The Bluebells

Doctor Morin watered her Bluebells that grew outside of her Green House she called Cornamona. The aspiring Scientist wondered what her Grandfather, Packy, would have thought of her career. Sarah’s imaginative grandfather had seeded in the Agronomist the deep affection for the Earth and all that is produced. The summers of her childhood on the small farm in Cornamona, Galway, with hills of lush green, that would spread to where it met the Irish sea and sky, the edges of the land gently decorated with Irish Bluebells. "You see these bluebells here, Sarah. They've grown on this land for centuries…warning us of any evils lurking about. When you see them blowing back and forth, and there is no breeze…just know the Fae are warning you to keep you safe….” Sarah could still feel his breath close to her ear as if told her the secret of the Bluebells. Her chest clenched up as she fought back the pressure in the back of her eyes. Lost in her thoughts, the Doctor became aware of a crashing noise inside the greenhouse, “You're on borrowed time," she teased at the bluebells as she approached the entry to Cornamona.

Cornamona was made of glass and white metal trim that glowed with sunshine and life. The Sandia mountains as its backdrop and the sky as its ceiling. The floor was covered in cedar chips that continued in a wave beneath the neatly lined rows of marble planters directed by cedar platforms that followed the wave of chips to the other end of the greenhouse. The plants welcomed their friend, with a room filled with their intoxicating aroma and warmth. A small, fragile Lemon tree began to bear fruit at the center of the room. Classical music played softly as the afternoon sun shined, showing the bees that had snuck in to share the plants of Cornamona. Sarah watched as they weaved in out of the sunrays that shined through rows of various green plants, their leaves, and vines lacing in out of each other. Some full of life and some fighting to keep their green leaves. She examined the plants casually approaching one of the Turbine stems that served as a nursery. Four giant circular beams about a telephone pole's width and height gleamed a pearly white finish at each corner of the room. She examined the length of the turbine nursery; two spinach plants were missing from the middle row. Inspecting the floor, it occurred to the young Scientist that there was a thief in her glasshouse.

The memory of Dr. Patel’s unexpected visit the day earlier began to reemerge: “What am I looking at, Doctor Morin…are these plants dying or coming back to life” Dr. Patel inquired. The Agronomist smiled proudly, “Vertical farming with Hydroponic irrigation… Instead of genetically manipulating the plants with the Necro pathogens, I am providing an opportunity for the plants to develop their own resistance…immunity. By soilless growth in coconut shells, supplying nutrients grown in this garden combined with a natural and stimulating setting with other plants," Dr. Morin walked past her colleague and lifted the Tibetan singing bowl, and hugged it to her chest, and began to play it. The vibrational sound began to fill the space and provide an ambiance to the setting. "If you pay attention closely," Sarah leaned into the small spinach plant that almost comes to life somehow with its leaves making weak movements as if with the aid of a breeze. “Amazing. How many successes have you documented?” Dr. Patel inquired. Pride of the observation, the greenhouse’s caretaker, raised her right hand to gallantly display the conservatory: "Every plant in this greenhouse! The vibrations encourage cell movement; it increases the production of nutrients to fight the pathogen and develop immunity.”

Doctor Sarah Morin became acutely aware of Dr. Patel's strange gaze at her. "Why are you here?" Sarah inquired, breaking the peculiarly uncomfortable trance. “Your findings, will they be stated in your speech at the United Nations about this holistic approach, seems a cross between mystic and science. But it is why I am here. Recently, though, I've come to acknowledge that there is truth in what I see. Through I do not understand it. I require your expertise on a project that I believe you could learn and benefit from. I apologize for my abruptness.” Doctor Morin was taken aback by the offer. “No. I’m not comfortable with the classified projects you occupy yourself with," she replied. Doctor Morin knew the projects' regimental scope and secrecy and was unwilling to put her research on hold.

“Please reconsider. I believe it can help advance your research.”

Dr. Moring replied, "As you know, this research before you shows that nature is all the advance I need and money, of course. Thank you for considering me, and I will give it some thought, but I must escort you out now." In an instant, the Doctor was brought to reality when she saw the broken window above the brick base of Cornamona, with a pale green liquid that stained the broken edges of the glass.

Doctor Morin leaned down to inspect the broken glass with the luminous green stains. Within moments a small noise came from under the lemon tree. Startled and alarmed, the Doctor looked and thought she noticed a gleam of light reflected under the tree. Slowly approaching the center of the room, a sudden sense of intense fear took hold of her. Fear that she did not recognize as her own, struggling to push through it, to move forward, she felt pain shoot through her left shoulder …but nothing was wrong with it. The lemon tree appeared to suddenly become brighter, and the lemons increased in size before her eyes. The pain of her arm began to subside as she approached the tree, confused and uncomfortably afraid…of herself. At the center of her beloved Cornamona, at the bottom of the wonderous lemon tree, stood a being in the tree's shadows, no more than a foot and half tall.

