Tillie Rose had been waiting for this moment her whole life. She thought back to her first memories on the rose bush. As a wild rose, she basically had to fend for herself her whole life. It was just Tillie Rose, and her bush. Not like those old roses that people normally bought in the flower shops. Those roses had it easy. Those were cultivated roses, or culties, as the wild roses called them, and they had the best of everything. The best food. The best soil. The best everything. Many of those roses were even bred to be red roses, but Tillie was a natural.
Whether you were a wild rose, or a cultie, a rose’s greatest desire was to be picked by humans. There had been many tales of roses being used as a part of weddings, or given as gifts. Tillie had heard that in California there was even a parade that was named after roses. She longed for that to happen to her, but most of those jobs usually went to the culties.
You see, if you were picked by humans, when you eventually died and went to Roseland, you would go as a purple rose, letting everyone know that you were picked by humans, instead of as a regular colored rose, which was still good, but in the rose community, purple was the ultimate color. Also, for the bushes, the more roses they had, that ultimately became purple roses, the better status they would have when they finally went to the Land of Woods.
Tillie Rose remember’d a while back, that it was a really big deal when Rosie Rose, Billy Rose, and Cindy Rose were all picked by humans at the same time. “You’re gonna look good in purple.” Wesley Rose shouted to them, as the humans carried them away. All three of them had huge smiles on their faces. Their bushes could not have been any prouder. It was said that they were picked for a huge wedding bouquet that used a whole lot of roses.
Now, maybe it was Tillie Rose’s turn. There was a man and a woman carefully looking at the roses on all of the bushes. They slowly walked by each of the bushes, and were inspecting each of the roses. All of the roses put on their best performances. As they got to Tillie Rose’s bush, the woman stopped. “This is the one!” She said happily. The man reached down, and picked Tillie Rose from her bush. Tillie Rose was so excited. Her bush proudly exclaimed, “That’s my baby.” The other roses, and bushes cheered for her as the humans carried her away.
Tillie Rose was now sitting in a vase, with the best tasting water she ever had. The vase was placed on a ledge, right next to a window, where she could soak up the sun. Tillie Rose was very happy. This was her dream come true.