Author's Note/Disclaimer: By popular and personal interest during my last fan fiction, I decided to make another Little Shop of Horrors movie sequel. This story centers largely around my original character Julie Krelborn. I was inspired by a few things for this: my own life, some fan fictions by my friend filmgrl13, and the musical Rent to name a few. I have my beta readers to thank; Ossiana of the B.P.R.D. and my sister who calls herself The Ghost Peacock. You two are real life savers! I own none of the characters you are going to recognize from the musical, obviously, but we have to do this disclaimer, don't we? Ah well, enjoy!
*S. Snowflake
Through Julie's Eyes
Chapter One: Happy Birthday, Julie
The new day began with a breath of sunlight over the small town of Greenville. Everywhere life began anew as the blaze of dawn engulfed the neighborhood. The roofs of the identical tract homes glowed a faint ochre on each shingle, while each stiff, cold blade of grass seemed to spring up. Even the trees seemed to shiver, their yellow leaves of autumn falling down like rain as the wind whipped through their branches. Most of the town's residents were at home or walking their dogs since it was a Sunday morning and fewer people worked on that day. Sunshine Street was no different from the other streets in town as it was full of life just starting to bloom open again.
The Krelborn family's little house sat in the middle of the street. It had a picket fence and the floral mailbox out front, and stood still, as if still asleep, for the moment. Through the far left window of the house was a small bedroom that belonged to the only child of the house, a little girl. She slept soundly that morning with her thick brunette locks splayed about the covers and pillow and a ragged stuffed bunny tucked tightly under her left arm. On the carpet below her bed, a spotted brown spaniel dog snored as he too slept. When a strong sunray came through the window and hit the dog's eyes, he yawned and stood up and shook his floppy ears, then looked over at the sleeping girl and whimpered while standing on its hind legs and nudging her hand with his nose. One the dog knew that would not accomplish his mission, he licked the hand repeatedly.
"No, no. Don't wake me up, Rover…" the young girl mumbled and fell back asleep.
Rover sat down on his rump before lifting his head up in the air and emitting a defiant howl, "Aahoo!"
The girl sat up with a start and looked over at the dog. "-Kay, okay, I'm up."
The dog seemed to smile as she got out of bed and petted his head lightly. "Hey Rover, do ya' know what day it is?" she asked him.
Rover looked back at her and made a sound between a yelp and a grunt.
"Yep, it's my birthday today!" she replied. "Come on, let's see if Mama and Daddy are up yet."
She tiptoed out of her bedroom and down the hall to her parents' bedroom. With a slight door creak, she opened the door and entered the room, telling Rover in a whisper to hush so that they could sneak inside unnoticed. Silently, she walked over to the bed where her parents slept side by side and approached her sleeping mother and shook the covers vigorously.
"Mama, Mama, wake up. It's my birthday today, Mama!" the young girl exclaimed as she tried to wake her mother.
Her mother stirred in her sleep and pushed her hand out from under the blanket. "Sweetie, go back to sleep," she grumbled and buried her fair face into the pillow, frizzing up her platinum blonde hair from moving.
"But Mama," Julie whined and climbed on top of the bed. "I don't wanna' go back to sleep, it's my birthday."
Again, her mother stirred and rolled over onto her back before opening her green eyes and looking into her daughter's eyes. "Where'd you eva' learn to be so stubborn, Julie?" she asked in her characteristic accent. "If I'd eva' talked back to my mama when I was your age, I'd a' been hit with a paddle."
Julie looked at her mother and patted her rump thoughtfully. "But you wouldn't do that, would you Ma?"
Her mother smiled before reaching over and kissing her daughter's brow. "No, but sometimes I get tempted. Why don't you go and pour some cereal for ya' self while I get your father up, okay?"
Julie nodded in response and skipped out of the bedroom merrily. Once she left, her mother shook her father's shoulder beside her. "Honey? Seymour honey, wake up."
Seymour grunted before stretching and waking up. He reached a hand over to the nightstand and found his pair of glasses. "'Morning, Audrey," he said tiredly but with a smile as he put on the bulgy, black spectacles.
"Good morning, Seymour." she replied with nearly the same tone and a yawn. "Well, today's a big day for Julie. Our little baby's six years old."
