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1
Send Me No Flowers
It started out as any old usual day for police officer Carla Romero. She wasreturning to the same old job she’d loved for 5 years, but Tampa wasn’t quitelike Boston. She thought that maybe that was a good thing: a smaller city meantless crime. And less crime meant less paperwork. At least, normally it did. It was9:01am and she had just arrived at the station, cheap Starbucks coffee andbagel in hand. She hurried to her desk and sat down - only to be greeted by herboss throwing a pile of papers onto her lap. ‘Case files, kiddo. They’re due on Wednesday. And I expect them to be pristine,’Carla sighed and muttered something under her breath before shifting the stackonto the table in front of her. She tossed her freshly made bagel into the trashcan beside her chair, took a big gulp of coffee and started working. Almosthalfway through her third case file, a delivery boy entered the office and beganasking for ‘Carla Romeo’. A woman with long blonde hair corrected the youngman and pointed him in the right direction.Clearing his throat, he asked, ‘Are you Carla Romero?’Carla averted her eyes from her papers to look at the person who stood beforeher. He was probably only about 18 or 19 years old. He wore a red and yellowcap to match his scruffy uniform. And his face was covered in acne. Afterexamining him, Carla confirmed her identity and he handed her a bouquet of flowers.At first, she smiled at the thought of having a secret admire, without taking anynotice of the type of flowers she had been handed. She recognised them, butcouldn’t put a name to the type. She decided to search the internet briefly to findout what the flowers were called and perhaps even what they meant. She founda website and looked until she found the flowers she received.‘The orchid’, she began aloud, slumping her petite frame back in her chair, ‘Thisexotic and amazing flower is meant to leave a long lasting impression, makesure to send an exotic orchid flower bouquet to someone who has… capturedyour eye…’Carla ran her fingers through her long brown hair, pushing it off of her fairlytanned face. She scanned the text briefly again, not entirely sure what to makeof it. Taking a deep breath, she called over her husband of 3 years, detective Jose Romero, who also happened to be her work partner. He was tall, muscularand had dark skin. The two had met on Carla’s first day on the job and had beenlove birds ever since.
 
2
Send Me No Flowers
‘Nice flowers, babe. Are they for me?’ Jose joked, with a wide, cheesy grin.Carla smiled and explained that she didn’t know quite what to do about thebouquet, ‘A website said to give them to someone who has captured your eye…’But before Jose had time to reply, a phone rang from the 911 line. He answeredit immediately in case it was a serious emergency.‘Hello, Tampa Police Department, how can I be of service to you? Oh, really? Ohmy… Yes, yes we’ll be there right away,’ The whole department was intrigued in this mystery phone call but detectiveRomero insisted only he and his wife went to check this one out. When they gotinto the car, curiosity got the better of Carla and she couldn’t help but ask aboutit. She thought it was strange for her husband to take her when it was anemergency call. Normally another detective would’ve gone. A more experienceddetective.‘You’ll see when we get there,’ came the quiet reply. The rest of their journey was in complete silence; the only sound came from thegentle hum of their 1970’s Toyota Celica. It was a decaying silver but in the wisewords of Jose’s grandfather: ‘If it stills runs and it’s good enough for me, it’s goodenough for a lousy cop’. Carla laughed to herself at the thought of her husband’sgrandfather. But she was very worried about Jose. He was normally such a loud,chatty man. Not in a bad way, though. He was almost always the centre of attention – the man that everybody knew and loved. But he wasn’t at all himself. The couple had travelled halfway across the whole of Tampa before they finallyarrived at the crime scene – a grubby abandoned shop that lead into an evenless appealing alleyway. The air was filled with a damp chill that sent shiversdown the police officers’ spines. The stench that filled their nostrils stung andmade their eyes water heavily.Carla rolled up her window and covered her nose with one hand. Retchingslightly, she opened the car door and stepped onto the side walk, wonderingwhat on earth could possibly produce such a disgusting scent. Jose walked at afast pace ahead of her down the dark alley, a look of distinguished anger tookover his usual jolly grin.‘What’s going on?’ Carla whispered through her clasped hands.
Corrina-Jayne CalvertCorrina-Jayne Calvert
 
3
Send Me No Flowers
But her husband did not reply. He quickened his step until he came to the doorof the shop. He banged furiously at it but received no answer. He tried to openthe door himself, but found it locked tight. Taking a few steps back, he chargedthe door with his shoulder, knocking it clean off his hinges. He dusted himself off and took a good look around the room. Carla followed with her gun outstretchedbefore dropping to her knees and vomiting into an empty plant pot. Jose turnedaround and helped his wife to her feet and onto a nearby chair. His face was stillstern. He turned and headed toward the cramped storage room that contained adusty yellow bucket and an old broom.Sighing, he headed towards the staffroom. He seemed to be looking forsomething in particular. The room was small, much like the rest of the shop andhad the wallpaper peeling from the walls. The floor was solid concrete and theonly means of leisure was a broken coffee machine. Jose walked slowly over tothe right hand corner of the room and looked through every cupboard, searchinghigh and low. Until, finally, he found what he was looking for.He returned slowly to the front of the shop to show his partner what he hadfound. Both of them stared at what Jose had in his hand in utter disbelief. Forwhat detective Romero had in his hand, was a flower. An orchid, to be precise.An orchid covered in blood. And attached to the stem with white string was asmall piece of bloody card that read:‘The madness will not end until you are mine once more.’Carla’s eyes widened as she suddenly twigged who must’ve sent her thebouquet of orchids and what exactly was going on. But she wondered how hecould’ve possibly found her. The last she knew, he was still in Boston. 1,350 oddmiles away. A million questions ran through her head. But very few answersseemed to follow.‘My ex husband,’ she began slowly, ‘He won a lot of money. And I left him. Hebecame too obsessive and just wasn’t the man I knew before. I heard that hehad lost it all in a casino one night. Lost all his stupid rich friends and the girls hehad won over with his cash and cars.’ Jose stared into his lover’s eyes. And when she met his gaze, she instantlystarted sobbing into her hands.‘I think there’s something you need to come and take a look at…’ he told her, hisexpression seemed far more scared than angry by now.4
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dolphingrl12

wonderful story your are really talented very creative :)

reply01 / 03 / 2010
CJ

Thanks :) I'm glad you enjoyed it!

01 / 04 / 2010
vedikabahl

That last line killed me. I hope you got an A for this, I'll kill your teacher otherwise.

reply12 / 17 / 2009
CJ

Aw, thank you :)

reply11 / 12 / 2009
Linglang

this is the reason why all you teenagers out there should keep going to school -loved it ,well done :)

reply11 / 09 / 2009
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