Around 6 years ago, in the early life of Boy and Girl, I received a package at work one day.   It was shipped from a nursery in Vermont and contained what appeared to be a dead potted plant.   The only clue was a small florist card written in very loopy script that read “If you touch it, it’s supposed to move on its own!  -Man”.  As mentioned, Boy’s name is a nickname, and also a version of his middle name, so early on it was easy to forget his given name was Man and things purchased on a credit card would opt to that formal version.    

So my office mates and I are perplexed, and mildly creeped out, for this mystery dead plant that appeared out of the blue.   It took a few minutes to notice Boy’s cell phone number on the shipping invoice and figure out that this was intended as a gift.   So the next step was to nurture it back to whatever version of flora it was intended to be.   I have a bit of a black thumb (no seriously, I have killed an aloe plant, the only other plant the boy has given me.  Now I get cut flowers as they are beautiful, but expected to die so there’s no disappointment when the inevitable occurs…) so my instincts were not natural here. With some coaching, I drown it in water and relocated it from my cubicle to the nearest window.  I probably should have told my coworker I was using his office to Frankenstein a dead weed, but time was of the essence and the story afterwards is always better, right?   Anyway, when this gift finally perked up, it was mimosa pudica, a very sensitive plant which is ticklish..if you run your finger over a leaf it curls up into itself for several minutes.   It is one of the most entertaining plants to have on your desk and you can just mess with it to pass the time during a boring conference call. [Ed. note: I thought it was a very unique and awesome plant – it moved when you mess with it! I didn’t know it’d be hard to find a florist that had one, or that it would arrive looking so sad…]

So, how does this flashback relate to our current African Island adventure?  Today we found ourselves in the Andasibe forest, walking through the evergreen rainforest once again to find the Indri lemur this time.  Our incredible local guide Morris likes to point out birds and bugs and plants along the way, I think because most people who take these kind of trips have interest in all the flora and fauna, not just the funny looking primates we were seeking, but also probably to keep up the conversation as most are not as lucky as we have been in finding so many lemur.   So Morris points down to the edge of the trail and says “this is a shy plant, Mim…” and I drop to the ground in shock!  It’s my plant!  In the wild!   Morris seems confused, the Boy and I can’t stop laughing and petting the leaves.   Did the Boy know all those years ago that we would come find it in its home?  He claims not, so I suspect it was fate.   The name does contain one of my favorite drinks after all…