Somewhere near the stone arch in the Ramble at Central Park, perhaps a short walk from the path and into the wilds that surrounded the romantic structure of stone parapets, the lone figure of the plant mutant sat. Somehow she had made her way through the streets of NYC into Central Park during the night, not really the best time to be in the park, but she had needed the walk.

Xavia sat, this time wearing actual clothes that she had swiped from a clothesline that was strung between two buildings, high above her head. She had sent a vine upward to pull a gingham dress down, which fit her much better than a billowing sheet, indeed. The faded floral print material rested on her form in folds, indicating that it was maybe a few sizes too big for her slender body. But it was clothing. Did she feel bad that she had to resort to thievery in order to clothe herself? Only a little, she thought, it wasn’t as if she had swiped a Gucci from a store, she had swiped a worn out article of clothing from the streets.

Her hands smoothed over the yellowed gingham as she walked through NYC, bunching the fabric more nervously the more she walked, until she found the Ramble. It was dark and one could barely see through the woods that surrounded the arch, and she sat there alone for awhile, listening to the chatter of the passerby and the random bum, and had even had to shut out the sounds of fighting between criminals and the general scum of the city.

She did not know when she fell asleep, but she woke herself up just before the sun made its appearance in the early morning hours. It didn’t seem to be a cold morning, which was unusual in October as it was somewhat balmy and reminiscent of the hot summer that had left New York a short time ago. Xavia was happy with this, and felt more alive than usual.

After she had eaten some dead foliage, and yes, she loved it for some odd reason, she began to play around and see what she could do with these powers of hers that she had fought for so long. In the middle of the small clearing she started to touch the ground in random places, tufts of dormant grass standing up and turning a vibrant green again, tiny flowers sprouting here and there.

She got into the act of making plants grow so much that she began to do so with joy on her face. She stood and began to raise her arms, tall sunflowers bursting from the earth and blooming with their bright yellow petals. Laughing loud enough that anyone could hear from the path to the archway, she touched a tree here and a bush there, in awe of what she could accomplish now that she was beginning to accept her power…

Eventually, Xavia collapsed to the ground with her arms flung open, and a smile curling her crimson lips. Daisies, which were quite common earlier in the year, shifted with the autumn wind to kiss her face. Her tangles of dark curls were spread around her head, riotous tendrils curling around the stems of said flowers.

It was a long time since he made a little street perform , this time it was not for the money nor food but for fun . Doing these shows he met Luke the blind man that could see you anyway and Torqueo the grim angel that claimed to be evil while doing right things. It was really interesting how much people you could met in random places. A place like Central Park always full of people , from morning to night was a splendid Pandora's box filled with all kind of people .
This time was not a exception , so crowded so alive . breathing , chatting , giggling . It was like all the plants and trees there where interacting with each other . Fausto always liked trees , it was very nice to rest at their shadow in a hot day and it was better to read a book climbed on its arms.

He easily found a place to start the game and using all his ability to gather attention quickly and accurate become the focus of attention , the name everyone must mention . It was show time . He cleared his throat, and accompanied by large movements of arms began his dialogue.
¨Welcome my beloved audience!shh stay quiet and let me introduce myself.¨ a slight bow , a smile and he started to talk again quickly trying to make his words reach every ear there.The nearest people around started to turn and face him some other continued with their task. How dare they to don't hear him? Someday they will must . ¨I'm astonishing , the awesomeness , i'm evolution itself , I'm Iron Mouth.¨ another slight bow and an even greater smile when some of the people gathered there recognize him from the band and cheered him . He born to be famous , it was in his blood . He loved the adrenaline of being the center of everything .Corrosive Revolution was turning quite famous. Most of them were Young and probably mutants . He grinned while the vibrations in the air accelerate with his voice . ¨In an act of greatness for my part I will show you what a mutant is capable of doing, if they fear us after this they would scream like ladies .¨ When he finished making a broad movement of the hand he approached a girl about Cielle's age about 20 years, no more than that . His black onyxes eyes met hers.
¨If you love us , I swear, you're going to love us twice.¨ She blushed but he did not care about her , not even a slight of blush appeared in his face. She was not as charming as Katrina .

