Onion Flower
By Never Angeline North
1.
Sara met a girl called Onion Flower. They met on a boat in the ocean, miles from land. Sara was rowing, looking out at the acres of waves surrounding her. When she turned around, there was Onion Flower. That night they laid down next to one another in the boat and had their first kiss. Onion Flower made a mixture of ocean water and the ashes from her cigarettes. She dipped her finger in it, drew two small flowers on Sara's cheeks, and said, This is to remember me by. When Sara awoke, she was alone.
2.
The second time Sara saw Onion Flower, she was walking across a bridge that overlooked the highway. Onion Flower was wearing a loose shirt and an ankle length linen skirt with her hair in two long braids that came down in front of her shoulders. They were tied with two pieces of long lace and the lace wound its way up into the braids. Sara had gotten the flowers Onion Flower had drawn tattooed on her cheeks since she last saw her, and Onion Flower kissed them and took Sara's hand. She led her into a tall white building with marble columns and huge archways. Inside was a rug that was made from the skin of some large animal that Sara did not recognize. Its eyes stared blankly at a spot where the wall met the ceiling. Onion Flower gestured for Sara to sit down and then put her head under Sara's dress. Sara giggled and held onto Onion Flower's braids like they were the reins of a horse.
3.
Sara brought Onion Flower back to meet her dog. Before they entered her house, Sara turned to Onion Flower and said, I really want him to like you. Sara spread peanut butter all up and down Onion Flower's arms and legs and put pieces of dehydrated beef lung in all her pockets.
Onion Flower came to visit Sara every day. They would take walks together and check the cost of groceries. The price of milk is rising steadily, Onion Flower whispered into Sara's ear, like it was her most intimate secret.
4.
Sara and Onion Flower planned a trip with Sara's dog. They had built a raft from driftwood and decided they would drift off down a narrow stream that ran near Onion Flower's house.
Before they left, Onion Flower gave very specific instructions on how to care for her plants to her housemate, a small crab named Coldwater Handswash.
You must touch them along their stems every day, said Onion Flower. You must read to them from this 2006 traveler's guide to Vancouver. You must place them outside at night and inside during the day.
The morning they were all packed up to leave and had just gotten settled onto the raft, Coldwater Handswash burst from Onion Flower's house, clicking his claws and hollering out What happens if I touch their leaves, and read to them from a 2011 guide to Montreal dining, and place them inside at afternoon and outside in the earliest morning?
I've never been able to tell you what to do,Handswash, said Onion Flower. No matter how much I might try. She pushed their raft away from the shore with a stick. You are an artist.
4a. [INTERVIEW BETWEEN SARA AND ONION FLOWER’S RUG]
Sara: What are you?
Rug: I'm a rug.
Sara: No, like what were you before you were a rug?
*The rug begins softly crying*
Sara: Oh no! I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to bring you down.
Rug: *through tears* Oh very funny.
Sara: No, I didn't…
The journey on the raft was quick, but it took them far. They landed on a beach and Onion Flower pulled out a copy of Cloudbird 69 and an expired membership card from the Indiana University Alumni Association. Using these, she skillfully laid out six identical lines of sand on the magazine and a short section of a recycled paper straw. Onion Flower then flipped her hair behind her ear, leaned down, and snorted two of the lines, one in each nostril, before offering the magazine and straw to Sara.
Don't worry, said Onion Flower. It's not a drug. It's just a bad thing to do to your sinuses.
Oh, said Sara, a bit disappointed. That's okay.
I still want you to do it though, said Onion Flower. It hurts. A lot.
Why? said Sara.
Because, Onion Flower purred, they're tiny rocks.
No, I mean why do you want me to do it? said Sara.
Onion Flower looked hard at Sara for a moment. I hate, here she cleared her throat, your sinuses.
Sara's dog licked up two of the lines of sand in one lick.
But I love everything else about you, said Onion Flower, drawing the words out, letting them turn into a kind of soft melody.
Sara looked hard into Onion Flower's eyes and snorted the remaining two lines without breaking eye contact. She licked her finger and rubbed the remaining sand on her gums. The inside of her face felt like it was on fire. Like it was about to rupture. For the rest of her life, Sara would think about this agonizing sensation whenever someone said the word "love."
The three of them laid down on the ground together. Fuck, said Sara.
Fuck, agreed Onion Flower.
5.
Sara, her dog and Onion Flower spent three days camping on the beach. On the first day, Onion Flower set up the tent while Sara watched. Sara’s dog smelled things. At one point Sara couldn’t find her dog and cried about it. Sara’s dog returned to them later that afternoon and Sara cried again while holding him and saying Don’t you ever do that again. Don’t you ever do that.
Onion Flower cooked them all food. Sara hadn’t even thought to bring food. Sara danced on the beach for Onion Flower and Onion Flower applauded when Sara collapsed onto the sand, laughing.
6.
On the second day of the trip, Sara went and picked flowers for Onion Flower while Onion Flower made them all breakfast. Sara gave the flowers to her in a camping cup with ocean water in the bottom, but the stems were too short to reach the water. Onion Flower showed Sara how to wrap the stems together in string and hang them upside down to dry from inside the soft roof of their tent. Thank you so very much, Sara, said Onion Flower. I love them.
