Pollen?? They were talking to pollen grains!
As if their previous Wonderful experiences hadn’t been whacky enough, the Faultsoms were now even more astonished, as they took in the dazzling sights and fragrances of the infinitely varied flowers in the endless fields that stretched about them. They marveled at all of this as they revelled in their bizarre memories.
Frank scratched his head as flashes from his university plant-biology classes continued to invade his mind.
“Hmmmm…well this is really something!” he said as he retrieved everyone’s focus with excited gesticulations. “Kids, it looks like we have just been on an incredible — no, a simply Wonderous journey! We’ve just delved into the secret life of a flower!” Frank was pondering the various plant parts and processes they had experienced.
“Why yes, Father! I suspect, we’ve witnessed flower propagation,” Charleston added, recalling a botany book that he’d absorbed not too long ago.
“Oh my…imagine that!” Faye marveled.
“Papa, wath propa—pro-pa-gathan?” Chief asked.
Bending down to look into his youngest boy’s eyes and pull him in for a big bear hug, Frank, answered:
“Why, Chiefy, that’s the way flowers reproduce — the way they make new little baby flowers.”
Now, the pieces began to fall rapidly into place, and what the family did not yet fully understand about the microscopic world of flower biology, nevertheless became real to them. This experiential knowledge ignited an insatiable, lifelong curiosity about gardens and flowers, which had quite a mysterious impact in their lives.
It was at this point that Mr. Keeze stepped forward into the middle of the bubbling family pack. Clearing his throat and posing as if to make a formal declaration:
“My dear friends, it has been such a delight to usher you around this part of Wonder. I shall be sad to see you go. I trust you enjoyed your journey, but the time has come for you to return…”
At this pronouncement, a dark shadow fell across their hearts as surely as if a cloud had blotted out the sun. An icy hush chilled the air for quite some time, until at last, Faye’s trembling voice cut through the anxious atmosphere that had overtaken them.
“Go…back . . ? Go back, Mr. Keeze?” She cried. “We can’t go back. If we go back, they will take our kids! They want to teach them that none of this is real!” Faye began to cry as Frank came alongside her and pulled her close.
“It’s true, sir, if we go back we will lose our children and they will lose…Wonder.” Frank pleaded for help.
“Hmmmmm…” Mr. Keeze considered this, letting out a little whistle. “Yes, I see…this is a midelma. No, it’s quite a serious dilemma…for there is no avoiding your return.”
Their hearts sank, and the kids began to protest while Mr. Keeze scanned their faces. He looked into their eyes with a most somber expression, which stoked their worst fears. Then, looking off into the distance, he wistfully mumbled what sounded like a question into the air. Cocking his head to one side as if listening to someone speak, he intoned:
“Ah, hmmmmm, I see…well, then…”
Looking back at them with an endearing tenderness, he said, “It must be so, friends, you must go back.”
Crestfallen cries and sighs came from the Faultsoms as they realized that their exile was imminent. Mr. Keeze raised his hands and patted the air as if to calm them.
“Now, now. Have you learned nothing here, my friends? Look closely at what is happening around you. Do you not see, do you not yet understand what is right under your noses?”
He waved his hand and bowed with a flourish, as he always did when he was excited and proud to reveal something they had not seen before. As they followed the sweep of his hand, their eyes again beheld vast fields of flowers and happy birds, butterflies, and bees flitting here and there.
“What you need to know right now is here in front of you.” He pointed to the flowers around them, nodding his head. “Go and see…my friends. Go…and…see!”
It was a sober and restrained bunch of faultsoms who considered their fate as Wonder’s gentle wind curled around their shoulders that afternoon, bringing with it whispers of comfort. They were facing a crisis that would forever change their family, and Mr. Keeze had asked them to go and look at…plants? As if that would make any difference in such a dire situation! Well, at least, they thought, the continuing plant-biology lesson would delay their inevitable return.