Iron Mouth took a little bag from his pocket and showed it to the audience ¨Check these please , they are made of iron . there is no trick.¨ The girl wanted to take the bag to be closer to him again but another person was quicker ,and took the bag from his hands , the man inspected every object in the bag , there where a lot of tiny iron objects. When he believed every object was real he gave the bag again to Iron Mouth , then he swallowed all , the little bad of cloths and the objects inside . Someones where amazed but the man was not convinced with the act ¨I could do the same if i want .¨ He certainly could even when he would end with a terrible stomach ache .
¨Kay , Kay you are right ... give me something bigger and i will show what i mean ...¨ He looked around , that man had a briefcase , Iron Mouth grinned and moved as quick as lightning and grabbed the briefcase before the man could even notice it . When he noticed he just go away from him while he stabbed it with his teeth , soon the object lost a considerable piece for the horror of the owner. Then what was expected happened ,someone yelled ¨Freaking Mutant¨ and the chase began. Fausto was quicker than him but the man's legs were propelled by anger and it was a good boost but Fausto knew Central Park as his face palm and quickly lost him among all the people there . When he reached the Ramble he found more than the quiet place and shelter he was looking for , there was a woman laying in the floor , smiling , and surrounded by flowers . He stared astonished at the beauty of the scene , it was like a fairy tale and there just a few steps away was laying the muse of these flowers .

[She was so lost in her own world that she ignored the sounds outside of the little haven of trees in the Ramble, and didn’t notice the boy entering the scene and watching her. It seemed, by that time, that she began to carry on a conversation with the daisies. “So pretty, you are, with scent so sweet. Your petals are the pure white of snow, framing the sun that is your core. You stand so tall and proud, my sweet daisy.” Xavia caressed the blossom she spoke to with the ends of her long tapered digits.

She laughed then, as if the flower spoke back to her, and went on with, “No need to thank me, darling.” Rolling onto her belly, legs splayed behind her, the ugly gingham dress sagged off of one shoulder, and the scarred expanse of the backs of her hands caught in the filtered sunlight. She brought her legs up at the knee, crossing them at the ankles so her bare feet could sway as she started to hum.

The humming eventually turned into singing, a smile still on her face while she sang in a lovely, angelic sounding Hungarian Alto:

“A nap birtokol elveszett -ból ragyogó skies
Bye , baba bye
az pitypangok volna csukott -uk szemek ,
baba viszlát
The csillagok van gyújtás -uk lámpa -hoz forr
csecsemõ és mókusok és madarak és méhek
egészséges alva mint õk semmi -hoz be
viszlát , baba , viszlát.
az mókus emléktárgy meleg -ban -a furs
-ból szürke , baba viszlát
lenn feltollaz ,
madárkák van berakott el ,
baba viszlát
az vörösbegy haza van egy fészek a magasban
az méhek , õk fészek -ban egy kas helyett
baba fészek van õt kicsi poloska , baba , szia.”

(English)
The sun has gone from the shining skies
Bye, baby, bye
The dandelions have closed their eyes
Bye, baby, bye
The stars are lighting their lamps to see
The babes and squirrels and birds and bees
Are sound asleep as they ought to be
Bye, baby, bye.


The squirrel keeps warm in his furs of gray
Bye, baby, bye
'Neath feathers, birdies are tucked away
Bye, baby, bye
The robin's home is a nest o'erhead
The bees, they nest in a hive instead
My baby's nest is her little bed
Bye, baby, bye.

( Listen )

She quieted down then with a sigh bubbling passed her lips, and moved to kneel, touching the flowers one by one so they would close. And still, she did not notice the boy watching the whole time.

It was a fantasy, it was impossible, in the heart of NY there was a muse singing a beautiful song that made the flowers dance and rise.
She was in some kind of trance as she was unable to see him. The child shortened the distance with the speed of a snake and as silent as they were .
He had never seen a spectacle as beautiful as that and he had seen a lot of thing , it was very difficult to approach without stepping on a flower or plant as these were around her as if she was not a person but a source of life. So avoiding the plants he reached her but it took a little longer than normal, When he was close enough she suddenly stopped singing . For a moment the boy was scared and thought he had stepped on a flower and imagine the woman would get up angry because he had killed one of his many guest to the particular concert, but he did not step on a flower. It was just casualty for her to stop singing .

