Lily

by KitsuneRisu

Time

Lily pulled her head off the table when the clock’s second-hand reached the 60-second position, except that the position was also the zero-second position and the number 12 at the same time.

This had always confused Lily; there was something about time being something else that didn’t quite make sense to her, and when time had to be another time altogether it was just doubly frustrating.

Lily allowed her eyes to linger over the black second-hand of the clock for a single moment, perhaps two, perhaps three, before the hand moved on and raced around the crimson track yet again, ready to meet her at the top fifty-nine seconds later.

“Quickly,” Lily said, desperately. “I have fifty-seven seconds.”

“For what?” Daisy asked, as she sat by Lily’s side, staring at the clock alongside her friend.

“To consider.”

“Consider what?”

“Fifty-two seconds, now.”

“Tell me,” Daisy said. “What do you wish to speak about?

Lily waited for the clock to tick to fifteen, or perhaps three, depending on one’s point of view. That left a good forty-five seconds left for her to ask her question.

“There are sixty seconds in every minute, and sixty minutes in every hour,” Lily said slowly, to make sure her friend could keep up. “If a minute were a second, what would an hour be?”

Daisy took a further six seconds to think of a response.

“Well, it would be a minute, wouldn’t it?”

“Correct,” Lily said. “And if an hour were a minute, what would a day be?”

Daisy waited for twelve seconds more.

“Well,” Daisy said. “I don’t know.”

“That’s the correct answer.” Lily nodded.

The minute hand hit North.

“I would have also accepted ‘three days less a bit’,” Lily added.

“Three days less a bit?” Daisy looked out of the corner of her eyes to her friend, who was still keeping watch on the clock like a hawk espied a dinner turtle.

“That’s how long we’ve been waiting,” Lily said.

“That’s how long it’s been,” Daisy added.

“How long more?” Lily asked, eyebrows sloping.

“I don’t know. I can’t say.” Daisy shrugged.

“Then go get her,” Lily demanded.

“I don’t know how to reach her,” Daisy admitted.

“Then… go to the shops.”

Lily threw herself to her hooves all of a sudden, taking a look around her, allowing the rest of the world to come into view.

It was their store, the shop shared by sisters three, a boutique of flowers where pots of plants lined the beautiful bay windows and crammed themselves into every corner, a place where one could not traverse the buffed wooden floors without tripping over a bush or perennial.

All over the columns were hung a variety of orchids, and over there, in the far corner, were the expensive things, like the hybrid roses and crocuses, earning their weight in gold for those privileged enough to purchase them.

There was a bar, as well, a place where one might partake in the eating of colours, a healthy lifestyle endorsed by the owners, in which one could indulge in a variety of seasonal vegetables and flowers of various shades, blended and pureed into interesting drinks and tasty concoctions.

The colours were good for a multitude of purposes, according to Lily, and helped with various functions. One need not eat a carrot for the eyes, when any orange-shaded plant would do.

But it was always carrots when it came to the salad.

Lily remembered a time when there was a patron. He came in with a great smile on his face and left nearly immediately after his quick lunch. The salad agreed with him greatly, and he promised to tell all his friends about it.

It had been a wonderful day.

This was the flower shop.

Lily swung around, pointing a hoof at Daisy. “Go to the store, I said. Need I remind you?”

“You looked busy.” Daisy tilted her head. “You looked deep in thought.”

“I am rarely, if ever, deep in thought,” Lily responded. “I think lightly, like the bubbles on a glass of frothy milk.”

“The froth, you mean.”

“What?”

“The bubbles on a glass of frothy milk is otherwise just known as the froth.”

“Yes. I am the froth. Does this explain your action of inaction?”

“I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“You are a good sister.” Lily nodded in recognition. “But good sisters also go to the store.”

“What shall I do there?”

“You are to buy one Rose and return her back here to the shop.”

“Friends can’t be bought at the store.” Daisy raised an eyebrow. “We’ve spoken about this before.”

“Maybe you can check again! There’s always things we miss! Remember last week, when we needed pickles, and we didn’t find a pickle aisle, but we went back again and there was actually a whole section of pickled everythings?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“And Rose still hadn’t come back by then! How long had it been?”

“Three days less a bit,” Daisy said softly.

“Yeah.” Lily nodded. “Yeah. That’s right.”

Lily rubbed her chin with a hoof, her tail waving in the still air of the shop.

“Could you go get me something else instead?” Lily asked.

“Sure, Lily. What would you like?”

“Anything. Whole big box of anythings.”

“Alright, Lily.”

The hour hand reached a tick past North.

Lily was left alone.

Rose had been gone for three days less a bit. They had been waiting earnestly for her triumphant return.

It would have been good to have the ability to travel through time. Perhaps then, she could go back in time to talk to Rose before she left and tell her to return sooner. Or perhaps she could go forward in time to when Rose had already returned in order to meet her then.

But the latter idea wasn’t so good, since in that case, Rose would have to wait for them, and the sheer thought of it sent an odd crushing sensation to Lily’s chest, like a vise squeezing out the last ounce of juice from an unfortunate carnation.

