The Xenoflora Spell

When it arrived, Aaron didn’t see anything, it all happened too quickly.

Shooting out of the sky, faster than a bullet, it narrowly missed him and his dog, Chase. The air heated up instantly. The cool air of that early autumn evening became so hot that he had to step back as though he had come too close to a campfire. He knew that something had streaked passed him, whistling as it went. It was impossible to see coming down, but he felt it, he heard it, and he could see the after-effect. Clear as day, there was a little hole in front of him in a mound of dirt. It looked like the burrow of a small animal and wasn’t there half a second before.

“Bullshit,” Jeremy said, folding his arms over his barrel chest.

He was shorter than Aaron, with curly blue-black hair, and doubting grey eyes—skeptical was his default expression.

“I swear to God, something came out of the sky,” Aaron said.

Aaron stood in the kitchen of his neighbour and best friend, legs shaking and knees nearly buckling. The rest of his body was like an alder tree in a strong wind.

Before Aaron was even a twinkle in his father’s eye, his great-grandfather was almost crushed by an unsecured load that came loose from a crane. It fell right beside him, nearly ending his life then and there. When he woke up the next day, his hair was white as snow, or so the story went. Aaron wondered if he was going to wake up to find his golden blonde hair had made a similar transformation, going from wheat to cotton.

He had gone home for a time, but then he needed to tell someone what had happened. For the last year, Jeremy had been the sounding board for many things. There was a time when that would have been Rachel, but with the divorce papers signed that time had long since passed.

Jeremy shook his head, but spoke gently, “Have a seat, Aaron, you look like a colt taking its first steps.”

Aaron thanked his friend and clumsily guided himself into a kitchen chair with shaking hands.

Jeremy fetched a beer, as well as a bottle of whiskey and two glasses.

“Well, what do you think it was?”

Aaron drank a generous swig of the beer and took a deep breath.

“A meteorite, if I were pressed,” he admitted.

Both men downed two fingers of whiskey.

“In that case, we should fetch a shovel or two and dig it up,” Jeremy said.

Jeremy was always doing, always needed to be doing. His spotless kitchen attested to that. It wasn’t like the state of constant clutter that Aaron lived in, with dishes often piled in the sink and papers strewn across his dining table.

Both of their houses had been built in the 70s, but Aaron’s kitchen still sported the cabinets, linoleum flooring, and patterned yellow and green wallpaper of that era. Everything in Jeremy’s kitchen was modern: quartz countertops, tile floors, and everything in earth tones. Jeremy had updated it himself two years ago.

“Not tonight, Jer. Not tonight,” Aaron said. “We can do it tomorrow. Tonight… I just need some time. I know if that thing had hit me, whatever it was… I wouldn’t be here. It came hurtling down right between Chase and me. We got lucky.”

It was a chance event in more ways than one. Aaron’s property was the last one on Wisteria Road, a little old dirt road ten clicks outside of their tiny town, Dog Creek, BC. The property was big and untamed. Aaron was no farmer, but he still liked having property. He would have never even noticed if the thing had come down when he wasn’t around.

“Could it have been something else?” Jeremy asked. “Some space debris? Satellites fall back to Earth from time to time.”

Aaron drank his beer and considered this for a second before shaking his head. “It was too small and going too fast.”

“Maybe it was a munition? Like a spy jet or something in the upper atmosphere fired something,” Jeremy said, pouring them both a little more whiskey.

Aaron picked up the whiskey glass, swishing the spirit under his nose and mulling over the question. “I suppose that’s possible, but why just one shot? Why here? That seems more unlikely, but yeah, you could be right, I guess.”

With a clink and a solemn nod, the whiskey in their glasses was gone in an instant.

An alarm went off on Jeremy’s phone, causing Aaron to jump. Jeremy grinned and got up to go to the cupboard, where he fetched some dog food. It was feeding time. Every night at 5:30 pm, his dogs got fed. Three beautiful German Shepherds that weren’t pets, not like Aaron’s dogs. Jeremy’s dogs were there to produce beautiful puppies that sold for $2000 apiece.  

Jeremy spoke over the clang of the Orijen kibble in the metal dog dishes. “So, suppose it is a meteorite or something else from space. It could be worth a lot of money. I heard about a woman who had a meteorite crash through her roof and land in her room. It was worth millions. Don’t you want to know what it is?”

Aaron smiled and nodded. “Of course, but we can do it tomorrow. It’s not going anywhere.”

“Doing it today means it’s done,” Jeremy argued, “be right back.”

He stepped outside, calling, “Biscuit! Grotto! Hall!” The rattle of their dog tags and the patter of their feet announced their approach. “Hey! Sit, stay…” the soft clink of dishes being set down, “alright, go ahead.”

Biscuit and Grotto were females, and Hall was a male. Jeremy kept them outside unless the weather got too bad, and then he put them in the kennels in the basement. Aaron couldn’t relate, he had Chase and Maddie, both mutts from the SPCA, but they slept right on the bed and were with him constantly.

Aaron was starting to feel relaxed; he held his hand up and saw it was steadier now.

Jeremy came back inside and washed his hands at the sink.

“It also means that we haven’t had time to think about it,” Aaron said.

“Huh?” Jeremy said, taking another swig of his beer.  Aaron’s beer was empty.

Aaron blew across the top of the bottle, making a whistling sound. “Doing things right now, that get ‘er done approach. Haven’t you ever heard to look before you leap?”

Jeremy grabbed another beer from the fridge, snatched the old bottle from Aaron, and pushed the full beer toward him. “I think the danger has passed now that it’s in the ground. How could it possibly hurt you?”

“Well, first off, it needs to cool down. Second, what about radiation or potential contamination or something like that?”

Jeremy shook his head. “Life involves a degree of risk, what if a grizzly bear attacks us while we’re digging it up?”

Aaron laughed. “Why do you think I bring my dogs with me on walks?”

Both men pondered for a moment, just sipping their beer. Outside the dogs growled and yipped. Jeremy went out to check on them and called to them a little, reminding Hall to be nice.

“Maybe I should just call someone, an expert or something,” Aaron said.

