Stories Of Years Past

Wishes are birds.

For 5 minutes, Susan was on top of the world. She literally had everything she wanted in her life- well almost. The Nobel Prize will be later next year but here in her hands was the key to it. She had led an expedition into the Managolian Jungle to find the rare and priceless flower of Taqua. The expedition cost three hundred million dollars. They had brave the ever-ranging Mangan storm, the fleeing Zazibees, the man-eating Chewbacca, lost two of the team but it was worth it. She kept telling herself as she stares at the translucent flower which by just staring at it gives her an unbelievable amount of energy. She could walk all the 10000 miles home. She could do it.

Unfortunately, in her joy, the Morning Glory she had warned her people about, that they had started to call her Nagging Sue, with its glowing orbs that self pollen when it sensed a high sense of energy sensed her, rose up and touched her.  In her fear, she dropped the flower and the orbs floated back down.

Oh, she knew about the Morning Glory.  With such a name one would think of a nice harmless flower that lit up when the sun rose. Not this one, this one drains the power from its victims and totally weakens them. Basically a death sentence. However, it did this gradually that no one suspected but she knew. She studied them for three long years filled with dusty books, breakers and microscopes, and loneliness. Only she had the antidote, which was in the one place her Taqua could never survive. She had to make a decision. Live and watch the flower die, for it only has a day's power before it starts to fade, then lose its power or get it to the company and die a hero.

The choice was easy. Much easier than she thought. 300 hundred million dollars over an Einstein's brain. She extracted a seed from the flower, making sure it is well preserved and gave it to her teammates while arguing with them to leave for the lab. She was taking the Taqua home with her. She was choosing to live, the world needed her even if they didn't know it yet and she wasn't going to die a senseless death. There is no reason to be a hero when one wasn't needed. Just common sense.

While her back was turned, deciding on how to navigate her way home, her teammates knocked her out, took the flower and left. Three hundred million over a human being, so selfish. As she sank into unconsciousness, she remembered a saying 'two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity.'