Bloom

“I’ve been a wild rover for many a year” she declared, barely glancing up from the letter. “Or, at least, that’s how my mom described it.”

“Whatever. She’s probably begging you to come home again, right?” Jordan sneered and giggled to herself. “As if! We have plans. You can’t bail on me now, Peggs.”

Peggy finished reading her mom’s letter and folded it carefully, placing it in her suitcase while Jordan wasn’t looking. Jordan didn’t even read her letters anymore; she usually just burned them and threw the ashes out a train window. They certainly did have plans- they always did. That’s what stopped Peggy from going home, even though she was starting to long for the cozy, familiar warmth of her bed back in Washington. Her life was always exciting and new, but sometimes she really missed a more familiar sound.

“Why, Miss Gordon! You simply must get ready at once, or we shall be late for the ball!”

Jordan’s fake British accent wasn’t as good as she seemed to think it was, but she was right. Peggy did have to get ready- but certainly not for any ball. As far as Peggy could tell from the posters they often passed by on the busy streets in Munich, it was more of a rave.

As Peggy dug in her bag for her favorite dress, she thought back on her mom’s letter. Maybe she should think about going back home soon. Over four years ago, when she was 18, Peggy hopped in her car in the dead of night and drove until she ran out of gas. She hitchhiked to the airport and paid for a flight to Vienna with her savings from working as a lifeguard through high school. Since then, she had been wandering the continent (roving, as her mom would say) trying to soak in all that Europe had to offer. She worked where she could, but never stayed in one city more than a week. She mostly got the feeling she had to keep moving, but other times she felt like she should go live in her childhood bedroom in the attic of their cabin-like home in the woods.

“Wild rover indeed,” Jordan suddenly muttered under her breath, clearly more bothered by the phrase than Peggy. “If anyone would call you wild, it would only be because you were following after me.”

A few months ago, Peggy found herself in Naples and there, in a small hostel, she met Jordan. Since then, the two had traveled together. Jordan was certainly wild, to say the least. She had been forced into a marriage with a man who… well, Jordan described him in words Peggy had never dared to say aloud. He wasn’t very nice, to say the least. The night before the wedding, she ran off with his credit card and flew from New York to Rome. She had traveled across Europe leaving a trail of broken hearted boyfriends behind her in the same way Peggy had left friends, books, and memories behind. Neither was entirely sure of why they bothered to stick together, but living with Jordan certainly kept Peggy’s travels interesting. Without her, Peggy never would have agreed to this rave, nor to the occasional dine-and-dashing that they had become infamous for.

“You’re going like THAT?” Jordan stumbled over in her skin tight dress and platform shoes to look at Peggy’s dress up close.

“Well, why not?” Peggy said, all too used to Jordan’s criticism.

“It’s not an English tea party!”

Peggy ignored her and calmly braided back her long red hair and slipped into her favorite pair of flats, spinning a few times so her dress flounced out playfully.

“Don’t get mad when all the German boys flock to me then” Jordan said nonchalantly.

“I never do,” whispered Peggy.

As they walked down the street, Peggy suddenly heard a familiar tune and started humming along. As they came closer, she saw a cozy little pub called “Fields of Athenry” sporting an Irish flag along with the German. She longed to walk in and pass an evening listening to the jigs and eating corned beef, but Jordan grabbed her hand and pulled her away.

“I swear, wherever you go around the world, you find an Irish pub,” she growled.

Peggy sighed, but followed along. A few blocks later, another type of song caught her ear, but this one wasn’t as welcoming. The bass was so loud she felt the ground shake, or at least imagined it to. The second they ran past the bouncers, Jordan scanned the room, found an attractive boy on the floor, and ran to dance with him without a glance at Peggy.

“See you tomorrow,” Peggy tried to scream, but failed to beat out the noise around her.

She considered turning around to find that pub as she edged along the back wall trying to find a place to sit. People she passed by laughed at her dress, but Peggy infinitely preferred flowers and lace over black leather and cheap glow sticks. She squeezed her way to an empty space, but not five minutes had passed before a large man in a wife beater walked over to her. Well, he stumbled toward her before standing and wobbling next to her. He spoke in fast German and tried to grab her shoulder, but she pushed him away and tried to escape. Without warning, he splashed the rest of his drink right in her face, making her choke and sputter.

