Rose Petals

      Leah picked a random seat in the empty waiting room and parked herself in it, making herself comfortable for the long wait she knew was coming. Well, she’d thought it was empty until she looked up to the row of seats lining the wall opposite hers. Its occupant was small with delicate, feminine features and silver hair captured in an immaculate bun that can only be achieved with decades of practice. Faded blue eyes flicked up in time to catch Leah in the middle of her inspection and instead of the irritated hostility her curious gaze usually found in its subjects, the lady just smiled warmly with a face that said she was one of those grandmas that tries to feed everyone she possibly could. Leah found the muscles in her mouth automatically responding with a smile of their own.

           “Hello, Dear. I guess you must be waiting, too,” the lady said, breaking the growing silence with a voice that matched the sweet friendliness conveyed by her wrinkled face. Anyone else might have looked at her and thought She must have been really beautiful once, but Leah couldn’t help but think that the lady was even more so because of them. There was an almost childlike regality to the little woman.

           “Yes, ma’am,” Leah said in a tone she hoped came across as warm while doing her best to avoid her resting ‘leave me alone’ expression that she constantly wore.

As soon as the second word left Leah’s lips, the lady’s crepe paper skin settled into a disapproving frown. “I appreciate the sentiment of respect, but I’d rather you keep the ‘ma’am’ nonsense to yourself. My name is Audrey Rose.” A mischievous grin adorned her face while the accompanying gleam lit her knowing eyes. “This body of mine may show the wear and tear of the many miles I’ve put on it but make no mistake – I can still get into more trouble than a twenty-something-year-old,” she said with a playful wink that had both of them giggling.

“Mine is Leah. It’s nice to have someone to wait with instead of just sitting in here all by myself.” Inwardly, she was disappointed because she’d planned to spend the hours lost within the otherworldly lands hidden between the pages of her favorite book that she’d brought with her in her bag. Narrowing her eyes slightly as a bit of irony hit her, Leah told Audrey what she was thinking. “My, that’s a coincidence. My sister is giving birth to her first child, a daughter they’re going to name Rose. May I ask what you are waiting for?”

           “I’m just keeping a promise to my grandson,” was all the lady said.

Sensing that the faint sadness dimming the spark in her fading eyes hinted at something that was more than likely a touchy subject, Leah didn’t push it. “To be honest, I’m kind of nervous – the last baby in our family was me, and I know that I’ll never be the kind of aunt this kid deserves.” She hadn’t meant to unload her worries on this perfect stranger, but there were more benefits to this current situation than drawbacks: Audrey Rose was bound to have scores of helpful advice about anything and everything, especially babies; she seemed like a warm, caring person who would sit and listen even if she couldn’t offer any advice; and unloading the weight of her fears with a stranger that she’d more than likely never see again meant that what was said here would stay here and not come back at some point in the future to bite her.

An understanding smile spread across Audrey Rose’s mouth as she patted the cushion of the seat beside her. “Come here, child. Let me tell you something I’ve learned.” Abandoning her own chair, Leah settled into one that was equally as uncomfortable as her first one, though she found herself fidgeting less beside the grandmotherly woman clasping her clammy hand between both of her withered, gentle ones. “With children, you’re always going to second-guess yourself – there’s no secret code I can give you that will let you always make the right decisions. You’re going to make mistakes. That’s life. But what you can do is make sure that child knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is loved. Be there to play with her imaginary friends and make her laugh, to keep her on the right track when she strays – even though you won’t exactly be her favorite person when you do, to chase away the monsters in the closet even when you know there aren’t any there, and get into all kinds of mischief together. Do these things, not because you want her to see you as a good aunt, but because you want to drown her in so much love that it overflows from the good days into the ones that are so horrible that when she runs from it all, she knows she can run to you and you’ll be there to catch her and guide her through it. As long as you remember this, whether the baby is a niece, nephew, or even one of your own someday, you’ll be fine, dear,” she finished while patting and rubbing Leah’s forearm in that comforting way only grandmothers are capable of doing just right.

Though her worries were ever-present in the back of her mind, Leah was more at ease than she had been in a long time. Her nervousness melted away as the pair chatted and laughed until a nurse came to tell Leah she could come up to the room. She said her goodbye, wished Audrey Rose good luck in her own endeavors, and eagerly followed right on the nurse’s heels.

…

“Jack, she’s absolutely beautiful,” Leah crooned as she watched her brother-in-law gently rocking his daughter in the protective cocoon of his arms.

“Just like her mother,” he whispered, the love for the tiny creature he held filling him so fully that it overflowed from his eyes as drops that landed on her little forehead before he kissed them away. “We named her after my Grams, by the way. That lady and I used to get into all kinds of trouble together,” he began with a nostalgic look on his face. “She got sick when I was eighteen and when she was diagnosed, I made her promise she would be there to see the birth of my first child because, at the time, I planned on never having any. Silly, I know, but she still promised. She died a year after that, though.” Shifting the babe to one arm without jostling her, he retrieved his phone from his back pocket, found the picture he wanted and handed it to Leah.

A gasp escaped her parted lips. The eyes staring up at her from the screen were a little less faded but no less mischievous, the knowing gleam just as bright. Goosebumps covered her like a sweater as chills swept through her with abandon. “Her name was Audrey Rose.”