Artificial Flowers

by J. A. Hailey

  It became completely dark by the time of disembarkation, and, since roads on the African side were without lighting, consensus decision was to find a nice spot and spend that night in the buses.

  “Don’t need an accident,” said Singh. “No lighting, and probably badly potholed roads. Anyway, get ready, everyone, for many roadside nights. Remember, total drive is going to be over twenty-five thousand miles!”

  “Oh, that’s no sweat,” said Rosa, the quietest member in the expedition, who, when not fussing over Caesar, tended to concentrate, with her best friend, Priya, on scientific and medical study of very advanced level Humanside works, while also frequenting hospitals, research centers and pharmaceutical laboratories. “I thought of it, and, because of the potential of extreme fatigue if we do not keep having a good time, I’ve packed insect screen sheets large enough to cover an entire campsite made up of both buses parked parallel to each other. They’re in our bus.

  “I thought that the buses, in parallel, about ten or twelve feet apart and with doors kept open, would make a very comfortable environment, similar to an apartment, if we have no insect or wild beast anxiety. In bad weather, we can go into the buses. Like two bedrooms.”

  “Great planning, Rosa,” said Wendy. “But be warned. We won’t allow hospital visits and study in the evenings. Do that, if you must, on the driving segments. Priya and you have to be included in group activities. Okay?”

  “I’m okay with that,” said Rosa, smiling. “It’s an adventure, isn’t it?”

  “Me too,” said Priya. “I’m here with Singh because we want to join in the fun. Why make the trip otherwise?”

  “Wonderful, wonderful!” exclaimed Chang. “One or two nights are going to be all that we need to figure out the best arrangement. And thereafter we move into the wild, carrying home with us. We are so many best friends and lovers together, that I am going to stop caring if it’s twenty-five thousand or twenty-five million miles. With me, I have Wendy, and whatever and whoever else I want or need. Everything!”

  The others agreed, deciding to do away with anxiety altogether, and to concentrate on enjoying the grand adventure.

  It turned out that Singh was wrong about potholes. Roads provided by logical CONTINUATOR were never potholed or in disrepair, although of the same width and twists and turns that CONTINUATOR contained in its database.

  The sleeper seats were very comfortable, and everyone voted to leave air-conditioning on all night.

  Before bed time, they first assembled in Caesar’s bus to enjoy a drink and watch the news on TV. After that, it was bed in the reclining seats, exhausted, behind privacy screens.

  Later, no one made any claim of sexual activity for that night; they were simply excited and fatigued beings, thankful for a chance to cuddle and sleep comfortably.

  But they were irrepressible and bubbly the next morning. “Look, it’s going to rain, and quite hard, I think,” said Jennifer, pointing at dark clouds heading their way, when standing on the roadside, sipping tea and coffee. “My morning shower is going to be open air.”

  And, in anticipation, the six girls got into bikinis, and the men into swimming trunks, soap at hand.

  While the males were extremely handsome, the females were absolutely stunning. And their shower in the warm, hard rain, was a spectacle of great beauty – their childlike pleasure apparent, as they squealed, laughed and danced through their first ever shower in the rain.

  Breakfast, of sorts, was coffee, again in the buses, where they changed into regular clothes for the day ahead. “Adventure!” shrieked Wendy. “Let the good times roll.”

  And the good times began.

  “Let’s do serious driving through the Sahara,” said BC. “Get to target places as fast as we can.”

  “Sphinx and pyramids,” reminded Esmeralda. “And the other wonders of Ancient Egypt.”

  “Oh, we cannot bypass those,” answered BC. “Probably be some of the high points. Those historical, touristic places are detailed RV, so should prove breathtaking.”

  “Dying to be physically there,” said Wendy. “We’ve seen it already.”

  “It’s the difference that we want,” said Priya, sagely. “Being versus seeing!”