No, it would be no good to have anyone wait for her. Waiting should be avoided, and in this case, she would much rather be the waiter than the waitee.

There were never any good waiters.

Except of course, the sorts at restaurants, perhaps, because they got you your food and drinks and told you you had to leave if you stayed two hours past last order. Those were the good kind, unless they were rather rude, in which case they were merely the acceptable kind.

But having to make others wait for anything at all was definitely unacceptable.

Lily’s carnation told her so.

“Here,” Daisy said, placing a paper bag up on the counter.

“Oh, you’re back already,” Lily exclaimed. “All within the moment of a thought.”

“Yes,” Daisy replied. “Sometimes time flies when we’re in consideration. Have you thought of much?”

“I have been thinking of time, and how much I would love to be a time traveller,” Lily replied. “And by the time I had finished my thought, you had returned.”

“I’ve been all the way to the shops and back. Surely it’s not been that soon?”

“It has been rather soon.” Lily nodded.

“Well… how much time has passed?” Daisy asked, gesturing to the clock.

Lily turned to stare at the hands that went tick, tock, and sometimes tock, tick.

The long hand pointed West.

“It has been forty-two minutes and some seconds,” Lily determined. “As I expected.”

“Did you?”

“I have very long thoughts,” Lily said. “It’s only expected that it would take forty-two minutes and some seconds.”

“Well, I did as you asked,” Daisy gestured to the brown paper bag. “I have bought you a box of anythings.”

“What did you get?” Lily slid the bag towards herself.

“What it was you were looking for.”

“Rose?”

“Within reason.”

“Ah. Then, of course it’s…”

Daisy nodded.

“It’s…” Lily muttered, hoof over the bag.

“Yes?”

“What was it I was looking for?”

“Have a look. I don’t know. I simply bought it and brought it here.” Daisy gestured.

“Fine, then! You’re quite fun, you realise, withholding information like this!”

“Quite fun?” Daisy tilted her head.

“Yes, indeed. After all, giving things away early would simply spoil the surprise, wouldn’t it? You’ve played your part remarkably.”

Without a moment more, Lily tore at the bag, peeling the sides away like layers of an onion. The brown shavings fluttered to the floor like dead, wilted leaves, where they lay in need of a sweeping away.

“It’s a box.” Lily said.

“That’s what it is. You did ask for a box, did you not?”

“Yes, quite so. A box of anythings. A box… like this. One finely carved in wood. One longer than it is wide. One with two lids on the top. It’s exactly as I asked for.”

“I’m glad, then.”

Lily pushed at one of the lids, and then the other.

“I can’t open it.”

“Well, you said you wanted a box. You didn’t say you wanted what was in the box.”

“That’s true. You’re wise, Daisy.”

Lily left it alone.

The box lay on the desk, happy and content.

Lily lay her head on the countertop sideways, staring at her new acquisition.

“Say, Daisy?”

“Yes?”

“Do you think the box will ever open? There are no keyholes, nor latches. There is nothing that is keeping these two lids from sliding off. And this is not a trick-box. I would know. I have played with a number of trick-boxes before, and they always have a thing about them. This one has no thing about it. It simply will not open. Will it ever open, do you think?”

“Maybe.”

“Why won’t it open now?”

“I couldn’t say. Perhaps it is just that you want the outside more than you want the inside.”

“Ah, yes, of course.” Lily rose back up off the table. “It is a nice box. There is nothing much else to say about it. It is nice and I love it. It is fine, as a box, and I am content with it, as a box. So, should it be anything more?”

“It doesn’t have to be. Maybe it never will.”

“Then… then!” Lily declared, putting up her hoof. “I will leave it to the box.”

“That would be for the best.”

“It will be the box’s decision.” Lily lifted the box with both forelegs, hoisting it up above her head like it were a small child.

“Yes.”

“I shall name him… Oakley.”

“Is it made of oak?”

“It is pine. I can tell. I work in a flower shop.” Lily swept her hoof around to elaborate.

“A fitting name.”

“Oakley will stand in for Rose while we wait for her.”

Daisy smiled. It was a smile that was trying very hard to be as warm as it could be.

“Do you know what I thought of? Just now,” Lily said, placing Oakley back onto the bar counter.

“What?”

“We are time travellers. All of us.”

“Are we?”

“Yes. We are all constantly moving forward in time at a rate of one second per second. All of us. Together.”

“Ah… well. Maybe.” Daisy nodded.

“Do you counter my proposition?”

“It all depends on who is moving through time,” Daisy said.

“Then, all we have to do is keep travelling forward in time until we meet Rose again. And then she won’t have to wait for us.”

“That sounds like an idea.”

“It’s a perfect idea.”

“Yes.”

Lily waited.

“Do you suppose she’ll be back soon?” Lily asked.

“I don’t think so, I’m afraid.” Daisy responded.

Lily waited.

“She will, won’t she? I’d very much like to show her Oakley.”

“She would very much like to meet him, if she could.”

Lily waited.

“How long has it been, do you think, since Rose left?”

“Three hours less a bit.”

“Of course.”

Lily waited.