The puddle

I must tell you about this.

This morning, after a nice weekend of rest (real rest without work), I stepped into the office to find a puddle of brown fluid splattered on my stack of notes. It looks eerily like milk coffee and I thought "who is the brave one who dared to sneakily intrude into my space over the weekend and vandalise my notes with stupid coffee?". And then I look up and on the open shelf a few inches above my head, I saw another big brown puddle of the same fluid. And I thought "Ok, this person, whoever he/she is, has got a tall build, to be able to also spill coffee at such a height. I MUST catch him/her.". But then... the 2 puddles seemed to give out some weird smell, not like aromatic coffee at all.. it smelled like some leftover, mildly decomposing fruit...

And with that, my eyeballs widened and I searched in horror for my dear old pumpkin - a birthday gift, from a year ago, from my 2 beloved volunteer buddies, onto which was scribbled lovely words of well-wishes... There it was, dear old pumpkin, soft at the base, the bottom crumpled up and soaked in a puddle of the same brown fluid, the top looking forlonly intact... Little mr pumplin has withered after putting up a resistance over 9 mths. It has rotted from within, despite the ice-pole-cool temperatures of the office. It had given up being strong, and decided to drown in its own juices. And it had also decided to go in fashion, spreading its vile juice onto the shelf and onto the notes. It had made its statement.

Dear elf and wolf, gone may the pumpkin be, but I will remember always the time when it had bravely and proudly stood, and remember always the kind words of love you've marked on it. Friendship shall never rot (or so I hope!).