“Oh yeah, there’s tons of astrogeologists, or whoever you’d need, right up hear in Nechako. Besides, you get those government boobs involved and I guarantee you they try to rob you. They’ll say it has important scientific or educational value and that they need to take it for the good of the general populace. Where will that leave you? Almost killed and no further ahead. All you’ll have is a story to tell and a few more white hairs and wrinkles.”

“If we’re being honest, we have no idea what we’re dealing with here,” Aaron said.

Jeremy nodded. “That’s why we need to dig it up. If you’re worried it’ll be radioactive, I have some lead out in the shop. I could probably line a box or fab some sort of container up. A little limited exposure is fine, we’ll just throw it in a box right away and then figure out what to do from there.”

“That’s a good idea,” Aaron said.

“You’re damn right it’s a good idea,” Jeremy said. “So, if I get a lead-lined box can we go dig this thing up?”

“Tomorrow,” Aaron said, “you can help.”

Jeremy laughed. “Okay, but then we should be drinking your beer and not mine.”

“I grabbed some before I came over,” Aaron admitted, “it’s in the truck.”

“It’d better not be that cheap stuff,” Jeremy said.

“It’s not,” Aaron said.

“Good,” Jeremy said, finishing his. “Well, go get it, will ya?”

***

Shovels slung over their shoulders and gumboots on their feet, Aaron and Jeremy went plodding through the muck of Aaron’s unkempt fields the next day. Aaron had been relieved when he peered in the mirror that morning and found that his hair was still a mane of gold rather than a snowy mop. Maddie stuck close to them, but Chase had gone bounding off after he caught the scent of something. He often did this, and Aaron didn’t worry or call to him.

Both men had a slight hangover, not terrible, but a dull throbbing headache collected behind Aaron’s eyes and although he had drunk several cups of water his tongue still felt like sandpaper.

The fences of Aaron’s fields were slanting and falling, time and neglect returning them to the land. The fields hadn’t known a plow for the decade he had owned it, he hadn’t even attempted to collect the hay from it. As such, trees had begun to grow here and there.

“You really should use this land for something,” Jeremy always told him. He extracted as much as he could out of his 40 acres. Two acres of wheat, one of barley, he rotated where he collected his hay from but always had at least ten acres, not to mention his garden where he grew sweet peas, Russet potatoes, zucchini, and carrots. He even managed to pull tomatoes and peppers out of his greenhouse. Jeremy kept animals too; a sow that he bred yearly, two nanny goats for milk, a few head of cattle, and a coop full of chickens. His greatest pride came from having a meal and declaring, “Everything on this table except the salt came from right here.”

In Aaron’s fields, there were countless rabbits, birds that changed with the seasons, and even a family of bright orange foxes with tail tips that looked like they had been dipped in white paint. All these creatures and more lived on his property. He knew they wouldn’t if he worked the land.

“I’m doing exactly what I want with this land,” was always Aaron’s answer.

That day, Jeremy teased him as they walked. “Surprised you were even out this far in your field, Aaron. Looks like only Mother Nature has used it for years.”

“Me and the dogs walk it. I’m enjoying it in my way. I like to explore. You can’t explore something you completely control,” Aaron said.

Jeremy laughed, “You could do that in a park.”

“Yeah, but this is in my backyard…” They came to the spot, and Aaron fell silent and stopped in his tracks.

“What?” Jeremy asked.

Aaron looked at the spot where it had been. He checked his position against the creek about a hundred meters ahead, and the dilapidated fence to his right. He had marked the position with a little pile of rocks and a stick. This was the spot, but it couldn’t be.

“Something is growing out of the hole,” he said.

What had been a little impact crater now had a tiny stalk growing out of it. Two tiny emerald leaves were unfurling in the mid-morning sun, opening to catch as much of the light as they could on their vascular, spade-shaped surfaces.

Jeremy shook his head. “Yeah, right. You’re sure this is the spot?”

Aaron checked his position again. Yes, there was the little pile of rocks and the stick he had lodged in them that pointed to the sky. “I’m certain. This is the spot.”

“So… what? How is this little guy growing then?” Jeremy asked, pointing the blade of his shovel at the delicate seedling.

Aaron shrugged, his heart rate rising. “I have no idea. Maybe… maybe there was something about to pop up right near where it came down, and it just happened to pop up near the same time.”

“Are you pulling some sort of joke on me, Aaron?” Jeremy asked.

“No!” Aaron yelled, realizing he had been too loud too late. He whispered, “It was here, it came down. I… I don’t know what this is.”

“Well, let’s dig it up and dig under to get to the meteorite,” Jeremy said, lifting his shovel.

“No, wait,” Aaron said, grabbing his friend by his sleeve. His head was spinning.

Jeremy sneered. “What?”

“What if it is an alien plant or something?” The words sounded ridiculous even as he spoke them, but he had to entertain the possibility.

Jeremy roared with laughter. “An alien plant? C’mon Aaron, have you been smoking another plant this morning? There is no way this is an alien plant.”

He lifted the shovel again, ready to tenaciously attack the ground. Aaron threw down his shovel and grabbed Jeremy’s, shaking his head.

“We aren’t going to dig it up, not now,” he said.

Jeremy threw his shovel down and swore. “Really, Aaron? Because of this little sprout, you’re just not going to do anything?”

Aaron couldn’t take his eyes off the little plant.

“Well, you’re right, it being an alien plant is unlikely, but it is growing right out of where it came down. I didn’t see it coming down, it was too fast. Maybe it was some sort of seed or something.”

The plant looked like it was getting taller, visibly growing. Aaron rubbed his eyes.

“You may be insane,” Jeremy said, which was unkind because this was precisely what Aaron was afraid of. “I’m going home to do my chores. This is a total waste of my time, call me if anything exciting happens.”

Another leaf unfurled.

“Wait!” Aaron said.

Jeremy stopped and sighed. “What Aaron?”

“I think,” Aaron said, “that it’s growing. It’s growing fast enough that we can see it grow.”

Maddie was sitting beside Aaron, but just then Chase came crashing through the tall grass to their left, tongue lolling out of his mouth and panting happily. He sauntered over to the little plant and gave it a sniff.

