The Anonymous Gift

On a quiet, gray day in January, I heard a knock at my door. I wasn’t expecting anyone. I opened the door to find an older gentleman holding a vase of flowers. “Can I help you?” I asked.

“Yes, miss, I have a delivery for you,” he said, his voice wavering slightly.

“Oh, well, that’s a surprise.” He handed the vase to me and turned to go. I looked for a card, but there was nothing, only flowers. “Hey,” I called out, “Who sent these?” The older gentleman was already at the curb by then, and didn’t acknowledge my question. He drove away in a gray Toyota, no markings on the car.

I brought the vase of flowers inside, and set them on a hall table in front of a mirror. I inspected them, but there was no indication of who the sender was. It wasn’t my birthday, or a holiday. I knew they weren’t from a man. I hadn’t been on a date in ages. I rearranged a couple of the blooms, and decided I liked them right where they were, in front of the mirror. I thought nothing more of them.

I came home from work the next night in a foul mood. I had made a careless mistake and my boss called me out. It was embarrassing, and I was angry at myself. As I placed my keys on the hall table by the vase, I glanced in the mirror. The first thing I noticed was something very strange. While the flowers in the vase were roses, carnations and hydrangeas, the flowers reflected in the mirror were completely different. The reflected flowers were lilies, daisies and fronds. I blinked my eyes a few times, and looked again. Not only were the flowers unchanged in the mirror’s reflections, but now I could also see that my reflection was strange, also. My skin looked pale and my eyes were tinged with red, and there was a gray mist all around me. Horrified, I looked all around, but saw no gray mist. I ran to the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror. My reflection in the bathroom mirror was perfectly normal. No pale skin, no strange red tinged eyes, no gray mist. I drew a shaky breath and ventured back to the hallway.

“No, I don’t think so,” I said to myself. I went to the garage and found a box. Moving purposefully, I grabbed the mirror and, without looking at it, I placed it in the box. Then I put the vase with flowers in the box, too. I took the box out to the driveway, and threw them in my trash can, closing the lid decisively. It was freezing outside, and I hurried back into my house.

What was that all about, I wondered. Am I losing it? Deciding I didn’t care, I started dinner and put on some music. Tomorrow I would be more careful at work. And I would never accept another anonymous delivery, not ever again.

#FFFC

Melissa’s Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge #304