Nata Kay - The Choice Era. Part 1

Ivy sighed dreamily.

Harry knew that his sister wasn’t practicing her profession and got a job in the shop, but Harry didn’t take it seriously. Let it be a side job. This was a good experience. It wouldn’t interfere with her Ivy’s and there is nothing bad in extra money, especially when you are a young girl.

«You’re kidding, right?» Harry asked after a moment of hesitation. «You are studying now, you are going to graduate. You can become an astrophysicist. A flower shop is just… not serious.»

Harry couldn’t believe this conversation was real. It didn’t seem right in his mind that someone could swap a great future in science for… flower arrangement. Harry had nothing against it, like most people, he was fond of flowers, regularly brought them to Mona and admired the beauty and diversity of nature. However, Harry would hardly be able to live with a thought that a close person would change his or her way so radically and weird.

«I don’t want to spend my whole life doing something that doesn’t really thrill me, Harry,» Ivy looked at her brother with sadness. She could have guessed beforehand that Harry would be no less than shocked. Ivy was sympathetic to this reaction. She continued. «I like studying, I like astrophysics, I like research, I kind of like to think I’m exploring something really meaningful. But I can’t look through a telescope, make calculations and write articles all my life.»

«Do you think you can pick flowers all your life?» Harry let himself exaggerate the question with a sarcastic tone. He rarely allowed such liberties in conversation with anyone besides his old friends, and he almost never treated Ivy with irony or sarcasm.

«Yes,» Ivy said firmly.

«Ugh…» Harry breathed out loudly and passed his hand over his forehead. It wasn’t how he pictured a meeting with his sister.

«The world seemed to start to go mad, but the news said nothing about it. First Bob with his odd conversations and books, now you with your flower shop…»

«What kind of books?» Ivy perked up.

«It doesn’t matter,» Harry dropped his hand. He regretted he had blabbed about Bob’s jokes, but now it wasn’t about Bob or the books, but about his sister’s future. She probably would have loved to change the subject, but Harry wasn’t going to do that.

They saw an empty bench nearby. Harry nodded his head, walked across and sat down. Ivy obediently followed him and sat down next to him. She was looking at her brother, but he wasn’t looking back at her.

He gazed out somewhere into the distance. Both kept silence for a while. Harry couldn’t decide what to say. He perfectly knew Ivy would do whatever she wanted. As a child she was very nice, but a little bit reckless. Ivy didn’t like stereotypes and people, who were afraid of everything in the world. Ivy was always somewhere outside the limits and it made her charming and suspicious at the same time.

Harry loved the way she could pursue her dream for years, but now her dream didn’t make any sense. Harry couldn’t allow that. He faced a real challenge to make Ivy think as the most people thought. After all, a majority knew for sure: science was better, more profitable and more stable than a flower shop.

«Okay, let’s agree on the following,» said Harry. He put his hand on his sister’s hand. «You’ll think it over again, weigh the pros and cons, take into account not only your desires, but also common sense. And one day I will pay a visit to this shop, talk to Mrs. Thompson and look around. Then I’ll think about it all by myself, weigh everything and we’ll meet again and discuss everything.»

Harry was at a disadvantage. He had just heard unexpected news and didn’t know how to react. It took a long time for Ivy to build het plans for the future. She definitely planned this conversation, so things between her and her brother weren’t equally balanced.

In addition, Harry had no right to command his sister and interfere into her decisions. She as everyone else could manage her life whatever she wanted. Within the law, of course, but such laws, to Harry’s great regret, didn’t prohibit anyone to work in flower shops.

Ivy smiled and nodded slightly.

«Now,» continued Harry. He took a deep breath and clapped his hands loudly on his knees. «Let’s pretend you didn’t drop a bomb on me with your desire to derail science for retail. We can talk about something else.»

The Nelsons managed to change the subject.

They talked about various minor things. Ivy had no difficulty in the conversation, but Harry almost forced himself not to mentally return to Ivy’s words about the change of activity. He reminded himself that one couldn’t pressure a person, one needed to let him go his own way. Soon Harry succeeded to convince himself, managed to relax and started joking.

Ivy loved his jokes. She always laughed at them so sincere that sometimes Harry deliberately used humor in his own speech just to hear his sister’s sonorous laugh. Nobody laughed like her.

The conversation didn’t last long. It was interrupted by a group of young people spending time near the Nelsons. Ivy was the first who noticed them. Harry spoke for a few more seconds before he understood his sister had stopped listening and was looking the other way. He followed her gaze and frowned at what he saw.

Young people seemed like typical graduate students. They were actively discussing something. And with every passing moment this discussion became more tense and unpleasant.

Harry wanted to get back to his conversation with Ivy, but she didn’t follow his attempts to distract herself from the students. Harry sighed. From an early age Ivy was sensitive to any violent display of emotions, so now Harry didn’t have the slightest chance to captivate her with the conversation again. He had to join the observations.

Harry and Ivy were unable to hear the whole conversation, but they heard some scrapes and the tone.

«I thought we were friends,» one young man said loudly.

«We are friends,» the second answered no less loudly and then the volume of both went down.

Two guys were getting closer and closer to each other. Harry noticed that one of them, the one that was heard first, squeezed his fists. There was rage on his face. It looked like he had forgotten to blink. The second young man, if he was angry, he was hiding it. He was completely focused on what was happening. He was probably afraid of getting punched in his face.

Three more acquaintances were standing nearby and watching the dialogue with thrill. Everyone kept silence. They didn’t almost move, standing in a row like marble statues, which had learned to change their expressions.

«You can’t just steal my girlfriend,» the first young man started talking again loudly.

A quarrel over a woman… Harry looked down ironically and stared at the pavement. Despite this was a surprise for him, the arguing was as old as the world. Nothing original. How many films had been shot about fighting for love? And still people couldn’t calm down… However, Harry thought, if one looked at this question from the other side, one could remember that women were beautiful and certainly worth fighting for. But why people did it so clumsy?

«I haven’t stolen her,» the second one stretched his arms. He tried to talk his friend down. «That was her decision. This is her choice.»

«Don’t you dare say that!» the first swiftly streamed right ahead, the second took a step back, but he groped a small cliff with his foot and stopped. The first moved forward and now the young people were standing close to each other. Both were clenching their fists. A little longer, and there would be a fight.

Harry wanted to take Ivy away. If a scuffle begins, the young girl should not witness it. Otherwise she would have nightmares later. Harry himself wasn’t eager to watch how these two beat each other right in a public place in an awkward manner.