Shadows passed over the crags and crannies of her face – a lightning strike, grief and pain, her loneliness reflected in the harsh, neon inhumanity teeming beneath her feet. Tears began to stream down her face, as she looked for answers – wondering who had died.
The language of flowers is an old tradition; though not as old as you’d think.
White lilies. Death.
The language of flowers – words left unspoken.
I took her in my arms, whispered into her ear.
She pulled away – shocked, unimpressed.
“Happy birthday, Grandma.”
No-one speaks the language of flowers anymore.
I just think lilies are beautiful.
Written for this weekend’s Friday Fictioneers’ photo prompt – they are lilies, right? Not only do I not understand floriography, I don’t know much about flowers. So, I just went with my first guess, lilies. I thought I’d do something other than SciFi, so tell me what you think! Comments and criticism always welcome!
chris white writes 
First time reading your work, but I would never have guessed that you write mostly science fiction. The transition seems seamless here.
–JW
ooh this felt like it could be developed into a longer piece. Liked the symbol of flowers and languages to express the generation gap
Your story’s quite unique and I like the language of the flowers idea. Just another place where the generation gap comes in to play inadvertently. The problem for me would be the same as for your narrator–I just like certainly flowers more than others and wouldn’t think of the language behind them.
janet
Welcome to the Friday Fictioneers. I am unsure if you have been here before, but you are certainly a good story teller.
Nice writing your story is intriguing.
Very nice writing this is my first time reading your flash but it left me wanting more…
I knew a lady, I can’t say where, who hated flowers. She was a mortician’s daughter and flowers only signified death to her.
A good read, Chris.
Shalom,
Rochelle
[…] The Language of Flowers by ChrisWhiteWrites ~ @chriswhitewrite ~ Less than 500 words ~ Slice of Life […]
Yes, that certainly was a flowery post.
How easy to create misunderstanding. Great one
Great story and well written. I was laughing at your tagline ‘just another author writing short stories instead of his novel’ and thinking not just me then! Although not having published anything more than one story in a local newspaper I suppose author for me is a bit of a stretch. I hope you get the novel done you are an enjoyable read. 🙂
I LOVE LILIES! 😀
…Somehow, learning that they are the flower of death does not surprise me.
Poor Grandma. She must think narrator is after her estate lol
Dear Chris,
Languages are dying by the hundreds now. Time rlols on and your story captures that perfectly.
Aloha,
Doug
loved the concept about language of flowers !