Daffodils to a New Beginning
It was mid-day. 18 year-old Kess was returning from Dayton Avenue where his love interest lived. He had put himself out there and been turned down by Chelsea again. He was getting used to her subtle rejections, the sound of her hearty laughter as she playfully thumped his chest and no sooner, brushed his words aside until the next time when he summoned the courage to repeat himself.
It was obvious she took him for a joke or like she had just told him, did not see him in that way. He could not exactly blame her. While she was easily the hottest girl in school, he was the opposite- most definitely her D.U.F.F (Designated Ugly Fat Friend). Of course, he was neither female nor fat and knew Chelsea had never gone out of her way to make him feel that way but the knowledge did nothing to stop the feeling.
They had grown up as best buddies and next-door-neighbours, basically inseparable since kindergarten school until Chelsea’s parents had moved several blocks away. Now, they almost only saw in school except for the steadily dwindling number of times they met up after school hours.
Her rejection had hurt differently this time. Kess still felt like he had been punched in his guts. He would be an idiot and a blind bat not to have gotten the message. Today, he had gone a step further to show Chelsea he meant what he had been telling her for a while now. He had told her again and then kissed her to seal his words.
St. Valentine’s Day was only a few days away and he wanted to spend it with her as they usually did only not as mere friends this time. Now, he knew better than to think Chelsea had leaned into the kiss and returned it just before they had been shoved apart by the force from angry hands.
They had both been shocked but Chelsea had soon recovered when she saw who their interrupter was. It had taken Kess longer to do so because he could not understand what Henry was doing in Chelsea’s bedroom or how he had even gotten there. As far as he knew, Henry was not their friend and had no business being around Chelsea even though they all attended the same school. It had felt so unreal at the time, like his imagination had been running wild but he had been jolted by a punch from Henry that convinced him it was as real as real could get.
Henry was the male equivalent of Chelsea; Kess had once reluctantly admitted to Chelsea he thought Henry was too handsome and that that was the genesis of his arrogant nature. They all went way back but the problem was, they had never been cool with Henry and all things being equal, should not be now which was why he felt so betrayed by Chelsea.
Henry had bullied him for as long as he could remember, throwing jibes at him and on a few occasions, going as far as hitting him. He could now see why Henry had severally picked on him without being provoked. He must have had a thing for Chelsea and seen him, Kess, as a way to get her attention.
Kess would not go as far as to think Henry had been jealous of his close relationship with Chelsea, he was no match for Henry’s charm, build or physical features. The girls in school flocked around him. He was also the captain of the soccer team.
How had he not known that Chelsea and Henry were an item? They had to have had something going on for a long time for Henry to have known his way up her bedroom window and not given a care to doing so in broad day light. He could have been seen by a nosy neighbor despite being shielded from view by the giant tree that stood close to the window. Why had Chelsea kept it secret, not just from him but from the entire school as well? His chest hurt from thinking about it.
Following the punch, Henry had mocked him while Chelsea held him back by clinging to him. He had said things that had cut into Kess deeper than a sword possibly could. It was not the words that Henry said that had hurt; it was who he said the words originally belonged to, Chelsea. The fact that Chelsea had not denied being the original owner of those hurtful words had thorn his heart to shreds. She was not the friend he thought she was. How had he missed that too?
He felt bitter right now, so blinded by rage he could barely see where he was headed and had resorted to focusing on the movement of his shoes to see him home. His shoes knew this path very well because they had walked it severally since Chelsea’s family moved away. Today, he trusted them to lead him home.
Kess looked down as he walked just in time to see a daffodil he had been two steps away from crushing. He paused in his stride to study the flower from where he stood. It looked fresh and beautiful, made brighter by sunlight. He had read somewhere that a daffodil symbolizes rebirth and new beginnings. How much of a coincidence could this be, he wondered. The flower ought to have been trampled on by any of the number of persons who must have walked this path earlier but there it lay, looking fresh and seemingly beckoning him to pick it up.
On any other day, he might have done just that, picked it up and put it in a water jar on getting home but today was not a good day and he needed to take his anger out on something or someone. Since the flower was the best thing the universe could throw in his way at the moment, who was he to refuse the offer? In two steps, Kess was crushing the flower. He moved his shoes back and forth to create friction between them and the ground which would see to it that nothing was left of the daffodil when he decided he had had enough. He vented as he did this, mumbling unprintable words under his breath with his fists tightened by his sides.
