A/N i didn't edit this story much so excuse that it may be awful. This will have multiple chapters. Enjoy!
Prologue
Lucy Krelborn was 13 when she gained a specific interest in botany.
It wasn't unprecedented— Daddy taught Gardening classes and had multiple, torn up botany books stacked on a white shelf in his room. Despite this, he generally avoided the topic of plants, for some reason. The garden was simple and the lawn was beautiful, but Lucy was bored. She wanted more. Mama let her start an herb garden out in the backyard, which she tended to protectively. It worked for a few months until Baxter started eating the basil plants. To fix this, Daddy built a chicken wire fence. It worked for a while, until Lucy started accidentally cutting her arms on the ragged top. Mama told Daddy to take the fence down.
She'd spend hours reading the encyclopedia that Mama kept in the bottom shelf of the bookcase in the family room. The plant section fascinated her, all the different kinds and species and ways to treat them. She read about everything from the benefits of potash to plant cells and how they worked.
When Momma and Daddy went for their usual walk with Baxter after dinner, Lucy took her chance. She pushed the door open to her parents' bedroom and crept over to the shelf, gathering two of the broken books in her arms. A voice stopped her from going unnoticed.
"What're ya doin', Luce?"
Her little brother, William, stood in the doorway. He shuffled his feet.
"Nothin', Will. Go back to our room."
"But I'm Bored."
"Hey bored, I'm Lucy. We'll play later, mkay?"
"Mkay." He sighed and turned on his heel.
Bookmarking a page on fly-traps were three photographs. They were old and faded, but she immediately identified her parents, younger, in the photo.
They stood side by side, in front of a newly painted window reading 'Mushnik & Son's Skid Row Florist'. They were smiling, shoulder to shoulder.
The next photo was the same thing, but with an old man standing between them. The final photo was of Daddy and the old man, pointing to the word "son" on the sign and smiling.
Peculiar.
Lucy flipped to another page, now bookmarked with a photo of Momma next to a large plant. She smiled wide and for a second, it looked like the plant was smiling too. On the white label of the photo stood out in blue ink were the words, "Audrey II & Audrey I" In Daddy's messy handwriting.
"Bizarre," Lucy mumbled, turning it over. Started by the sound of the front door clicking, she took the books in her arms and ran for her bedroom. She shoved them under her pillow on the top bunk of her and Will's bunkbed.
The brunette rode her baby blue bike down to the library, the pictures pulling a unusual weight in her pocket. She arrived and parked her bike, heading up to the front desk.
"Mr. Fredrick?" She chirped.
The librarian, a tall man around 40, adjusted his bifocals and smiled. "Lucy! What can I get for ya."
"I actually had a question. D'ya remember a decade or so ago a plant called the Audrey II?"
"...Matter of fact I do! Gee, that thing was huge. All over the news, radio, it's owner went crazy with the fame. Rumor has it when the shop blew up, he did it to kill himself and the plant."
"What? What shop?"
"Was it... Mushnik? I believe so. Downtown New York. Don't exist anymore though. Hey, Mary!"
"What, Fred?!" Called a woman from the back.
"Remember the fuss about Audrey II?"
"Oh, I do!" She revealed herself from the back room and leaned against the counter. "Down in that dingy Skid Row. What was the kid's name? Gee, I'd know it if I saw his face."
Lucy handed her the photo of her parents.
"Ah, that's it! He was..Simon..?... Seymour!" She snapped her fingers. "Seymour Krelborn. He almost got a gardening show. I may still have the TV guide if I check."
"Yes please," said Lucy, drumming her fingers anxiously.
Mary returned a moment later with the magazine and handed it to her. "It was really all those years ago, huh. Hey, he kinda looks like you."
Lucy's blood ran cold. That was her dad, alright. "D'ya got any other magazines? Newspapers?"
"Probably. My cousin lived with me at the time, she loved that plant. When it got blown up she got so sad she gave me all these and forgot all about it. I'll go check for ya, Sweetie."
Seymour Krelborn, age 24, discovers new breed of plant. Botanists are going insane with envy and confusion. Just how did he do it? We sit down with the genius in this issue.
-Where did it come from?
S: "I suppose I don't entirely know myself. Just looked like a pod at first, but then it started to grow."
-What does it eat?
S: "It's a secret formula but.. most people have it around."
-How did it get its name?
S: "I named Audrey II for a very close friend."
-Why did you choose that friend?
S: "You see . . . The plant is real special, and so is she."
-Thanks for talking to us, Mr Krelborn. Any words for America?
S: "Check out the growing Audrey II at Mushnik's Skid Row Florist, 1313 Skid Row."
Lucy felt her stomach turn over.
How come he never talked about this? And was Audrey II named for Mama? How long had they known each other? Who is the man in the photo?
She needed answers, but she couldn't go directly to them.
That afternoon, she opened the second botany book. This one had a photo of familiar girls in white gloves, posing around the plant. Momma and Daddy were also in the photo, standing on either side of it. The caption read 'Audrey II & Friends'. When Momma and Daddy took their walk that night, she dialed a number on the wall.
"You've called the sassiest sisters in all of New York City! Chiffon speakin'."
"Auntie Chiffon, it's Lucy Krelborn," she began, twirling the telephone cord around her finger. "When's the next time you'll visit?"
