The Desire and the Flowers

Dawson was right; his family didn’t like him at all. Especially his cousin, Ted. Ted went to Tuck`s place, he assumed Dawson was there, and he was, alone. Everything was perfect in Ted`s eyes, Dawson was dying that very night. But, lately Dawson had been having visions and picturing a man in a windbreaker. The doctors said it was a side effect of a concussion he suffered after a recent explosion at work. And unbelievably, that vision of the man in the windbreaker saved his life. Ted got inside the house trying to trap Dawson and once and for all, kill him, but he wasn’t there, he was outside, trying to catch that unusual vision. Once he got back, Dawson saw Ted with enough time to take him off guard and hurt him, bad. 

The next day was not simpler; it was just as hard, but this time emotionally. Tuck`s attorney set them up and gave them four things: a map to the place where Tuck wanted his ashes to be spread, a letter for both of them, a letter to Amanda and one for Dawson.  They headed to the mysterious place; it was a garden, a beautiful one filled with a rainbow of wildflowers and a humble and small house. The landscape and afternoon were perfect so the former lovers read the letter Tuck left for them. They understood everything after reading the three page long manuscript. Tuck lived a true love story with his wife and he wanted them to experience the same. He knew they loved each other and always will. And after what seemed like a life time, both realized that they wanted each other, they needed each other and that they loved each other.  

When Amanda was a little girl, she used to go to her back yard and watch a family of otters play for hours and hours. She used to do this with her father. And she couldn’t help but notice how happy these animals were, always playing and chasing each other. A few years before the pass away of Tuck, she came to Oriental with her daughter Annette to the aquarium to watch and observe the otters. But once they were there, the otters were not playing or chasing each other, they were sad.

“They weren’t happy. The otters knew they weren’t living in a real river. They probably didn’t understand how it happened, but they seem to understand that they were in a cage and couldn’t get out. It wasn’t the life that they were meant to live, or even wanted to live, but there was nothing they could do to change it” (148).

Amanda brings up this otter story while she was fighting with her mother. Evelyn doesn’t understand that in this story her daughter is the otters and the life she wants for her is very similar to the life of the animals in the aquarium. She wants freedom, but her mother can’t give her that, not with her mentality at least. Amanda is trapped in her mother`s aquarium.

Tuck loved his wife, Clara until his very last day. He did something no other man will ever do. Tuck found a piece of land and he, patiently, grew a beautiful garden just for her. The most beautiful flowers were there. They were married for 25 years until she passed away. This almost killed Tuck, but he understood that the only way to keep her alive in his heart was to keep the garden alive. 

“Their eyes were drawn inevitably to the wild flowers. Thousands of them, a meadow of fireworks stretching nearly to the steps of the cottage, a sea of red and orange and purple and blue and yellow nearly waist deep, rippling in the gentle breeze” (156).  

Nicholas Sparks, used imagery to perfectly describe the incredible garden and the flowers. The black letters written in the white page of the book, painted colorful images of the garden, the flowers, and the butterflies in my head. My imagination took a step further and saw the colors differently, simply gorgeous. I understood how the place looked and more importantly, what the flowers represented.  

Amanda and Dawson finally let themselves love each other the way it should be. While reading these chapters I saw love, understood love and even smelled it! They belong together and I believe they will find a way to work it out and live happily ever after.