My Blooming Flower

“I never win anything,” I complained to the guy sitting next to me as I wrote my name on a ticket and dropped it in the container with the rest of the entries. We were at a special education inservice in Bethel and I was about to swallow that sentence.
My name was the first one drawn and I got to go pick a door prize from the many on a table. All of them were wrapped and a triangular package caught my eye. It was flimsy when I picked it up, but I have always been told, “Your first choice is usually right.”
Remembering that line I proudly walked back to my seat knowing I made the right decision. Then I tore off the wrapping and unfolded a fuzzy, green, plastic, blow-up flower with a clear back and a suction cup in the center.
I figured you blow the thing up making it look like it was in bloom, moisten the suction cup, and stick it on a window. Now, when I put stuff in or on a window it is to show the item to those outside. If I did that to my flower only those indoors would get the whole blooming affect.
I took a couple of pictures and sent them to my wife. She didn’t seem all that interested in keeping my beautiful flower. Then I emailed another teacher who had won not one, but two door prizes. Her reply basically said that, “it would bring out (or get me in touch with) my feminine side.” That was all I needed.
There had to be something more to it. I’d have to ask people and actually show it to them to find out. I could have simply wrote a short email to the special education department for an explanation of my fabulous prize, but that didn’t occur to me until now when I got to this point in my column.
The flower rested comfortably out of sight in a closed file drawer for a few days. Every time I opened the drawer I’d see it and wonder what it’s purpose was. I couldn’t very well give it away if I didn’t know. Besides, I might want to hang on to it if I found out it had a useful function.
An answer came during a meeting at school. I don’t recollect how the subject came up and now I don’t care, but I ended up showing the flower to the group. After a few laughs I got a surprise. I came away with a logical explanation. Someone told me that it might be a bath pillow. I could stick it on the edge of the tub and rest my head on it. Now the fuzzy, green, plastic, blow-up pillow had a use – and it was mine.
I’ll have to try it. A nice, long, hot bath (minus my feminine side) will probably feel good.