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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Science Fiction
- Subject: Science / Science Fiction
- Published: 07/16/2018
Flower Power.
Born 1951, M, from Wilmington NC, United States.jpeg)
Author’s Note:
Prior to the Aliens actually landing on Earth, most people predicted a dire outcome for Earthlings. Science Fiction movies, books, and Netflix Original Shows all set out the same story arc: Earth was doomed to be enslaved, conquered, or used for food. Even rectal probes were deemed a reasonable thing for Aliens who could cross interstellar Space to want to do to us. We were seen as lower than animals- perhaps not even intelligent.
And all of those Scenarios were thought up by us. Not Aliens. We don’t even know what Dolphin’s think, or Chimp’s, or Cats, or any other living creature on Earth. But we thought we knew what an Alien Species capable of traveling to different planets separated by distances measured in light years- thought.
We were wrong.
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The First “Flower” Showed up on the Mall in Washington, DC. It was huge. It towered over 100 feet into the air. A giant stalk that glowed like an oil stain on a puddle topped with a translucent ruby red bulb at the top. It didn’t grow. One moment there was no “Flower”, the next moment- there was one. Just one. One huge stalk, one bright bulb. Millions of questions:
What was it?
Where did it come from?
Why was it here?
What does it do?
Is it dangerous?
Who put it there?
Did it grow there?
No one knew any answers. It just was.
To say the Media went Nuts, that Twitter crashed (not once, but four times in the first hour!), that people streamed to the Mall in record numbers, that the Army set up a perimeter that had a thousand foot circumference- and no one was allowed closer than that- was not hyperbole. Just the facts. The thousand foot “No man’s land” wasn’t determined by any logical method. Just a Colonel that figured the stalk was about 100 feet tall, so ten times that should be a safe distance from the flower. So that is the distance they chose to enforce.
It turned out later, there was no safe distance. But everyone was safe.
**********
For three days and nights the whole world wondered what the “Flower” was. Who put it there? Why? Housewives, Husbands, Marines, Government Officials, Church Leaders, and the guy at the corner barbershop…all sat glued to their screens. Conspiracy theorists abounded- and were given the same credence as anyone else. No one knew what it was, so everyone was on the same ground. It should not be there. Yet, there it was.
By the third day, only three things were known:
It was a living thing.
It wasn’t from Earth.
It hadn’t done anything but stand there.
Until…
**********
The Fourth morning that the “Flower” stood on the Mall, the sun rose as usual. That was the last usual thing that happened that day. For once the sun’s rays hit the “bulb” at the top of the stalk- the world as we knew it- changed. Forever.
As the first rays of the morning sun struck the bulb, the bulb began to glow. A soft ruby mist started to surround the bulb. Picture a rose red bright light so strong that you would have to wear a Welder’s Mask to look at it. Then mute that with a soft covering of mist that somehow allowed you to look at it without going blind. That is what everyone saw those first few moments.
The petals peeled back as the sun grew stronger. Now rainbow streaks, as powerful to look at as Comets packed with fireworks passing too close to the Earth might look, streaked out from the blossoming flower. It was, as the one Newscaster so quaintly put at it: “The beauty of God revealed.”
It was a sight that no one on Earth would ever forget. The word beauty would have only one meaning to anyone who saw the Flower unfold - all other forms of beauty would have to find a lesser adjective. In fact, in every language, in every culture, the Stalk and Bulb - once it “Flowered” was called simply: “The Beauty.”
The Beauty banished all thoughts from human minds as you looked at it. All most folks could do is stare, and cry. Tears of gratitude that they had eyes to see it with. It was no less than what the Newscaster had said: “The beauty of God revealed.” And awe was the only appropriate emotion. That and gratitude.
Until…
***********
As the mist spread from the opening of the bulb, as the petals spread out to their full length of thirty or forty feet, most people were so mesmerized by the light show, they didn’t notice that the mist was drifting down in all directions. A light purple/red mix that seemed innocuous but fitting. And then, like the smell of a fresh rose, or lavender, or night blooming Jasmine- the odor hit the first humans.
The smell was unlike anything on Earth. The first whiff of that purple/red mist caused the light show to be forgotten- for a moment. If you took every good smell on earth, from the sweet puff of a babies first breath reaching its mother’s nose, to Grandma’s cookies cooling on the window sill, to the lingering light scent of your first True Love; added in the smell of fresh grass, young skin, chocolate coated coffee or ice cream- it still wouldn’t be enough.
It took folks a bewildered frantic few moments to place that smell. Then their faces shone like The Beauty itself. For the Smell was well known. It smelled like…like…like:
LOVE.
*********
By the time the first “Flower” had opened on that Mall in Washington. Other Flowers started to appear: Paris. Moscow. Perth. Mumbai. Beijing. Kuala Lumpur. Helsinki, Montreal, Berlin. Rome. Cario. Everywhere. And just like here in the USA, the flowers (now known simply as “A Beauty”) would open and bloom on the fourth day after it appeared. The light show would be first, followed by the mist, and finally …the Smell. Love was literally in the air.
The Earth had Changed. We had become one people. One race. One world. If you smelled the mist, you understood everyone. Language - any language- was understood by everyone. Borders were forgotten. Nationalities became unimportant, along with skin color, height, weight, or gender. We all became merely human. The best that Humans had to offer- kind, caring, intelligent, funny, loving, witty, and creative.
Problems became merely challenges that we could figure out - on our own. No longer did we need governments, or laws, to clean up our air: our water, make our food safe, provide shelter, medical care, or improve technology that made our world safer, cleaner, smarter, more loving. The smell from “The Beauty” covered every inch of the Earth. Every four days. For decades. Until the Earth and its People had become a Garden.
The Aliens were coming. We knew that now. We didn’t know when. But we knew what kind of power they used to prepare people for their arrival:
Flower Power.
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