Aurora 2024

Sara Allard

think I’ve been nothin’ but kind to you Miss Finn, but there’s only so much teenage nativity I can take. This wild dandelion ain’t some miracle, but a disaster!” It’s about now that she notices the spade and Frog Prince that my arthritic arms are tryin’ to hide behind my back. Layla’s childish smile I thought would disappear after raisin’ my voice finally starts to crack. “My work over these last 20 years has never been to send my babies back to a ditch. It’s been what I’ve hammered into your stubborn skull ever since I so kindly hired you: safety and sophistication!” I stop to calm my temper and regain the gentle, grandmotherly tone that I long for in every conversation. “Layla sweetie, if we don’t take this lil’ rebel back home, others will. And they won’t know how to keep her safe.” I set the Frog Prince down in the ditch as a declaration and wait for her to back down like she always does. She’s too darn shy to do anything more than begrudgingly agree. Layla does stand up, but she doesn’t walk to her scooter. Instead, she stomps in front of the dandelion, clenches her fists, and shakily says “No, Mrs. A. I can’t let you keep this flower in a prison. It deserves to be free!” The girl might as well have slapped me. Before I could recover, all the complaints she’d been hidin’ behind stifled giggles and shifty eyes come tumblin’ out. “You wanna know why I kept sneaking’ peeks inside the tearoom, but never came inside? Because I thought I wasn’t allowed to.” Layla interrupts herself to skitter over to the scooter, and pull something’ out

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