Chapter 8
The Final Flower
The Final Flower
Monday morning Berk and Fannie headed off to school. It was another unremarkable day at school. Fannie had carried her four flowers in the side pocket of her backpack. By now they were looking a bit haggard and droopy. She knew she didn’t have much time before she had to get them back to their mother vine. She needed to find the last person and quickly. This seemed a difficult task. Each person who had seen one of the colors was not someone she had found. It seemed more that they had found her.
No one at school seemed to notice her flowers. Now it was time for Family Night and Fannie didn’t know how she was going to find someone who could see the last flowers color. Her Dad told her they were going to the Promenade for Ice Cream for Family Night. She said a little prayer in her room before they left that she would find someone who could see her flower.
The promenade was a large outdoor shopping area. People loved to go there and walk up and down looking in the shops. There were all kinds of stores there, clothing, jewelry, food, games. Another fun aspect of the promenade were the street performers. There were singers, mimes, fire eaters, painters, magicians. They all performed with an open hat next to them hoping someone would throw a bit of money in their hat.
Fannie’s family got ice cream and then walked up and down the promenade watching the performers. There was a man doing amazing paintings with spray paint. He was concentrating on his work when Fannie’s family came up to watch. When he finished he turned and showed his work to the waiting crowd.
Fannie took her last unseen colored flower from her purse and put it in her hair behind her ear. This caught the man’s attention.
“Little lady,” he said. “How about I paint a picture of you next?”
Before she could answer, he had begun painting again, this time staring at Fannie the whole time. He painted her face and all the features. He painted her hair. He painted the background. When he finished he had the whole picture filled with paints except for one conspicuously blank flower-shaped hole where she had the flower in her hair. His work was very good, but this puzzled her.
Just before he presented the picture to the crowd he asked Fannie is he could place the flower from her hair directly onto the painting. Fannie froze. Could he see the color?
“why do you want it?” She asked.
“Because I cannot paint it,” he responded. “This work would be a masterpiece if that flower were on it. Where did you find it anyway and what color is that?”
He could see it. But he also wanted the flower. Fannie needed to return it. This was a dilemma. Suddenly Fannie had an idea. The Queen never said she had to return the whole flower. Just that she had to have them back before the last petal fell. She plucked off all but one petal and gave them to the artist. He applied them to the painting and held up his work. Fannie’s dad offered to buy the painting. It was an amazing likeness of Fannie.
The artist refused. He said this was a work he needed to keep in his studio to inspire him to use his imagination more in his work.
Fannie had found her four people and completed this part of the mission. Now she just needed a plan to return the flowers and the courage to face the queen again.
