Even as the beatings grew worse, Rei still didn't want me to think about it. He always hit me, yet, to my relief, never them, Pidge and Finch, even if I be as guiltless as they are. To cheer me up after these beatings, she started to take me outside to look at the flowers. According to her, Mam liked flowers, particularly lilies, thus her garden was always full of them and why she would recreate them in any art form. By all implications of Rei's stories about Mama and her beloved flowers, her name may as well have been "Lily". Of course, that wasn't her name, actually, her name was "Ragyo" but she isn't called that, not even by Rei.
As I thought about her lilies, I wondered if she remembered that "Ragyou" was her name, then again, as far as she knew, her name wasn't "Ragyou" and that it was, as he called her, "Bitch". I don't recall him ever saying her name, no, she was always "Bitch", just "Bitch". Other than what he called her, she was never called anything else, never being referred to by name. I could never figure out how to rationalize that and thought that everyone forgot her name. I knew her name, yet no one else seemed to, so, perhaps, I'd give her new name, one that we would remember. I had dubbed Mam "Lily" and "Lily" she would always be. As I thought about the new name I had given her, I remembered the dress she had burned, her favorite one.
It was the dress with the lilies.