Jeremy shook his head. “No plants grow that quickly.”

Chase laid down in front of the plant and pressed his nose near it, giving another sniff. His tail wagged softly, making a little thumping sound against the ground. Aaron watched the plant and was sure that it was stretching higher to the sky. Another leaf bud began to form along the stalk.

“Just look for a minute, Jer,” Aaron implored.

With a groan, he turned around, crossing his arms over his chest and cocking his head to one side, skeptically. As they watched, the leaf unfurled, and the central stalk thickened slightly and reached higher. Jeremy convinced himself that these things were either not happening or not that unusual, and then a secondary stalk started to creep out of the soil. It emerged, reached up several inches, and two of the little leaves unfurled from here as well.

Jeremy cursed loudly and jumped a little.

“Do you believe me now?” Aaron asked.

Jeremy ran his fingers through his hair and placed his hand on his chin. “Something weird is certainly happening, I’ll give you that.”

“I have an idea,” Aaron said, and he raced over to the creek with his shovel in his hands.

“What are you doing?” Jeremy asked.

Aaron was walking back, slowly, and cautiously, holding the shovel up and in front of him. When he got close, Jeremy could see that he was carrying a shovelful of water with him.   

Maddie had also crept up to the plant, laying in front of it like Chase now and licking at the air and sniffing it.

“Maybe it needs a drink,” Aaron said, pouring the water around the base of the plant.

If they had thought it grew quickly before, it was nothing to what it did then. The main stalk gained height and width, and the secondary stalk followed suit, both produced a handful more leaves, and three more stalks popped up. A new bud began to form, with a flourish of crimson red near the tip of it.

Aaron laughed and whooped. “Believe it now?”

“That’s incredible,” Jeremy said.

Jeremy went and picked up his shovel and ran to the creek to scoop up some more water. Aaron tried to pull Maddie and Chase away, but they growled and grumbled when he did, so he left them.

When the next shovelful of water was dropped on the plant, it repeated the impressive feat of rapid growth, reminding Aaron of the timelapse videos of plants you might see on National Geographic.

Jeremy started to go back to the creek, but Aaron called to him.

“What?” Jeremy asked.

“Let’s just wait a minute. We need to consider this for a second.”

Jeremy stabbed his shovel into the ground and left it standing there, walking back to Aaron. “What now?”

“Well, it seems to me that at the very least something strange is happening with this plant. Do we want to keep watering it?”

“Aren’t you curious to see what this is all about?” Jeremy asked.

Just then, the little bud with the red tip began to open, like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis and spreading its wings for the first time, but this was more striking than any butterfly. The red was a rich crimson, and each of the eight petals that opened was dappled with opalescent spots that flashed orange, yellow, and even purple. The pistil in the center looked dewy like that of a lily, as though already dripping with nectar.

Both dogs inched up to the flower and smelled it. Chase let out an excited yip, the kind he normally reserved for going for a walk or receiving a treat, and then he began to run around like he had the zoomies, doing circles and racing about. Maddie’s tail was going a mile a minute and she even joined in the play.

Jeremy and Aaron looked at each other. Aaron shook his head, but Jeremy was already crouching down and leaning into the flower, he took a deep breath in through his nose. A smile crept over his face then and he laughed.

“Incredible,” he said. “Aaron, you have to take a sniff. I’ve never smelled anything quite like it, it reminds me of a summer night. I can smell the barbecue on the breeze, the dirt, the sweat, and apples ripening on the tree, hell, there’s even a hint of hay drying in the field. I feel like I’m a teenage boy on my father’s farm.”

He took another smell.

“Stop,” Aaron said, “what are you doing?”

Jeremy stood up. “You’re right, but oh man. I feel great now, Aaron.” He went to grab his shovel and started to whip it around like he was using a bow staff.

The dogs came back and sniffed at the flower again, Chase arriving first. He sniffed and ran off. Maddie followed just seconds behind.

Another little flower opened, just as beautiful as the first with its smattering of opalescent spots.

His curiosity got the best of him, what could it hurt? He didn’t smell barbecue or a summer day, there was no hay on the breeze. It reminded him of a new book, or of a space filled with books like a library, no, even better it was the smell of an old bookshop. He could smell the books new and old, the hint of a cat, and coffee. There was a hint of something else in there too, which only after the second smell he recognized as the way that her hair used to smell. He realized this was exactly the smell of the bookshop where he had met Rachel.

A cacophony of emotion poured over Aaron, not all good, but all more than he had felt for a long time. Well, until the fear of yesterday. That was one note, pure terror, but this… this was a complex mix of things, of moments connected to the intermingled smells he was inhaling.

When he straightened, he felt good. Better than he had felt in a long time. Better than booze because now he felt clear, not clumsy. He went to fetch his shovel.

“What are you doing?” Jeremy asked.

“I’m sure it needs more water,” Aaron said.

Jeremy nodded. “How about we go and get a hose?”

“That’s a better idea,” he said with a grin before adding, “Do you have any fertilizer?”

***

It was a Sunday when they had made first contact, this was good because the day passed quickly; they were completely occupied with one task or another. They marvelled at the speed of the plant’s growth. Every bit of resource they provided was used rapidly. By the end of the first day, there was a patch of the alien flora nearly twenty feet across, countless shoots, hundreds of leaves, and a great number of intoxicating blooms. Its flowers were red as a matador’s cape and each was dotted with shimmering spots that made them look bejeweled.

When Aaron fell into bed that night, he slept like never before. They had worked for twelve hours and the whole time with dogged determination and focus. He expected to wake up exhausted the next day. He woke up feeling better than he could remember feeling.

Neither of them wanted to go to work, but not because they didn’t want to work. They were eager to continue what they’d started the day before. Aaron walked out to his field first thing and found a flower to enjoy. First light was just trying to peek over the horizon and with that scent washing over him the morning had never looked so beautiful.

Jeremy’s truck came crawling down his driveway.

“Do you mind if I stop to smell the flowers?” He asked.

“Wouldn’t be very neighbourly of me to say no, would it?” Aaron chuckled.

