potbound

I brought the library plant back home for the summer holidays. The school library is a small, square room with no natural light. I put the pot on an upstairs windowsill that catches the morning sun.

September came, school began again, the plant stayed on an upstairs windowsill a road away from the small, square room with no natural light.

Gareth said the plant would have to have a name if it was to lodge here for the summer. Because of the small room with no natural light he put up Gollum. I said I couldn't do that to a small, struggling plant in a black, plastic pot. A dull, commentless plant no one would choose for a spot they loved. I said it had enough without that. I named the plant Precious.

In the new growing season I'll swap the black, plastic pot for something a bit fancier. Less black. Less plastic.

I leave Precious every day and go to sit, round-eyed, quietly hissing, muttering at the tricksy small people, flat-foot stomping around my small, square room with no natural light.