Aloe? Anybody home?

When my parents were here, my mom bought me a bunch of plants for the patio. Because she's cool like that. One of them was a mosaic aloe. Nice, because you can basically ignore them, and they're happy.

When I left for Boston, it was just a cute, spiky aloe plant. Low to the ground. Unassuming.

When I came back, it had grown this spike. (see photo.) It wasn't there at all when I left. Not even a hint of a sprout or a shoot. Nothing.

I left on Thursday afternoon and came back on Tuesday evening. The spike, as you can see, is almost two feet tall. All this happened in 5 days.
I asked J if he fertilized my plant while I was gone, and he denied it. So I guess nature is just amazing.
The spike has grown a couple of inches since then, and has buds on it. It's gonna have flowers!

So, not to get all hippy-dippy-earth mothery on you, but I find this to be really beautiful and amazing. It's just a plant, in a pot on my patio, and it made this HUGE spike all by itself in a matter of days. Kinda blows my mind a little.