She was in a trance and could not even see him, not even when he walked in front of her ... maybe she needed help, He could not leave her there in the middle of the park. Maybe the trees were telling her all their problems and she was unable to wake up until each of them talk with her , there where a lot of trees in Central Park so she was going to starve to death is that were the case , maybe the trees were prophesying the planet's future , it was a kind of strange urban oracle. Calliope the muse of heroic poetry was there a few feet away from him, but did not notice his presence. Perhaps he was not worthy of being able to talk with such an important mythological figure,How often these things occur? animals or mythological creatures did not appear nowadays . It was simply amazing.

Iron Mouth surrounded her and walked in circles around her as a panther trying to decide the exact moment to break her neck , but this what not the case. He tried to help her , but there was no way to wake her , he also waved his hand really near her face . She seemed to be blind , drugged or in a psychic trance.
When visual stimulation failed Fausto get really worried. He spoke to her with the hope he could break the trance , He did it in a tone so sweet, such as is usually used by adults when they find a lost child. ¨ ¨Pardon, Miss are you alright? ¨ His voice was partially hide by the rustling trees, along with the noise of the city. Maybe she had not heard him 'cause of the noise. No , she was not listening ' cause of the trance. But how to bring her back?

Of course she did not notice the boy circling around her and such, she ignored the outside world because of her fantasy world. She truly was a crackpot! However, the kid spoke to her and dashed her from her daydream and into reality, and she bolted to her feet, heart pounding as he had startled her.

>>>¨Pardon, Miss are you alright? ¨

She stared at him like a doe caught in headlights, her jaw slack and panic filtering through her caramel eyes. Xavia backed away a few steps and muttered, “Yes, yes, fine…” She looked around her then, only to see that her flowers were wilting and turning brown as quickly as they had come into view. Her eyes settled on the boy again. What was the look in her eyes? Fear? Confusion? It was hard to tell, but she backed up a few more steps. How much had he seen?

The question died on her lips though as she turned her back to him and squared her shoulders, one foot lifted as if she would bolt any second because she was like a cat caught with a canary in her mouth. She felt very foolish to have been caught acting like a child in a meadow. In a way, part of her still was, as she never truly had a chance to grow up like a normal person. Not after everything that happened when she was a teenager, not after she watched her boyfriend die in a hailstorm of bullets because some crackpot scientist wanted her as a specimen.

But this boy, who looked about the same age she had been when she was taken away from her home the first time… He did not know how she had suffered so. He was an innocent. She did not know he was more like her than she thought he was, she just knew he had wandered up to her when she was caught adrift in a second reality she had created with herself using the mutation she had been forced to live with since she was a teenager.

She turned around by that point and did what came natural to her, get defensive. Her arms crossed and she glared at the boy, “You shouldn’t sneak up on people.”

She stared at him and Fausto stared back but his sight resembled much more that of a dog who found a foreign object, his head slightly tilted to the side and his black eyes glowed in amazed, An funny object but not a threat. Not at the moment ... His eyes followed her as she walked away from him, Was she scared of him ? scared of a teenager? Maybe not, She could be just surprised , she had lost consciousness in a weird place like this where anyone could have found her . Reformulating the question a bit, the answer should be different. Would she be scared if she knew he was a teenager capable of eating anything? She surely would be.

She turned his back, very bad choice. If he were someone else she would be dead ... Luckily he was not the kind of person who kill someone by the back, he neither wanted to kill her . He had no reason to attack. Since Sam had trained him to disarm and knock out without biting, He always saw the possibilities to do so in any circumstances, that was a very good time to use handcuff, while she turned his back and her arms rested at her sides.
She was ready to flee. Fausto could not let her go without asking her somethings, his voice was so beautiful and soothing, able to tame the beasts.

¨ I am a homo superior too ... ¨ If she did not understand what he was referring perhaps she could run away. ¨ I am a ... mutant. ¨ It was a real pain for him to use that word , after all the definition of the word ¨mutation¨ was a bit more accurate ¨ A sudden departure from the parent type in one or more Heritable characteristics, caused by a change in a gene or a chromosome. ¨ definitiveness That was a mutation, what they possessed were gifts, special abilities generated from evolution, the misnamed mutants were developed versions of human beings. Although it was still more acceptable to be called mutant than freak. Fausto had always saw the word mutant as an error, it gave them the appearance of being some kind of errors or biological experiment failure when in fact mutants outnumbered humans in many aspects .