“I was thinking that I might play hooky today,” Jeremy said, a silly grin spreading over his face after he smelt a particularly large bloom.

Aaron shook his head in disbelief. “You, of all people? I don’t think I’ve seen you miss a day of work even when you’re sick. Even when you tore your rotator cuff.”

“Yeah,” Jeremy said, “but I thought maybe we could putter around today and do a little more with the plant.”

Excuses were provided and lies were told so that they didn’t have to go. After a hearty breakfast, both men worked away to help their herbal visitor. They tilled the soil, worked in the fertilizer, and watered the plant well. It thrived and reached further and higher.

Any chemical fertilizers they had were well used up by the end of the Sunday, but the Monday was spent shovelling shit on Jeremy’s property and driving it over and spreading it about the plant in Aaron’s field. The men never lamented their work, and even Aaron, who had no relish for physical labour, found himself enjoying the exertion, the sweat, and the smell of dirt and manure.

“What’s happening to us?” Jeremy asked.

“I think what we have here is a classic symbiosis,” Aaron said. “It must be some sort of survival strategy, an adaptation to avoid predation or recruit assistance.”

“Symbiosis,” Jeremy asked, disbelieving, “like Venom from Spider-Man?”

Aaron laughed, “That is one symbiosis. Normally they’re a little more beneficial to both organisms. I have to say, Jer. I haven’t felt this good mentally in a long time. Physically… well, ever.” 

The feeling was somewhat like a high, but it lacked the usual downsides. The euphoria didn’t come with a slowing of the wits but rather they felt in the zone and energetic. The energy didn’t come with any tics or tweaks, instead, there was a feeling of comfort and calm.

Five-gallon buckets full of dirt and water felt light, as though they weighed nothing at all.

“Let’s race!” Jeremy suggested.

Aaron nodded eagerly.

They raced through the field, bounding quickly even while loaded down. Never once did they feel winded, only eager to do more and push harder.

There were no aches or pains, no sore knees and backs. The only unease they had was when they refrained from taking a sniff of the blossoms. Even then, it wasn’t true discomfort or anything even nearing pain, it was more of a pull, an inclination. It was akin to a slight thirst, but easily slaked and possible to ignore.

Aaron thought that perhaps hunger wouldn’t come, couldn’t touch them in this state, in this spell they were under. When mealtime came their stomachs grumbled. They stopped for lunch, ham and cheese sandwiches on dark rye bread with Campbell’s tomato soup.

Food had never tasted quite so good. The sharpness and flavour of the cheddar, the umami and salt of the ham, the thin spread of Dijon mustard, and the full richness of the rye. It was mana from heaven. The tangy, creamy, warm soup seemed like the most potent of elixirs. Aaron felt akin to the plant, as he ate, he could feel his body taking the nutrients and putting them to immediate use in strengthening and replenishing him.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Jeremy said as they went back to work, “will you look at that?”

“What is it?” Aaron asked.

A fresh sprout had popped up on Jeremy’s property, far from any of the others.

“How did it get over here?” Jeremy asked Aaron.

“Its roots must have crept this far,” he said, half-disbelieving. They were nearly a kilometre from where the plant had come down.

“That’s impossible!” Jeremy said.

Aaron shook his head, “my idea of what is and isn’t possible has changed drastically in the last two days. Who’s to say what this thing can or can’t do?”

As night was falling, they threw the last shovelfuls of manure onto the plant. There was hardly a speck left on Jeremy’s property. His animals would produce more in time, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough to keep up with the growing demands.

“We’ll have to go to town tomorrow to get more fertilizer,” Aaron said. He sat on the tail of the cab and drank water from a large bottle.

“What if our bosses see us?” Jeremy asked, he dabbed the sweat away from his forehead with the corner of his shirt.

Aaron considered this point, of course, they’d be taking tomorrow off again, too. He would go on Wednesday, he told himself, but for now, he was needed. “We’ll have to be careful, maybe even go all the way to Fort St. James. Nobody should see us there.”

“Some of the guys from down at the mill go as far as Fort St. James for supplies,” Jeremy said.

“We can take my truck,” Aaron said, “but I’m going to need your help. Wear a hat or something. Nobody will recognize you unless they get close.”

“What are we even doing, Aaron?” Jeremy said, leaning on his shovel.

The crickets had begun to sing. The last rays of gold and red were clinging to the horizon, and the brightest of the stars were emerging in the dying light. A coyote howled; its yipping call was answered back by others of its kind.

Aaron laughed, chucking his shovel into the back of the truck. “I can’t say I fully know. I feel like I want to help this plant, I feel like I want to be around it. I know that these ideas are not fully my own, but they don’t feel wrong. I just want to keep doing what we’ve been doing, don’t you?”

Jeremy worked at a bit of a label that was still stuck to the handle of his shovel. “But what is this thing? What does it want here?”

“I know what you know, but I think you may, for the first time, be overthinking it,” Aaron said. “This is a plant. It wants what all living things want: to live and thrive. It has developed so that it can, apparently across multiple worlds. There doesn’t have to be a plot or ploy.”

“But what can stop it? It may not have a ploy, but you’ve seen as well as I have what an invasive species can do. Think of Vancouver Island and the Scottish Broom there. From only a few plants they grew and spread until the entire island was covered with that noxious yellow. That’s an invasive species from another continent, not another world, and it certainly had no mechanism for recruiting the locals. What if this plant keeps growing and keeps growing until it covers the world? It has us, I can feel the hook as much as you only see the bait. What happens when others fall under its spell?’

Aaron’s stomach grumbled and he wanted the conversation to be over, to eat a hearty dinner, and to fall into bed where he was sure sleep would find him almost immediately. “You’re stressing about things that aren’t and may never come to be.”

“And I don’t think you’re taking this seriously enough,” Jeremy said.

“Yeah, that’s normally your take on things. Let’s see what comes.”

The coyotes howled again.

“Chase! Maddie!” Aaron called. The two dogs came running. They, too, had been enjoying the plant and their tails were wagging and tongues lolling out of their mouths. “We should go inside,” Aaron said.

