Caesar House: Rose’s Garden
At the next intersection stood Rose’s Garden, the flower shop that Pearl had brought him to after this slight scenic detour. The sign that hung from the building was a simple wooden rectangle and it depicted two beautifully painted roses that crossed each other like daggers. Underneath these roses, in fancy handwriting stood the shop’s name, the stems wrapping around certain letters. The inside wasn’t all that inspiring, either – it was a generic small town flower shop, the interior was nice and Sausage kind of liked the lay-out.
Behind the counter stood a short plump middle-aged man in overalls with the widest grin Sausage had ever seen, and he greeted Pearl and almost flustered Sausage by asking her who the boyfriend was. She stayed calm and collected and when she mentioned the Caesar House, the man – whom Pearl called Fern – asked Sausage if Ms. Jameson, the housekeeper, was treating him right. The conversation quickly turned to business, and Fern called in an employee whom he believed Sausage would like.
A young man named Richard came through the door and Sausage almost did a double take. If he’d been just a little shorter, his hair more ginger, his nose a little more straight, Sausage might have mistaken him for fWhip from a distance. Richard saw the shock on Sausage’s face and immediately assumed he lived at the Caesar House, clarifying almost immediately that he’s a cousin of fWhip and Gem and would rather be called Rick. Only Fern called him Richard, anyway.
Sausage wondered what he was doing here, if he’d lived in the house previously. He wasn’t sure what exactly happened, how he ended up here and what was even going on if Gem and fWhip lived at the House and not with their adult cousin.
The two started to tell the story. Fern spoke more vigorously than Rick, who was only going along with this and spoke up about things he didn’t want to be elaborated, just letting Fern ramble about his side of things.
Carbon monoxide poisoning killed Rick’s entire family; he still had enough strength to carry his cousins out of the building, but everyone else died. He was separated from the twins and somehow ended up with Fern, who’d been fostering kids for a while, ever since his wife died in a tragic accident. He and Rick got along well and eventually, he adopted the teenager. Since Rick didn’t want to lose his last name, they just added ‘Berry’ to the end. Which meant his full name now was Richard Jude Mallory Berry.
Sausage decided to focus on the fact that it meant that there was a chance that Gem and fWhip’s last name was Mallory, which somehow didn’t sound right.
Fern was the one who made the call to move away from New York. He’d been working in the medical field and Rick wasn’t too happy either, so this could be the new start for both them while Fern pursued his dream of owning a flower shop and hopefully support Rick with his dreams, too. apparently, Gem and fWhip came in during their second week in town for a birthday present for Katherine. The reunion was amazing.
Sausage couldn’t help but think it was not coincidental. Rick, strangely enough, agreed with him. whatever happens, happens. Whatever happens was always meant to happen. Fate brought him to the same town where his siblings were living. Fate brought Sausage to the shop to buy a plant and the conversation turned strictly business.
About ten minutes later, Sausage walked out of the shop with Pearl and a newly acquired small, three-inch tall cactus. They walked all the way back to the Caesar House, after which Pearl returned home. Sausage told her they maybe could go out for another walk at another time.
