Part 7 - 12 hour time difference, the greenhouse and poison

Dear Shane,

Occasionally one of your emails to me reads uncannily similar to as if you were sitting in that beloved Aeron chair, in front of your sparkingly clean desk, with nary a speck nor paper towel to be seen, having a ten minute ramble before going about our whatever it is that we used to do in that office. Your last email was one of those, made even more odd by the fact that we're seperated by a continent and an ocean, rather than 3 feet. That and the 12 hour time difference makes this this project wonderfully disjunctive at times.

And you're right - i have an interesting 5 pages. What i've noticed is how uncomfortable I become at having to read something mid-sentence. Like I've walked into a party that I'm not invited to, or barged into a conversation (but perhaps I'm one of the few people who care about such things... cough cough). I've also found fingerprints! I have no idea what this makes me so excited - it's not like the presence of a set of grubby fingerprints will allow us to find the author easier. But it's a great side note to any conversation one could have about the indexical trace etc. It also came on a page that was riddled with scribbles by both parties (red ink, blue ink, and pencil!).

Anyway, I'm subjected to a long meandering description of this gigantic greenhouse, which is larger than the house itself. Our Rowan wonders through the hallways herself, unaccompanied by James Kee, and comes across a variety of exotic looking plants, all tended to by my peeps. And when I say my peeps, I mean my forebearers who were all gardeners. I must admit it's very odd to see the term "Orientals" bandied about when not referring to carpets. Its neither offensive nor funny; I seriously do mean I expect to see the word 'carpet' after it.

Her aunt is somewhere in the greenhouse and Rowan goes in search of her, passing by a wooden shack that has a door marked ' Keep Out', which of course our protaganist tried to open, to no avail. In the left wing of the greenhouse, Rowan comes across a number of plants she doesn't recognize, and is startled by an old Chinese gardener brandishing a pair of sharp garden shears, who yells at her to not touch them, frightening the crap out of Rowan, who proceeds to yell for her aunt. Apparently, Ah Sing (the old gardener) was just being protective; the plants being his babies, as well as being poisonous (ah hah!! the plot thickens). One of the particularly innocent looking ones, an oleander, is apparently 'nerium indicum', which can cause something resembling a heart attack.

And I admit, i have no idea what oleander looks like but apparently it's quite common, and varieties can be deadly when ingested. check it out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleander

So! We have poisonous plants in a gigantic greenhouse, a locked door, a secretary who apparently chases way tourists when they come too close to the house, a potential love affair, and hoards of chinese gardeners. Dum dum dum dum..... back to you...,