story
This is a strange commission, thought Rosa.
They want a barbed wire made of roses... That's not the strange part, obviously. That they want it to spell out "Candy, you were the best pup" is.
That doesn't sound so strange to a stranger, but Rosa's dog had been named Candy, and this person was a stranger. Was it just a coincidence?
"Candy was your dog?" Rosa's voice quavered just the tiniest bit.
The stranger glanced briefly at Rosa's eyes before looking back down to her sketch pad.
"not exactly."
"Oh?" Rosa lifted her voice and let the air draw the question mark thrice. "Oh???"
"Yeah." And that was all. A definitive downbeat.
Rosa paused. How could she decline this commission? There wasn't enough safe work elsewhere. This seemed plausibly safe, but it was setting off alarm bells for her.