And so, with bowed heads and heavy hearts, the Faultsoms wandered off, each mysteriously drawn to the little coated ladies who were here and there floating on the breeze and showering down upon the earth. As one child headed off to the left, one went to the right. Another stopped a stone’s throw away, and the last one rambled almost out of view, mother and father watching as their slump-shouldered kids meandered in the field, each one following a floating seed.
Why of course! That’s what they were. The family members began to realize that the little coated ladies were actually seeds! This realization dawned upon them one by one, as fascination overcame sadness and the Faultsoms picked up their pace, each chasing after a particular seed to see where it would land. Then they knelt, bent, or sat down, digging their fingers into Wonder’s topsoil, waiting to see what would happen next.
As soon as the seeds made contact with the dirt, a wisp of Wonderwind mysteriously whipped up around them, creating perfect little tornados of dirt and dust encircling the seeds and burying them under rich, dark loam. And once the seeds were hidden from view, a marvelous thing happened: Frank and Faye, Constance, Charleston, Chance, and Chief were given the ability to see into the ground! Not only that, but the process of seed germination played out before them at an outlandish speed, like accelerated time-lapse photography!
They each watched a tiny seed burrow snugly into the earth as moisture and warmth penetrated its stout little protective jacket. Then they saw a world within a world. They were able to look not only into the ground but under the coat and inside the seed itself! They hadn’t seen a seed that close-up since they were inside Lady Uveol, peering into her womblike chamber where they had witnessed The Generation when The Knight and Bride cells had merged.
Now, Frank had a major revelation: Lady Uveol was an Ovule.
“Why, this is another one of Mr. Keeze’s mixed-up words!” Frank exclaimed. “Uveol! Of course! The word is actually ovule! And…that would mean that Madame “Yorav” is actually the ovary of the flower. Of course! And an ovule is produced inside the ovary!”
Then Frank recalled that ovule was another word for egg — and when a flower’s egg is fertilized, it becomes a seed! This is what they had watched when The Knight cell merged with The Bride cell in The Generation! The family had also witnessed the transformation of the other plant cells into the nourishment a new life would need. Why, they had observed The Knight and Squire sperm cells uniting with the nuclei! Funny Mr. Keeze had called the nuclei “The Cluine.”
Now, the Faultsoms could all see that The Generation had actually produced a tiny baby plant that was hidden inside each seed coat, complete with its teensy leaf shoots, root, stem, and stored food. Indefatigably, each of these little embryos, now buried in Wonder’s earth, pushed its roots out of its shell. These persistent little seed sprouters had supersized strength!
The root sprouts wiggled downward, deeper into the soil, and then thrust their leaf-sprout tendrils upward and out of the ground! The stored food fed and nourished the little plants until they could receive nutrients from sun and soil. Then the Faultsoms looked on in astonishment as, in a flash, the embryos grew into toddler plants, which shot up eagerly toward the warmth of the sunlight. Faye, Frank, Constance, Charleston, Chance, and Chief gawked as the miracle of each plant’s growth and maturation unfolded before them in mere moments.
Now, having risen up above the dirt some distance, the maturing plant stems were producing flower buds! The kids shrieked with delight as, one by one, blossoms burst out in radiant blares of color,
like kernels of popcorn erupting in a pot of hot oil. Squeals of glee could be heard across the fields, and the Faultsoms were sure they’d heard the mature flowers around them cheering every time a new blossom popped open.
“Well done!”
“That’s the way!”
“Hurray for the gorgeous young ones!”
“We knew you could do it!”
“How winsome you are!”
“What loveliness, what pulchritude!” came the voices from all around them.
There was something simply splendid about the flowers in Wonder. They each had such fantastic, otherworldly beauty and yet they applauded one another with sincere delight. Not only could the Faultsoms hear the flowers, they could see them in a new way — for they knew them, like one knows an old friend: they understood them from the inside out!
