Amaryllis

The Amaryllis bulb was a Christmas present from Auntie Elaine. She has always had a knack with gifts. When I was small she sewed a long white dressing up dress that fitted me from a drawing I'd made. For my twenty first she bought a suitcase with, most satisfyingly, a matching vanity case, pink satin lining with elasticated pockets.

I'd fancied an Amaryllis in a fuzzy, corner of my wishing mind sort of way for a while. I planted the bulb, egg-like in its' pot. It grew almost perceptively in the way of wolf hound puppies and produced a multi-headed bud. The bud very gradually burst and the flower was red.