“Tell me, Aaron,” Jeremy said, “tell me what that we won’t let anyone else fall into what we’re in.”

“It could be good for them,” Aaron said.

“Neither of us knows what this is yet,” Jeremy said.

Aaron sighed. “Until we know better, then. We won’t let anyone else get pulled in.”

“Thank-you,” Jeremy said.

Aaron just nodded.

“Dinner at your place?” Jeremy asked.

“I’ll grill us up some steaks,” Aaron agreed.

“Finally, something we can agree on.”

***

Wisteria Road was an old dirt road, as windy as it was rough.

“You’re driving like a grandma,” Jeremy complained.

“You were too chicken to bring your truck, so now you’re going to have to put up with my granny driving,” Aaron said.

Jeremy groaned and pretended to beat his head against the passenger side window.

“Come on,” Aaron said, “it isn’t that bad.”

The leaves on the trees had begun to turn, the indication that summer was truly over. Their neighbours were few and far between, but the fields had all been harvested a couple of weeks prior in anticipation of the first frosts of the season. Even those that were well cared for were a mess of mud and ruts and ridges now.

“What’s that?” Jeremy asked, pointing into the field of the next property over from his.

Aaron squinted and looked, slowing the truck to get a better look. “I don’t believe it.”

They stopped the truck and got out. Neither man was wearing his gumboots, expecting to go to town as they were. It was a couple hundred meters away, in a field that belonged to the next neighbours up the road from Aaron, the Boyds. A little cluster of three stalks had begun to grow, each with leaves and flowers already. It was the red that had caught Jeremy’s eye.

“It grew out this far?” Jeremy asked in disbelief.

Aaron nodded. “It seems to have.”

“Well, what do we do, Aaron?” Jeremy asked.

Aaron thought quickly.

“We should pull it up before they find it,” Jeremy suggested, going to take a step into the field. His foot sank deep into the mud almost instantly.

“If the roots have made it this far, then that isn’t going to do much to stop it. Especially if it’s still thriving on my property and gaining a foothold on yours. As long as it has leaves, it’ll just send up fresh shoots again,” Aaron reasoned, “besides, we’ll have a hell of a time getting that far in the field now. We’re both wearing runners.”

Jeremy pulled his foot back, a wet sucking noise coming from the mud and almost stealing his shoe as though to punctuate what Aaron had said.

“What then?” Jeremy demanded. “We have to do something.”

Aaron nodded. “Let’s just warn them to steer clear of it for now. We can try to cut it back when we get back from town, or maybe tell them to wear masks and cut it back when they see it.”

“Good idea,” Jeremy said, smiling.

Tim and Beth Boyd were relatively new to Wisteria Road. They had no children and were in their early 30s. This was the second year that they had lived on the property that was still sometimes referred to as the old Helman place after Doug Helman who had lived there for forty years prior. Neither Aaron nor Jeremy knew them well, but they had always been neighbourly. Beth was a carpenter and Tim was a schoolteacher and they had moved from the big city in hopes of a simpler life.

There was no answer when they knocked on their door.

“It’s a Tuesday, most people are working,” Jeremy said.

Aaron nodded. “Of course, damn, maybe we should just pull it now before they even notice.”

Jeremy shook his head. “Daylight is burning, and we have to get to town, let’s just leave a note.”

The note read:

“Hello Tim and Beth,

Just wanted to warn you that there is an invasive species that has crept up on my property and I noticed it in your field today. It has red flowers with eight petals and multicoloured spots. It is nice to look at, but it can be highly toxic if you smell or handle it. If you’re going to try to remove it, please wear gloves and respirators.

You do not have to remove it, and I would suggest you don’t. I will be back later to remove it from your field.

There’s no need to call conservation. I’ve already called them, and this is what they said to do,

Your neighbour,

Aaron Lund”

Aaron wrote the note and Jeremy read it over.

“You’re lying about calling conservation,” he said.

“Do you want them out here?” Aaron asked.

When they got to town, there was a slight headache building behind Aaron’s eyes.

Fort St. James was not a large town, built on the south end of Stuart Lake it was home to less than 2000 people. Once a fur trading fort for the Hudson Bay Company, it had never grown into a city, but it was the closest thing they had for a few hundred clicks. Many of the original structures of the fort remained, now a heritage site and attraction for tourists. The main street in the town was Highway 27, or Stuart Lake Highway. Everything worth seeing in the town was on this road or an offshoot of this road, but there wasn’t all that much to see.

Aaron’s mind wandered to the flower; those red petals with their shimmering spots, he imagined that amazing smell, and the way that it made him feel.

“Huh?” Aaron asked, aware that Jeremy had been speaking but not hearing him. They were parked outside of the hardware store. A castle building centre dubbed Ouellette Bros Building Supplies.

“Let’s get this done,” Jeremy said, breaking him from his reverie.

They bought an ample supply of manure, chemical fertilizers, new tools, and some irrigation equipment. Finally, they stopped to buy respirators.

“Why do we need these?” Jeremy asked. He was concerned about his bank account which he was only used to seeing steadily increase or be rolled into his retirement savings. Missing two days of work plus their spending spree was a difficult combination for Jeremy.

“Think about it,” Aaron said, “we told Tim and Beth they needed to wear respirators.”

Jeremy arched one eyebrow and shook his head. “So?”

“So, if we’re going to go and try to remove the plant from their field then we need to be wearing respirators, don’t we?” Aaron reasoned.

Jeremy nodded reluctantly, “we will, I guess you’re right.”

That wasn’t the end of Jeremy’s questions.  

“Why are we here?” Jeremy asked when they pulled up to the Save-On-Foods.

Aaron sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. His headache was worse now, and it was making him more irritable. “You know, Jer, just for once I’d like you to answer questions for me. Why the hell do you think we’re here man? I was thinking I wanted to buy a puppy.”

“Do you need groceries?” Jeremy asked, peering around himself. He looked like hell, not just nervous, but rough as well. Like a man who had been on a bender for a few days and then tried to go out in public. He had dark circles under his eyes, his hair was damp with sweat, and he’d gone pale.