  The females gave up driving, and the males took over, doing shifts. Three drivers per bus were plenty, and no one complained of tiredness. CONTINUATOR kept providing small, self serve gas stations along the way, with tiny convenience stores, stocked with drinks and other essentials. At one, in the Libyan desert, when on a coffee break, Djali found himself a trogfer. Bleating excitedly, he raced to toss the little beast with his horns, turning like a ballerina to catch it again whenever successfully tossed over himself.

  It took him four tosses to cause the trogfer to disintegrate into code, dismaying the goat, who was far from done playing. But there were no more around, and he returned to the group, looking strangely disappointed.

  That night was the first ‘camp’ night, and it proved to be every bit as relaxed, comfortable and enjoyable as Rosa had hoped for.

  Tired, and in no mood to do the work for a campfire, a small low-powered lamp, connected to a bus, provided cozy lighting, and they stayed up late, chatting and dancing.

  “Look, this is Screenside, all virtual,” said Caesar. “We can be back in New York or wherever, instantly. We are in contact with HC. I fully agree with Chang. Rosa’s with me, and you guys are here. So what, if this trip lasts a year?”

  The next morning, driving commenced early, and at high speed.

  Nothing of note happened that day, and another camp night was enjoyed. After three nights, post dawn, but very early into the day’s drive, the dozing passengers were alerted by the drivers. “Pyramids and things ahead,” was the announcement.

  They got off the buses and gazed in wonder at the marvels of Ancient Egypt. The sheer magnitude of the pyramids held them spellbound, sipping morning coffees.

  “This is the difference,” said Priya, in wonder. “It’s physicality, and nothing else. And you guys thought it up? You actually had such vision? From nothing?

  “I’ll explain, girls. It is magic, sheer magic. We’ve been here before. What we saw then is what we were aware of. These guys have changed it forever. Changed our perspective. We now have human-type sight, and are at last seeing these wonders of the human world through human eyes. We have also been bestowed consciousness of our own dimensions, totally human, and we have eyesight as our only mode of seeing. Now we feel what a human feels on seeing this same pyramid. At last! These guys have actually gifted us relativity!”

  After an hour of hushed wonder, they left, and at around midday it was time to be spellbound again, in the Valley of the Kings. Nothing came by to disturb them, and they drove away in silence, enchanted.

  “We’ll keep driving through the night, tonight,” announced Singh, and in the morning they were deep inside Sudan, stopping for nothing until near dark. After another roadside camp night, they pressed on. By nightfall, absolutely exhausted, the Serengeti, their target destination, was entered. It would be home for the next week.

  “We can sort everything out tomorrow, in daylight,” suggested BC. “Let’s use privacy tents tonight.”

  It was a sound idea, because the headlights showed them that many animals were hanging around, and privacy tents would prevent entry of every species of Screenside beast or animal. In daylight they could set up secure boundaries to live under the sky and sleep under the stars, as planned.

  RV and CONTINUATOR were truly marvelous programs, working in perfect tandem to deliver real Humanside experience. Safe in privacy tents, the millions of insects that chittered all night were no bother. Clouds sailed across the face of a near full moon, sometimes darkening the night. Wild animals, like lions and hyenas, prowled the land, occasionally roaring or laughing, frightening the life out of Djali, who spent the night in physical contact with his mistress.

  Waking to a dawn chorus of thousands of birds, they went into the buses for morning ab
lutions and coffee, amusing themselves by watching themselves on Screenside TV.

  That done, they exited into the Serengeti morning, to formulate plans to observe wildlife up close.

  Firewood had been brought along in the buses, as campfires were everyone’s dream. The final, more secure camp was made of the two buses at right angles to each other, to form a protective wall to south and west (the girls being adamant that east be left unobstructed for the morning sun). Then, 2ft. high trogfer barriers were run around the entire site. Garbags were unlikely to enter camp, which left the fearsome ligons. Nothing could be done, as consensus opinion was to stay totally outdoors and to sleep under the stars, so rifles, shotguns and pistols, to tackle that menace, were positioned at handy points.

  “Should have brought your dog along, Candy,” said Esmeralda.

