Geraldine's story.
A POT OF GERANIUMS
I was staring at the crowd entering the marquee where we were all dispatched looking forward to a fast adoption.
This is going to be my day. I’ve gone through so much during the last 6 months that surely the winds will become more favorable to my future.
It started when I was just one millimeter and had been rescued from a general floor sweep and put in a little pot of earth, in the shed for the winter.
I wasn’t alone though ! Lots of little pots were sitting side by side in the shed and regularly scrutinized by a human eye. Every now and again a little pot would be emptied and I would change neighbours.
The days became shorter and shorter. The skys looked grey. Little light appeared less and less for what seemed a very long time. Then, suddenly, the sun shone again and I was taken to a bigger pot as a few leaves had grown with the miracle of photosynthesis. From that day, I started watching my next to kins and, each time we were given a bigger pot, we would start talking together trying to imagine what would happen to us in the near and far future. We usually came to the conclusion that the best thing to do would be to keep close to keep safe and face life together.
Time went by, the sun shone more and more brilliantly, the nights shortened and I got looked after more carefully, with water being shed twice a day.
The inhabitants of the other pots seemed to have darker leaves than me and day after day, little red coloured blossoms started appearing.
I began to feel lost and sad. Why wasn’t anything like that happening to me ? Till the day where a very fragile stem started growing and at the top of it, finally, a little white flower made it’s way through.
Although the plants next to me were growing faster, we spent good times together discussing about what we looked like, who was the prettiest, our different shades of red and why was I left out like an albinos, not turning any other colour than white. But they were nice to me, very supporting !
Then, a nice pretty deep red geranium explained to us that around Ascension, she had heard that a lot of people really enjoyed displaying us in windowboxes all around their houses and were usually very nice and looked after us very well. We would be scattered in different places, but never alone in a pot, so our friendships could expand.
One day, we had been moved around a lot and put in large trays, very tight but given water. A very high pitched sound was heard as a huge green and white truck stopped in front of where we were waiting and started loading us tightly in this huge dark space. Bang ! We were in the dark. Bumping up and down, then sideways, getting knocked around but still standing straight cause we’d been gathered together so tightly !
It seemed ages untill we came to a stop. The doors opened. Sun and light came streaming in and we got unloaded quite gently untill we got displayed.
So many of us waiting to see where we were going to land ! A house, an appartment, a garden, indoors in an office, a shop? And who would be looking after us : nice people, negligent ones, loving ones ?
The rush hour was there. My friends, the ones I knew, seemed so far. As time went by, pot after pot was picked up, looked at, evaluated and taken away. Nobody even gave me a glance ! What is a white albinos geranium doing on this shelf hoping to compete with all the different shades of red ! No way ! The days went by, the shelves got scattered and emptied. Finally I was left alone , unwatered, no one to talk to, my dreams of adoption fading away. Untill an ultimate hand took me, looked busy clearing the mess up and threw me in a big dark bin where all my hopes evaporated.
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Jackie's story
A pot of geraniums
The 6th floor tenant was admiring the view from her apartment overlooking the Eiffel Tower. she placed the bright red geraniums in their blue pot precariously on her balcony ledge as she admired the lights starting to flicker on and off that showed off the glorious ironwork like a protective fairy godmother
– a present for her birthday – so pretty she mused but as her hand gave a sudden jerk she watched with horror as the pot went over the edge and started to fall – a long way down to the pavement below.
The 5 th floor family were getting the children ready for bed – the sliding door of the balcony was open, not enough for an adult but a four year old could easily slip through and seeing the red pot of flowers fly past the window he quickly slipped through to see if he could catch it. Mum busy at the stove and Dad watching a football match was just in time to see his only son running along the balcony of their apartment arms outstretched and looking for a way to climb higher and catch it – in a flash he was outside son in arms safe and sound the red pot continued on their way down
4th floor couple having just met the previous evening were still in bed and had just opened the sliding window to get in some fresh air when a strange object flew past their window in slow motion; the lovers rushed out onto the balcony in their birthday suits much to the delight of the opposite neighbors
3rd floor – Mrs Wilson was stone deaf, lived alone with her 12 year old poodle Amelia who barked incessantly at her mistress who screeched at her - driving the inhabitants in the apartment building mad. It was time for the evening walk She liked to go out early before it got really dark and then could relax in front of her favorite series on tv. Putting on her coat and the dog on her lease she stepped outside to wait for the lift to arrive, she pressed the down button – somewhere above her the pot was falling.
2nd floor
_the pot of geraniums continued its reckless fall and as it passed by the patio door of the 2nd floor apartment no one seemed to notice as it was a family gathering and candles of the birthday cake were lit. 90 year old granny saw out of the corner of her eye something red with leaves and a large pot pass by outside – pointing and gabbling she was dismissed as having an illusion and everyone laughed at her increasing nonsense
1st floor Reaching now speedy proportions the pot whizzed past 11 year old Jan who was frantically trying to finish her homework before Mum got home from work – as the bowl of flowers flashed by she thought goodness it must be time to stop as she was seeing things now. But would her schoolteacher accept her excuse?
Ground floor
Just as Mrs Wilson and Amelia got out of the lift and into the entrance of the building the pot of geraniums arrived at destination the barking and screeching ceased immediately much to the relief of the inhabitants and miraculously in the mixed up mash of bodies and blood the pretty heart shaped flowers floated free in the breeze
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