“Not desperately, but I don’t want to be coming back tomorrow to pick up milk, I thought that we would stock up,” Aaron said, he looked at himself in the mirror to find that he didn’t look much better.  

Jeremy shook his head. “Are you skipping work tomorrow?”

“Aren’t you?” Aaron asked.

Jeremy thought for a moment. “I need to go back.”

“Fine then, feel free, but I’m going to skip the week. I already know I don’t want to go, and I can afford it.” Aaron went to get out of the truck.

Jeremy grabbed his arm.

Aaron looked down at Jeremy’s hand and pulled away. “What?”

“Doesn’t that concern you at all? You’re dropping your job for a week for this thing.”

Aaron shrugged. “It’s more interesting than most of the stuff that goes on in my life. If that’s a problem that I’m going to enjoy it for as long as it lasts, then so be it.”

“I just want you to be careful, to not get caught up in this thing,” Jeremy said.

Aaron laughed. “Not get caught up in it? Jeremy, I have news for you my friend, we are completely caught up in this. Look in the bed of my truck. Do you see the hundreds of dollars we both just spent? What would you call that?”

Jeremy sighed and shook his head. “If this is going to be a part of our lives, we have to make it sustainable.”

“Normally you’d be right, but how often are we going to have an alien plant to tend to? We’ll have plenty of time to work, but this isn’t going to happen again.”

“Unless it just keeps on happening,” Jeremy said.

“Right because the plant is going to take over the world,” Aaron said laughing.

“It could happen,” Jeremy said.

“It’s never going to happen,” Aaron said.

“If it could spread to my property and to the Boyds’, what’s to stop it from going further?”

“Mountain, oceans, the fact that the winter is right around the corner and who knows if this thing can survive when the temperature goes down and it’s dark for 18 hours a day?”

Jeremy gritted his teeth, “you think that night when the thing first came down, you think that was a seed, right?”

Aaron nodded, “yeah, I do think some sort of seed came down.”

“And that seed survived the vacuum of space, temperatures nearing absolute zero, and then entering our atmosphere and colliding with the Earth.”

“That’s about the size of it.”

“I don’t think winter has shit on what this plant has survived already,’ Jeremy said.

“And I have a feeling that our time is shorter than you think. I feel better than I have in years, this is something special. I woke up this morning to no pain. I have hardly thought about Rachel and when I do it doesn’t hurt like it did before. Would you look away from a comet or a lunar eclipse? This is a goddamn miracle, and you want to go to work. You can do whatever you want, but I am stocking up on food and taking the next week off,” Aaron said, and he slid out of the cab and slammed the driver’s side door behind him.

Jeremy sat in silence for a few seconds before he got out of the truck and went to stock up on groceries.

***

The sun was already set by the time they finally got back to Wisteria Road. Aaron’s truck was old, a ’96 F-150, and she was wheezing a little bit as they trundled along the serpentine gravel path. 

They peered into the fields of the surrounding neighbours. Neither said a word to the other, but both were scanning, searching for any signs of the plant there. An unspoken agreement had formed between the two men, each knew that any sign of the plant spreading further would trigger a need to act. They would tell someone. They needed to worry if it had spread.

But no signs of the plant came. They scanned the growing darkness for any signs of the infection spreading, but they saw nothing. As they drove past the Boyds’, they saw that they had a bonfire burning. They peered into their field but couldn’t make out the little plant. By then darkness was engulfing the terrain in earnest and it was hard to make out much. The world was all that was illuminated by the twin beams of the old truck.

“Should we stop?” Aaron asked.

Jeremy shook his head. “We should get home and drop off what we can first, have some dinner, too.” He didn’t say but both were thinking it, “and have a little whiff of the plant’s flowers.”

Both men had felt the impulse growing, their desire, at first just a nagging thought in the back of their minds, was becoming more pressing with every moment that passed. Aaron pressed the gas, and sped up, eager to get home.

As they pulled into the drive, headlights sweeping over the place, something was amiss. There were tire treads that weren’t his own in some of the soft mud. There was a little dirt road that stretched from the front of his place to the back. It was little more than a couple of ruts where the grass had been driven over enough that it didn’t grow as tall as that to the sides and between These ruts were marked up more than they had been, a larger tread was here. There was a note on the door as well.

When they parked, Jeremy practically leapt out of the vehicle and started for the field. The dogs were going insane inside, yipping and scratching at the door. They never did this, even on days when he left them for 10 or 12 hours. Aaron fought the pull to go to the field and let them out.

They must have felt the same desperation he did, he reasoned, as he opened the door. There were deep grooves and scratches in the door, and he cursed at the sight of them but had no time to dwell on the matter. He needed to get to the flower, that’s why he left the note taped to his door and hurried to the back without reading it. The note could wait.

It was Jeremy’s cries of anguish he heard next, and then it was the dogs yowling. The tone of those cries and yowls raised gooseflesh on his arms instantly, every hair on the back of his neck stood at attention.

“What is it?” Aaron shouted.

“Gone,” Jeremy replied, “all gone!”

No. It couldn’t be. Aaron ran, mud in the fields be damned. With each sucking, squelching step he felt water penetrating the mesh of his shoes, but he didn’t care. His ankles threatened to twist or pull, but he pushed himself onward to where the plant grew. He had noticed in the morning that a little shoot had come up much closer to the house, but it wasn’t there now.

The cries were coming from deeper in the field, where the heart of the plant lay, where the seed had come down. He pushed himself, running as best as he could in the muck and the mire. He fell and got up. He lost a shoe and kept going with a socked foot, he needed to see the plant, to get to the plant.

And then he was there. In the field, where the mass of the beautiful alien plant had grown. Where those delicate red blossoms had spread open, and their scent and nectar had brought an ethereal quality to the neglected pasture. But there was nothing there. A great gouge in the landscape, but every stalk, every leaf, every flower had been stolen. It had been excised by some force.

Jeremy’s cries of anguish and anger went on, but they were joined by a new voice, by a new keening wail that Aaron realized was his own.

When sense returned, which was not soon, the men were standing and shivering in the fields despite it being a warm evening. It was dark, and the dogs would not come away when Aaron called them. His voice, he realized, had gone hoarse.

