"OUCH!"

The woman swore silently, popping her finger into her mouth in an attempt to stop the blood flowing from her veins. Of course, if she actually stopped to think about it, she would have realized that she was actually sucking blood from her finger and not really stopping anything at all... but she was in too much pain right now to really think about that at all.

"What's wrong?" came a voice from the front of the shop.

"Nothing," she yelled back, pulling her finger from her mouth. "Just these damn roses!"

"I told you to be careful with those!" the voice yelled back. "It's bad enough you insist on running around with pruning sheers!"

Flor Dominguez rolled her eyes and walked calmly over to the first aid kit that she always seemed to have near her whenever she was working in the back. She pulled out a Band-Aid, wrapping it around the tip of her finger, which was still trickling blood. Soon, the side of the bandage she could see had a deep stain from where the blood had already begun soaking into the gauze. She sighed and walked back over to her roses.

Flor had only been working at Madame Rossetti Florists in Thunder City for about two weeks now, and already this had been her ninth mishap - her sixth with roses. Flor had, for obvious reasons, developed a bit of a reputation as being accident-prone. And, to be fair, she really was. I mean, who else but her could manage to get several strands of hair eaten by a venus flytrap and not notice it?

Only Flor.

Still, Mrs. Rossetti was a kind employer who didn't necessarily mind an accident here or there as long as it wasn't serious. To date, none of them had been... and Flor desparately hoped to keep it that way.

Turning back to the sink, she once again began cutting the rose stems to make the corsages for the Carmine wedding when she heard the bell ring in the front of the store. She heard Mrs. Rossetti respond.

"Welcome to Madame Rossetti's! How may we h--elp!"

Flor cocked her head to the side. It was very rare that Mrs. Rossetti lost her composure. It was like she just... stopped, conversation-wise. Peeking her head around the back room door, Flor got a glimpse at who had just walked in the door.

A young woman stood there, no older than she by the looks of her. She had vibrant blonde hair that seemed to go on and on and extremely vivid green eyes. She wore a white button-down shirt and a pair of khakis that were obviously too big for her.

And she was completely green.

Flor, like Mrs. Rossetti, could not help but stare at this odd-looking creature. She seemed to gaze around for a long while, as though she were lost. She did not say a word.

Finally, Mrs. Rossetti got the idea to speak. "M-may I help you, dear?" she asked sympathetically, probably having noticed that the young woman had no shoes on her feet.

"Aud-rey," she said, putting her hand on her chest.

Mrs. Rossetti looked back, raising a curious eyebrow at Flor, who merely shrugged and pulled herself fully into the room.

"Well, my name is Maria, dear... and this is Flor," Rossetti said, indicating herself and Flor.

"Mah-ree-ah-dear," the mysterious woman said, pointing to Rossetti. Then, motioning toward Flor, she uttered: "Floor."

"No, no," Flor said, shaking her head. "It's Flor. You have to roll your tongue on the 'R'. Like this: Florrrrrr."

The woman furrowed her brow and opened and closed her mouth a few times in succession, as though afraid of what might come out of it. Then, she opened her mouth and said, "Florrrrrr." Then, with a look of complete excitement plastered upon her face, she said it again. And again. And again. Eventually, Flor had to cover her mouth just to get her to shut up.

"Okay, I -- I think you've got it now," she said, taking her hand off her mouth.

"Florrr--"

Instantly, Flor's hand found it's way back over the woman's mouth.

"Okay," Flor said, looking to Mrs. Rossetti. "What do we do now?"

"I-I can't say," Rossetti said, leaning forward on the floral counter. "What did she say her name was again?"

"Audrey," Flor answered. As soon as the woman heard her name, she patted herself on the chest and a muffled, unintelligible sound managed to make it's way through the closed fingers of Flor's hand.

"I don't think she understands much English, truth be told," Flor said.

"Well, see if she speaks Spanish!" Rossetti said. "That is why I hired you, after all!"

Flor sighed. "Well, we don't get many green-skinned people in the Spanish-speaking community, Mrs. Rossetti..."

"Well, there's no harm in trying!" the owner of the shop said.

Sighing again, Flor removed her hand from Audrey's mouth and turned the girl to face her. "Hola, Audrey. Me llamo Flor Dominguez. Habla usted ingles?"

However, at the mention of Flor's name, Audrey's eyes lit up. "Florrrrrrrrrr," she said again, clapping as she said it. "Florrrrrrrrr."

Shaking her head, Flor turned to Mrs. Rossetti. "Why don't you try speaking Italian to her?" she asked.

"Flor," Rossetti said disdainfully, "my husband is Italian. I'm a Lutheran."

Flor furrowed her brow, attempting to understand the correlation between Italians and Lutherans when something caught her eye. A lot of somethings actually.

All of Madame Rossetti's had seemed to come to life. Every flower in the shop seemed much more vibrant and enthusiastic. So much more... alive!.

Then, she noticed that every single blossom in the entire room had turned toward Audrey, as though she were the sun itself. Flor, her mouth suddenly agape, looked over at Audrey who, noticing what Flor had been looking at, smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

Mrs. Rossetti seemed only now to notice the flowers and gasped rather loudly. About ten seconds after Flor's realization, Mrs. Rossetti exclaimed to Audrey, "My dear... did you do all this?!"

As though answering her question, Audrey walked up to a bowl of roses, which all seemed to be beaming up at her. Leaning down close to the bowl, she pointed to a small bud hiding beneath some of the larger blossoms. Reaching in, she caressed it with her fingers, stroking it gently with her fingertips. Within moments, the bud had opened and fully blossomed as she held it in her fingers.

A stunned silence filled the room.

"My dear," Mrs. Rossetti said after a long moment, "do you have a job, by chance?"

To be continued...