendall’s Botany. People aren’t meant to drop a bomb of speech and just leave, he thought. Also how did she know he would lie to Molicene?

He saw her turn a corner down one of the aisles — the section with purple, white, and light blue primroses for sale, $2.30 a bloom. He finally caught up to her spot and was ready to confront (for once) about the encounter...

But it was not necessary; she was not there.

At least the rest of his day had the potential to be normal.

The owner of Wendall’s Botany was Mrs. Wendall, an old woman married to her husband for 20 years. After the girl had disappeared from the store, Callen brought a couple random Lily of the Valley flowers for Molicene, giving up $10.50 to purchase. He did plan on taking a small trip to that arcade, but with that encounter with the disappearing girl, he figured he shouldn’t.

“Moli- Mom, I’m back,” Callen said entering the house.

“In the kitchen. Put ‘em on the side counter,” she instructed, and so he did.

“Hope you didn’t spend the rest of it. I gotta give rent today. Good thing it’s cheap here in Oceancreek.” Callen froze a bit. Now he was glad he hadn't spent the rest of the twenty.

“Anyways, stay in your room. Dinner will be in a bit,” Molicene said, shooing him upstairs. His room was barely filled since their furniture hadn’t arrived to Primburry yet. All there was in his room was a sleeping bag and a few boxes filled with figurines, books, and clothes. A window let the only source of light in the room since his parents had gotten the electricity set up for the whole house yet.

Callen faced the window. He spotted a small creek in the woods behind his house. If he couldn’t spend much time at the arcade, he could be there instead… …although his mother said to stay up here since dinner would be soon.

He peeked down at the ground. There was a fire escape slightly below his window. Callen estimated that it would take at least another ten minutes before Molicene called him again. And there wasn't anything to do here, so why not?

He had sneaked out before back at his old place, so it would be easy.

Callen crawled through the window and landed on the escape. The metal was not dried from past rainy weather, most likely before his family arrived.

He slid the ladder down making sure it didn’t crash on the ground and alert Molicene; he stepped to the ground, heading his way to the creek.

He began making his way to the thicket, walking over piles of leaves— Wait.

It wasn't the fall season. The trees still had all their leaves on their branches. And the grass around him was an entire natural green.

Callen faced down. Instead of leaves, below him was the exact patch of purple-shaded flowers from his old school mixed with the same blue primroses he had seen from the shop. Facing back at his window, the flowers formed a path in the same direction he walked on the ground, also growing along the fire escape and his windowsill.

Where had these come from?

He debated whether to continue to the creek or turn back. Seeing as he was already close to the woods, he kept walking. Flowers continued to form wherever he stepped, making his plant path longer.

Hey, what happened to the rest of his day being normal?

Callen reached the creek. The second he stopped on one of the stones near the water, the flowers stopped. Instead they began to grow around the rock, seemingly determined to try and stay connected to where Callen was going.

“What in the world?” he mumbled.

“My name is ____.”

A strong gust of wind drowned out the end of someone’s statement.

Callen swerved around. The same girl from before stood on the other side of the skinny river on a different stone. Expecting her to look the same before, she now had a long lavender tinted dress that

reached all the way down to the dirt. The bottom of her dress was dirty like her overalls. Her hair had the same colors, but was somehow longer now down to the end of her back. A similar purple flower that was in Callen’s trail lay nestled on the side of the dress and in the side of her hair. The only thing the same about her appearance were the eyes, still green.

“Pardon?” He said.

“You’ll be fine. Just hold your breath.”

“Wait, what?.”

The girl raised her hand slightly and flicked her finger to the right. Something behind Callen started to move. Before he could turn around, it pushed him into the creek. Taking the advice, he held his breath, surprised by how really deep it was -- but also extremely ready now to demand what on earth her game was with pushing him into the water.

He swam back to the surface, wiping off the water from his face. “You have a lot of nerve to jump, scare, and push people into water!” Callen yelled as he climbed out. “How on earth am I going to explain this to my mom? ‘Hi, mother, I sneaked out of the house and then a random girl pushed me into a deep creek after a bunch of flowers kept showing up under my feet when I walk. Am I magic, mom?’ Like what!?”

“Sorry there, lad. Must’ve pushed into you without looking. Although, kind of mysterious, a boy climbing out of a window when I thought nobody was here. Also, what about these flowers? I don’t see any.”

He turned back to where the girl was standing, or rather, where she did stand. In her place was a man sporting a a beige widebrimmed hat and a black trench coat that reached down to his brown boots. He was tall, had gray eyes, and orange hair that was thinning near the forehead.

The surroundings were different as well. Instead of the trees and ground being green like they were before he fell in, the greenery had turned to the colors of fall. The grass was less of a deep natural green and the trees were losing their leaves, letting them fall to the ground and becoming mixed piles of red, orange, and yellows. His flower trail had changed, too. The plants had now become a skinny brick path, weeds poking out from the cracks.

“You alright, lad?” the man questioned. “Haven’t hit your head on the rocks, have you?”

The simple rushing creek in the woods was most definitely not a simple rushing creek in the woods.

AND NEITHER WAS PRIMBURRY.