When Onion Flower went to make lunch, Sara said she wanted to take her dog for a walk alone and they didn’t come back until dinner so Onion Flower tossed the extra lunch into the waves. That night, Onion Flower sang a song for Sara and it was very beautiful. Sara fell asleep with her head on her dog’s back while Onion Flower’s song drifted up to the stars.
7.
The third day of the trip was like five days. Sara spent most of her time alone, sitting with her dog in the tent. Onion Flower came and checked on them throughout the day, bringing them food and interesting shells she found and asking them if everything was okay. Sara said, Yes. Thank you.
One of these times, Onion Flower could tell that Sara had been crying, and said What’s going on, are you sure you’re okay? Sara nodded and Onion Flower sat there for a while and tried to hug Sara but she remained very stiff. Onion Flower left the tent and walked farther down the beach to stand in the waves and cry so that Sara wouldn’t hear.
Onion Flower tried to teach Sara’s dog some tricks using bits of leftover egg from breakfast. She taught him to stand on his hind legs. She taught him to make a resume and they rehearsed what it would be like for him to be in a job interview. She taught him to speak and he said, I would love to know more about your unique company culture.
Every time Onion Flower checked in on her, Sara felt a hard metal ball form somewhere deep in her organs. She would then secretly stick her hand through her skin, and pull out the metal ball, and hide it under the sleeping bags. When Sara finally left the tent, she saw Onion Flower and her dog having a wonderful time and decided to take a walk by herself. She traveled far, far down the beach. When the beach ended, she hiked through miles of thick forest. When the forest ended she climbed up the side of a volcano and tossed a stick from the top of a sheer dropoff near the summit. She couldn’t tell where it went. She cried again and thought about Onion Flower. Her feelings dripped from inside the crown of her head and pooled somewhere in her feet until they filled her the whole way up. She wished someone would teach her to speak.
It began to get dark on the volcano and Sara found a loose piece of bark from a very large tree and managed to rip it off in one piece. She leaned it against a fallen log and curled up underneath. Rain came down and she pretended the volcano was erupting and imagined herself rolling into the clearing and feeling the lava melt her skin clean off.
Onion Flower started to really worry about Sara when it began getting dark. She put the dog on a leash and said, Go find Sara. They walked a long way in the wrong direction, then turned around and went back. They hiked through the forest. They climbed the side of the volcano. Sara’s dog found the stick Sara had thrown and gave it to Onion Flower. She chopped the stick into bits with her hatchet and swallowed the bits like pills, one by one, with water from her canteen. Sara! croaked Onion Flower. Are you okay?
When Sara heard Onion Flower yelling she stood up. They had found her. Sara’s dog ran up to Sara and licked her face. Sara laughed and it felt like the laughter was some kind of betrayal her body was making. Onion Flower hugged Sara and saidI was so worried about you,and made a fire, and began to shuck some oysters she had collected along the way. Sara pretended she didn’t like oysters, even though they were her favorite. She ate only one and felt it move down her throat like a naked girl going down a waterslide.
8.
The next morning they all went home. When Onion Flower tore down the tent, she found all of the metal balls that Sara had hidden under the sleeping bags. She didn’t say anything, just tossed them onto the beach where they landed with a ringing, sandy thud.
They got on the raft and Sara’s tears propelled them upstream the whole way back. It went very quickly. When they arrived at Sara’s house, Sara’s dog pounced on Onion Flower and licked her face and said, I think my greatest strengths are that I act well under pressure and enjoy opportunities for problem-solving.
Good doggie! said Onion Flower. You’re hired! Sara pretended to be too busy moving their things to say goodbye.
Inside her beautiful home, Onion Flower took the dried flowers Sara had given her and hung them above her front door, so she could look at them every time she left.
Inside her home, Sara drew from her pocket a piece of volcano lava that she had kept and threw it onto the bed. She spent the afternoon watching their house burn down while she played with her dog’s ears in the bottom of the hole in their backyard. Sara ruffled her dog’s fur and he put his chin on her thigh and said, I have a great deal of experience working with the Microsoft Office Suite of software.
9.
Sara’s dog found them a new place to live after the old one burned up. When they got there he took all of the things they had packed and put them away in their new home with his teeth. He put their sleeping bag into an overflowing closet, pushing it closed first with his snout, and then with his butt. He put Sara’s dresses and toothbrush away, to their place on the floor of her room.
Sara came home with a ghost in her jaws, like it was something she had killed in the night. She threw it at her dog’s feet and said, I have brought you this present. It is 100 years old and slippery with oils.
Hah hah, breathed the ghost, its lungs struggling through crushed ribs. Sara’s dog looked at it with pity. He picked up the ghost gently between his teeth and threw it out onto the dewy night lawn, as the stars glew down at the world.
10.
Never Angeline North is the author of Rainbear!!!!!!!!! (Apocalypse Party, 2022), Sea-Witch (Inside the Castle, 2020), Careful Mountain (CCM, 2016) and other books, zines, comics, paintings, tattoos, songs, performances and ephemera. They live in Olympia, WA and are online at http://never.horse.