p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"span style="font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Moon Flower Bold';"Flowers in the Dirt/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;""Come on Holli, it'll be okay. I'll be with you every moment, I promise. You need this, you need to face this."span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanLina placed a gentle hand on her much taller girlfriend's forearm and gave her a cheerful smile. Holli huffed, clearly displeased but knew that there was no getting out of this. Instead she focused on the road, trying to clear her head of the thoughts that swirled in her style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanCould she actually do this? Could she face this dark cloud that had hung over her head her entire life?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Holli! Look out!" Her girlfriend's frantic cry caused her to snap back to reality, slamming on the breaks of her white Buick Cascada convertible as the light turned red. "Ugh! I can't do this Lina. I can't face her, I just… I can't do it." span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Holli Woods, that is the first and last time I ever want to hear you doubt yourself. You can do this, I know you can." Lina's face was tinted pink from her style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanHolli sighed and nodded, Lina was right, it was very unusual to be this unsure of herself. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel and pushed the accelerator once the light turned green. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"The rest of the drive was uneventful, Holli focused on traffic while Lina sang along to some crummy 80's pop station. God how Holli hated Duran Duran. Kevin loved Duran Duran and had bribed Ronnie the DJ to add at least one Duran Duran song on every play list for Tenderloins. If she ever heard "Hungry Like the Wolf" again, she'd scream. Thankfully they had arrived at their location, pulling into the parking field. Holli parked her car, pulling her key out of the ignition and stepping out from her style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanLina grabbed the bouquet they bought with them from the backseat while Holli just stared into the distance, gazing far into the field. "Holli, dear are you going to lock your car?" Lina asked, gently tapping Holli's shoulder. "Oh, yes. Yes sorry." Holli clicked the button on the remote, heard the double beep, and stuffed her keys in Lina's pocket. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"They walked along the path together silently, familiar names passing Holli by. The wind rustled the nearby trees making her feel uneasy. "Come on, it'll be okay love." Lina said as she handed the bouquet to style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanThey arrived at their destination to find someone had beaten them there. "Holli, someone has been here before us, do you know who?" Lina asked as she stared at the flowers that lay in the dirt. "Probably Leonard, he is the only one still alive that knew her at all." Holli said as she walked up and gently placed the bouquet of lilies and irises down on the grass before the grave that bore her mother's name./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Hi mom. I'm sorry I never came to visit before now. I..I have a lot of feelings towards you, and it took me a while to.. to sort through them. I'm here now though, and I understand you a little better. Angela and Monica told me a lot about you before they died, and Leonard tells me stuff too. You were never really that strong to begin with according to Angela, but after…strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"that /em/stronghappened she told me you became ever more broken. Monica told me you loved me, you really did, it was just strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"he/em/strong haunted you and it kept you from loving me like you wanted too. I know now you really did want to love me, you just couldn't because of everything that had happened. Everything that hang over you, kept you from me and from yourself. You fought a lot of demon's mom, but they dragged you down and won. I built myself up with help from those around me like Leonard and Angela. Something I wish you could have done too. I'm okay though, I'm enjoying life, and loving being alive. I found myself a pretty cute girlfriend who has helped me a lot too." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanHolli wiped the tears that had begun to stream down her faces along with her eyeliner. "You did win one battle though mom, and that was having me. You didn't let that bastard win that battle. I'm thankful for that, and for the few happy times we had together. I do love you mom. I'm sorry you had to deal with so much crap. My feelings for you are still complicated but I mostly feel pity towards you. It wasn't your fault that you were assaulted but I don't think you realized that. You blamed yourself till the end, and no one could save you from style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanI just wanted you to know I don't blame you for what you did, and that I do love you. I'll try to visit more often mom, and I hope you're proud of me." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"Lina hugged Holli from behind tightly, and Holli gripped Lina's hands. "Thanks for suggesting this Lina, I really did need this. I feel lighter, like a weights been lifted. The chips off my shoulder and I can move on with my life."span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanLina let go and stood next to her girlfriend, smiling. "I told you so. You needed to face the dark cloud before the rainbow could come."span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanHolli stifled a laugh, looking down at her girlfriend. "That line was so cheesy, I wanna go grab some fondue now. Let's go munchkin." Holli said grabbing Lina's hand and walking away together. Lina took the lead as they walked back up the path, and Holli took one last look at her mother's gravestone. Her eyes went wide and Holli stopped for a moment, thinking she saw her mother but when she looked again she found nothing but the flowers in the dirt. Still she could have sworn she could see her mother smiling at her proudly and that was enough for Holli. