Love, Life, and Lilacs

She had to finish her math homework before she could go to the cafe with her friend Jim. She wrinkled her freckled seventeen-year-old nose when she thought of it. The math wasn't that hard, it was just....boring. She hated to just sit in a class for an hour every day studying math with her private tutor, when she could be outside with the lilacs and the fresh air.

She kicked the hardwood floors with her clunky black shoes that all the women in this area of the world wore, making a rhythmic tapping sound. She sighed...it reminded of the fun times her mother and she had had before she got sick. They would laugh and dance around the house, making people smile at their silly antics. Her mom had been Irish and part of her education was the traditional Irish dance that her family always loved to celebrate St. Patty's Day. That was before she got sick.

The lilacs, Syringa Vulgaris, she thought unconsciously, were carefully planted last spring by her mother before she got sick...and she thought of her mother every time she played outside. The dark wood panels in the library were made from the best of the best hardwoods harvested to the north, and only a few people outside the embassy would ever have the privilege of seeing the library, but she was used to living in luxury. The beautiful dark hues of the wood glowed with a oily umber, probably from a wood preservative applied liberally by her father's personal chauffeur and gardener, Hugo. She thought absentmindedly twirling her hair around her finger, her favorite wood was bright and cheery, like the Abies Alba- the silver fir that grew on the hillside above the city and throughout the Balkan Peninsula. She liked the houses that used it instead...it was brighter and cheerier. She liked Hugo, he was tall, and had a shock of bright red hair cut like a marine hair cut, and was always fun and lighthearted.

Her life was very sheltered due to her father working at the embassy, so she wasn't allowed to go out to town very often. The children living at the embassy compound, the Americans, were sheltered from the harsh poverty that sometimes confronted travellers to the area from the United States. The gardens and lawns were carefully manicured and maintained, and the flowers were added as a touch of decoration to the sterile grounds. Without the flowers, the compound looked like it was a military installation...which was what it was originally.

"Ahh, Katherine....what am I going to do with you?" she felt her father's hand patting the top of her head, about the time she saw his reflection in the window overlooking the garden. That is when she smelled the pipe tobacco, that always greeted her when he had time to spend with her. He was smiling, like he always did. He had had to travel to a remote area of the country last week, and was just now getting back.

"I was just finishing up some math homework, and ....," her voice drifting, "thinking of mom..."

"I know...the lilacs are blooming again. Have you been hanging out with Hugo again? He seems to know the latin names for everything...you might just learn something from him....and get into college to study medicine like your mother wanted you to do."

Changing the subject, Katherine sensed he was pointing out that her studies were very important even though she wasn't focusing on them...."If I finish my math homework, can I still go to the cafe with Jim? You promised, remember?"

Her father remembered a conversation that they had had that morning on the phone, as he was driving back. "You are like your mother, " laughing as he asked," how much money do you need for this trip to the cafe?"

The dark brunette grinning wickedly, knew she had him over a barrel, said," Twenty dollars ought to do it," as she held out her empty palm.

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