This post is part of StoryADay May (https://storyaday.org/) #StoryADay #StoryADayMay @storyadaymay #freeshortstory #NailArt #nails #Maniology #HelloManiology #ManiologyAmbassador #MomGoth10discountcode #writingprompt
KPop Peonies
Gerontia loved the old-fashioned garden she had inherited from her great-aunt along with her great-aunt’s house and modest fortune.
But the peonies.
Peonies were problematic.
They were exciting in the bud, perfect spheres with slivers of color showing through the green. The blooms were magnificent bursts of white or pink or fuchsia, too big for their slender stems.
And that was the problem. They were too big for their stems. One good rain, and pphhhht! splat! Those beautiful blooms face-planted on the dirt and turned brown and slimy. Ugh!
Also: ants. Peonies needed ants crawling all over them, doing ant/peony things. Nice for the ants and the peonies, but disgusting for Gerontia. It was almost as if God wasn’t even thinking of her when he created peonies.
Gerontia looked out the back window and twitched. As if God had heard her thoughts (which, various pastors had assured her, He could do) peony blooms were rising from the ground and bobbing in the after-rain breeze. One by one, the proud heads lifted into the sunlight.
She pulled on her waterproof boots and shrugged into her lightweight rain coat and crept along the grass path until she could see the miracle up close and personal.
A little girl, also in boots and a rain coat, squatted by one of the peony plants, singing, “How it’s done done done.” Gerontia’s shadow broke her concentration and she fell back onto her bottom, her mouth open in surprise.
“Gramma said you were dead!” she said. “Are you a ghost?” She cocked her head and squinted. “Do you get to be younger when you die?”
“Ah,” said Gerontia. “Your grandmother means my Aunt Abyssinia died. Everyone always said we looked alike.” She held out her hand. “You can call me Miss Geri.”
The little girl took her hand and pulled herself to her feet.
“I’m Lynn. Whenever I come to visit my gramma–” she flapped an arm across the low wall and a long garden to a house on the next street– “I come over if it rains and shake the wet off the peonies and help them stand up again.”
“How very kind,” Gerontia said. “And did Miss Abby pay you?”
Lynn looked at her side-eyed. “No. That’s not what it’s for. I just do it. They look sad all drooped over.” Her face lit up as she said, “You know what? You know KPop Demon Hunters?”
Gerontia did not.
“It’s a movie about these girls who sing and like they fight demons. So now I pretend the demons are pulling the peonies down to The Bad Place and I shake them off.” She demonstrated by gently shaking a bloom and helping it rise as she sang, “This is how it’s done done done.”
Gerontia had no clue what the child was talking about, but the peonies looked happy with it.
“Well,” she said uncertainly, “thank you for your service.”
“It’s what we do,” Lynn said.
“Would you like some tea?” She had baked yesterday. “Some lemon cookies?”
“Nope,” Lynn said, absorbed in her good work. “Done done done. But thank you.”
Gerontia, dismissed, went back to the house, did an internet search for Kay Pop Demon Hunters, found it was KPop, located it on a streaming service, and added it to her queue.
That would be interesting. And tomorrow, she would know the song.
Maniology introduced a set of Korean nail plates so OF COURSE I bought them. My nails are black with Lacewing stamps and dots of Hibiscus, with accent nails of Saaristo Sage stamped with Hibiscus and Lacewing.
MY PROMPT FOR TODAY: K-dramas
MA