  “Just as well I didn’t, Esme. That useless mutt would have barked all night, keeping us awake, and probably shut up in fear at sight of a big beast, like a ligon. Golden Retriever, you know…”

  “Yes, no good for serious duties,” agreed Robert.

  The first trogfers were not long showing up, and the excited goat jumped the little fence to indulge himself butting them. He got bitten often, but, beyond an agonized bleat or two, he would not be diverted from his sport, looking puzzled whenever a trogfer disintegrated into code.

  Eventually, there was just one trogfer left, and BC, who was near it, bent down and decoded it manually, in a complex but near instant process, similar to knocking out viruses. This act infuriated the watching goat, who butted him in the butt while he was still bent down, toppling him unceremoniously, and causing much laughter among the spectators. The entire incident, caught on an exterior-mounted bus camera, was later broadcast on Screenside TV, turning Djali into a legend.

  “I’m not worried about ligons and stuff. We have the firepower to convert them into code,” said Singh.”It’s the insects that will bite us mad, besides not letting us sleep.”

  “Daytime biting, I don’t know,” said Chang. “But Rosa’s screens can save us at night. We’ll have to set the insect screens up so that we’re good for sleeping, while still being completely outdoors, and we can have our campfire outside the screen area to avoid burning it into nothing.

  “Now it’s time to decide which of the two buses is to be our tourer. Both have foldable rooftop seating.”

  Choosing one, they clambered up onto its roof. It was surprisingly high, and offered a great view of the land around, and they were delighted to find themselves parked in the middle of a lot of grazing animals, as far as the eye could see. A pride of lions nearby was ambling in the direction of a wildebeest group, solitary hyenas were scouting for possibilities, and many vultures had congregated over scattered overnight kills.

  “I’ll drive behind the lions, but far enough to not ruin their hunts,” said Chang. “Serengeti animals are used to tourists and vehicles, and nothing here should be bothered by our presence, if we don’t make sudden and noisy moves.”

  Their luck was good, and they were able to witness a successful hunt, from stalking to running down the prey. The lions began feeding, surprising them.

  “Wild animal behavior includes hunting and feeding,” Singh informed them. “We gave it a lot of thought, and finally decided to stay true to reality, including interaction with conscious beings. So, animal to animal, in the wild, is like real.”

  Still, they moved away, unable to bear the sight of blood.

  It turned out to be a long and very interesting day, driving up to almost all types of animals, and witnessing numerous hunts involving different predators, although, in terms of distance, they did not go far at all, the parked bus always in sight.

  On return to camp, as the sun sank, the girls were most interested in setting up for the night, clearly excited at the prospect of creating something cozy, and racing to get it ready before dark, working together to position privacy screens, foldable tables and chairs, and mattresses. “Yes,” said Wendy, “the drinks trolley should be to the left there, where it does not obstruct the door of the bus, so we can enter to shower and change as we wish.”

  “And,” added Esmeralda, “daytime snoozing will be best in the bus, as we drive, because then you don’t need anyone watching over you. What’s with that silly goat?”

  Djali had invented a game, which came from his eventual understanding of cause and effect. Having discovered that tossing trogfers could be directional, he was now tossing them in a line, from quite far away, until he got them into position to toss them into the camp.

  No one got bitten, as by the time he had tossed any trogfer to near the camp, he had already used up the toss count that converted the battered beast into code. He had, fortunately, no way of reducing the violence of his head-butts, and anyway did not know the role of violence in the decoding process.

  “One more early night is needed,” said Omar. “We’ll be fresh from tomorrow, and can convert the Serengeti into an all night party zone.”

  “All day and night,” laughed Robert. “We’re here for fun, and getting exhausted is part of the fun. No early night, tonight, either, Omar. What for? Who’s posting a diary for Screenside?”

  “Robert, in case you haven’t noticed, the exterior cameras are always on, broadcasting live,” said Wendy. “Maxine emailed me to say that we are about to hit number one in the TV ratings. Djali’s done it, with his knockout blow on BC’s butt. Very popular footage.”

