ACCOUNTANT BY DAY

Two Fridays ago I was at my grandma’s house to help her with some computer problems.  While she was in another room, I happened to notice this extremely healthy looking poinsettia plant sitting on her dining room table.  Was she fertilizing it?  How else did she keep it looking so fresh, bright, and red this long after Christmas?  I rubbed one of the leaves gently between my thumb and finger.  It felt a little fuzzy, like poinsettias do.  It was robust and full of turgor.   The whole plant looked so good, in fact, that I went over to look at the soil.  I had to move some of the leaves to see, but it had some of that fuzzy, curly stuff…with which fake plants are potted.  Surprised, I checked the stem and realized the plant was artificial.  I’d been completely fooled.

I was pretty impressed with how realistic the plant was, but it didn’t occur to say anything to my grandma about her fake plant.  She called me into the kitchen and I forgot all about it.

Then this past Friday I went back to see her again.  “Honey,” she said.  “Do you want to hear a really funny story?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Well, you see that poinsettia over there?” she asked, pointing at it.  Suddenly I had a faint idea what this story would be about.   “Well, it looks pretty good, doesn’t it?”

I agreed.

“So, ever since I got it a couple months ago, I’ve been taking care of it.  Watering it every week or so.  And it’s just been looking so healthy.  Even the housekeeper commented on it the other day, how some of it should be turning back to green by now.”

I nodded, grinning.

“Well, I’ll be damned if we didn’t check it and the thing is made out of plastic!” said my grandma.

I told her about my experience the previous week.

“I feel like kind of an idiot for watering a fake plant all this time,” she said after we finished laughing.  “Watch out, this probably runs in the family!”

I’m not too worried.  At least you can’t over-water plastic.