I’d thought she was just some kid who innocently came to ask the witches for some flowers for her mother at first. But I was wrong. She’s trying to accept her mother’s death and support her mourning father. It’s not just about Dr. Hendy, either. It’s Anna, too. They both have big gaping holes in their hearts left behind by the mother and wife they lost too soon.
Even though she was sad and lonely like her father, she was trying to do something about it. For her family.
I was moved by Anna’s strength. I could feel it in my heart. I realized that Anna knew far more about death than me. I could barely process mine.
“There you are.”
I turned around when I heard a voice call out suddenly from behind us and saw Dr. Hendy waving as he approached.
“I’m glad I caught up to you.”
Dr. Hendy must’ve jogged here, because he spoke between harsh pants.
“Why did you come as well, Dr. Hendy?”
“I couldn’t get my mind off what you were going to do, so I closed the practice for an extra hour before the afternoon check-ups.”
“What?! Think of the patients, Doc!”
My words elicited a grin from Dr. Hendy, though he seemed at a loss for how to respond.
This just won’t do. What a bad father. I guess it’s my job to give him the push he needs.
It occurred to me that maybe I was the one who could make time start again for these two. These two had taught me what it meant to lose someone important…to lose a family member.
I figured this would be the only way to fill the hole in their hearts.
“So, Meg. Have you figured out which flowers were my wife’s favorite?”
“I think so, though there’s no way to really prove it.”
I placed my hand softly on the gravestone.
“Dr. Hendy. I think the reason your wife used to decorate the house with those flowers was to show Anna the same precious sights she saw when she traveled the world with you.”
“Precious sights, you say?”
“Yes, they were precious to her because she shared them with you on those trips.”
I looked at each of them with a gentle gaze.
“All the flowers Anna’s mother used for decorations were national flowers.”
Roses were for America.
Cornflowers for Germany.
Irises for France.
All the flowers Anna’s mother used to decorate their house with were the national flowers of the countries she and her husband had visited before Anna was born.
“I think that, by showing Anna the different flowers she loved from countries around the world, she thought she could show Anna the world, like she’d seen it.”
“Really, now…?”
“But there was one flower she could never decorate the house with. And I think that’s the exact flower she wanted to show Anna so badly.”
I crouched down to Anna’s level and looked her straight in the eyes.
“Anna. There’s a plant in the Far East called the Yoshino cherry tree.”
“Yoh-sheeno?”
“Yoshino cherry blossoms, better known as sakura flowers, bloom in the spring.”
In Dr. Hendy’s herb cabinet, I’d discovered the pink snow that fell at the beginning of spring, which was how I figured out what the snow really was. He had a small herb bottle of sakura petals. Normally, these were used for tea, but I had a different purpose in mind.
“Hear my call—”
I cupped my hands around a small handful of the petals and chanted a twelve-part spell.
“O abundant earth—vast and bountiful—I ask for a miracle—conjure a vibrant spring once found on your sacred ground.”
The surrounding light gathered around my hand, causing the immediate area around us to become as dark as night. The light enveloping my hand created a firefly-like glow that shone through the darkness. This was magic.
“Let illusions rise—a dream that takes a form—the hope this dream imparts us—a beacon in the storm—reveal the hues of the distant East—and upon your beauty—”
I continued my spell, and the petals resting in the palm of my hand turned vibrant and fresh, like they’d been when they were just picked. I didn’t have a sakura sapling or seed, but I didn’t need one. I could work with the grass and trees around me to construct fake sakura trees. It was all thanks to the bottle of sakura petals and herbs.
I turned the green of leaves into the vibrant pink color of the sakura petals, and in the blink of an eye, the leaves soon transformed into flowers. A bright light shone as everything around us turned a brilliant shade of pink.
This was a miracle, a scientifically impossible occurrence. It was created by filling the gaps of various phenomena with mystic power—the miracle of magic.
My power merged the nature around us to change it into something new.
“—let our eyes feast.”
This last verse triggered the final transformation.
“Whoa…”
Dr. Hendy and Anna looked up at the leaves in awe, and Carbuncle zoomed around in excitement.
Sakura trees sprang up all around us.
Pink snow. That’s exactly how it appeared as the flower petals simultaneously began fluttering to the ground.
“Wow…”
“This is replication magic. I used it to make sakura trees, but it is more of a momentary illusion than an actual transformation.”
I wiped my nose as I bragged, but honestly, I think I was more surprised than they were. My magic had affected a much larger radius than I’d initially intended. There were a hundred trees spreading in every direction.
The sight would likely last a few hours before the plants reverted to their original forms, but its beauty truly was miraculous.
Maybe this really is a miracle. I even found myself toying with such a thought.
Dr. Hendy watched the flower petals in awe before eventually snapping out of his stupor and muttering the words “I remember this.
“It was so long ago. Long before Anna was born, when we went to the East. Remember how I recalled there being pink snow, even though it was spring? It was Iris who said this. We watched the pink flower petals cover the earth, and she commented how it reminded her of snow. That comment must’ve sat with me, because I’d remembered it as actual snow all this time.”