She likes to hold their fibrous stems between her palms. The fluorescence of the stems, the leaves, and the flowers of her household plants stands as a stark contrast to the darkness of her own home. She likes to think of the plants as a beacon of beauty in a place surrounded by ugliness. She likes to dress the larger plants in red and blue ribbons, and likes to place those little hanging critters on the edges of the pots her potted plants are encased in. They beckon her sometimes, as they grow up and around everything they can twist their twig-like bodies around. They tell her to be more like them; to grow in the face of adversity.
There's a certain look of wistfulness that overtakes her features as she extends a hand to brush through their convolving vines. A yearning to be like them; strong, resilient, and unyielding.
She calls them her "green babies" as she deposits their feed into the soil. Tending to them fills her heart with a sense of warmth. Something that's often only reserved for the care of human infants or dogs. But her plants breathe too. And they aren't noisy like animals are. They permit her to act as a mother without all the stress and struggle that accompanies human motherhood.
Perhaps that's why she likes them so much. Why she locks herself up in her dreary old house unless her sister swings by to drag her out into the sunlight. The plants offer her all the company she needs.
It isn't uncommon for her to heft one of the potted plants from their place by the windowsill in the kitchen and cradle it in her lap as she loses herself in rerun after rerun of her favorite soap.
Her mother seems to call her every other week, though she rarely ever picks up the phone. And when she does she wishes she hadn't. Even through the phone line, the trace of whiskey in her mother's voice is as clear as day. Her mother has said too many things with the recognizable stench of alcohol on her breath, and frankly she doesn't want anymore to do with the drunken, old hag.
People are the harbingers of misery,so she avoids misery by evading those that would bring it down upon her.475Please respect copyright.PENANAZ53COKjGXB