The Sunflower Field and the Little Black Book

Her luck had not been the greatest as of late! Ramona had rcently lost her job, laid off in a middle of a pandemic! Her boyfriend of five years decided that he didn't want to be in relationship anymore and to make matters worst, he pulled a fast one on her and made off with most of her money, leaving her trying to figure out how she would make ends meet! It had been about a month since her misfortunes began and she was at her wits ends at this point! It was hard for her to find a job in her profession being that she was in the hospitality industry and most things dealing with it were completely shutdown! Waking up one morning, she decides that she is going to be positive that day, she get up makes some breakfast, listens to some of favorite music, smiling and laughing like she didn't have a care in the world. Being that she had not been outside in weeks she decided to go outside and get some fresh air for the day! Romona lived right outside of town, she had a wrap around porch, with a swing on it and a large back yard where she would normally plant an array of different flowers according to the season! It was the time of year where she would normally plant suflowers behind her home , where they would usually grow as high as her, she would stand next to them and smell them coming face to face with her radiant sunflowers! She stood in the middle of the bare garden in her backyard, wearing a long black and yellow long flowing sundress, she ponders what to do next! She walks back onto her porch and sits on her porch swing, swinging back and forth allowing the cool summer breeze to flow through her hair! Enjoying the sounds of nature it relaxes her and she decides to grab her keys and head into town, locking up behind her she heads to her truck, but being that it was such a beautiful day she decides to take a quick hike into town! Along her walk she is encountered by a strange old lady! She looks at Ramona and compliments her on her beauty, she tells her that although she has had misfortune, she can see a glow from her and that her luck would soon change! She tells her to go in town and get some sunflower seeds, plant them in her back yard make them grow and by time there was harvest of these sunflowers that everything would change! Romona laughed, smiled at the old lady, entertaining the conversation but not believing a word she said, she thanked her and is on her way! No matter how much she tried to push what the lady said about planting the sunflowers, thinking to herself, what the hell, she goes into her local seed store and buys all the sunflower seeds that she could buy! She takes in the cool breeze of the day as she walks back home and as she approaches her home, she looks up and sees the same little lady from before swinging on her porch swing, with her head down holding a little black book! Trying to figure out what this lady was doing sitting on her porch, she clears her throat, alarming the little lady, she looks up at Ramona and says to her, " I look forward to seeing your sunflower field every year and I am really looking forward to seeing your harvest this year, but instead of growing them how you usually grow them, take this black book and follow the instructions to the letter! Not only will you grow the most beautiful and taller than you have ever seen before, your harvest will be tied to them as well! Ramona hesitantly takes little black book from the lady's hands, and as the book transfers from the little old lady's hand to Ramona's , she feels a source of power radiating from the book as the sun shines directly onto the porch, specifically shining directly onto Ramona, she feels a sense of peace flow through her body! The little old lady hops down off of the swing looks at Ramona and says, "Now take this book and remember follow it to the letter, the sunflower has always been your source of peace and now it will lead you back to it! Be well my child!" Puzzled, Ramona begins to thumb through the little black book, carefully reading the instructions, word for word thinking that she has never planted them like this before, she turns around to ask the lady a question, but when she turns around, the lady was no where in sight! She thinks this is wierd, where could she have gone so quickly? She looks around for her one more time, shakes it off and heads to the backyard, pulls out the seeds and begins to plant them just like the book was instructing her to do...........the take 20 steps and begin to plant the first row of sunflowers, 5 seeds per row 4 feet apart from each other, that go four rows back! That will give you 20 sunflowers, when they are in full bloom, read the final page of this book and not a moment earlier! Thinking this is a bit odd, she does as the book instructed her, She takes her steps, then measures the feet apart to plant the sunflowers, once she plants the last seed, she looks over the instructions once again to make sure that she completed all the instructions! Seeing that she had done as she was instructed she gets to the last line that reads, do not read the last page until all of the sunflowers has bloomed! She goes to flip through the book seeing all blank pages and when she gets a few pages away from the last page, thunder rolls and lightning strikes in the distance, she quickly slams the book shut before reading the last page and runs inside , making it to the porch just before it begins to pour down rain! She rushes into the house, she rushes to her bedroom, tucks the little black book away so she would not be tempted to read the last page! Sweaty and dirty from gardening in the backyard, she strips off her sundress, jumping in the shower enjoying the water hitting her body, thinking about the happenings of the day, she steps out dries off and lays in her bed, exhausted and listening to the rain softly crashing up against the house she drifts off into a deep sleep not waking up until the next morning when the sun rises, shining brightly through her bedroom window! Waking up from a very deep sleep, Romona stretches, hops out of bed, slips on another sundress, goes outside enjoying her porch swing before heading out back to tend to her sunflower field, watering it just as she was instructed by the book, repeating this routine every morning, noticing that the sunflowers were moving along at a much more rapid pace than she had ever experienced before, she smiles and continues to water as instructed! She notices that her luck is changing and actually gets a job offer ten days in of doing this routine, and an offer in her field that actually allowed her to work from home, making a little more than she was making before! Adding working into the mix but still following her routine, and noticing her harvest rapidly progressing, her outlook on life continues to improve! On the 15th day of doing this she walks onto her porch, swinging back and forth on her Porch swing, she looks out to the road where she sees a man standing at the road in front of her house! He walks up towards her and says," I am sorry to startle you but I saw you as I was walking into town I had never seen you before, I just had to meet you! She blushes and talks to him for a few minutes, before excusing herself to tend to her sunflowers in the back! Intrigued, he asks if he could see them, which she allows! In awe of the site, he complements her on the sight before his eyes, and he then ask her out , which she hesistantly accepted but did so as she felt an instant nudge to say yes, and feels a strong connection to him!