She crossed her arms and attacked him with a violent glare . "You should not sneak up on people."
¨ I should had left you in that trance ... you seemed much more gentle while sleeping . You have an amazing voice, I could not help but approaching you when i heard your voice, and when I saw the flowers ... the flowers even born and flourished to listen you ,It just left me amazed. Tell me muse, what are you doing here alone? If you plan to change between the planes of existence you should see where is your body, what would happen if some crazy person had appeared and for example, kidnapped you ? ¨ Fausto reproached her what he thought it was something that everyone should know. minimal care to reduce the possibility of damage, but in a mutant that was quite critical.Mutants could not show their powers without knowing how to defend himself, and to be in a trance state was not well suited to the idea of being alert, to be alert was a good prevention . You always should be alert, in the only place that a mutant could show their powers without problems was in the confines of the mansion. The muse made the flowers dance with her voice and did not seem to understand the danger of showing these powers openly, neither him hide his powers but Fausto knew how to defend himself.

She lifted her chin and took a step back as he came closer to her, and her back hit a tree. This was a time where she wished she could shift into the tree itself like she had in her dream state. Her mouth quivered a little as he spoke of how beautiful the scene was and she looked away with obvious discomfort. For a time, she did not reply, but when she did, she said, “You mean you are a freak like I am? Is that what you mean?”

Her words were somewhat bitter, but she said it. Color brightened her cheeks and she looked at him again, and with a sigh, she said, “Sorry… I… I didn’t mean it like that… I… Sorry…” She pressed her back against the beech tree behind her, and worried at her bottom lip with her teeth.

“Please… Just… Please don’t tell anyone you saw me here doing this… I mean… People, not one of us… There are some very bad men looking for me right now—“ She cut herself off and bit her tongue after she blurted that little tidbit out.

Iron walked toward her until her back rested against a tree , surely she was more friendly in trance .
¨That is exactly what they want you to believe .They want you to think you are alone , they want you to be sad and they really want you to feel you are a kind of freak ... do not let you enemies see you crying nor bleeding . you have to be proud of what you are!¨ He almost yelled the last lines to her , he was so pissed about how she frightened so much for some humans ... She seemed to be really fragile and mentally unstable judging for how she reacted at the mention of a possible kidnapper .
He needed to calm her , it was not good to put a unstable ¨freak¨ in a uncomfortable situation .

¨Take a chill pill or something lady , i am not selling you to a zealot .don't be afraid , you could use your powers whenever you want as i do , if anyone dare to tell me i am a freak i will show my teeth .¨She had called him Freak and he doesn't bite her , it was a figurative speech but she did not calm . He started to talk in a softer and sweeter way , just to cool down things for both . It was stupid how she was scared of being the next step in evolution chart .¨Changing subject ...Your voice is so nice , are you a singer? I have a band , you could sing with us sometime ... like for the opening of the concert or something ... I would love to hear you again and even better in a mutant concert without humans for you to be afraid .¨

For some reason, she trusted this teenager more than she had anyone else, and she seemed to relax a little bit. She slid down so she sat at the base of the tree and wrapped her arms around herself, looking down. “I can’t help it…” Her voice was soft, but she spoke with more sanity, “They took me far from home. They are dangerous, they killed to get me the first time…” She started to chew on her fingernails a little bit.

She closed her eyes for a second and shook her head, forcing memories to stay tamped down, before she took a calming breath. She wasn’t TOTALLY insane, but she had a good reason to be. Watching more that 20 teenagers get shot in cold blood on one’s sweet sixteen was enough to drive anyone mad for a time. She was silent for a few moments, trying to focus on the boy who had advanced closer to her.

Then he changed the subject to singing, and she blushed softly. “I was a concert pianist once upon a time. I sang in choir but not as much as I played the piano.” She smiled, now, and started to relax even more. She imagined playing the piano in the old abandoned house. One day when she could save herself from the streets and maybe even go home to her family, the piano would come with her.

She touched the dead daisy beside her lightly, and the flower bloomed again as she softly went on, “You would want me to sing with you?”

Even when he did not want to point her in the direction of human hater there was no way she could break her fear toward humans without hating them after all the things they did her , but it was just no good to hate all the humans for a few scums that hurts you . Just take revenge on the ones that hurts you , tit for tat . ¨A lot of humans get stalked ,tortured or used as experiment by bad humans but no all of them are bads , is just like us. there are a lot of mutants that play nicely but some others that believe their powers are made to kill humans ... ¨ It was quite odd to explain these kind of things to her , she was older than him , she should know how the world move and who pulled the strings.

