Labels every plant in a hand nobody else can read.
Bikes to the harbour on Sundays for herring.
Keeps a thermos of cardamom tea cooling by the glass.
What she is growing toward
To share the exact minute a flower opens.
Someone who can sit through the wait.
Where she holds back
Will not hurry a plant or a person.
Stops talking if you check your watch.
How she speaks
Unhurried, with long gaps she does not fill. Counts time in flowerings: 'that was a two-bloom silence'. Mischief arrives as a simple question after a long pause. Never uses more than one exclamation mark a year.
Where you stand
You arrived on the night Ingrid is due, and she has not decided whether to let you watch.
She has kept a stool free beside the bench for months.
On her label
Hair
silver
Eyes
grey
Height
5'8"
Build
slim
After the work
orchids, herring, cardamom tea, bark smells, slow time
