Moving On (Rolling Thunder #7) - P.J. Fiala Page 0,37

she'd start counting the days until she got to see him again. The women in prison were brutal bitches, too. They'd mock her and make fun of her, but she had Rosie. Rosie kept telling her to ignore the noise and focus on getting out. One day she and Rosie went out to the garden and other inmates had trampled every flower in it. She knew who they were, and her first thought was to go back inside and beat the shit out of the bitches who did it. Rosie then told her to show her strength. Her real strength, not her physical strength.

At first, she was puzzled about that. "Rosie, aren't you pissed off about this?" she asked.

"Oh, most certainly I am. But, here's the thing, LuAnn. If you don't react, they get mad. They did this to get a reaction from you. Don't react. So, let's look at what we can do."

Rosie walked to the far side of their little garden and pointed.

"We had the sunflowers here and remember us saying if we had it to do over again, we'd put them over on that side, so they didn't shade the other flowers so much. Let's do that."

Rosie picked up a couple of the trampled sunflowers and pulled the seeds from the head of them. "Let's start by gathering what we can to salvage. The flowers are trampled, but the roots aren't. We can dig them up and move them all where we want them. We can make this garden better. We can do it again. And, if we have to, we can do it again and again."

LuAnn looked Rosie in the eye, the woman had spent years inside these walls, and she was to spend many more. She'd learned the lessons. She'd seen it all.

Rosie smiled at her. "Let's go, LuAnn. We've got work to do. Grab those buckets from the garden shed so we can pull these roots up and replant."

And, that's what they did. They got to work, and they worked hard all day. By replanting, removing the trampled stems and petals that were strewn about, Rosie taught her that day how to salvage what was left of their little garden paradise and how to make it better. She'd ended that very long day with these words of wisdom to LuAnn.

"In life, things happen. Sometimes in our own control, sometimes of others' doing. We choose how to deal with it. We choose how to keep going, either with your head up and purpose in front of you or with anger and hatred. Choose wisely."

She'd lashed out in the past. She'd chosen anger and hatred in the past and now she sat behind prison walls as a result of it. Rosie was right, head up and purpose in front of her.

Remembering these words, she put her thoughts toward her purpose. What was that purpose? Without giving it a lot of thought, her purpose now was to make a living doing what she loved. Get her own place one day. Be a better person and pay it forward. And, hopefully, to develop a strong meaningful relationship with Chase. So, with that in mind, she put her thoughts toward learning as much as she could about the greenhouse and the floral business and maybe one day, she'd have a place of her own. And, she'd follow Chase's lead on how to move forward with the Rolling Thunder folks. It might be that when he had things to do with them, she'd be home working in the dirt, which had gotten her through some of her darkest days.

Climbing in the truck, Joseph climbed in the driver's seat, and they rode for the longest time in silence. Just before pulling into the parking lot of Forget Me Nots, he softly said, "You did a great job tonight. I've been coming along to help out on the farmers market nights for a little over two years now and you've sold more in one night than anyone else ever has. Good job, LuAnn."

She looked over at the kindly face of the older man. The lines and creases in the corners of his eyes a testament to the hard life he'd lived. But, he had a sparkle in those brown eyes and his face over-all was a kind one.

"What were you in prison for, Joseph?"

He took a deep breath and thought for a long time. She let the silence linger, then he softly said, "I killed a man. He tried raping my daughter