The Flower Girl

[10.26.00] » by Bubbawheat

   "Excuse me sir, do you want to buy a flower? Only 1 gil."

   A young woman stood in the dark streets of Midgar. Cars and people whizzed by without so much as a glance for a girl in a pink dress with a basket full of flowers. One man did stop, his eyes evaluating the woman while passing quickly past the basket of flowers.

   "Flowers, huh? That's cute and all, but how much for the flowergirl?" The man spoke with a gruff voice, just barely audible over the roar of the traffic.

   The girl blushed and tossed her hand at him, her eyes focused on a Shin-ra patrolman walking past "Oh my! I... I... don't know what to say." Her voice was high-pitched, but soft, a rare thing to hear in Midgar, where soft things never last very long. As soon as the patrolman turned the corner, her mood changed. When she spoke again, her voice was the same, but there was more force in her words "Did you want the whole night, or just an hour?"

   The man wasn't phased by the abrupt change in demeanor, this was by no means the first time "Just an hour'll be fine. I've already got a room booked a block away."

   The woman gave a dainty smile to show she was pleased with the preparations "Well then, I think 1,000 gil will do just great. By the way, my name is Aerith, what's yours?"

   "Yeah, whatever." he reached for his wallet and pulled out several bills "Here's five hundred, you get the rest afterwards. Let's go." When he saw that Aerith was still waiting for something, he conceded "Ok fine, my name's Joe, happy?" Apparently, she was. Walking down the street, she handed him a flower. He took it, but reached behind his back and let go, letting it fall to the ground, trampled on by several passerbies, and unrecognizable after only a few minutes.