The family continued to watch in total absorption as pollinators (what Mr. Keeze had called Llopinators) came and went, landing on blossoms all around them, picking up pollen and dispersing the raucous yellow “Llopen” grains at each stop. With delight, the family members relived their flight on the Bumble Bee when they were stuck to their pollen buddies. They basked in the memories of their time inside the flower during its reproductive process. Later, they would look back and retrace their experiences and learn more about each of the places they had visited inside the blossom and what was happening there.1
As they stared at the flowers skyrocketing up and out of the ground in front of them, they were filled with gladness until they noticed that upon reaching their peak of maturity, the gorgeous petals and lovely green leaves of these blossoms were withering and dropping off. This left their cherished plants quite bare, stripped of everything except a single pod clinging to each stem.
“I don’t want to see this,” Constance reacted bitterly to the fading of the flowers and foliage as if to the loss of a loved one. “It’s so sad, why do we need to watch things die?”
Before she could sink into the gloom she felt pooling up within her, she noticed that her forlorn, petalless plant was trembling ever so slightly. The others, too, noticed this phenomenon and also began to recognize very faint, high-pitched sounds coming from each pod.
As these squealing sounds rose to a crescendo, the flower pods burst open, one by one, shocking the family and practically knocking several of them over. At this, they let out gusts of giggles. Chief and even Charleston were flopping on the ground in glee unable to contain themselves. Constance was snapped out of her melancholy and Chance was trying to figure out how to replicate the explosion. Faye and Frank laughed and smiled.
Once again, Wonder’s mirth rolled out of the shadows bringing with it waves of rapture and washing away anger, fatigue, and fear. The Faultsoms had just witnessed their seed containers blow up from the outside and remembered how they had all exploded out of Madame Yorav (the flower’s ovary) from inside of her!
Now, laughing and marveling, the Faultsoms watched as the seeds that had exploded out of the ovary pods took to the wind. As their babies fluttered away, the empty flower ovaries that had burst open to set the seeds free, now bent low and deteriorated, yielding themselves to the soil, even as their little ones flew off to begin their life adventures. This act of surrender swallowed up each of the Faultsoms’ imaginations as they stood speechless for a long while in the breezy afternoon sunshine.
When the seeds were out of sight, Frank and Faye, Constance, Charleston, Chance, and Chief quietly wandered back to where Mr. Keeze stood, a lump in each of their throats. They were unable to contain the emotions that echoed within them. They gathered in a circle around The Gate Keeper, strangely stirred, but not sure why. They stood together without saying a word, until at long last, Mr. Keeze broke the sacred silence.
1 Dear Reader, we invite you to join the Faultsoms in understanding their puzzling journey by delving into the Wondossary at the end of this book.
“Did you see, My Friends. Did you suppose anything at all? Do you now understand?” Mr. Keeze queried. When mystified expressions covered each Faultsom face in response, he shook his head and tisk-tisked to himself.
“My, my…I can see that only Wosdim will suffice, now.” He reached up into the patchwork of keys upon his helmet. “Ah…mmmmmm…oh…where did I put that? My…my…hooouuum…” he muttered.
After rooting around for some time, he found a puzzle piece that had remained entirely hidden among the others, but was possibly the most precious one on his hat. It was covered with gems and ornate scrollwork, and looked quite old and worn. It was shaped like an X although one side was longer than the others. As Mr. Keeze gingerly pulled the key from his helmet, it remained attached by its golden string, which stretched out to the required length. Extending his pinky into the air, he lovingly grasped the key on its longest side between his thumb and forefinger. Lifting it high above his head with great reverence, he whispered breathlessly, announcing to one and all:
“This is the key of Wosdim, for it is Wosdim that we must have now.”
Then, reaching as high above him as he could, he stepped up on tiptoe and extended the key straight up. Suddenly, a majestic, glowing red door materialized in the sky above them, hanging flat above their heads. Mr. Keeze, although very short, grew in stature until he could easily slip the key into the empty spot on the front of the door.