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;""Come on Holli, it'll be okay. I'll be with you every moment, I promise. You need this, you need to face this."span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanLina placed a gentle hand on her much taller girlfriend's forearm and gave her a cheerful smile. Holli huffed, clearly displeased but knew that there was no getting out of this. Instead she focused on the road, trying to clear her head of the thoughts that swirled in her style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanCould she actually do this? Could she face this dark cloud that had hung over her head her entire life?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Holli! Look out!" Her girlfriend's frantic cry caused her to snap back to reality, slamming on the breaks of her white Buick Cascada convertible as the light turned red. "Ugh! I can't do this Lina. I can't face her, I just… I can't do it." span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Holli Woods, that is the first and last time I ever want to hear you doubt yourself. You can do this, I know you can." Lina's face was tinted pink from her style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanHolli sighed and nodded, Lina was right, it was very unusual to be this unsure of herself. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel and pushed the accelerator once the light turned green. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"The rest of the drive was uneventful, Holli focused on traffic while Lina sang along to some crummy 80's pop station. God how Holli hated Duran Duran. Kevin loved Duran Duran and had bribed Ronnie the DJ to add at least one Duran Duran song on every play list for Tenderloins. If she ever heard "Hungry Like the Wolf" again, she'd scream. Thankfully they had arrived at their location, pulling into the parking field. Holli parked her car, pulling her key out of the ignition and stepping out from her style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanLina grabbed the bouquet they bought with them from the backseat while Holli just stared into the distance, gazing far into the field. "Holli, dear are you going to lock your car?" Lina asked, gently tapping Holli's shoulder. "Oh, yes. Yes sorry." Holli clicked the button on the remote, heard the double beep, and stuffed her keys in Lina's pocket. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"They walked along the path together silently, familiar names passing Holli by. The wind rustled the nearby trees making her feel uneasy. "Come on, it'll be okay love." Lina said as she handed the bouquet to style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanThey arrived at their destination to find someone had beaten them there. "Holli, someone has been here before us, do you know who?" Lina asked as she stared at the flowers that lay in the dirt. "Probably Leonard, he is the only one still alive that knew her at all." Holli said as she walked up and gently placed the bouquet of lilies and irises down on the grass before the grave that bore her mother's name./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Hi mom. I'm sorry I never came to visit before now. I..I have a lot of feelings towards you, and it took me a while to.. to sort through them. I'm here now though, and I understand you a little better. Angela and Monica told me a lot about you before they died, and Leonard tells me stuff too. You were never really that strong to begin with according to Angela, but after…strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"that /em/stronghappened she told me you became ever more broken. Monica told me you loved me, you really did, it was just strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"he/em/strong haunted you and it kept you from loving me like you wanted too. I know now you really did want to love me, you just couldn't because of everything that had happened. Everything that hang over you, kept you from me and from yourself. You fought a lot of demon's mom, but they dragged you down and won. I built myself up with help from those around me like Leonard and Angela. Something I wish you could have done too. I'm okay though, I'm enjoying life, and loving being alive. I found myself a pretty cute girlfriend who has helped me a lot too." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanHolli wiped the tears that had begun to stream down her faces along with her eyeliner. "You did win one battle though mom, and that was having me. You didn't let that bastard win that battle. I'm thankful for that, and for the few happy times we had together. I do love you mom. I'm sorry you had to deal with so much crap. My feelings for you are still complicated but I mostly feel pity towards you. It wasn't your fault that you were assaulted but I don't think you realized that. You blamed yourself till the end, and no one could save you from style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanI just wanted you to know I don't blame you for what you did, and that I do love you. I'll try to visit more often mom, and I hope you're proud of me." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"Lina hugged Holli from behind tightly, and Holli gripped Lina's hands. "Thanks for suggesting this Lina, I really did need this. I feel lighter, like a weights been lifted. The chips off my shoulder and I can move on with my life."span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanLina let go and stood next to her girlfriend, smiling. "I told you so. You needed to face the dark cloud before the rainbow could come."span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanHolli stifled a laugh, looking down at her girlfriend. "That line was so cheesy, I wanna go grab some fondue now. Let's go munchkin." Holli said grabbing Lina's hand and walking away together. Lina took the lead as they walked back up the path, and Holli took one last look at her mother's gravestone. Her eyes went wide and Holli stopped for a moment, thinking she saw her mother but when she looked again she found nothing but the flowers in the dirt. Still she could have sworn she could see her mother smiling at her proudly and that was enough for Holli. /span/p