Prologue
"Grandmama?" a little girl with dark blue eyes tugs at her grandmother's dress. The grandmother sits upon a rocking chair. Her four grandchildren crowds around her feet as the elderly lady, about seventy, picks up the youngest - the little girl who has spoken - and seats her upon her lap. "Yes, Emlyn?" she asks, smiling. Her apple cheeks and twinkling eyes indicates that she is still healthy.
"Grandmama?" Emlyn asks again. Emlyn gazes up to her grandmother's eyes. "Can you tell us a story, please?"
"Of course we will." The grandfather appears on the scene, and picks up a young boy named Michael, plonking his body on the floor and gathering Mike in his lap. "Mike, my boy, would you like to hear this story that your Grandmama will tell you?"
"Yes!" As Mike speaks, the grandfather picks up the other girl and balances her on his other leg. Laughing, her head throwing back, the grandmother lifts the remaining boy, the twin of the girl whom the grandfather has picked up.
"Angel? Alex? You want to listen?"
Angel clasps her hands around her hale and hearty grandfather, and nods. Alex burrows deeper into the grandmother's grasp.
"We have one," the grandmother begins, with a sidelong glance at the grandfather. The grandfather gets the unspoken message, and, still holding Angel and Mike, sits down on a wicker chair next to the grandmother. The grandfather drapes an arm around the grandmother, and they share a secret smile.
"First of all," the grandfather begins. "It is called Petals Falling. It's a very long story."
"We still want to hear it, Grandfa!" the four children shout.
The grandmother laughs, and it is a tinkling, beautiful sound that matches her dainty body and personality wonderfully.
"That's good." She continues the grandfather's words, then pauses. "How did it start?"
The grandfather laughs, as well. "You can't have forgotten!"
The grandmother nods fervently, and begins the story with a twinkle in her eye.
"She was quiet, this nine-year-old ... "
