THE COMMUTE: PINK BEGONIAS
I stopped at Publix on the way to work yesterday, to get flowers for an office birthday. Their selection is not consistent, but that morning I was in luck; I was greeted at the door by a bank of potted yellow roses, white amaryllis and pink roseform begonias.
I was immediately drawn to the amaryllis, but they were too tall and fragile for the backpack, and the clay pot ruled out any attempt to balance it on the handle-bars. I decided on a large, sturdy begonia crowded with blooms.
After paying, I settled the pot into my backpack, and zipped up both sides so the flowers could stick out. {Now I know why there are two zippers!} Then I started on the last stretch to the office.
In those five minutes, I got so many double-takes and smiles from drivers and pedestrians. I'm sure I was a comical figure, biking along the busy highway with all those flowers blooming behind my head. I tried to be nonchalant about it, but it was hard not to smile.
I coasted into the office parking lot. Someone recognized me and said ‘Hi!’ and my response was breathless and full of laughter from the last two blocks. I got from him the biggest double-take for the flowers, and I think he would have said something right then, but I quickly jumped off the bike onto the curb* and walked to the back of the deli. {While worrying about the state of my pants, I ran over one of the plants by the walkway. I'm graceful like that.}
He came around while I was locking up the bike, and started toward the stairs, but couldn't help himself. ‘Where did you get the plant?’ he asked. I'm sure he was just nonplussed, but he sounded slightly suspicious, like I might have swiped the begonia from someone's landscape.
I explained.
I'm sure I made it into several stories told that day.
*Someone was confused by my wording, and pictured me narrowly avoiding a face-plant {no pun intended}. By ‘jumped off the bike onto the curb’ I mean, of course, that I gracefully launched myself from the bike onto the walkway, in one practiced motion. And then I ran over the plant.
December 23, 2014