“What happened?” Jeremy asked, his voice sounding like he had smoked an entire carton of Du Maurier.

“I don’t know, but let’s go back to the house,” Aaron croaked. The coyotes howled far closer than he would have liked to hear them.

Jeremy acquiesced, but the way that a man who had been in a car crash would say yes to nearly anything he was asked. His stare looked far into the distance and yet seemed to capture nothing.

“Maddie, Chase!” Aaron called desperately, pain shooting through his throat.

The dogs didn’t come, and when Aaron tried to grab a hold of Chase, he was rewarded with a bite. Blood flowed as red as the flowers’ petals had been, the flowing liquid caught the moonlight.

Aaron cursed the dog and gave up, urging Jeremy back to the house along with him.

When the men got to the house, Aaron ripped the note off the door.

It read:

“Hey Aaron,

Thank you for the warning about the plant. We walked the fields when we got home and found it in three spots! We quickly dug up and burnt them, following your directions for safe handling. We thought to repay the favour for the warning, we would remove the plant from your fields too. Hope you don’t mind, but we scoured them and managed to find a big concentration of the things. Worked at it for a few hours, but I think we got them all. Burning them on a bonfire tonight if you want to come by.

Thanks again,

Tim and Beth”

They read the note in disbelief, first Aaron, re-reading it in an attempt that the words might process better on the second go. They did not. His head was swimming while Jeremy read the note, turning it over afterward as though there might be more, perhaps a line saying “Just Kidding!” There was nothing else on the back.

“What are we going to do?” Jeremy asked.

“I don’t know,” Aaron said.

They were still standing by Aaron’s front door. The coyotes howled in the distance; they could hear Chase and Maddie snarling and barking at them.

“I feel like I’m coming down with something,” Jeremy said.

“I know,” Aaron said. The headache that had been building was now a sharp pain. It felt like someone was driving a railway spike into his eye. His chest was tight, and all the aches and pains he had missed out on from the days before seemed to have found him. His mouth started to water, and a wave of nausea swept over him.

“We need to do something,” Jeremy said, retching.

This started Aaron retching, too. Nothing came up and he realized that, thankfully, he hadn’t eaten in hours.

“Do you see what it’s doing to us?” Jeremy demanded.

“It isn’t doing this,” Aaron managed to say, “not having it is doing this to us.”

“I wouldn’t be feeling this way had I never encountered it, Aaron. It’s definitely doing this to us,” Jeremy said.

“Well, we don’t have it anymore, they destroyed any of it on my property.”

“That’s it!” Jeremy said. “On your property, and on the Boyds’, but it wasn’t just on those two properties, was it?”

The faintest hint of hope began to well in Aaron’s gut, and he realized that Jeremy was right. “There was that small growth on your property, near the chicken coop.”

Jeremy nodded. “That’s right, let’s go.”

It was a short drive, but possibly the most dangerous one either man had ever been on. Aaron was in less-than-ideal condition to get behind the wheel, and there was no more granny driving. He drove like a bat out of hell up his driveway, down Wisteria, and up Jeremy’s drive.

They were shaking like a washing machine with broken bearings when they got out of the truck. They ran around the house, and much to their delight they saw it there, a few more stalks had popped up, and there were eight of the red flowers, their glimmering spots shining in the moonlight.

Aaron let out a yip of pure unadulterated joy and his shaking legs suddenly seemed to gain a lot more surety and he found himself running toward the plant. Jeremy was shortly behind, and when they were near to it he pulled ahead of Aaron and spun around blocking his path.

“Wait!” he called, holding up his hands.

Aaron’s first impulse was to strike him and keep running but somehow, he choked it down and growled, “What the hell are you doing?”

“Don’t do it! We can stop! Just turn around and we’ll go back in the house and pour a beer, Aaron.”

“How the hell is a beer going to help me now, Jer? You think a beer is anything compared to this? Get out of my way.”

The men stood in an uneasy standoff in the near pitch black. A breeze blew, and overhead great silver clouds raced across the starry sky. The moon’s light blinked in and out.

Jeremy’s face, momentarily lighted, pulled into a pained face of determination. He was wincing as he said the word, “No.”

A cloud rolled across their lunar lamplight, and Aaron raced past Jeremy. On most days, Jeremy was easily the stronger and fitter man. His life dictated that he would be, had to be. But on that night, Aaron was giving fully into the impulse and drive, and Jeremy was fighting an internal battle while also trying to fight on the front outside of himself.

Aaron deked around and pushed Jeremy. Jeremy’s muscles were sluggish and slow, and he slipped in the mud. Aaron was at the flowers, and breathed deeply, letting out a groan of pure pleasure and ecstasy as the scent bathed him and wrapped itself around the folds of his cerebrum like a babe in a blanket.

“Aaron, stop, don’t you see? Haven’t you seen how deeply it’s got you?”

“Come on, Jer, join me,” Aaron said, stroking one of the petals and breathing again, “you know you want to.”

“We should burn it now, Aaron. Destroy it!”

Aaron smiled taking another whiff, “C’mon Jeremy, we both know it’s far too late for that.” Waves of pleasure washed over him, every pain began to fade like rain droplets in the midday sun, and he felt strong again. “You have no idea what this plant could be, the joy it could bring to others, how it could improve people’s lives.”

Jeremy shook his head and ran on shaky legs back to the house.

Aaron would have followed him, but as Jeremy retreated, Chase and Maddie came out of the darkness. They were both limping and bloodied. The coyotes. Aaron rushed to them, and discovered quickly that Chase was hurt but would be okay. Maddy, on the other hand, had a wound bleeding profusely on her neck.

“You’ll be okay, girl,” Aaron said. She whined softly in response.

He tried to staunch the bleeding and pulled off his shirt to do so, but it kept flowing.

Chase limped up to the plant and smelled its flowers, but then returned to Aaron’s side.

Maddie’s eyes were beginning to close. Aaron stroked her head. “No, no, no. Stay with me, girl.” He called to the house, “Jeremy! Help! Maddie’s been hurt!”

Chase circled them, whining. Aaron watched as he circled them quickly. Chase wasn’t favouring one front paw over the other anymore.

