POPPIES BLOOM in SPRING a Written Creative Work Submitted To
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POPPIES BLOOM IN SPRING A written creative work submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of The Requirements for The Degree Master of Arts * A 4 5 ^ In English: Creative Writing by Tammy Jeanette Allen San Francisco, California January 2017 Copyright by Tammy Jeanette Allen 2016 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read Poppies Bloom in Spring by Tammy Jeanette Allen, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a written creative work submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree: Master of Arts in English: Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. Andrew Joron Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Michelle Carter Professor of Creative Writing POPPIES BLOOM IN SPRING Tammy Jeanette Allen San Francisco, California 2016 In the year 1920, eleven-year-old Poppy Ruskins gets her father back from the Great War, but witnesses the death of her older brother Ted who falls through the ice in a nearby pond. As Poppy and her family grieve from this sudden loss, Poppy encounters mythical creatures such as the Easter Rabbit and the Sandman that have found a sudden interest in her and her family. It is with the help of these creatures, her family, and her friends that allow Poppy to come to terms with her grief and lack of closure, as well as explore her own mortality. I certify that the Annotation is a correct representation of the content of this written creative work. Date ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book is dedicated to my Great-Grandma Chappell, Grandpa Allen, and Granddad Tomlin. Many thanks to my mom for being a wealth of information and support, and to Prof. Joron for seeing its heart. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1.................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 3............................................................................................................. ...26 Chapter 4................................................................................................................... 37 Chapter 5................................................................................................................... 43 Chapter 6................................................................................................................... 50 Chapter 7................................................................................................................... 58 Chapter 8................................................................................................................... 71 Chapter 9.................................................................................................................79 Chapter 10................................................................................................................. 88 Chapter 11................................................................................................................. 95 Chapter 12..................................................................................................................112 Chapter 13..................................................................................................................113 Chapter 14......... .................................... 118 vi 1 January, 1919 Chapter 1 The letter finally came today: Pop was coming home! Mother’s hands shook as she read his faded hand-writing, her voice was thick with tears, but it was true! Mother took a breath as Poppy and her teenaged older brother Ted clung to each other “He won’t be here right away,” Mother said, wiping her eyes with her handkerchief. “He has some more traveling to do in Germany, but by the end of next month he should be home!” Poppy shot up and whooped in the air as her mother laughed in relief. Ted, though he was sixteen and fuzzy bits of hair was starting to grow on his chin, buckled down and cried on the floor. Mother swooped down on him, stroking his stringy blonde hair as he sobbed on her dirty apron. Poppy stood dumbstruck. Mother held an arm out to her and said, “We need you too, Poppy.” Somehow Poppy moved her numb limbs to sit next to Mother and press against her cotton dress. She could taste the fear that both Mother and Ted had been hiding from her for all these months, and tears sprung up in Poppy’s eyes too. She had been sad and scared too, of course, but now time felt like it stopped and was forcing her to feel so sad and scared that she could die. Eventually the tears stopped flowing and they could all breathe easier again in their small bungalow that Pop and his brothers built. Time shifted forward again. A lump of bread dough sat half-kneaded on the countertop, the heat of wood stove was cooling off, 2 the chicken coop still needed to be cleaned, and Pop was starting his journey home. “Sorry,” Ted mumbled as he wiped his red face and glittering hazel eyes. Mother kissed the top of his head and he glowed a brighter red. Mother knelt down and pecked Poppy on the head, which made her giggle. “All right, let’s get going with chores, then. Did you take care of Ghost, Ted?” Mother asked. “No, ma’am, I’ll go take care of it now,” he answered and quickly left. Poppy turned to follow him when Mother called her back. The girl tugged at the ends of her long sleeves. “I only want to watch him do it, I won’t get in the way,” Ghost was their three-year-old albino mule that Pop brought home when he was a colt without saying where he found him. Even though he had a much sweeter temper than their milk cow Clara, Ghost was not fond of having his hooves picked and he made a show of it whenever Ted or Pop came out with the picking utensils. “I know,” Mother said softly and touched one of Poppy’s bright red braids, “but I think we should let him have his privacy now. You can help me finish the bread.” “Okay,” Poppy sighed, but perked up at a sudden thought. “May I put the bread in the oven, ma’am?” Mother’s dark blonde eyebrows furrowed over her brown eyes. “How old are you again?” “Eleven.” 3 “I believe an eleven-year-old is old enough to put bread in the oven.” Poppy hugged her mother around the middle, holding in her squeals of excitement. *** A lot had changed since Pop first left to fight in the Great War last March. It was hard to believe that almost a year had past since he had left, and it was almost harder to believe that he was coming home. Several of the Japanese immigrants who worked on the farms had left to fight in the war, and only some had returned with scars on their faces, arms, and legs. Poppy’s best friend, Ai, had a cousin only a couple of years older than Ted who had come back home with only half of an arm left. He wasn’t allowed to talk about what war was in front of Poppy or Ai. Still, Poppy heard scraps of war stories offered freely one day when she and Ted went to Haverhill Sundry to buy candy and pencils. Men kicked out of Comer Saloon huddled up by the barrels of pickles and beans. They swapped stories about crouching along the trenches that smelled like rotted corpses, and would compare the bums left by mustard gas. Poppy couldn’t wrap her mind around how mustard could be so harmful that it could kill someone. As they walked back home, Poppy blurted, “How can mustard can hurt someone that badly?” Ted shrugged. “All I know is that it’s a gas, and if you breathe it in, it bums.” Poppy covered her mouth and nose with her hands, imagining her lungs burning 4 and trying to breathe air but breathing poison instead. Ted tugged on her braid to snap her out of her walking nightmare. “Hey, don’t worry about mustard gas. The war’s over now, no one uses that stuff anymore.” “Okay,” Poppy said, her hands still covering her faee. Two weeks passed sluggishly by since Pop’s last letter came in mail. It was a Sunday, church was over, and it was a clear January day. Poppy sighed a deep, bored sigh, her warm breath fogging up the window. She felt her mother’s skirts crush against her own. “I want Pop to be home now,” Poppy whined. “I do too, but we must be patient.” “Can I go ice skating, please?” Mother frowned as she stared outside the window, her eyes falling on Ted as he locked up Ghost and Clara in their tiny stable. “You can go as long as Ted goes with you,” Mother said. Fifteen minutes later, Poppy shivered like the first sprout of spring grass as she and Ted trudged through the snow with ice skates over their shoulders to the small pond about a twenty-minute walk from the house. Ted held her hand in the pocket of his sheepskin coat as they walked. Suddenly a shiver ran up her spine and her body shook as if was tickled by Jack Frost himself. “If it’s too cold we can head back,” Ted said and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. 5 “N-no-n-no,” she said through chattering teeth. As quickly as the shiver came she felt a surge of warmth and calm. “Just a shiver. Besides, I’m warmed up already!” He laughed and they continued to the pond that was fringed by two of the lonely skeletal trees along the snow-crusted flatness of the land fenced by the just visible mountain range. Surprisingly, no other kids from the nearby farms were at the pond “I guess it’s too cold for everyone else to show up,” Poppy said as she strapped the slightly rusted blades on her shoes. He laughed at that and added, “Well, maybe they will come later.” Secretly, Poppy wished that no one else would come. Over the last week she, Ted, and Mother had folks come over every day to share the good news. It was good to see Mother so happy, and it was good to be happy with her neighbors and friends, but right now she just really wanted to be with her brother. “Faster, faster,” Ted teased as he let Poppy pull him in a lap around the pond. “You’re so heavy!” she cried out before her foot slipped and she fell. “You okay?” “Yeah,” she said as she let him help her up.