“Stop” The Doctor spoke out as she collapsed to her knees, struggling to regain control. “You have no reason to fear me," she whispered as she began to be flooded and blinded with images of her caring for the Bluebells. “Yes. I will treat you the same. Let me help you…” Doctor Morin promised to her new guest. She clasped her knees to regain her balance and took a deep breath to expel all the invading emotions. The Doctor stayed on her knees and made eye contact with the fragile oval back eyes that stared back, in a narrow egg-shaped skull covered with flesh that was a kaleidoscope of iridescent scales. A linear line of about three inches served as its nose and mouth. The tiny creature slowly rounded the trunk of the tree that protected it. Slight in stature but grand in appearance, with its scales that changed by the light and with each breath, vein-like structures faintly glowed as it cascaded throughout its humanoid form between the scale patterns. It extended its petite, frail arms with four long fingers wrapped around rounded edges of the lemon that pressed against its claw-like fingertips. As she accepted the lemon with her right hand, she wondered was this a child in front of her? The emotions that had flooded the Scientist were those of when she was a young girl, loneliness and fear. The tiny being began to expose itself of its crimes when it brought the stolen spinach plants from under the Lemon tree by some form of telekinesis. A smile formed on Dr. Morin’s face until a rage impaled itself in her mind that slowly spread throughout her. As she struggled with her reality once again, her eyes focused on a similar being twice in size appeared before she succumbed to her plight.

A sense of sadness began to set in as the Scientist started to open her eyes. She still laid in the same spot as she viewed the night sky. The Moon's light shined in on the silent greenhouse, where she appeared to be alone. Slowly, Dr. Morin rose to her feet and focused on the origami shadows created by the ferns. She slowly began to be aware of her surroundings, the humming of the hydraulic turbines, nursing the reproduction of her precious plants. The lemon tree's fruit was fully ripened, and on its base, small footprints. It wasn't a dream, was all Dr. Morin could think to herself as she walked to the light switch on the other side of the greenhouse. Walking, she became aware of their presence, watching her. Abruptly stopping, listening beyond the turbines, a faint movement was heard behind the ferns. This time around, she hoped to block their invading attacks with thoughts of her Packy and the Bluebells. When she reached the light switch, hesitation set in on what would appear or happen. But nothing happened when she flipped the switch; the giant ostrich ferns' rustling became faint but inspecting was absolute. There, in a deep slumber in the cedar beneath the fern, her innocent tormenters were deep in sleep. Asleep, curled up, their appearance aided in their disguise to blend, but she could see their luminescent scales shine in the light. Doctor Morin left the pair to sleep…in peace.

The Scientist debated the options of resolution to the situation at hand. The Beings that slept under the Ferns seemed desperate and afraid. Living, walking, and a conscience plant-like being, her thoughts began to run away with her. “Their abilities are remarkable, evolved, and highly intelligent. Packy would say they are Fae…imagine.” Dr. Morin continued this singular conversation until one became two. The little one had been intently listening at her feet, holding the lemon. "Hello," she whispered as she lowered herself on her hind legs to accept the gift again. "Do you understand me, little one?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. The little guest mimicked her movement; she smiled in response and felt a warmth inside her chest. “Is that a yes?” the Scientist laughed loudly. And in an instant, the little illuminated being began to attempt to reproduce her sounds with short screeches.

“AHHH” it repeated as it jubilantly moved with the sound, up and down with its head.

Opening its mouth to show a small pink tongue, lined with molar-type tiny teeth, in its attempt to mimic a laugh. “How did you end up here, ya wee thief?” Forgetting they were not alone and not the same for a moment, she felt they began to understand each other. “Is that your mother?” she stated slowly.

Doctor Morin followed her new friend as it led her back to the older being. It was still asleep as the younger one began to poke it with its claw-like fingers. At the moment she awoke, the beings' gaze brought about visions of Doctor Patel conducting experiments and autopsies on the being's kind. The mother showed her images of entrances of caves lined with Blu-Bells. She was brought deeper in the memory; it showed dozens of iridescent kind, gassed and brought out unconscious in cages. And then the memory of Doctor Patel’s visit to Cornamona. "I know what I have to do," Doctor Morin said to her new friends as she extended her hand in assistance to raise them up.

"Plants have stories to tell us. Their stories color and enrich our planet and elicit poetry in humans. Plants caution us, warn us, alarm us, feed us, comfort us, humor us, heal us and inform us of the Earth's changes and transformations. They mirror to us who we are and what kind of custodians we are to our homes, communities, and land." Dr. Sarah Morin stated the statement and emphasized the word custodians. “Thousands of species rely on our kindness to care for this world. The earth requires plants and trees to reproduce and to be bountiful, just as many of our religions dictate to us, but the human species is by far the cruelest, as I have witnessed.” Doctor Morin declared as she addressed the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity. And my assumed colleague, Doctor Sini Patel, and her employer, the United States Government, have discovered a new species that they have not shared with all of us. A species with the capacity to communicate, learn, and abilities humans could only dream of. They have been enslaved and experimented with this new species until their death. I have decided to share with all of you, my esteemed colleagues’, proof of their existence and plight. In an instant, screams were heard throughout the audience as the illuminated beings revealed themselves from the shadows of the stage. Doctor Morin stepped out from behind the podium and introduced the world to these iridescent Aliens, the Scientist believed to be Packy's Fae who followed the Bluebells to safety.