Contradiction by Salina Paine

cemetery.
    I nod not knowing what to say. The ten minute drive to the hotel room feels like an eternity with the blistering silence. She gets out and motions for me to come in. "I want to show you something." She says. I get out and follow her inside. Jasmine goes to the closet and pulls out a tattered old book bag and sits on the bed, patting the mattress beside her. I sit and she pulls out a handful of old pictures. The first one is a little boy, with stark blue eyes, whom I assume to be Caleb. As she flips through the pictures, giving me the background for each one, I find myself on the brink of tears. She hands them to me and smiles.
    "I’m going to shower and get changed. Make yourself at home." I sit there staring at the pictures trying not to cry.
    Her sweet smile and bright eyes were the same as they are now. I sit there the whole, while she's showering, thinking about what she was like at her younger age.  I hear the doorknob turning and quickly wipe away the tears that were forming. 
    "Hey." She says twisting the towel around her hair. I smile at how unbelievably beautiful she is. Looking at her with makeup on and messy hair is an incredible turn on. “
    "Do you know how beautiful you are?" I blurt out before I can stop myself. She smiles and her cheeks begin to turn bright red. "You're not accustomed to compliments are you?" 
    "No." she says lowering her head.
    I get up and walk over to her.“"Don’t do that"” I say, bringing her up to meet my eyes. "You are beautiful, regardless of some scars or your past. I've never met anyone quite like you and I don’t know what to say or do to help you overcome what you have been through. I know we've only known each other a couple of weeks, but I feel something for you. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but I hope you will hang around so I can find out." I say hugging her to me.
    Huge tears form in her eyes and she smiles, kissing me.“"We better get going." She says pulling her hair into a ponytail. Taking her hand I lead her out, opening the truck door for her. We needed to stop and get some flowers before we got to the cemetery, So we pull into the parking lot of a little shop, and she runs in coming back out with a bouquet of daisies.“
    "Caleb liked these flowers." She says as if she read my mind. "Did you ever do the, 'she loves me, she loves me not', with flower petals?"”she asks.
    “"No, I can’t recall doing that."” I reply.
    “"Well you pull a petal and say, 'loves me and then loves me not', alternating with each one. The last petal is the most important."”I nod and she continues. "Caleb and I did 'love you, love you more.' He always seemed to love me more and I knew he was being sneaky, but he was five when we started doing that and I'd always let him win. He liked daisies best because they had smaller petals."
    The entrance to the cemetery is on a long and bumpy dirt road. The twisted branches of the trees open up into a small open space with everything overgrown and untouched, except for a small headstone near the back of the cemetery. 'Caleb Michael Greyson' sits across the front in childlike script with an engraving of a familiar cartoon character covering the middle. There are cars and trucks lining the small filled grave square in front and a plastic butterfly sits atop the small marble structure.
    Jasmine sits cross legged in front of the grave and places the daisies in front of her. I feel strange like I'm invading a private conversation, but she motions me to sit with her. Squeezing in between the two small statues on either side of the plot, I'm so close to her I can hear every breath she takes. She pulls a letter out of her pocket and begins to read it to Caleb, as her tears begin to smear the ink. When she is finished, she moves aside some of the gravel and folds it back up, placing it in the spot she's made. Covering it up she looks over at me with her glistening eyes.
    "He would have liked you because you drive a big truck." She says smiling