It was a small apartment building. 3 floors, 2 apartments on each.

Mrs. Bayle has been there since forever, the oldest tenant in the building.

She was the one who kept the flowers hanging at the porch. The building was not a masterpiece of architecture, all white, old, non-attractive. She kept the flowers to beautify it a bit. Also so that the lion by the door would feel more at home, with some nature around it.

Most of the other tenants liked it and appreciated Mrs. Bayle for that. Mr. Moody didn’t, claiming it took too much space from the entrance. But she never failed to keep the flowers no matter what he would say.

Mrs. Bayle was old and her body started to fail her. One morning, she didn’t wake up, and left our world to beautify her afterlife.

Without her, the flowers slowly wilted and died. Mr. Moody made sure to get rid of it as soon as he noticed they were dead.

It was a sunny day and some people say it was bird droppings, or water that was sprinkled by a passing car cleaning the windshield. But it was actually tears in the lions face. He was the one who missed Mrs. Bayle the most.

This post was written in response to the Sunday Photo Fiction of this week, and contains 207 words.

To see other stories inspired by the same prompt, click the blue frog below.