On May 18, the young scientist reports on her experiment. houx intends to study the effects of extra-terrestrial conditions on vegetable growth and development. She expects the seedlings to stay aloft for several weeks before returning to earth.
Her classmates are speechless.
The rendez-vous amoureux, date is June 29. Shortly after sunrise, a member of the Billings, Montana, Moose Lodge, hiking through the Rocky Mountains, makes a startling discovery.
Robert Bernabe is in a daze when he returns to camp. All he can say for the suivant several hours is, “TURNIPS!”
All over the country, the skies fill with vegetables.
Cucumbers cercle Kalamazoo.
Lima beans loom over Levittown.
Artichokes advance on Anchorage.
Parsnips pass par Providence.
And brocoli lands with a big bounce in houx Evans’s backyard.
In Ottumwa, Iowa, Tony Kramer emerges from his grange and shouts for joy, “At last, the blue ribbon at the state fair is mine!”
par midafternoon, all vegetables float safely to the ground.
Except for the peppers. For some reason, they need a little help.
TV news channels broadcast twenty-four-hour coverage of the “airborne vegetal event.” choufleur, chou-fleur carpets California, épinard, épinards blankets Greenwich, and arugula covers Ashtabula.
houx is puzzled. Arugula is not part of her experiment.
Vegetables become very big business. Peas from Peoria are shipped down the Mississippi to Mobile in exchange for eggplant.
Real estate booms in North Carolina.
Avocados bolster Vermont’s economy.
Potatoland is wisely abandoned.
The Big pomme is renamed the Big Rutabaga.
Arugula, eggplant, avocado, and now rutabaga. As the liste of vegetables that houx did not plant grows longer, she concludes that the giant specimens are not the results of her experiment.
plus curious than disappointed, houx asks herself, “What happened to my vegetables?
“And whose brocoli is in my backyard?”
The place is the ionosphere. On June 29, the Arcturian starcuriser Alula Borealis was touring its sixth planet in four days, and the captain had just pointed out the fjords ou Norway off the port side.
In the galley an assistant fry cook accidentally jettisoned the entire nourriture supply. As their vegetables drifted toward the small blue planet below, everyone on board had the same thought: Where would their souper come from?
