CANVAS Volume 25

Page 27

It was the most important thing he had from her, but his mother couldn’t have known that. He never spoke to his mother outside of what’s for dinner. Now it was gone. She was gone. Jonah felt heat in his chest like someone had turned a flamethrower on and pointed it at him. It was a not a good heat though, not the warmth you feel from your blanket or from the hug you share with your favorite people. It was just a deep burning rising in his now hollow chest. He stared blankly at his mother, trying to figure out if he should even try talking to her or just walk away. He struggled with what he wanted to say and do. He knew there’s no way she could know yet, but at the same time, he was too sad to even be angry with her. He should’ve told her she was gone and never coming back. She was the one closest to him, the one that knew him best. They were best friends. The stereotypical pair of besties. The shy gay boy and the loud outgoing girl. Two peas in a pod. Salt and pepper. You name it, that’s who they were. She was the first person he came out to and quite frankly the only one. She never pushed him to tell her or anyone but was so glad that he told her. To her it meant he was finally learning to love himself. Jonah’s mother looked at him in disbelief. It was just an old, dried flower. Practically dead and not at all pressed properly. It didn’t seem he wanted it. It was just sitting there on his desk, sad and begging to be thrown out. Its leaves were no longer a vibrant green but dark gray like pavement after the rain. Its petals were past the point of drooping but frozen in place. If she hadn’t known what an alive daisy looked like she wouldn’t have been able to tell the petals were once the color of an angel’s wings. She threw the very dead flower away without any thought. Why was her son now looking at her as though she had killed their puppy? The dried now-discarded daisy was the last flower he had given Daisy before she left. She had kept it while they were together but before she left, she handed it back. He hadn’t even thought anything of it when she handed it back. He thought it was nothing more than a gift from a friend. One of those symbolic friend gifts that they would tell their kids about. That’s exactly what Daisy had thought of it too. Nothing more and nothing less. She too thought that this flower would survive the ages with them. But now Daisy wouldn’t have kids. A random drunk driver took that from her. His mother sliced the thick silence with her overly cheery voice. Jonah usually loved that voice but now he wished she would use some sort of maternal instinct and pick up that he wanted her to leave him alone. Daisy | Makkenzi Welds

17


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Articles inside

Snowy Schoolhouse

12min
pages 110-124

We Were Jealous of the Ships

5min
pages 107-109

Death by Chocolate Jacobus Marthinus Barnard

6min
pages 98-100

The Infinitive Alpenglow of a Dimdream Reflection

2min
pages 95-96

Whale Falls

1min
page 103

needing & getting

0
page 102

of mountains

1min
page 104

We Are God

1min
pages 93-94

Embody

0
page 91

in the light of the twenty-third hour

3min
pages 87-89

Divine Feminine

1min
pages 83-84

The Citrus Kiss of Astronomy

3min
pages 80-81

Yellow Tightropes

0
page 85

Volcano Day Susanna Herrman

0
page 79

Sydney Weber The 28th Fire Brigade Makkenzi Welds

1min
page 78

Strangers

1min
page 76

If Time Stops

1min
pages 74-75

Wasted Hours (Before We Knew

11min
pages 68-73

Identity

1min
pages 61-62

Next Question

0
page 64

automatic woman

1min
page 66

The Love Language of Museums

0
page 57

Instructions to organize chaos

0
page 59

We Are All Written in Ink

1min
pages 54-56

Haley Arsenault Angel Wing

2min
pages 52-53

We’re Worker Bees

0
page 50

results inconclusive

0
page 41

the last letter i’ll ever write you

1min
page 46

Later

1min
pages 43-44

Worship Me

1min
pages 47-48

dead woman

2min
pages 38-39

Two Parts of a Whole

1min
page 36

Mother of the Eyes

6min
pages 22-25

Granddaughters

0
page 30

The Fan Is Still On

1min
pages 14-15

Act Three

5min
pages 32-34

You

2min
pages 11-13

A Different Point of View

7min
pages 17-19

haunted house

0
page 21

Daisy

3min
pages 27-28
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