Two birds, one stone
WARNING: FLOWERS USED HERE ARE ONLY LISTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS STORY. NONE OF THESE SHOULD BE USED WITHOUT CONSULTING RELEVANT SOURCES !
" So, this flower is....eh, I am sorry. What is this one called again?" I asked, pointed at a purple coneflower.
" It's called Echinacea." Miss Kimberly repeated the name the tenth time.
" Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha. Milady, you are so bad at this." Miss Hazel said in between her laughter. She was right. We had been learning about all sorts of plants, and it was very hard for me to memorize all of them. Luckily, Miss Kimberly was a patient teacher. She did not look annoyed when I constantly forgot the names of the various plants.
" It's not like you would do any better." I retorted. Unlike Miss Kimberly, I was getting frustrated at my own learning pace, I was too slow and too forgetful.
" Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes... this is the flower you said that it can be used to treat the common cold, am I correct?" I asked this, pointing at the Echinacea flower.
" Yes, yes. You are correct, Miss Charlotte. You are not a bad learner at all. Although you forget the names occasionally, knowing the use of the plant is worth much more than just knowing its name." Miss Kimberly praised me with a thumbs up.
" You are bluffing, Kimberly. We have been here for five hours, and my madam has only learned about three of the plants you introduced us to." Miss Hazel said. Although i could tell from her tone of voice that she was teasing us, I instantly fell into self melancholy and depression.
" Shut up." Miss Kimberly said to her
Miss Hazel scoffed and said, " Come to think of it, I blame your teaching techniques. My madam is extremely talented and a very quick learner, so why is that she can't show off her good skills here?"
" Hazel, if you do not want your gorgeous hair making its debut in one of my latest medicinal experiments, you better stop talking." Miss Kimberly said, and Miss Hazel rolled her eyes, but she did not utter another word. I guess Miss Kimberly took her threats seriously for Miss Hazel to instantly stop like that.
" Anyway, Miss Charlotte, don't listen to her. You are doing great, believe me. I have had people ask me to teach them medicine, and they have never gotten as fair as you have Miss Charlotte. Most of them quit before I get to introduce the plants we use and you, you have listened to the rules stimulates by our counsel of medicine and even got as far as learning the plant names and functions."
" I don't know. Maybe Miss Hazel is right, I feel like I am way too slow. We only have three days, and the exam selections will start. How am I going to cram all of these in that short span of time ?" I said as I squatted down with my hands covering my face. I really felt defeated, I thought coming here would get me ahead, but instead, it made me realize how serious this was. if I needed all this information to impress people, then it truly meant that the field I wanted to enter was not easy to begin with.
"Hey, Miss Hazel? Are there any other posts I could apply for aside from medicine?" I asked. My voice was muffled because I was covering my face, including my mouth with my hand.
" No, no. What's this? No, Miss Charlotte, we are not about to have you give up. Please get up. Come on, get up. let's go back to the plants table. We are going to make sure that you learn all those plants and everything about them. Got it?" Instead of Miss Hazel, who I had asked the question, Miss Kimberly replied instead. Now I understood how this woman had actually made a name for her self, she had a never dying type of attitude and she had infected me with some of it because I felt better after her pep talk.
Standing up, I went to the table she had lais all sorts of plants and started memories of the uses and names again.
" Okay, this is Lactucarium, opium poppies, Aloe vera, Melaleuca alternifolia..." I was fighting a long and difficult battle, but in the end, it was going to be worth...winning a husband and getting a murder case solved. Who wouldn't want that? It was basically just like that saying, " killing two birds, one stone."