A woman walking by with her dog directed furtive glances at him, she must have decided that all was not well with Kess because she quickened her steps and was soon lost behind the corner she turned. The trampling feat had not assuaged Kess’ anger, so deciding it was time to move on, he moved sideways off what was now left of the once beautiful daffodil and waited a few minutes to pay his respects to it. The daffodil had not deserved the treatment he had given it and Kess felt guilt slowly sneaking up on him.
As he made to leave, he turned to pay his last respects to the crushed daffodil but was taken aback by what he saw. Apparently, in the few seconds when his gaze had been averted, the daffodil had bloomed again, returning to its former glory. Shocked beyond words, Kess made to run but was rooted to the spot. He felt the goose bumps that indicated his fear as he shivered, confused tears running down his cheeks. He must be in some sort of hallucination, Kess thought. As he looked on in petrification, the daffodil rose slowly into the air until it was three feet above him after which it expanded in size to become five times bigger than him.
Kess resigned himself to a fate he did not understand and so, he stood simply watching, a wet patch visible on his pants. His fear was very much still evident but he had no choice than to remain rooted to the spot. His shock was heightened when he heard the daffodil speak. It not only had a mouth but also had eyes and ears as well. Kess chanced a look downwards and just as a sixth sense he did not know wherefrom had told him, the largest pair of shoes he had ever seen stared right back at him. The daffodil’s voice was as soft but firm as its petals still looked. Its words were demanding listening ears from Kess and almost spellbound, he heard them.
The daffodil was furious with him no doubt. It had offered Kess a chance at a new beginning but he had turned it down in the rudest way possible because he had been blinded by rage. Kess pleaded fervently but the daffodil would close its ears each time he started to speak. It said Kess had had his chance but had lost it and had to learn the hard way that sometimes like now, one chance was all one could get from life.
His punishment was simple; Kess would be crushed in the same way he had let his rage lead him into crushing a harmless flower. At that, the daffodil jumped high up into the sky and was coming down hard on a screaming and hysterical Kess...
Kensington Smith!
Kess awoke with a start drenched in sweat. His memory was hazy at first until his name was called out loud again. Remembering, he sat up so fast he almost toppled over and answered the caller in a voice just as loud. It was time to go.
He gathered his few belongings in the small room he had shared with different roommates in the past ten years. He was finally getting out on good behaviour after he had gotten parole. Luckily for him, the powers that had seen him put behind bars seemed to have waned in the past year else he doubted if he would have made it through the night not to mention being let out of the gates of the maximum prison right now.
Night.
Kess recalled the dream as he stepped out, the gates closing behind him. It was not the first time he had had the dream. In fact, he had had it severally in the days leading up to his release, some days more intense than others and each time he did, he awoke confused and sweaty. The dream was usually very detailed in reminding him of what had driven a wedge between him, his once-upon-a-time best friend, Chelsea and his arch enemy, Henry all those years ago before it would become so unreal with the giant daffodil bits. That wedge had grown incredibly bigger over the years since the afternoon in Chelsea’s bedroom and had played its part in landing a then 25 year old Kess in prison seven years later.
Kess was not the superstitious or spiritual sort that read meanings into abstract things but he could not shake the feeling that there were meanings, warnings even, embedded in his dreams. The past ten years had been long and tough. Much tougher in the beginning when he had been trying to adjust to a life he had been convinced would be eternally his if his incarcerators continued to have a say in the matter. A life he had been sentenced to by a twisted judgment delivered under the façade of a fair trial.
He knew exactly who had masterminded the planting of those drugs in his apartment and had come to the conclusion after series of forced sober reflections in his cell the many times he had had nothing else to do that there was no way Chelsea had not been involved in the plans that had seen him behind bars. Kess was convinced that Henry must have finally gotten his greedy hands on his business’ prototype, the lead among their many bones of contention at the time he had been sentenced to prison.
He could not still believe Chelsea had done it willingly hence had tasked his imagination so hard to unravel what Henry, his business rival, could have had on her to bend her to his will and had come up naught. Henry’s sinister smile as he hugged Chelsea closer while Kess was being led away from court to prison on the final day of the trial was very much still etched on his brain.
After the death of his parents almost eleven years ago, Chelsea had been the only one he had let close enough to have succeeded in somehow getting narcotics into his system prior to the night of his arrest such that his confidence in himself that he would emerge negative to a drug test had been reduced to mere lies in court and used against him. He wished now he had seen through her pretentious consolation and seeming empathy at the news of his parents’ death. In retrospect, he believed it had all been part of a grand ploy. Even now, the trial was still such a blur, it had happened so fast that he had been sentenced before he knew it.
