Bloom

Climbing up the steep ladder I pause at the top to sneeze as dust floats through the musty air. Harry hands me a broom from the bottom of the ladder before he carefully climbs up after me with a dustpan.

“Ugh, it’s so dusty and dirty up here,” Harry complains before sneezing into his arm. “I can barely breathe.”

“Oh shush, we’re cleaning it up now so it’ll be perfectly breathable once we’re done with it.” I reply, beginning to wipe the dust from the what looks like a hundred boxes piled up on each wall.

“I can’t believe you pulled me into this mess.” He grumbles, picking up a dusty, bright red toy train from the open box beside him.

“Well it’s better than cleaning up every room in your house which you would be doing if I didn’t step in,” I explain, throwing him the wooden broom. “And it’s not my fault you got grounded.”

“Okay,” He begins, leaning the broom on the wall and pointing his finger up, “Technically it wasn’t my —”

“Excuses excuses,” I interrupt, taking a box from the top of the pile and setting it down beside me. “Now help me clean out this place.”

Harry rolls his eyes before taking the broom and sweeping the floors once more. Carefully taking the lighter boxes from the top I begin to move them over to one side of the attic and the heavier boxes to another. Before I can get too far into the organising I come across a small, neat box with a crinkled name tag attached to the handle on the right side. I drag the short, wooden stool over to the box and take a seat on it before sitting the box in my lap.

“May we’re supposed to be —” Harry begins before turning around to see me with the box. “What’s in it?”

I shrug my shoulders, “The tag here says Lily — so I’m going to assume it’s mums’ things.”

“Well — open it up.”

Gently taking the lid off the box, I looks down to see a long, pale white

ribbon twirled around a small, sparkling, silver and dark blue box. The many, many jewels on the box gleam in the light as I takes it out to examine. 

“It’s so fancy.” Harry says, gazing down at the glistening box.

“It’s beautiful.”

Opening the lid, several sapphire necklaces twist around each other with a matching set of earrings for each necklace. A few sparkly, diamond rings sit around them, their jewels glistening as Harry and I gaze down at them.

“Hey what’s in the other box?” Harry asks, pointing down to a smaller version of the cardboard box.

I lift the box up and take off the lid to find a pink, transparent bottle of perfume sitting in amongst a heap of rosy coloured tissue paper. The bottle is jagged like a crystal but just as beautiful with the words ‘Bloom’ printed in golden letters across the centre of the bottle. Lifting up the bottle I remove the round, pink lid and close my eyes as I put the bottle to my nose. I soak up the majestic smell of rose and jasmine, a tear falling from my eye as an image of my mother appears in front of me.

Opening my eyes I take a shaky, deep breath before carefully putting the lid back on the bottle and resting it in its box.

“Okay Harry, lets get back to —” I begin before taking a worried look around the attic. 

Gently placing my mothers box on the floor I stand up from the stool and stare at the very small amount of boxes and the very large amount of breathable air.

“Harry?” I ask, looking around the small room.

Slowly and carefully, I climb down from the ladder before glancing down the hallway to see my bedroom. I rush towards it but pause in the doorway as my jaw falls to the floor.

A fancy looking dollhouse sits in the back right corner of my room and a single bed on the opposite side near the window. Fairy stickers line the walls with stuffed animals sitting below them on a pale, rainbow rug.

I turn around and rush back down the hallway, scratching my head as I struggle to comprehend what I just witnessed. I soon come to a sudden halt at the end of the hallway, a familiar little girl standing at the mirror. Peering in I watch my five year old self fiddling with one of the sapphire necklaces. I wear my favourite purple fairy wings and a puffy, purple skirt. A plastic, sliver and pink tiara sits in my messy brown hair as it hangs down over my rainbow and white striped shirt.

I gasp as I see a beautiful woman walking out from the bathroom and towards my younger self. Her long, silky, sapphire blue dress just reaches the floor, thin straps holding the dress up on her slim body. She takes a sapphire necklace from the jewellery box and rests it on her chest after joining it together at the back. Her dark, curly brown hair is tied back into a princess braided bun with small, white flowers in the braid. Lily leans over and kisses me on the cheek before taking the pink bottle of perfume with the golden letters ‘Bloom’ and handing it over for me to smell.

“It smells lovely, doesn’t it May?” She says to me as I smell the perfume for the first time. “Would you spray some on me?”

My younger self and I smile as Lily bends down to let me spray the perfume on her.

Lily takes the matching sapphire earrings and carefully puts them in here ears before pulling a fluffy white boa from the hook on the wall and wrapping it around her back and over her arms.

“How do I look?” She asks, twirling around with the biggest and brightest smile on her face.

“Perfectly beautiful.” I whisper as my younger self shouts out the same two words.

Lily walks towards the bedroom door, pulling her dress slightly up to slip on a pair of black heels before carefully rushing over to the front door. I follow her as she greets my dad in his fancy black suit at the door. The two of them walk hand in hand down the path as I watch her look back at me, a big, bright smile spread across her face. A tear rolls down my cheek and splashes on the floor as they get in the car and drive off down the street. Closing my eyes I squeeze them tightly before slowly opening them again.

I blink several times before glancing around at the boxes surrounding me as Harry rests his hand on my shoulder,

“You alright?” He asks worriedly, staring into my teary eyes.

“Yes,” I reply, wiping the tears from my cheeks. “I’m good.”