One day during lunch, Mark and I walked hand in hand around the outside of the greenhouse while we finished our sandwiches. I stopped, dead in my tracks, when I spotted a rogue dandelion popping up through the hard terrain.
“Mark,” I whispered, my voice full of fear as I pointed at the bright yellow weed.
“Shh,” he whispered back and turned us around as if we could run from spring itself. We quick-stepped back toward the doors of the greenhouse, only stopping when we were standing in the safety of a snow patch once again. “Addy,” he pleaded, still whispering while holding my face in his hands. “I know we only have days left together.” I tried to shake my head, not ready to accept that the next nine months would be without him. I couldn’t move against his hands though, Mark held me tightly, forcing me to listen to him.
“I don’t want to be without you,” I said as a tear ran silently down my cheek. Mark kissed my lips fully.
“I can’t be without you,” he said. “My family can’t afford for me to move out right now, but I’m going to find a way. I promise,” he said and kissed me again. “I will figure something out.”
“Okay,” I whispered as another tear streamed down my cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you more,” he said sincerely before we walked back into the greenhouse and went our separate ways.
As the work day came to a close, I couldn’t let go of the hounding feeling that the dandelion had given me. I dreaded spring. I dreaded not seeing Mark for months. I couldn’t afford a wedding on the mere pennies I had been saving over the last year. Mark’s family would starve without his measly income to help feed them. How many years would we have to be without each other like this? Mark kissed me deeply and reminded me that he would find a way for us to be together, before we went home with our families that night.
As I laid on the tiny couch that I spent most of my nights on, my parents emerged from their bedroom each carrying a wooden box. I took a break from praying for winter to last longer and sat up to give them room on the couch. They presented me with boxes full of different coins and faded notes.
“What is this?” I asked.
“We have been saving everything we could to help you and Mark start a life together,” my mom whispered, making my eyes fill with tears.
“I know it’s not much, but it will help,” my father said. I hugged them both and thanked them repeatedly. How could they have known that this is exactly what I needed right now? I couldn’t wait to tell Mark the next morning that we wouldn’t have to wait much longer at all. This would pay for a small wedding and a tiny apartment. We could use my pay for things we needed and Mark’s pay to help his family. I hugged the boxes to my chest before hiding them under the couch and going to sleep. This was the more that we both wanted.
As I walked to our meeting spot the next morning, Mark wasn’t waiting for me like normal. I waited until my fingers froze and my toes were numb; Mark didn’t come. After the feeling of dread sank deep into my belly, my mom came out of the greenhouse to tell me that no one in Mark’s family had come to work. It wasn’t possible, they were worse off than we were; they couldn’t afford to miss work. Throughout the day, rumors started to run throughout the greenhouse, none of them good. My thoughts were filled with worry and my stomach hurt non-stop. We didn’t have many winter days left together and soon we would have to return to our separate neighborhoods until the following winter.
When Mark’s mom arrived at the greenhouse the next morning without her other children, I could see in her eyes that something was wrong.
“Mark went out to sell extra food last night.”
“They hurt him really bad.”
“I’m so sorry.”
My head was spinning and my knees gave out as the words his mom was saying to me sunk in; I dropped to the cold ground. The beauty of winter forever ruined.
