One Man's Trash is...(Rina!)

[Anonymous]

Step out of the hospital and go North three blocks, some people will tell you, And then turn left. Go until you hit the end of the street, and that's where you'll find the Florist of Teinar.

The Florist of Teinar has a name, of course. Her name is Tellatyia Grenhall. She makes flowers and sells them to the citizens of Teinar. Yes, you heard right, she makes them. Out of paper and metal. Canvis and plastic. Foam cups, old silverware, toilet seats, ceiling fans, computer parts, old clothes, rocks, take out containers, old wood, and even candy wrappers. You name it, she can turn it into a flower. Sometimes she does animals and sometimes she does abstracts, but flowers are her main thing. Her main drive.

Some say she's in love with them.

Of course, some people also say that all florists are crazy.

But Tellatyia isn't crazy, most days. This day, in particular, wasn't a day one had to worry about her being any more of a weirdo than one would expect of a sucessful junk artist. She was wearing overalls, shich hadn't been in fashion... ever... but which she somehow wore stylishly. Her hair was tucked up into a scarf, and what length of the scarf was left over after the knot was tied at the knape of her neck swung too and fro as she moved somewhat erratically arond her work area, which was in fact set up right in the middle of the street that day, or rather right at the end of the street. She was assembling a flower that had over 60 different petals, made out of plasic piping she had found... somewhere.

She did not, therefore, notice the man coming down the street towards her, because she was too busy assemblign the petals and contemplating whether or not she should paint it.

[Anonymous]

Joker was a highly talented up and coming motorail biker. Who was forming a badass team that was taking the sport by storm. Well, maybe. If you looked at it with a bit of a squint and kind of far away. But the whole garbage man thing was just a temporary thing. Character building and all that.

But for once it was going to come in handy. As a collector of garbage and refuse, Joker found many gross and disgusting things. But it also let him come across some interesting things. And he had seen a rather pretty girl on his route that looked like she might be interested in interesting things.

So he had collected a few today, and now that he was off work, he wanted to attempt to give them to her in a suave manner that swept her off her feet. Or, at least made her think favorably toward him.

"Well hello there." Joker had stripped off his work overalls, but he was still a little rumpled. A red bandanna covered a lot of his dark hair, so at least that wasn't so bad. But his band shirt and baggy shorts could have looked better. But he was hoping a charming smile would counteract that, "I er....wow." He finally looked at what she was working on and was rather impressed, "Is that going to be a flower?"

[Anonymous]

"Of course it is," Tellatyia said, once she had gotten over the start he had given her. She said this in a tone of voice that properly expressed what a stupid question he had asked without being insulting. She glued another petel down and then set the half-finished flower down carefully before standing, wiping her hands on her overalls to rid them of excess glue, and offering a hand to Joker "I'm a florist. The florist, I suppose, I don't think that Teinar has another. My name is Tellatyia Grenhall."

He was atractive, that was for sure--and he had junk with him! "Is that for me?" she asked, her hazel eyes suddenly more interested than they had been before. Arttruely was Tella's life. She was estranged from her mother and most people seemed to think she did some strange sort of voodu or something with her flowers, perhaps because she made beautiful things from shit people didn't want.

But really, Tella did that all the time. Sometimes with people, if she had the time, though mostly the flowers she made bloom where made of metal or plastic or paper.

[Anonymous]

Joker winced a little at the tone. He realized it was a stupid question as soon as it left his mouth, but oh well. That wasn't new for him. So he just kept smiling, "Tellatyia. That's a really pretty name. Ya can call me Joker. Nice to meet you." He took her hand and gave it a small shake.

"That's really beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it." Joker had hardly even seen flowers, let alone created ones. Her question gave him pause before he remembered his gift, holding it out to her, "Oh! Yeah! I've seen you working on stuff, and well, I thought you might like it."

[Anonymous]

"That's so sweet of you, Joker," she said, excited by the prospect of new junk. She took the things from him and turned to put them but her house--yes, her house, she had gotten it from her grandpa. A few quick steps brought her close enough to the house to sort the things he had given her. She did it quickly, with practice, before turning around again to face Joker.

"And thanks for your compliments, too," she said, "Would you like to come inside? I have some finished pieces on display that haven't sold yet. I dunno if you'd be interested, but I couldn't hurt to look."

He had gone all out of his way just to bring her some junk, which was really the nicest thing anyone had done for her all week, and he was giving her this really nice smile and so of course she had to invite him inside. The glue had to dry some before she could continue gluing, anyway.

[Anonymous]

Ha. He had done good. It had been just a little nerve wracking bringing someone junk as a gift, but it seemed to have gone over well. That was always a good sign. Joker's thin chest puffed out a little, proud that he seemed to have managed to impress her enough to get invited inside.

He hitched up his pants, they were a little large and had a tendency to slid down his skinny hips and started toward her house, "I would love to see more of your art. I've never seen anything like it."

And he wasn't lying. It was unique and beautiful in a strange way, "So, Tella, where did you learn to do this stuff?" He wanted to reach out and touch some of the art, but he was pretty sure that was frowned on, so he resisted the urge.

[Anonymous]

She was just about to go into how she got into this type of art when he called her “Tella” She hated that. Well, not really, because he was kind’ve cute, but he didn’t know her, and he hadn’t asked, now had it? It was rude, and so Tella said, “Excuse me, did I say you could call me ‘Tella’? No, I didn’t.” She might have come across angrier than she really was, but Tellatyia figured that it couldn’t hurt—Joker clearly needed someone to keep him in line.

As to how she had gotten into the art, if he hadn’t called her Tella should would have replied that it was due to an argument with her mother; the damn woman kept pressuring her to pick a profession, so finally Tella had just blurted out, “Florist!”, even though there weren’t any flowers in the lower city. Her mother had pointed this out, and so of course Tella had had to find a way to prove her wrong.

So she drifted from art shop to art shop—because flower arrangement was a sort of art, wasn’t it?—and eventually gained enough skill to open her own art shop.

[Anonymous]

"Whoa!" Joker put his hands up, taking a small step back. He hadn't meant to piss her off or anything, "Calm down. Really. I'm sorry. Hadn't realized ya were sensitive about it."

Alright. She was pretty, but apparently very touchy. Okay. That was fine, "I can call ya Tellatyia. It's all cool." Well, fuck. Joker rubbed the back of his neck, still wary of getting to close. She was angry and some of the stuff lying around looked like it might hurt if she whacked him with it.