Snow White and Rose Red
Once upon a time, in a beautiful Rose garden...
Rose sat back on her heels and looked over the acre and a half that was hers alone. It was a garden full of her namesake. The roses were in bloom and the fragrance that filled the air was sweet and heady. Many of these roses were her own hybrid variations that she had slaved over for the last several years. Her newest, Moonlight Kiss was a purple so deep it was almost black at the base and lightened slightly at the tip of each petal. Its color was a happy accident; she had been trying for the fragrance first. She buried her nose in its open petals: absolute perfection.
Camera in hand she backed up and began setting up the shot. It was the perfect time of day for photographing this section of roses. Hopefully this new rose could be in next year's catalog. She continued to shoot down the row until the sun had risen too high. Hot, sweaty and feeling a bit wilted she headed back up the field to the house that overlooked the garden. She took her basket with freshly cut flowers with her and detoured through her mother's cutting garden for a few others.
She had always loved the house. It was a big old fashioned farmhouse with high ceilings and a wrap around porch about ten feet deep. Flower beds with every variety imaginable surrounded the house. They had a mowed yard but not nearly as much as most houses in the area. Flowers of every variety surrounded the house growing over trellises, arbors and spilling out of containers of every variety. Their farm, Dahlquist Flowers, lived up to its name. For three seasons of the year they had pretty much non-stop blooms.
The interior of the house was much cooler than the exterior. It wasn't hot enough yet for the air conditioning to be turned on. "Ha ha," Rose thought, her mother had left fresh lemonade in the fridge and she poured herself a tall glass.
"Hey Rose, did you get those shots in?" asked Snow, plopping herself down at the table. She was still dressed in her work clothes, she worked part time at an accounting firm in town, when she wasn't keeping the farm in the black.
"Yup," she replied after a long drink, grinning at her twin. "I'll play with them later today and pick the best shots." Her slim, dirty fingers recut the stems of her flowers under the running tap. She popped them into the waiting vase.
"Good," said Snow, leaning to reach the counter, helping herself to a sip of her sister's lemonade. "Jerry Miller is coming on Friday to discuss the layouts for the catalog. We still have to pick out the cover picture," said Snow.
"Just remember that we won't have very many for the first two years or so", said Rose. "Hopefully my cuttings will over-winter better this year than last. I still can't believe that we lost so many."
"Yeah," replied Snow. She truly looked like her nickname today. Her raven black hair was cut into a bob at her chin and her creamy skin looked like it had never seen the sun.
Rose just sighed to herself. She wished for not the first time that she looked anything like her gorgeous sister. She was a full five inches taller, with brown hair and eyes, and freckles that multiplied with every bit of sun they encountered.
"We need to ask our new neighbor if the skanky real estate developer has hit him up yet."
Rose snorted, "Although he is acting like quite a recluse. I would be surprised it the slimy land baron has had any better luck finding him than the rest of us."
"True enough," said Snow. "I know that you and mom promised Gwen that you would 'look after him', but this is getting ridiculous. The man has gone out of his way to let us know that he doesn't want to be bothered. He even has his groceries delivered for Christ's sake."
That had been true enough. Rose often wondered about their new neighbor. Gwen had told them quite a bit before her unexpected death of a heart attack six months ago. His name was Daniel Stevens and he had been a Marine that had been badly hurt in combat. Gwen had invited him to stay with her when he was released from the hospital. He was a favorite great nephew, and one of the few of her many relatives that had kept in constant touch over the years.
Rose grimaced at the thought of the rest of Gwen's relatives. She had had five children, and about a million grandchildren, all living within several hours. And yet the only time Gwen had seen or heard from them was when they needed something, generally money.
A grin crossed her face. Gwen had surprised them all when her will was read and Daniel had inherited it all. Gwen had left her relatives a litany of reasons that Daniel had inherited and they had not. They had been furious, threatening to contest the will. Gwen had foreseen this however and her lawyer had carefully made sure that there was absolutely no way they could contest.
And so Daniel Stevens had inherited eighty acres, a beautiful house, car and an undisclosed amount of money. The only other person to inherit anything had been her mother, Lily Dahlquist. She and Gwen had been friends since she had moved in with Snow and Rose twenty years ago. Gwen had been surrogate mother and grandmother to the struggling family and remained close throughout the years. Gwen had left Lily an odd section of 10 acres that was on the boarder of their two properties. It was an incredible grove of peeling birch trees and meadows full of wild flowers. As a child, Rose had been convinced that fairies lived there. She had spent an inordinate amount of time in that area just looking for them, or just dreaming in general.
Daniel had moved in about three months ago. Only the lawyer had actually met with him. No one else had so much as seen him. She had gone over to the house twice. Both times she had phoned first to let him know she was coming over, she didn't want to be rude. The first timed had been to prune Gwen's roses in early spring, the second to check on them and make sure they were being watered.
Rose set the roses on the table and sat down after refilling her lemonade glass.
"Anyway," Snow continued, "Jerry, the catalog guy is going to be here Friday and I need those pictures."
"I'll have them tonight," said Rose, a little irritated that Snow felt it necessary to repeat herself.
"Oh, he was asking about you, too," she smiled.
"Who, Jerry?" Rose sighed, "I am not interested in going out with Jerry Miller."
"Why not!?" said an exasperated Snow. "He's nice looking, has a good job, nice personality; what's not to be interested in?"
"Because he is more interested in you that's why. The man can't keep his eyes off of you. No thank you."
"He is not. You're just too damn picky, if you ask me," said Snow. "You are the only twenty three year old virgin that I know."
"And you know what," replied Rose, "there is nothing wrong with that! So back off!"
Rose stomped back out of the door, ignoring her sister's protests behind her. She was so sick of her sister trying to foist off men on her. One thing she hadn't mentioned was the fact that she didn't want to date Jerry because Snow had already slept with him, shortly after meeting him. She truly loved her sister, but she was very tired of her going through men like they were flavors of ice cream. She only wanted one, THE one, and she was perfectly willing to wait for him.
She climbed into her pick-up truck and slammed the door behind her. She drove with no particular destination in mind, but wasn't surprised that she ended up at Gwen Stevenson's house. She had adored Gwen and treated her like a long lost grandmother from the time she was old enough to walk. Gwen's house was similar to theirs, if just a bit smaller.
