She could not lose her father too.
Camellia checked the clock on her bedside table. It was almost time to start the day. Her eyes itched and she longed to sleep, but there was no time for that now. She was on the opening shift at work, and with her father so unwell, it was more important than ever that she bring home a fair wage to support them both.
Yawning, trying to ignore her stiff bones, Camellia got out of bed and headed straight to her father’s room to check on him. He was still asleep, thankfully—the more rest he could get the better. She then went to the living room and picked up the landline, dialing a number from memory.
Rosalind answered on the fourth ring. “Hello?”
“Roz? It’s Camellia. I just wanted to call to make sure that you were going to make it on time today?”
Rosalind was the caretaker they’d recently hired to take care of Camellia’s father while she was at work or otherwise outside of the house. She wasn’t a nurse, but she had cared for her own brother through a long illness, and she didn’t charge much to help out.
It was a sensible choice. They’d known her already, which made things more comfortable. She was also around forty, only a few years younger than Camellia’s father, and it meant she made a great companion.
“I’ll be there at eight, sweetheart,” Rosalind replied. “I just need to finish getting Gary prepared for the day—you know teenagers!—and then I’ll be right there.”
After the phone call, Camellia hurried to get dressed. It would be half an hour between her leaving and Rosalind arriving, so Camellia took a moment to leave some water, medicine, and a cold breakfast in her father’s room in case he woke up before Rosalind arrived. With a final kiss to her sleeping dad’s forehead, Camellia sped off to catch the bus. It wouldn’t do to be late again.
2
Usually, Camellia loved her job in the Botanical Gardens. She loved tending to the plants and adored it when people asked her questions, especially when young children showed an interest. She liked the atmosphere, liked her coworkers, even liked the dirty work. But today, she couldn’t focus. Today, she was lost in distraction, remembering the story she’d read in that book.
“Are you all right, Cammie?”
She turned from the plant she’d been watering to see Gary watching her. Rosalind’s son was sixteen years old and fresh out of school; he’d elected not to stay the extra two years in favor of taking an apprenticeship with a local plumbing business. Until the apprenticeship started in a few weeks, Camellia had secured him a small job helping her out at the Gardens.
“I’m fine,” she told him, but even she was unconvinced by her tone. Trying again, she repeated, “I’m fine. Honestly. I just didn’t sleep much last night.”
“Worrying about your dad again, huh?” Gary asked. He looked troubled, which wasn’t surprising. Before he got sick, Camellia’s father had led a football club for kids Gary’s age on weekends, and Gary looked up to him a lot.
Camellia didn’t see the point in lying to him. “Yeah, I am.” She hesitated for a moment, then said, “But, you know, I think there might be something I can do.”
Gary perked up. “What? You mean a new doctor?”
She shook her head, gesturing at the plants around them. “Modern medicine is amazing, but people forget where it started. These living things around us…if we know how to tame them, to work with them, we can heal so much. And I think I’ve found a way that I might be able to help my father.”
Gary’s eyes widened like saucers. “Here? In the Gardens?”
She shook her head, tiredness seeping through her bones. She’d hoped that here, where so many transplanted wild plants could bloom, she might be able to find what she was looking for. “No. The cherries only grow up north, in the Highlands. I’d have to go get them.”
“So go.”
“It’s not that easy, is it? I can’t just leave Dad alone. I’m all he has.”
Gary seemed to think about it for a moment, then put his hand out to touch her shoulder. “You’re not all he has,” he said gently. “Me and Mum, we’ll look after him. I promise. I’ll cover for you here in the Gardens too if you like; I’ll think of something. Just…do what you have to do.”
Camellia stared at the young man, the wisdom from his lips more than she expected from him. He was right. There were no two ways about this, this was what shehadto do.
And so, Camellia nodded. “I’ll go. I’ll find a way to help him, Gar, I swear.”
Gary smiled faintly. “I know you will.”
* * *
Camellia packed a bag that night and, leaving a note for her father, slipped out of the door early the next morning. It was an hour’s journey by bus to reach Princes Street and arrive at Edinburgh Waverley train station in time for the first steam train to Inverness. From there, she’d catch a connecting train that would take her further north toward Loch Morag.
When the train pulled out of the station, Camellia had already fallen asleep. The journey before her would take more than ten hours, and she knew that she needed the rest. A few hours later, though, she opened her eyes to a completely different world.
Outside of the train window was a massive contrast to the cobblestone and concrete city she’d left behind. Though there was a squall of rain hammering against the window, the sky was still mysteriously blue, the sun shining, and yes, even the beginnings of a rainbow in the far distance.