The Withered Poinsettia

Johanna is one of my closest friends; she is German (Black Forest region), very eccentric, but is one of the kindest people you could ever meet.

I hadn’t seen Johanna for many months, when she inited me up to her place for lunch. I, of course accepted. Now that I have my senior citizen bus pass, I decided to travel by public transport. As I reached the tenement , I noticed a withered poinsettia at the window, not realising that it was Johanna’s apartment. She waved at me and pressed the buzzer to let me in. The place was in quite a muddle, and and she had a layer of dust everywhere, including on her very old radio.

“Do you like my locket?” she asked. “It has my mother’s name inscribed on the back.”

I Smiled approvingly. The coffee table looked a bit cluttered; she had been using a set of tarot cards, which quite surprised me. She asked if I could colour her hair, with the auburn dye that she hd purchased, to which I agreed. She cleared the table of her sharpened pencils and brand new laptop.

‘You look tired; here is a bottle of herbal medicine to give you a boost,” she said.

As I was leaving, she handed me her business card, just in case I needed to contact her by e-mail.

This was an exercise, where I had to include specific items in it. They are listed below.

Withered poinsettia

Dusty radio

Silver locket with inscription

Bottle of herbal medicine

Auburn hair dye

Fortune telling cards

Jar of sharpened pencils

Brand new laptop

Business card

It's a bit of fun and would be a good way to get children to make up their own stories