The Venus Trap, Page 3

want to go home."

  She was very young--less than eight years younger than he, true, but hewas mature for his age. They didn't know each other very well. And,finally, there were more men than women on the planet and he had noticedthat the bachelors had seemed readily disposed, upon her arrival the daybefore, to overlook the fact that she had no college degree. So he mustbe patient with her.

  "There's nothing wrong about it, dear. The plants here synthesizecyanophyll instead of chlorophyll; that's why the leaves are blueinstead of green. And, of course, there are different mineralconstituents of the soil--more aluminum and copper, for instance, thanon Earth, and some elements we haven't quite isolated yet. So, you see,they're bound to be a little different from Terrestrial trees."

  "A little different I wouldn't mind," she said sulkily, "but they're alot different without being nearly alien enough."

  "Look, Phyllis--_dear_--those trees have been very hospitable, verykind. We owe them a lot. They themselves suggested that we come here andlive with them in, so to speak, symbiosis."

  "That's a fine idea!"

  * * * * *

  He beamed. "I knew you'd understand after I had explained it to you."

  "We provide the brains and they provide the furniture."

  "Phyllis! What a thing to say!"

  "I've heard of man-eating trees before. I suppose there could beman-loving ones, too."

  "Phyllis, these trees are as gentle and sweet as--as--" He didn't knowhow he could explain it to her. No one who had never been friends with atree could appreciate the true beauty of the xylemic character. "Why, weeven offered to go over to the other side of the planet and fetch somepollen for them, but they wouldn't hear of it. Unfortunately, they'drather die than be mated to anyone they had never met."

  "What a perfectly disgusting idea!"

  "I don't think so. Trees can be idealistic--"

  "You fetching pollen for her, I mean. Naturally she wouldn't want pollenfrom a tree on the other side of the planet. She wants _you_!"

  "Don't be silly. Incompatibility usually exists between the pollen ofone species and the stigmata of another. Besides," he added patiently,"I haven't got pollen."

  "You'd better not, or it won't be her who'll have the stigmata."

  "Phyllis--" he sat down on the arm of her chair and tried to embraceher--"you know that you're the only life-form I love."

  "Please, James." She pushed him away. "I guess I love you, too, in spiteof everything ... but I don't want to make a public spectacle ofmyself."

  "What do you mean now?"

  "That tree would know everything that goes on. She's telepathic."

  "Where did you get a ridiculous idea like that? What kind of rubbishhave you been reading?"

  "All right, tell me: how else did she learn to speak such good English?"

  "It's because she's of a very high order of intelligence. And Isuppose--" he laughed modestly--"because I'm such a good teacher."

  "I don't care how good a teacher you are--a tree couldn't learn to speaka language so well in five months. She must be telepathic. It's the onlyexplanation."

  * * * * *

  "Give her time," the tree advised later, as James came out on the lawnto talk to his only friend on the planet.

  He hadn't seen much of the other scouts since the house-building frenzyhad started, and visits among the men had decreased. The base camp,where the bachelors and the older married couples lived, was located agood distance away from his land, for he had raised his honeymooncottage far from the rest; he had wanted to have his Phyllis all tohimself. In the idyll he had visualized for the two of them, she wouldneed no company but his. Little had he imagined that, within twenty-fourhours of her arrival, he would be looking for company himself.

  "I suppose so," he said, kicking at a root. "Oh, I'm sorry, Maggie; Ididn't think."

  "That's all right," Magnolia said bravely. "It didn't really hurt. Thatfemale has got you all upset, you poor boy."

  James muttered a feeble defense of his wife.

  "Jim, forgive me if I speak frankly," the tree went on in a low rustle,"but do you think she's really worthy of you?"

  "Of course she is!"

  "Surely on your planet you could have found a mate more admirable,high-minded, exemplary--more, in short, like yourself. Or are all thehuman females inferior specimens like Phyllis?"

  "They're--she suits me," James said doggedly.

  "Of course, of course. It's very noble of you to defend her; you wouldhave disappointed me if you had said anything else, and I honor you forit, James."

  He kicked at one of the pebbles. The tree meant well, he knew, yet, likeso many well-meaning friends, she succeeded only in dispiriting him. Itwas almost like being back at the faculty club.

  "I don't suppose a clod like her would have brought any more booksalong," the tree changed the subject. James's own library had beeninsufficient to slake the tree's intellectual thirst, so he had gone allover the planet to borrow books for Magnolia. Dr. Lakin, at Base, whohad formerly taught English literature, possessed a fine collectionwhich he had been reluctant to lend until he had learned that they werenot for James but for a tree. At that, he had fetched the books himself,since he was anxious to meet her.

  "A lot of the trees here have learned the English language," he had toldJames, "but none seems to have developed a taste for its literature.Your Magnolia is undoubtedly a superior specimen. Excellent naturaltaste, too--perhaps a little unformed when it comes to poetry and themore sophisticated aspects of life, but she'll learn, she'll learn."

  * * * * *

  Unfortunately, the same, James knew, could hardly be said of his wife."Phyllis did bring some books," he told Magnolia.

  "For you, no doubt. That was kind of her. I'm sure she has many goodqualities which will unfold one by one, as her meristems startdifferentiating. I hope you don't feel I've been too--well, personal,Jim. I was only trying to help. If I've gone too far...."

  "Of course not, Maggie. After all--" he laughed bitterly--"I do know youbetter than I know her."

  "We _have_ been good friends, haven't we, Jim? It was rather nice--thesefive months we spent alone together. For the first time in my life, Ihave never regretted being so far from my sisters. 'And this our life,exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the runningbrooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.'"

  Her blue leaves shone violet in the scarlet rays of the setting sun; thegold of her trunk was lit with red radiance. She was the most beautifulcreature he had ever seen ... but she was a tree, not a woman.

  "I'm sure she'll fit in after a while," Magnolia continued. "Perhaps sheisn't well. She seems to guttate an awful lot. Do you suppose she's beenoverwatered?"

  "That wasn't guttation," James said heavily. "It was tears. It meansshe's unhappy."

  "Unhappy? Perhaps she won't fit in on this planet, in which case sheshould by all means go back to Earth. It's cruel and unfair to keep anintelligent--loosely speaking--life-form anywhere against her will,don't you think?"

  "She'll be happy here," James vowed. "I'll _make_ her happy."

  "Well, I certainly hope you can manage it! By the way, do you supposeyou'll have a chance to read me the books she brought, or will she bekeeping you too busy?"

  "I'll never be too busy to read to you, Magnolia."

  "That's very nitrogenous of you, Jim. Our--intellectual communions havemeant a lot to me. I'd hate to have to give them up."

  "So would I," he said. "But there won't be any need to. Phyllis willunderstand."

  "I certainly hope so. I so admire your English literature. It's sodeeply cognizant of the really meaningful things in life. And if yourcoming to this planet has served only to add poetry to our culturalheritage, it would be reason enough to welcome you with open limbs. Forit was a truly perceptive versifier who wrote the immortally simplelines: 'Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.' />
  "And such a charming tune to go with it, too," Magnolia went on. "Wehave always sung the music that the wind and the rain have taught us,but, until you came, we never thought of putting words and melodytogether to form one glorious whole. 'A tree that may in summer wear,'"she caroled in a pleasing contralto, "'a nest of