Just as he did this, he let go of the key and it whizzed back into its place on his helmet with a zing, as the door was flung open, away from them and up into the sky. A refreshing, enlightening presence blew in and shed its glowing light upon Mr. Keeze. He bowed deeply to honor what must have been the presence of this “Wosdim.” Then he gathered the Faultsoms in a huddle and began speaking very deliberately to them in a deep and melodious voice:
“Wosdim speaks, my dear Amazings, and now you must pay heed, for Wosdim will speak to you of Xartief.” Cocking his head to one side as if to tune into an inaudible voice, he harkened to it and then corrected himself:
“Did I say ‘Wosdim?’ Did I say ‘Xartief?’ No, no, no, no…I must gather my wits about me, for now is the time when all must come round. Now Wisdom will speak to you of Artifex, and The All of It All. When you return home, you will need to know Artifex. And in order to know Artifex, you must receive The Seed.”
Artifex? The Faultsoms pondered. Was this the Xartief who was hinted about everywhere they went? Mr. Keeze saw their confusion and confirmed their guesses.
“You must forgive me, my friends. How could it be that I have mixed up the most important word of all? ‘Xartief ’ — indeed not! ‘Artifex’, yes! My, my…” he said shaking his head at his mistake. “But it is true,” he cheered himself, “Wonder does have a way of keeping secrets until the time for revelation has come.”
Artifex was another very strange word. They still had no idea what it meant, but when they heard it, their hearts leapt with greater anticipation and longing than ever before. As they considered this, Mr. Keeze continued:
“You will find this word, Artifex, back in your world, and if you are willing to see it, you will find The Way of Artifex hidden in every living thing around you, here and there. If you search and if you see, you will also find the heart of Artifex, and you will find The Art in The All of It All. But first, My Amazings, you must receive…The Seed.”
As he said this, the Faultsoms felt they were awakening to the significance of their journey, and the sensation of this moment was like the feeling of rising out of a long, heavy sleep. He reached down to the ground, pinched an almost imperceptible little speck between his chubby fingers, and held it up before them.
“Let The Seed tell us the story of The Art -- The Intention of The All of It All,” he began. “Just as The Seed must be buried in the earth, so it must also be planted in you if it is to awaken. It must be buried in the dark place of mystery, yes, in the dust. Once it is received here, its new life is aroused by soil and warmth and moisture. But always, to know and to understand Artifex and The Art in everything, you must receive The Seed;
there is no other way.
“Never forget that a seed is a wee living thing. Inside its shell, it carries the miracle of Generation. This is the Way of Artifex, the way of Knight seeking Bride. The way of the He and She co-mingled, surrendering themselves. They are incomplete without each other and without The Intention.
“Let us marvel at the zealous, passionate bravery and vitality of The Knight (The He) who relentlessly seeks after the beauteous Bride (The She) to pour himself into her. And my, The Bride, what valor and bravery she displays! Far from being weak or passive, she will grow to her fullness and then give herself utterly to launch the next generation of life into the unknown. This is love in its wholeness! And what of The Knight and Bride as they abandon themselves to The Intention? Together they are matured and completed in the breathtaking splendor of the joyous and extravagant bloom that results from their union.”
Mr. Keeze now blew upon the seed between his fingers, releasing it from his grasp. He watched it flutter away.
“Look about you, my friends, here…” The Gate Keeper bent down and gently cupped a spectacularly gorgeous blossom in the palms of his hands.
“Here inside this exquisite blossom, with its intoxicating fragrance, lies the mystery of The Intention to which The Knight and Bride, The He and She, surrender themselves. They teach us that pleasure must never be an end in itself. Pleasure’s fullness nourishes others and brings forth new life. The very purpose of the flower is to reproduce new life. Its fragrance, shape, and color invite the Llopinator…no, ahh…your word is Pollinator…to come and be nourished. And The Pollinator fulfills The Intention — its purpose, by carrying the pollen to its destiny — the destiny of Generation — the Generation, the creation of a seedling. As with the purpose of all pleasures, you must understand that the delights of the flower are not solely to thrill and please those who enjoy it. No, these ecstasies are always and forever entwined with The Intention of nourishing others and bringing forth new life. And each of you are the result of the life-giving joinings of a He and She. You are the Amazelings that have come of their loving Generations.”
Mrs. Amazing and the Seed Page 10