He had grown increasingly bitter as the days had passed slowly hoping for a chance to avenge the wrong done him. It had shown up a few months ago when for the first time in the ten years since his incarceration, the possibility that he would get out had surfaced from God-knows-where. With the chance came the realization that should he get out, what he mostly wanted was to live life again as a free individual without time and space constraints.
He could however not help the bile that surged up his throat when his thoughts occasionally strayed to Chelsea and inadvertently, Henry. It had been a conscious struggle to focus on what really mattered which for him was getting out.
35 year old Kess stopped to breathe in the fresh and unbound air that surrounded him. This was freedom at last. No one had come to pick him up, not that he had been expecting anyone to. As far as he was concerned, he had no one and nothing left that mattered in this city.
He would not give credit to the dream but all he wanted now was a fresh start, a new beginning. He just did not care enough about getting revenge or satisfying his bitter rage right now. Someday perhaps, he would return to do that which was necessary to right the wrong done him but today was not it. Today, he wanted to be far away from this city that had once held happy memories for him. Those times seemed so far away in the past he could barely reach them.
As he stood at the intersection which would cement his choice, Kess went the way which would take him away from the city. He did not know what the future held for him in the direction he had chosen to go but he was determined to conquer his past. Cheers to a fresh start.
All images were obtained from pixabay.
Fiction written by: @royalrose
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The story plot is really cool. The characters are very interesting.
@introvert-dime
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They grew up together. Chelsea was beautiful with Kess having great feelings for her. Being rejected by Chelsea in the past he had gone a step further to show Chelsea he meant what he had been telling her for a while now. Until he found Henry with her in her bedroom. Kess was shocked even more because he and Chelsea were not good friends with Henry, he felt betrayed. Henry actually bulied him in his past. Unfortunately Kess was not match for Henry. He was devastated. He was so angry that he even crashed this beautiful flower he saw on his way out of Chelsea’s home. However this flower he crashed grew back and he was stunned, he couldn’t believe what he saw. The daffodil eventually grew five times his size with two eyes and mouth and started to speak. It told him about giving him new chance, but he unfortunately refused still keeping his anger after what happened with Chelsea. His chance had passed and he had to learn the hard way, the same way he crashed this flower. He eventually found himself in prison being set up by Chelsea and Henry for possession of drugs and after good behavior he was released. He left the city to start new fresh life.
I love reading stories like this. Kess felt betrayed, but for whatever reason he couldn’t understand that Chelsie wasn’t the one. He had learned his life lesson and hopefully he is happy now. Thank you https @royalrose
Great story!
Great summary. I couldn't have done it better myself. Thanks for reading.
Thank you! I have a huge respect for any writers or artists. I’m trying to show it this way, this is the least I could do. On top of it I really enjoy reading stories like yours.
Thanks again
Symbolizing the rebirth and new beginnings, the narcissus is practically synonymous with spring. Although its botanical name is narcissus, daffodils are sometimes called jonquils, and in England, because of their long association with Lent, they are known as "Lent Lily". Lore linking the daffodil to not just a sign of the end of winter, but a lucky emblem of future prosperity is found around the world. In Wales, it is said if you detect the first daffodil of the season, your next 12 months will be filled with wealth, and the Chinese legend says that if a daffodil lamp is forced to bloom during the New Year, it will bring good luck to your house.
The flower of March birth and the 10th wedding anniversary flower, a gift of narcotics is said to ensure happiness. But always remember to present the daffodils on a hill - the same legends that associate this cheerful flower with good fortune warn us that when given as a single bloom, a narcissus can predict misfortune.
Informative. Thank you
hey nice post! I really enjoy the first one: colorful and cheerful!
Hmmm.....interesting read....:)...
God wants us to know that life is a series of beginnings, not endings. Just as graduations are not terminations, but commencements. Creation is an ongoing process, and when we create a perfect world where love and compassion are shared by all, suffering will cease.
Well said. Thanks for sharing
writting skill is awsome. picture with the subjects are really meaningful. good story. Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you very much.
The design of the post is wonderful.
this title reminds me of a poem "Daffodils"
Which was the best poem I've read
Great story with a lot of lessons.
True prudence consists, since we are men, in not wanting to be wiser than our nature does. It is necessary to support the madnesses of the multitude with good grace, or to be dragged along with it by the torrent of errors.