"Gee…" Seymour thought aloud and noticed how his wife seemed somewhat upset with the subject of her getting older. "Hey, it's not like she's turnin' eighteen and movin' out, Audrey."
"I know. It's just that I won't be able to have those baby days back again. It makes think she doesn't need me anymore." Then she sighed. "I guess that's what growin' up is about."
"Yeah," Seymour said, hugging his wife and then sitting up. "So, what do you want me to do for this shindig? Decorations? Gettin' a cake?"
"I've got everything, honey. As long as you've got the present that is. Why don't you just take her out for a few hours while I set it all up?"
"Don't worry about the present, I've got that taken care of. But Audrey, don't you think you might want some help with it all? I mean, I don't want you to get tired."
"Seymour, I'm fine," Audrey argued. "I stay in this house all day long doin' harder work than this," she paused. "-But we both appreciate your concern."
That comment made her husband smile faintly and he hugged Audrey one more time before standing up out of bed and putting on his slippers. "All right, I'll take her out. Maybe to the shop sight again?"
"That's a wonda' ful idea," his wife squeaked before Seymour walked out the door. She followed him after adjusting her robe and walked directly behind him down the hall. They walked together into the kitchen and the dining room area where their young daughter sat at the table with a bowl of Corn Flakes cereal in front of her.
At last Julie looked up at her parents smiling and swallowed her cereal. "Hi Daddy. Hi Mama. Can I have some cake?"
"And why would you get something like that?" Audrey asked her daughter playfully.
"'Cause it's my birthday, Mama."
"Oh, that's right," Audrey said before she walked over to hug Julie tightly.
"Ma, lemme' go. I can't breath!" Julie squeaked.
"Oh, how can I help it? You're a big girl now," Audrey said in an overly maternal fashion. "Six years ago you were just my little baby. Gosh, how you've grown up."
"Mama…" her daughter whimpered until at last she was freed from the hug. "Can I have some cake now, pretty please?"
"Oh, there'll be cake… afta' you go with your dad to oversee the shop."
"But Ma, I already went to the shop twice 'dis week with Daddy."
Her father grinned and spoke at last. "But you haven't seen the new sign yet, Julie girl. It's all shiny and new and just waiting for business. Come on. We'd better get moving if we wanna get things done today." As his daughter frowned and washed out her bowl, Seymour winked at his wife then sat down at the table and began reading a gardening magazine that had been left there and babbled about his proud ambition. "I can see it all. The business, the potential, the customers…"
Audrey laughed nervously and walked toward her husband with a cup of coffee in each hand. "The way you talk these days about the shop, you sound a lot like Mista' Mushni- I mean, your dad."
Seymour tried to smile at her as she sat down across from him with her coffee while handing him his own, but her last statement bothered him. "It's what he would've wanted. He always wanted a successful flower shop, and he only got success once and then he died. I have to make it up to him."
"If he wanted a successful flowa' shop, then it was his mistake to build it in Skid Row, not yours, Seymour."
"I made a promise to Pop when we went back to the city. I told him I'd make a new shop for him, and I'm going to stick to my promise." He paused. "Oy, what trouble have I got myself into with all this?"
Audrey giggled. "And now you sound just like your dad. Well, do whateva' you think is right. Just be yourself."
Seymour nodded with a small smile on his face and glanced at his watch. "Holy cow, it's almost nine!" he gasped before clumsily jumping out the chair, grabbing some toast to eat out of the toaster, and running back into the master bedroom to change into his clothes.
Audrey hummed faintly in a half-laugh and her eyes flashed momentarily to her stomach before looking back up. "Ah, my Seymour."
* * *
A half hour passed by. Julie sat in the backseat of the blue 1957 bug after shouting, "Bye, Ma!" to her mother who was standing out on the front porch with her father. As usual, her parents were talking about something or another that she was not particularly interested in. Her mother always had a way of bringing up conversations and her father had a way of getting wrapped up in them, but luckily their chat ended quickly and they hugged before Seymour walked to the car and started it. With a quick rumble of the engine they were headed off down the street and into the interior of town.