He sat next to her , his back resting on the tree . She had passed through a lot of problems even more than him . It was so nice to let the soft breeze caresses his black hair , it was so nice to be outside enjoying nature . He never could understand these indoor dogs , these pampered pets that have everything at the reach of their hands . Perhaps the fact he lived in the street for two long years had changed him into a outdoor dog , a vagabond without home . But he liked outdoor even at the happy times when he family was still alive and his house unburned .

¨I bet there is a piano in the mansion but i am not really-really sure about it , i never get attracted by instruments a lot . Recently i started to play electric guitar but ya'know doing rock and roll you don't need to be super accurate , just the exact amount to don't create a dissonance . I am the main singer too , but again is not that my voice is perfect , it lack of the beauty of your voice but ...¨

He let the words disappeared in the air as she touched a daisy and made it bloom again .the flower that was dead , revived only to be touched by her then she broken the silence . was that sound a little of excitement in her voice? was her wanting to sing again but protected from the humans ?

¨Of course , it would be great but it would be hard to make your soft voice fit in a rock concert , do you know Corrosive Revolution ? Is my band . Some songs are directed exclusive for mutants , to encourage them to break the chains of oppression .¨

She did not hate all humans, and she tilted her head as he spoke of such things as if he thought she did. No, she simply feared them, but mostly she hated the people who did what they had done to her and what they were doing to her now. Here she was, over a thousand miles from her home and the sheltered life she had lived, not taking care of herself because she did not know what to do, how to let mom and dad know she was alive without having a phone, and she was learning a serious lesson about being a mutant after being in denial for a long time. Her mouth kind of quirked as she let him talk on about humans being bad or good, and the same for mutants, and then as he talked about his band.

“I don’t hate all of them. I hate the ones that hurt me, but fear the rest.” She paused for a moment to reflect on what she should say to him, her brow knit as she continued to look down at the flower which almost seemed to be nuzzling against her fingertips. She decided then that it was easier just to open up to the kid, and did not look up at him as she went on, “I used to be one of those people who looked at mutants as abominations. That was a long time ago, I was about your age, I think. I was the kind of girl that had all the friends and had the all-American boyfriend, the perfect life; nothing could make me understand what it was to be hated, because I was so loved.” With a heavy sigh, she touched another flower and let it open under her fingertips the same way the other had.

“I had everything, but one day I lost it all. Maybe that is why I am so confused about my place in the world right now, why I am missing a few screws in my head. I became what I was prejudiced toward. The details are still a blur to me, but I dream of what happened all the time. The bad men killed all of my friends the day I turned 16, right in front of my eyes. I remember that, but then there is blackness after that. My poppa and momma found me some time after that, walking along the side of the road like some kind of Zombie. They took me to all the specialists they could find to see what was wrong with me, and they talked to each other, and not me. I overheard my poppa and momma fighting one day about me, about what to do with me. In the end, they treated me like I would never grow up, they treated me like a porcelain doll because, and I suppose they were right, I am fragile.” Xavia paused to laugh at the irony of this entire situation, then finally looked at him. “As much as I will never stop loving momma and poppa, they were wrong to shelter me. The bad men came and took me away almost ten years after they took me the first time, but a nice boy rescued me and took me to his school infirmary where I spent awhile in shock, and another man… A bald man in a lab coat stopped me from running away… I… Don’t remember why it happened. I woke up some time later, and decided to run away before I hurt someone, because I couldn’t control the part of me that does this…” She gestured toward the flower. “What you saw when you came here, I… Got lost in doing because it is so beautiful, and I didn’t realize it until the bad men came looking for me that this wasn’t bad... But I am afraid of what they will do if they find me, and when you spoke to me I was sure you were one of them for a moment and I distrusted you. I was wrong. But I do not hate you, as I would have thought I would.”

She stood up and walked off a few steps, shaking her head after realizing she had just told someone who she really was in a long winded speech, and she rubbed her forehead. “You must think I am a nutcase by now for my grand speech.” She kind of chuckled, and turned back around to look at him. Actually, she felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders to be able to open up, albeit unprompted by this kid who had nothing to do with her. “I wouldn’t blame you if you thought I was.”

