Such Elegant Desiccation
Margaret straightened Herbert's collar, and then she turned his wheelchair to face the bay window.
She knew he always enjoyed seeing the hummingbirds dart around the feeder outside, and he always looked so handsome as the sunlight changed and melted into afternoon.
She placed his hand upon the windowsill, beside the dried hydrangeas. Such elegant desiccation, she thought, touching one pale blue petal so lightly, feeling how it crinkled ever so slightly under her touch.
She remembered the day the gardener had showed her the technique, how to dry the flower, how to watch the water being evaporated out of it in order to preserve its beauty. Timeless, yet fragile.
Her touch was just as soft on Herbert's cheek. She noticed how his jaw line was now so prominent, as it was when they first met, 53 years before. In recent years, he had been so worried about putting on weight, but now he was slimming down again, his cheeks hollowed, the cheek bones now high and hard, and the pale blue eyes, the same shade of blue as the hydrangeas, staring timelessly out the window at the hummingbirds, as they flickered and darted in the waning sunlight of the dying afternoon.
From #horrorprompt 441
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