Embarrassed, miserable, and soaked with German beer, she pushed her way outside and ran to the end of the block before bursting into tears. She sat on the curb and pulled her knees to her chest, no longer caring what the world might think of her. She smelled so strongly of beer that people could probably assume she was just too drunk to hold herself together.

After a minute, she heard a timid voice directed toward her.

“F…F… Fräulein?”

She couldn’t stop herself from screaming “I DON’T SPEAK GERMAN” through her tears. She didn’t even bother to look up. In her mind, she was already mapping the quickest route to the airport to fly back to her mom’s loving arms.

“Oh, good! Neither do I.”

She glanced up and saw a man kneeling in front of her, looking anxious. She fell deep into the river of his misty blue eyes that shined far brighter than any star over Munich that night. All she could do was stare in wonder, but he didn’t seem to feel uncomfortable. Actually, he was staring at her just how she stared at him.

Finally, he spoke. “I… erm, well… I saw what happened to you. I followed you down here.”

He spoke with an accent Peggy identified as Scottish and with a voice that made her feel like melted butter.  

“I wanted to make sure you were okay. I’m Alan, by the way”

“P…Peggy,” she stammered out. “And yes, I’m fine, I’m actually great.”

She smiled up at him just as it started to rain. He offered her a hand, which she gladly took, and they ran to find shelter inside a small café. As they waited for the storm to pass, they sipped hot chocolate talked… about life, books, people, and everything. She told him her whole story of why she came to Europe, and in return, he told her why he left Edinburgh to live in Munich. The rain let up and the hot chocolate ran out, so he offered to walk her back to the hotel she had left just a few hours before with Jordan. That all felt so long ago now, like another chapter in her life that had already ended. She suddenly didn’t want to get on the train with Jordan tomorrow. In fact, she just might look for an apartment here and stay a while.

Next to the hotel stood a small woman selling flowers. Alan stopped and bought a small bouquet, then turned to look at Peggy.

“You know,” he said, “I can tell you have been wandering looking for a place to grow... but I think if you settle in one city for a while, you can find a way to bloom.”

He plucked off a small, white flower and tucked it behind her ear. The word bloom echoed in her head and engrained itself in her soul. He then leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. Peggy felt her heart soar and she clenched Alan’s hand in hers. Without another word, he turned and walked back down the street. Peggy longed to run along with him and vow to never again leave his side, but she just stood and stared.

“I think you two make a fine couple,” the woman suddenly said in harsh English. “How long have you been together?”

“Oh, not long at all,” Peggy said with a smile before turning to march up the stairs to her fourth floor room. She spent the night on her small laptop hooked to the hotel’s temperamental wifi finding a place to live and pondering how long she should wait before surprising Alan at the restaurant where he worked.

Jordan stumbled into the room at 7:26 the next morning and grabbed her bags to head to the train station.

“Good night?” Peggy asked.

“Not so good… but at least we’re heading to Berlin now, I’m sick of this town.” Jordan said bitterly.

“Well, you can go to Berlin… I’ve decided to stay here.”

After a full minute of silence, Jordan spoke. “Well, I guess we knew this day would come. It’s been great roving around with you.”

“I am so glad I met you Jordan! Drop me a line if you ever come back to Munich!”

She hugged her wild friend goodbye and watched her walk down the street and looked forward to her future, to finding Alan, and to finally having a place to bloom.

Song Credit

“Peggy Gordon” by The High Kings

“Bloom” by The Paper Kites

“The Wild Rover” by The High Kings (“I’ve been a wild rover for many a year”)

“Welcome to the Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance (“other times [she] felt like [she] should go”)

“Lost Without You” by StarKid (“[she] really miss[ed] a more familiar sound”)

“The Irish Pub” by The High Kings (“wherever you go around the world, you find an Irish pub”)

“Marie’s Wedding” by The High Kings (“brighter far [than] any star”)