THE LOLOS FLOWER
We stepped back from the wall. Brutar led us onward through the
twilight. We passed globes translucent with light from within; heard
the hum and hiss of work going on--but Brutar would not let us enter.
We passed a dark bowl of enormous size, like a great globe cut in half.
We encircled its rim. I stared down into darkness; grey shapes of inert
things were ranged there--things which had been manufactured of the
thought-substance, I surmised. But Brutar would not say.
We skirted the misty lake. It seemed a blanket of fog lying there.
Within me, at the sight, a vague pang stirred. A desire--unpleasant in
its suggestion of a needed gratification; and with it a premonition of
coming pleasure.
I was puzzled. There was no instinct to guide me; or if there was, my
puzzled reason subverted it. I described my feeling to Eo.
"It seems physical," I said. "I had forgotten my body--but there seems
a pang there."
"Thirst," he said readily. The word he used, gave me the thought of
thirst. And this was water, or its equivalent.
I knelt beside the white layers of mist. Did I inhale it, or drink it?
I have no means of knowing; but I know that the pang left me, and that
the experience was vaguely pleasant.
We moved on. Came at last to the great field. Behind us the opposite
side of the encampment--the enclosure wherein I had seen the creation
of thought-material--was now almost over our heads. The ground of
the field was soft and flaky--it seemed as though it might have been
a black soil lying in flakes. Things were rooted within it--growing
things set in long orderly rows that stretched up the concave surface
into the dimness of distance. They appeared to be plants; in height
about to my knee. A central stalk; branches bent outward like gesturing
arms. A bud, or flower, at the top. It seemed to carry features--a
face. My imagination? Something that had been said or suggested to
me? Possibly. But the things bent aside as we advanced upon them.
They seemed eyeing us; suddenly I was conscious of a myriad eyes from
everywhere fixed upon me.
I said to Brutar, "This black ground--is that thought-material?"
"Yes," he said. "Made from the same substance you saw created. But many
mental processes were necessary to bring it to this final state."
"And then you planted these--things in it?" I asked. "They look as
though they had an intelligence. I don't understand that. Are they
growing here--or what?"
Brutar hesitated. I think that the man's learning was not very great.
Eo said:
"I believe I can explain it, Rob. All things in our world are divided
into two classes. One--the inert, material bodies. These we create from
nothingness to their final perfected state. The other class--living
organisms--is very different. The addition of a Creator-Thought is
necessary. These plants--to be specific--are called lolos. The lolos
plant. To create it we must have a spore--an infinitesimal something
already existing. With this spore, others like it may be created by our
own mentalities. And nurtured by our mentalities through a period of
growth. But that latter process can be simplified by the production of
this soil in which the plants are then nourished. It is basically an
identical process."
* * * * *
"It is much like our own world," I said. "Except that these plants seem
to have a conscious mind."
"Why not?" Brutar demanded. "Every living thing has a mind."
Eo added, "Since the essence of everything is mentality--naturally the
spark of life must bring that mentality to consciousness."
"These things then," I said, "they know that they are alive?"
"Of course. And Rob, what you told Brutar of your
Earth-agriculture--what you called your vegetable kingdom--seems not so
very different from ours."
"But it is different," I said. "Our plants--our growing things--are not
aware that they are alive."
Eo demanded gently, "How do you know that? Is it not perhaps that your
own mentality is lacking, to gauge the power of theirs?"
I smiled. "It may be so.... Brutar, these lolos plants--what is their
purpose?"
"With them we are going to your Earth," he said. "This lolos plant
of itself has a power very wonderful. We crush it; and the blood of
it taken into our body, sends the mind upon strange and pleasant
wanderings."
"Evil wanderings," said Eo.
A drug! As Brutar further explained, I realized it. And I wondered
if this lolos plant--the name of it--sounded thus since to my own
mentality it suggested the lotus flower. I think that was so.
The blood of this plant was a powerful narcotic. Brutar had been
addicted to its use; and his wandering mind had come into the
Borderland. He had seen our Earth-realm; gone further until he
experienced the sensations of our physical consciousness. Had come
back, to gather his followers; to create in quantity the blood of this
lolos that all might go to conquer and enjoy this greater realm.
Brutar was absorbed in his subject. Listening to him, I had
nevertheless noticed that Bee's attention was fixed upon Eo. She was
whispering to him. With his sweet, boyish face, he was listening
to her, enraptured. He was close beside her, and I saw that he was
touching her. Brutar, still talking to me, bent to show me one of the
lolos plants. It shrank away from him as though in fear. He frowned;
struck it a blow with his hand. His attention momentarily was diverted
from us. I heard Eo murmur softly, yet tensely.
"You are right--girl. This is evil--I realize it now.... Rob! Hold
yourself firm! Stay with me! We will try to escape...."
* * * * *
I must revert now to Will, Thone and Ala in the Big-City. They had felt
Bee's thoughts; they knew we were in danger; Ala had caught just enough
to know that we were with Brutar.
"We must go," Thone hastily declared. "Try and follow them, Ala....
That Brutar is a mind very powerful for evil."
With Will held firmly between them, they swept out into space. To
Will it was a dream, a nightmare of mental chaos. Rushing through the
dark--through seemingly endless Space for endless Time. But he saw none
of the distorted things that I had seen, for he was in friendly hands.
A rushing black Nothingness sweeping past. A vague dream of flight; but
presently he found his mind clearing.
The void was illimitable. But soon it seemed not wholly empty. To one
side was a faint glow--an infinite distance away, as though it might
have been a nebula gleaming over Space a thousand million Light-years
of distance. Or something shining from another Time--eons away. It
moved sidewise as they swept along. It glowed, faded, was gone.
"We will not go there," Ala murmured. She seemed to shudder. "That is
the Realm of Disease. I hope never to go there."
Endless Time passing. Or perhaps, as Will was thinking, Time was in
abeyance, standing still, non-existent.
And Will saw other far-off gleaming patches, like faint drifting
star-dust. Soon they were gone. He did not ask what they might be.
Ala still felt Bee's thoughts. Then they ceased. Will became aware of a
confusion; a fluttering; as though now the flight had lost direction.
He gazed around intently, searchingly, but the space at that moment was
wholly empty.
"Where are we?" he asked.
Thone and Ala were exchanging thoughts. Thone said:
"Where are we? There is no answer, Will. There is nothing here. We are
nowhere."
A confusion. It seemed that Ala and Thone felt that Brutar's
self-created world might be found by approaching the Realm of Disease.
Will waited, listening silently while they talked of it....
Abruptly Will saw something. A blur--a vague luminosity beneath them.
It was moving. Suddenly he knew it was not large and far-away, but
small and very close. It mounted; broke visually apart, resolved itself
into two dark blobs. Shapes. The moving shapes of a man and a woman.
They came nearer. The woman was Bee! It was Bee and the youthful Eo. He
was clinging to her; she seemed helping him struggle upward.
They reached Will. Bee gasped, "He--he is hurt! Oh Will--it's you! Help
him--his mind struggles to leave us! He is wounded. I think--I think he
is going to die!"
She seemed crying as she flung herself into Will's arms. "I don't want
him to die. He is my friend--so gentle, so lovable--I don't want him to
die!"