Robin had driven home from summer school so she could place a bouquet of flowers on her mother’s grave. She had just spent the night with her best friend, Wendy, who lived with her father. One if the reasons they were best friends, was not having had a normal childhood. Both having long brown hair and brown eyes, and thoughtful personalities, seeing each other was a treat. In high school the two friends had done good deeds for people in the rest home. They never became bored with each other. People who knew them liked to say that they could have been sisters, causing the two friends to say they wished they were sisters.

Eating a banana and a small roll, Robin yelled upstsirs to tell Wendy goidbye. Robin dudn’t tell Wendy that she harbored a hidden motive for coming home And she didn’t tell Dan, Wendy’s dad. Interestingly, Dan had gone to college with her mom but would never say much about Robin’s mother. Mostly he smiled and changed the subject.

Leaving the familiar two stiry house, Robin checked the silk flowers she had bought fir her mom, flowers that teased her grief but soothed her need to connect with her mom.

Not knowing why her mom had never married ate on Robin. Just as impactive as her grief was her curiosity. Each yesr someone left a pink plastic flower at her Mom’s grave, the reason she had a hidden motive She was going to hide a few graves away to see who brought a pink plastic flower certain whoever did would be her father. This would make the fifth year she had seen the pink flower.

Ten O’clock came fast at the cemetery, finding Robin devastated. No one had cone to leave her mother a pink flower. In order to get back to school before dark, Robin had to leave. Pulling a kleenex out of her purse, Robin wiped tears of sorow from her damp cheeks.

She was almost back to town . when her phone rang Wendy was on the other end and wanted Ribin to swing past her house to return a book Wendy lleft in Ribin’s car. The book was a no

Robin was greeted by Dan, who took the book and iinsisted Robin have a cup if coffee

with him. First, he went to the kitchen to make two cups if coffee. Waiting, Robin saw that he had laid a bunch of fliwers on the table to take to the cenetsry. Suddenly, Robin felt chills. There alone on the table lay one orphan pink flower. like the flower someone had left her mother.

Robin’s mind began spinning -- one scene after another. How Dan’s eyes grew lively when she spoke about her mother, how Dan was always there for her, how much she looked like Wendy, even the sane dimples. Dan had the same dimples.

Dan returned with the coffee. With so little time to ground herself. Robin made a spilit second decision. She would visit briefly

then drive back to school. She knew now who her father was. Once she had time to absorb this truth, she would return and reveal what she finally knew. Feeling apprehension, joy,

Overwhelmed , lighter, and as though she was caught in a dream, she drank her coffee and floated out the door. She would return in the autumn to disclose her truth.