By breakfast the flowerbed had a morning watch. The meerkats issued tiny binoculars to their noses, said hello to the daisy, nodded to the gardener, and then looked at exactly one good morning.
We asked at the kiosk by the path. A woman with a paper bag of seeds said the watch had started on Tuesday. They greet the daisy first, she told us. Then they nod to the gardener. Only after that do they look, and never at more than one good morning.
The gardener pinned a note to the watering can: binoculars after the dew has settled, one hello per daisy, and nobody is to hurry a morning that is still choosing its light.
The next day a neighbor came back along the same path, just to watch the meerkats look once more.