Greenville was a fairly quiet town. It was not a very old or large city, as people had only really started moving in after the suburban migration from the big towns like New York City. Almost all the citizens lived in new tract houses except for some older houses on the outskirts and the apartments on the interior. The entire feel of town was charming in an almost old-fashioned way despite the new developments. It was appealing to Seymour and Audrey, both of whom had grown up in the worst corner of Manhattan and did not want to live with more cold concrete and monstrous buildings any longer. Small businesses were springing up all over the lower east side of town, and Seymour's new shop would soon join the group. It was humble and small on the corner lot where just enough space for the small shop to be built.
As the father and daughter exited the blue car, Seymour pulled out his worn blueprints. He unfolded the crinkled pages and scanned the lines with his eyes before looking down at his daughter at his side and then up at his nearly finished work. Everything about his tiny store was a refurbished replica of the shop that he had known all of his life. From the red brick walls surrounding the window to the beige-yellow walls and the checkered linoleum floor on the inside, the shop was the same. It was the most beautiful store in the world to Seymour.
"D'ya see it?" he asked Julie while staring up at the window.
"What, Daddy?" Julie asked.
Seymour smiled. "The name. Isn't it great?"
Julie's brow creased as she concentrated on the gold letters painted onto the glass and read it aloud slowly. "M-Mush-n-nick-k-" She stopped, puzzled.
"That's an 'and' sign. It just looks a little fancier that way," said her father.
"Oh, okay. Mush-nik and Sons." Julie finished sounding it out. "Mushnik and Son's?"
"Good job," Seymour complemented, patting the girl's back. "You can read pretty well for six years old. I didn't learn to read until I was at least seven."
"Why'd you name the shop after your grumpy ol' boss, Daddy?" his daughter asked, ignoring his complement.
"Well, that's um…" Seymour took a breath and looked down at the pavement at his feet before answering her, "You know when we visited the city a couple a' years back?" After his daughter nodded, he continued. "See, I got to a lot a' thinkin' about things after that. About how I could make up for the bad things I've done and what I could do to make you, your ma, and me happier. That's why we go to the park and do more things together, and why I quit my old job. And since my grumpy ol' boss was like my dad, I thought I'd make a new shop for him." He paused. "For both of us."
Julie understood the depth of her father's words and smiled. "I like it."
Seymour was satisfied with her answer, and he let his mind travel to his little flower store as he and Julie got back into the car and drove to the doughnut and coffee shop down the street so that Seymour could keep stalling Julie for her surprise. Everything's gonna' be okay now this time, he thought. I can feel it.
* * *
"They make some good doughnuts, huh?" Seymour asked his little girl as he drove the car up into the driveway of their house at noon.
"Uh-huh." Julie agreed. "Do ya' think Mama will let me have some cake now?"
"Maybe, we'll just have to wait and see." Seymour answered, concealing something. "Help me get these groceries outta' the car, will you Julie girl?"
Julie nodded and slumped a plastic bag over her shoulder as if it were a pack to take inside. While she was trudging across the lawn with the bag, she noticed that the lights were all off inside her house, as if no one was home. It did not strike her as odd then, but if she had been in a clearer state of mind about what particular day it was, she might have guessed why the lights were shut off. When she entered the house, she found the air near silent as her father followed her close behind.
"Ma? We're back, Ma," she called into the darkened house. "Hello?"
Suddenly the lights flickered back on and Julie heard kazoos sounding before her mother popped up from behind the sofa. Her father stood behind her, holding a green kazoo in one hand and a paper party hat in the other. Streamers were hanging up on the walls of a multitude of color, as if they were made of cake frosting. It all made sense then; the lights, the stalling with the same old shop, her mother not wanting to give her cake in the morning. They were throwing her a party. She had no time to speak as her parents both declared, "Happy birthday!" and began to sing together:
"Happy birthday to you," sang her father.
"Happy birthday to you," crooned her mother in a sweet voice.
Then the couple took a deep breath and sang together in musical harmony, "Happy birthday, dear Julie. Happy birthda-a-ay…"
Without warning came a trio of kazoo sounds, and Julie whipped her head in the direction of the kitchen to see three African American women wearing bright sunflower colored dresses standing there with their kazoos.
The trio smiled before they sang together with Seymour and Audrey, "Ooh-ooh, to yo-o-ou."