It was now the twentieth day of her new routine, when she looks outside of her bedroom, she could not believe her eyes, she throws on her clothes and runs out of the front door, calms down and sits down on her swing as to keep her routine, she thinks to herself, and what she sees out of her window, could not be true, she had to be imagining things, she slowly gets down off of the swing and heads to her backyard! She makes it to the backyard looks and sees the tallest most beautiful bloomed sunflowers she had ever seen, she couldnt even reach the face of any of them! She thought to herself there is no way that they could be fully bloomed this quick, how?! She remembers what the book said, it was time for her to read the the last page in the little black book, she looks at the sunflowers one more time before running back into the house as quickly as she can! She grabs the book and quickly flips to the last page and begins to read the words on the page.....Go out the field and walk by each sunflower touching and counting each one off starting with one, and once you get to the last one as you touch it and say the number of the sunflower, look into it's face and you will know what to do next! She runs out back and begins to walk and count them off one by one while touching them..1...2....3....4....5......6....7....8...9...10...11...12...13...14.....15....16...17.....18.......19........She stops, nervous, wondering what was coming next...She takes the next step, touches the last sunflower and says 20, looks up and sees the face of the sunflower facing down to the ground while all the other ones were standing upright facing foward! Genuinely perplexed, she looks down to the ground and sees something shiny and black slightly sticking up out of the ground! She squats down to see what it is, and notices it isn't budging, curiousity gets the best of her and she digs it out, revealing a small black box, wiping the dirt off of it, she opens it and is blinded by a light once it is completely opened, like the sun had been trapped in a box, noticing a mirror on the inside of the box she notices that it was just the reflection of the sun shining into the mirror when the small box was opened! She smiles, then sees a folded up piece of paper that says.. open me up and read me! She does as instructed, and what she reads next changes her life....My child, I am so glad that I was once again able to lay my eyes on you, you have grown into such a beautiful young lady, I have placed something in this box that should help you through these hard times! I know you miss me as I miss you as well! Pull the yellow string and you with find it my dear, my beautiful sunflower! Confused because she had only been called sunflower by one woman in her life, her mother who had tragically passed away in a car accident during Ramona's senior year in high school. A tear drops from her eye, rolling down her cheek as she pulls the yellow string, a flap at the bottom opens up revealing two neatly stacked piles of money, two stacks of 500 dollar bills with 20 bills in each stack! " Twenty thousands dollars!"she softly whispers to herself, as she looks up at the twentieth sunflower and witnesses it as it's face lift back up straight, facing foward with the rest of her beautiflully shining blossomed sunflowers in her field! She smiles bigger than she had ever smiled before, closes the black box and rushes back into her house locking the door behind her. She rushes up to her bedroom, sits on her bed and looks back into the box and smiles bright at the contents inside, then begins to cry as her mind runs to memories of her and her mother before the tragedy occured! She puts the box down on the bed and lays down next to it, when her eyes are drawn to the window that looked out to the backyard, the sun shining through the room so bright it is blinding her as she looks towards it! She gets up and walks to the window, but does not know why! Once she gets there, she sees the old lady from before in the sunflower field looking at the sunflowers, the lady turns around looking up at Ramona smiles and wave, the sun still so bright she could hardly see all of her facial features! Ramona waves back then watches the little old lady walk away through the field, but the further she got behind the sunflowers she seems to dissapear into thin air as Ramona watches, a tear of joy runs down her face as a peace beyond measure falls over her as she smiles brighter than the sun as the sun begins to set behind the fields!