True enough who are we but men. Why not uplift one another and stick to our roots
Well said. Apt.
thank you and my permission to comment.
Simply life that we can analogikan like this. We are given a great path to salvation. The highway is smooth and straight. Walk on this path alone, then we will definitely arrive at the destination.
But although large, the highway was very quiet. There is only a clue, "Do not go into the forest and eat fruit in it ..".
The clue was called a religion ..
But unfortunately, we are often tempted by the beauty of fruits in the dense forest by the wayside. That is what is called worldly pleasures.
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oke, thkns myfriend
Thanks for the post I hope we all succeed ..
Great summery sir,
Love adsactly
Great story I really enjoy. Thanks for sharing
I can only say great history because as such in my opinion the religion whatever your race or your creed no matter what you believe is not wrong as we as imperfect humans are the ones that we must follow in the way that we believe is most fruitful since in my opinion nobody is 100% good or 100% bad we are gray debating day by day the occasions motivated by emotions thank you very much for your post
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thank you too
mind blowing post.keep it up.i follow you
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good story.thanks for shearing
Wow awesome post. Great story I really enjoy. Thanks for sharing this type of beautiful stories. Thanks
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Reminds me of a song Another love by Tom Odell
Thanks for sharing
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Your photos are very interesting.
please vote my post @fikarfitim99
Lovely read. Hmmmmnnn, life is often like that. Great strength lies is picking the pieces and moving on. I am against revenge in its entirety, revenge means you're still harbouring hate in your heart, forgiveness is sweeter, you enjoyed peace, I mean abundant peace and you can face the future with focus without distraction.
Well said. Thanks for sharing
Very nice writing post. thanks for sharing this story. I appreciate your post...
This is a super article created by @adsactly. A very beautiful story. You can get full interest with the story
Please follow me for informative blogs
@sohailomi
Nice @adsactly
Very beautifull
Before I proceed reading... @adsactly.
There's a typo. The title should be "stories" not "stiries"
We have to be careful with the kind of friends and company we keep and know who trust and not,really nice post .
True.
fair daffodils is a awesome place where you felling your mind fresh and enjoying a lot of.thanks for sharing friend. keep it up.
Nice post
Wow.. what a beautiful plot. We need to have that type of story writers who put all basic ingredients in their story..Like above.I am highly inspired.
Thank you.
Wow great post. Awesome story really enjoy this story . Thanks for sharing on steem platform.
Sweethome 😃
Incredible photo .. a very nice and interesting writing :)
Thank you
Wow,this is beautiful,nice post i must must say,really enjoy reading your post.
Very interesting story, great job my friend, thanks for sharing to us, i like it and upvote and resteem your post to more than 1170 my follower, greeting friendship from me @abialfatih in aceh indonesia
This is nice
The part about the monster daffodil crushing him really got me 😂 and then realizing that it was a dream.
It gave the sad story done smiles.
Well done
😂 Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it
You're a great writer
Thank you dear
This is a good read. I really like the last image. Sometimes we have to choose and we have to choose what's best thought it's not always "what's right"
That's right.
@adsactly Have you been hurt by someone but you still can not forget that person?
If true then want to write on your blog,
Remember the people we deserve to remember and forget the people who have hurt you, it is people happy,
Or this is a silly suggestion but do not follow because this is just a joke
'If you can not bury the memory of the grave of the person who gave the memory'
Haha haha
J'ai rebloger votre post car il est tres interessant merci
A very interesting story!
i start reading and just can't stop myself you writing have a flow.Amazing story heart touching words thank you so much i ll read again after complete this comment.
Thank you 😊
excellent story, very good post
I will always follow you even though you will not follow, because I just want to be a successful person like your friends, my goal is only one friend to help my mother from lack of at this time, that's just friend
Nice post I like it, please vote back and folow , I'm beginner use steemit
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Waaaaaooooooo. Que historia tan bella. Bonito POST
This post is rich and an interesting read. I enjoyed it a lot.
Thanks
Based on a true story? You have some skill writing, keep it going!
It's pure fiction. Thank you.
Only now I realized it's your piece of work, I missed this part somehow! Good stuff and welcome to the group of people who I follow :)
thanks again
This is nice post,,,,,,,,,,, i am new user,,,,, plzzz follow and upvote me
Amazing update, especially the quality questionnaire thing. I really hope it will increase the average contribution quality.