Chapter Five: Summer Flower Forecast
DURING the period in which Ernest was otherwise occupied, Yuuri received a letter. More accurately, the letter was actually addressed to her deceased grandparents, Leon and Hana.
“Walt Aldridge? …Of the Aldridge family?”
The Aldridges were merchants, just like the Watohs. They went back at least as far as Yuuri’s great-grandfather.
So they should have been aware of her grandparents’ passing. She couldn’t figure out why they would be sending a letter to them now.
At a loss, Yuuri broke the seal and read the letter.
My dearest Leon and Hana,
The cotton roses have begun to bloom in our garden once more. We hope you will bring that granddaughter of yours and pay us a visit.
Those two sentences brought back a flurry of memories of being at the Aldridges’ home.
The man who had sent the letter, Walt Aldridge, was an elderly gentleman who was a few years older than her grandparents. Yuuri could see him clearly in her mind, inviting her into the garden he mentioned and offering her sweets.
She had called him “Grampa Aldridge”.
“The cotton rose…Grandmother’s favorite… The flower she used to say looked just like me.”
Going by what she remembered, it was not Walt, but his son, the current head of the family, who had attended her grandparents’ funeral. Walt himself was too frail by then to attend. But if old age had robbed him of the ability to remember her grandparents were dead, should she really correct him?
Yuuri grew tired of turning the question over in her mind and decided she would ask Simon what he thought. Perhaps he or their father could reach out to the Aldridge family.
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SEVERAL days later, Yuuri and Simon paid the Aldridges a visit. Walt Aldridge was almost completely bedridden, but he had insisted on seeing the granddaughter of his dear old friends, and so his son Tracey had arranged for them to visit. His son said his mind had deteriorated so much that he had forgotten ever sending the letter.
“Yesterday he was completely aware that Master Leon and Miss Hana had passed. He still insisted on seeing you, Yuuri. …I suppose time comes for all of us. He even treats his own family with suspicion, so I ask you to forgive him for anything he says that is less than kind,” Tracey explained with a smile.
Depending on how Walt was feeling, some days he even forgot his own son’s face.
“This morning, when I told him you were coming by, he insisted on getting out of bed and waiting in the sunroom. I told him you wouldn’t be here for hours, but he wouldn’t listen.”
Tracey finally escorted them to the sunroom. The southern-facing wall was entirely glass, but it was covered with lace curtains. Thus, the light that filled the room was still gentle enough that even Yuuri’s eyes could handle it. A man in a wheelchair sat next to a table, a wide grin stretched across his face. He was thinner and more wrinkled than she remembered.
“Grampa Aldridge, it’s been so long…”
“Miss Hana! What good fortune that today is a cloudy day! I know how you hate bright light.”
“Grampa?”
It took every ounce of strength Walt had to push himself up from his wheelchair. He swayed as he tried to stand. Yuuri and Simon rushed over to him, hastening to support him.
Seeing Hana—or rather, Yuuri—at his side put Walt’s mind at ease and he slowly returned to his seat, gazing up at the young woman.
“Miss Hana, you’re as lovely as ever.”
Yuuri’s grandparents brought her over often as a child, so Walt should have still had memories of an aging Hana together with her granddaughter. However, the image of her grandmother in her younger days likely held a larger place in the man’s heart. Yuuri smiled awkwardly, not wanting to upset him.
“Father, this is not Miss Hana, but her granddaughter, Yuuri,” Tracey corrected his father, unable to let him continue offending the lady.
Walt blinked several times, tilted his head, and then looked at his son, then to Yuuri, and back again.
“…Ah yes, that’s right. Miss Hana and Leon are gone. I’m terribly sorry. I can’t seem to remember anything anymore. You are indeed Yuuri and…Saizoh, was it?”
“I’m Simon, Master Walt. Saizoh was our great-grandfather’s name.”
“Simon, is it? You resemble a young Leon in a way. I can see it in your eyebrows. Can’t you?”
Simon was always told he looked like his mother. Still, he had inherited some traits from his father’s side of the family.
Walt’s eyes were gentle as he talked about how Simon looked like Leon.
“Master Walt, were you close to our grandfather?”
Both Yuuri and Simon were certain that the one Walt was close to was their grandmother. After all, their grandfather had been a gardener, an unlikely friend for the son of a noble family like the Aldridges.
“Yes, of course. When I was nineteen, I worked and lived with the Watohs. However, my brother passed away and I was forced to return home, but still, we spent many afternoons puttering about the garden, just the three of us.”
On Walt’s command, Tracey opened the large glass windows in the sunroom. Just beyond them was a slope that led down into the garden. Yuuri was certain the lace curtains being drawn on a cloudy day was out of consideration for her. She wasn’t sure how much Walt knew of her condition, but it was clear he had some knowledge.
“Shall I assist you out, Master Walt?” Simon asked, already making his way behind the chair and slowly starting to push Walt.
“Do you need a parasol?” Walt asked her.
“No, I’m all right. The sun’s not nearly as bright today.”
Yuuri walked alongside Simon as he pushed the wheelchair. Walt guided them to the same garden where the cotton roses from his letter were in bloom. The flowers were pink or white on the outside, and deep scarlet in the center. Many of the myriad of blooms were larger than Yuuri’s palms.
The wheelchair moved along at an even pace, its wheels clattering against the stone walkway.
“Ahh, this takes me back. The scent of the soil and the grass. Oh, seeing you two makes me feel young again. I remember how Miss Hana and Leon would quarrel over every little thing… Since I was older, they never quarreled with me. I enjoyed watching them carry on.”
“Grandmother and Grandfather did? That’s hard to imagine. They always got on so well.”
This man clearly knew a side of their grandparents that Yuuri and Simon had never seen. In Yuuri’s memories, the married couple never fought. They had always been so close and loving, but it sounded like things were different when they were younger.
“The two of them fought because they were so close. As the adult, I could only watch over them. I cared deeply for both of them, even after they eloped…”
“Eloped? Our grandparents eloped?”
“This is the first I’ve heard of such a thing.”
As much of a shock as it was for Simon, it was an even bigger shock for Yuuri, who had lived with them for so long.
“They never told you? Well, perhaps ‘eloped’ was too strong a word. After all, Leon was ultimately granted the Watoh name.” Walt extended a hand and gently stroked a pink cotton rose. “I was an adult at the time, and more like a guardian than a potential rival for Miss Hana’s affections…”
“…A rival?”
“As I’ve gotten on in years, I wonder what life would have been like if I’d gone down a different path. Would I have a happy family with her? Those feelings have never waned. But I suppose it’s all right to dream, don’t you think? There’s so much I wish I could ask Miss Hana.”
“That you wanted to ask my grandmother?”
Walt nodded sadly. No matter how badly he wanted an answer nor how Yuuri might try to give it to him, only her grandmother could truly give him what he sought.
Still the elderly gentleman gazed wistfully at the pink cotton roses in wont of an answer.