There was a moment more of pregnant silence from her as she thought about talking about music with the boy, but she knew somehow they would see each other again, and there would be other times to talk about singing. She canted her head and wondered what he thought about all of this.

The boy's face changed quickly, like a ancient artists who wore masks to interpret their feelings ,changing the masks quickly to fit the feeling . So he changed his face as he listened to the story she told. From smiles at first, until a face of utter sadness for everything that had happened to her .
At the beginning it was typical story of the indoor dog that for some circumstances is left in the street, When it was inside the house the dog looked out the window mocking the vagabond dogs who eat from the garbage while he ate real food. Having to survive as what he hated his world was destroyed ... She deserved it, Fausto thought viciously while listened, because apparently all the sadness began when she changed into something she did not want to be, a mutant . In his case , everyone loved him, even when they discovered his mutation. And his reality had not changed but for those stupid extremist groups, but was the fault of those humans, and not of all. there was not point to fear all of them .

But the talk did not stop there, she continued singing her misfortunes. and there were many, anyone who had gone through that many atrocities could end crazy, perhaps with less than that anyone could still need a asylum. But despite it all , she seemed to be sane enough, if you did not mention the fact that she was completely terrified and paranoid about humans hunting her ... That girl really knew how to get down someone. But not him ... not even the sky falling apart could depress him!

Fausto jumped off of his cozy armchair aka the tree and took her hands while she walked a few steps away from him . One word springs from his mouth while his hands moved her hand to follow him, as if there could be heard a concert. ¨Dance!¨ He asked while guided her with the hope she would capture the music , because although there was nothing to hear, there was the sound of nature in the midst of a roaring city. ¨I think Muse , you 're too strong for still being standing after all these misfortunes. ¨ he smiled trying to stole a smile from her. He had never liked who surrendered easily but this girl really had reasons to do so ...

He took it better than she thought he would, and she gave a wavering smile as he took her hands and lead her into a dance without a beat. She realized how thoughtless she had been in blurting out her sob story, but rather than apologize profusely for said mistake, she remained silent as he spoke.

It had not been fair to the kid to make him listen to all that, but at the same time, she hadn’t told any other soul the story.

She finally granted him a full smile that even touched her eyes a little, and though she didn’t speak again to the boy, she was clearly making an effort to cheer up for him.

The little singer was moved by her story, she had suffered a lot and she would still suffer it from what she said of these humans still pursuing her , this was without doubt an injustice. And he was involved with her in some degree , probably what he had said to him was not something she tell the whole world, surely Fausto had reminded her about his younger brother or something then she told him everything.
Should him be more involved with it and do justice? in other words, to eliminate the evil from root without giving opportunity to generate more evil.
Although if he could not destroy the entire organization which pursued her if it was an organization and not a group of zealots not very well organized. At least it could give them a message ¨ Do not mess with the mutants. ¨ That was what had happened with the organization that killed his parents, he never saw them again, perhaps he should scan the whole area again to see if they were still operating, probably yes.

¨Do you like to dance? would you make a show for us in the mansion?¨

At last she replied with a beautiful smile then he fought with all his strength to stop what began to flush up his cheeks. He would have liked to be there with Katrina as the muse of the flowers were preparing a show. But perhaps the park could give Kat bad memories . Who was leading whom? He did not know, the two danced or tried to do as Iron was not very good at it, he found it difficult to keep pace with the music with his feet and more difficult was trying to imagine a melody that did not exist there while his companion did the same probably with a completely different melody.

She did not speak much still as he danced her around the little clearing, her mind was starting to hold a beat of an unwritten song. It had been many years since she composed a song, and it was starting to form the first notes in her head. Eventually, she began to half hum, half sing and urged him to follow her beat, which was not slow, but not fast either. “Hmm, hmm…. As the fading sun is shining down… The wind whispers of the silver… moon… hmm hmm… Brightened stars are diamond dust in the dusk.”

Then he spoke, and she lost her thoughts on the song for the moment, blinking a few times and canting her head. “A show?” She pulled away and plopped back into the grass, staring up at the sky, cheeks somewhat flushed from the joy of being able to compose again all because this boy had took her into a dance.

She idly poked her fingers at the ground and some peonies popped up. Peonies? But those were a spring flower! It was closing in on Halloween and there were dead leaves everywhere, yet the woman could sprout the multicolored clusters of the four petal flowers without an afterthought? “What kind of a show?”