“What happened to your limp?” Aaron asked.

He let out a low bark. Realization dawned on him, he held his own hand up in the moonlight. The wound where chase had bit him earlier had sealed itself, he hadn’t noticed as it was just one of so many discomforts and pains.

Aaron thought quickly and decided. “It’s worth a try,” he said.

He carried Maddie over to the plant and put her nose right next to a flower. Her breathing was shallow, and at first, there was nothing. Then she breathed deeply, and again. She sniffed so hard that she pulled the delicate flower right against her nose with her inhale.

“Yes, that’s it,” Aaron said, and he watched with wonder as the wound on her neck began to stitch itself closed.

In a minute, her eyes were open again and her tail was wagging softly, in another minute, she was standing. He heard a growl, but it hadn’t come from either of the dogs’ throats. He realized it was Maddie’s stomach grumbling, and his gave a gurgle of its own. They were all famished. Hunger had replaced the nausea of moments earlier.

“Are you guys hungry?” He asked.

Both dogs barked. They went to Jeremy’s house, but the door was locked. He banged and shouted, told Jeremy to open, and peered in through the glass, but he couldn’t see anyone. For a second, he considered breaking in. Jeremy was being ridiculous after all, but he would have a hard enough time talking to him about everything without breaking his front door.

They drove back home. After unloading the groceries he had bought in town, Aaron cooked up a  meal that could have fed a family of four: three steaks, canned peas and corn, potatoes, kraft dinner, and a bag salad. He filled the dogs’ dishes with Alpo and plunked a steak in each.

That meal tasted better than any Aaron had ever had, and he was certain the dogs felt the same. They ate until bursting and then sat in the afterglow and satisfaction of their glut.   

Sitting in his dining room chair, Chase and Maddie came over to him and each placed their head on one of his legs. He petted them and played with Maddie’s ears.

“I’m so glad you’re alright, girl,” he said to her.

Then, something caught his eye outside. He shook his head and looked again, but it was clear even from this distance. Getting up, he walked outside and peered across the fields to Jeremy’s property, and there glowing orange in the blackness of night was the blaze.

In horror, he realized that Jeremy had lit a fire by his chicken coop.

***

There was a knock at the door. Aaron cursed. He answered the door in his sweatpants and a stained t-shirt. The stubble on his chin was thick from a few days’ growth.

Jeremy was standing on his porch, a look that was equal parts concern and anger on his face.

“What do you want?” Aaron asked.

“C’mon, Aaron. You know what I want. I haven’t seen you in days and I went by your work. They said you weren’t in last week and haven’t been in this week. What have you been doing?”

Aaron shrugged, “Just trying to make it through.”

“It was nearly two weeks ago, Aaron. I thought we would be past this,” Jeremy said.

“We will never be past this. The biggest mistake I made was letting you in on what was going on over here. If you don’t mind, I’m busy, and you aren’t welcome.”

Jeremy flinched. “Just like that?”

“Yeah, just like that,” Aaron said, steely-eyed. “Get out of here.”

Jeremy turned to leave, he took a few steps back to his truck, and then he spun on his heel. “It’s too bad that this tore us apart. You were my best friend, and I hate to think that something so simple could destroy our friendship.”

Aaron laughed, it was a cold and humourless laugh. “You think this was simple? You think this was just a little thing that ruined our friendship?”

Jeremy nodded slowly.

“Jeremy, this was a once-in-a-lifetime, no, once-in-one-hundred-billion-lifetime occurrence. You acted unilaterally while lacking all the information. You decided for the both of us, for the entire human race with limited information. You fear what you don’t know, and rather than collect information, you want to act while ignorant under the guise of being effective and productive. You’re not a thinker, you’re not a planner, you’re just a mindless doer. This time you did the wrong thing.”

Jeremy choked down the insult and spoke calmy, “it was controlling us.”

“It was helping us, and it healed Maddie,” Aaron yelled.

Jeremy raked his fingers through his hair. “You told me that,” he agreed.

“I told you that, but you don’t believe me,” Aaron said.

“Well, it does sound pretty unbelievable,” Jeremy said.

Aaron snorted. “I wouldn’t lie, Jer.”

“I don’t think you lied… but I just didn’t see it for myself.”

“There was blood on your property, near the plant, wasn’t there?”

“Yes,” Jeremy conceded.

“Where do you think that came from?” Aaron demanded.

“I don’t know. Maybe the dogs were bleeding a little. Maybe they were hurt and maybe it did heal them, but I didn’t see it,” Jeremy said, “All I know is it was hell for me to break free from that plant’s influence. I don’t know about all the rest of what happened that night.”

“It was hell to be without it, you’re right. And you don’t know all that happened, but that doesn’t matter. Either you trust me, or you don’t,” Aaron said.

Jeremy sighed. “Fine, I trust you. Are we good?”

“No, we aren’t,” Aaron said, “because I don’t trust you anymore. Now get the hell off my property.”

Jeremy went to say something else, but Aaron closed the door.

He watched through the window as Jeremy walked away, got in his truck, and drove down the driveway. Once he was sure that he was alone again, he went back down to the basement.

The dogs were down there, they were always down there now. The hydroponics setup hadn’t been cheap, and he knew that soon he would need to buy more lights. He had needed to drive into Prince George just to get what he needed. The twelve little clones in their pots were thriving now. Each had at least a couple of blooms on them, and the wonderful smell filled the air.

He breathed deeply and hummed away as he watered and fertilized his little population. Maddie came up to him, wagging her tail and sniffing at the plants.

“They’re just ours now, girl, and nobody else needs to know,” Aaron said.

The pieces of root he had dug up from his field had needed coaxing. It had taken time and a lot of effort. Finally, they had come back. Now they were flourishing.

When the winter passed, he would plant some of them outside, deep in the woods behind his property, on the banks of Stuart Lake. A plan had begun to form to drive to Vancouver and plant it here and there along the road. This time he would be careful; this time he would make sure the plant gained a foothold that would be unbreakable.

It was here to stay, and nothing was going to stop them.

© Benjamin Bielert, all rights reserved