Okay. So we have these elevators. They're your standard everyday elevators that one needs to get around in a 50 story building. There is nothing exceptional about these elevators.

Right outside the elevators, on every floor are four potted plants. Not three. Not five. Four. I spend a lot of time next to these plants - the elevators aren't especially speedy. I've started to play with these plants. I'm sure it makes me look a little odd to the one receptionist who has a view of the elevator lobby.

Let me describe these plants. They're especially green and leafy. They're also a little sharp and spikey. Most importantly, yesterday they had a tall red poof sticking out of the top of them. It looked like it might flower some day...maybe... The top of this poof is hard and spiney. If you touch it, the poof kinda sways back and forth.

You can bob your head to the rhythm.

It soothes me.

So - as I said, I've grown to be very fond of this plant. Especially the big red poof. As trivial as this may be, I've begun to smile at these plants every time I see them, which is often. They're on every floor.

Today, in order to disturb me to no end, I walked out of the elevator of my floor to find the bright red poof has been replaced by a bright yellow poof.

Everything else about the plant is them same.

Yesterday it was red, today it was yellow.

I boggled. I stared. I was afraid I was on the wrong floor. Maybe some floors have yellow...? The number on the wall was the same as yesterday, the poof was different. I got concerned that maybe I was in the wrong building...? Damn midtown... identical buildings, identical elevators, identical people... Where the hell are the bright red poofs?!??

I think I made a critical mistake. I tipped my hand: I asked the floor receptionist if they changed the plants. She looked at me like I was mad. I asked one of the other temps, she said she'd never looked at the plants before. Someone else tried to convince me they were always yellow.

Goddamnit. I'd bonded with that poof. I know what color it was before.

I feel like I've lost a friend.

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