time sequence narrative shiiit

what I ended up doing for my time sequence thing is different than the ideas i posted, but it has to do with the photos of my disposable camera that i talked about. i tried to get the walgreens people to give me a cd but they messed everything up a bunch so i had to take pics of my photos to post here (but will have them in person in class to show). the original photograph (i mean they're both originals, but the one i took first) was taken last summer one morning before summer school as i was leaving the house. it is a photo of an eaten rose with one solid flower standing high and proud next to a ladder and its adjacent shadow. the photograph is one of my favorite photographs i have ever taken. just earlier this week when i was sitting outside, i noticed that the ladder was positioned next to the rose again, only this time the rose has all its leaves, none eaten at all, and it was in the afternoon. i did my best to retake the photo, but ostensibly it is different from the one last summer in the morning. of course i like that they are different and like the positioning of them together.

the story behind this rose has to do with a girl who lived with us last summer. her name is jessica, sicka as we call her. she and her boyfriend adam were hopelessly in love, true soul mates in fact. the rose was purchased by adam for sicka after they got in their very first fight of their whole relationship. i remember this distinctly. the fight was about gay marriage, which adam was temporarily against, and sicka (who is bisexual) being mad at him for this and not wanting to be married in and under a catholic church while adam, who grew up in the religion, always assumed he would. the next morning i remember well. adam came over with this rose plant in his hand putting his finger against his lips saying "shh" as he snuck in her room and put it by her bed. it was a small rose plant, no blooms yet, in a plastic pot. it was planted by the side of our house a week later.

the poor plant struggled for a long time with the aphids who just tore apart its leaves and none of us thought it would pull through. but the rose persevered, proving us wrong as it shot up a little bloom against the wall and grew into the beautiful flower in the picture, janky leaves and all, charmingly juxtaposed with the ladder and its shadow. and their love continued to grow; sicka left to move in with adam and her sister, amber, took her place in our home.

to this day, every once in a while, a single bloom springs up against the house, always in the same exact spot, always alone. 

too soon is too soon, even for soul mates. adam and sicka's relationship ended about 2 months ago in bewildering heartbreak, unanswered curiosity, and tremendous sorrow. for both. 

sicka moved back to santa cruz, she graduated last year and was working hard and waiting for adam to graduate while she was still here. this rose, however, lives on at my house and is the symbol of a beautiful tragedy. i like to think that the growth of this plant's leaves is a sign of adam and sicka's personal growth apart from one another. 

2 months ago they said they will still marry each other in 5 years. i wonder if they will. and if not, their love survives in the living beauty of this rose bush.