Flowers

At 6am on May 8th, 2005 I was sipping coffee at a diner in Atlanta. I remember because it was Mother's Day. The woman behind the counter chain smoked as she poured. She said I reminded her of her daughter who she hadn't spoken to in years. The fluorescent light hung in her wrinkles, which I only noticed because I'd spent the night searching the faces of strangers across a poker table. It may have been the burnt coffee, or the heat of Atlanta, or the altered senses of a girl who'd been awake all night; but for a moment I felt as though we'd crossed paths in a desert.

I left...wandered to a grocery store...bought a bouquet of flowers...and dropped them off with a card boasting the sentiment, "Happy Mother's Day."

Maybe I grew up watching too much Donna Reed on Nick at Night...but I still go to bed wearing make-up, and I still think flowers are the answer.