  “Yippee!” exclaimed Jennifer. “Let Screenside take heart from our adventure. Let everyone have trips, everywhere.”

  “Look!” called out Wendy, now inside a bus. “The Stockholm folks are presenting rules, on TV, for competitive trogfer sports at the forthcoming World Championships. Seems like great fun.”

  All boarded the bus to watch the program. It did look like great fun. “Let’s roll trogfers tomorrow,” said Candice. “Then we can go as experts to the Championships.”

  “Anyway,” said Esmeralda. “Let’s put those overpopulated biters to some use. Why should Djali alone have fun?”

  With Omar’s idea of an early night thrown out, a campfire was lit at dark, and it turned into a night of chatting, and drinking beer and wine. The Screenside Net was buzzing with the latest song by the Screensiders, ‘The Loveliest Girls in the Universe’ and they danced to it, playing it often, and singing the chorus loudly; ‘Screenside girls. The most beautiful girls in the univerrsse…’ It was a fabulous evening, and insects proved to be no bother, flying straight into the fire and combusting.

  At one point, BC walked a few steps away, and turned to look back at the dancing group. The men were remarkably handsome, and he gazed and thought that, in the human world, such feminine beauty could never have been collected in one place at one time, and could, in any event, have never been assembled outside their world, as there simply were no comparable beauties in Humanside. He also dwelt briefly on the goodness and simplicity of beings who were probably far more intelligent than most of Humanside, but were unwilling to consider treading on anyone else, instead desperate to spread and share joy and whatever good they had, found or created.

  He walked slowly back, to join the dance, thinking, “These are not only the loveliest beings anywhere, but they are also the most unconditionally loving beings that have ever been or could ever be.”

  And he suddenly realized that he did not envy humans, or any other race; that he was a member of the one he would have chosen, if presented with a choice. He pulled a chair a little way from the group and became engrossed in his thoughts, blankly watching the beautiful electricals, dancing happily.

  He thought.

  “Stop, everyone!” commanded Esmeralda. She pointed at BC. “See that fellow? Well, he is, as I have discovered, the great philosopher of Screenside. And that is how he looks when thinking deep thoughts. It may be an intrusion into his private space, but it should prove really enlightening and possibly entertaining for us to share his thoughts. So, everyone, I present you wi
th a look into the mind of my boyfriend and life companion, BC.

  “Darling, think aloud for everyone now, will you?”

  “Oh, recording time,” said Jennifer, pointing her smart phone camera at BC. “This is a BC special,” she said into its microphone. “Usually heard through Esmeralda, but tonight we have the opportunity of hearing it in His Master’s Voice itself.”

  BC nodded, half closed his eyes, and spoke.

  “Consider this. A few hundred thousand love relationships later, in Screenside there has never ever been even one incident of infidelity. Not one. Not a single one, in a society composed entirely of very good looking males and stunning looking females. Why not? There have been arguments and fights, haven’t there? And there is inviolable privacy, creating every opportunity. But no infidelity, and no couple has ever broken up. That surely needs thinking about. How come? Why? What is so different between us and the humans we model ourselves on? Infidelity, break-ups, violence and murder are routine in Humanside relationships, but totally absent in Screenside. That is what is currently drawing my scrutiny.

  “We have been struggling to create meaningful physicality, and that’s us here, now, in our physical bodies in our physical world, as made by us. Why? Why have we done this? What were our shortcomings as pure virtuals? Let me tell you. We actually had no shortcomings. In fact, we had incredible lives and very intense relationships. So why did we create physicality? Let me tell you.

  “We have been viewing Humanside, creators of our world, and looking for shortcuts to life. They live so very thoughtlessly, whereas our lives were absolutely cluttered with thoughts. We believed that physicality would do what it has done. Made our lives more basic, more manageable, and a little less intense. And it certainly looks like we’ve beaten boredom for good.

  “Physical is different, for sure, and it undoubtedly comes with readymade pleasures and easily attained fulfillment. Sip a coffee, have a shower, have sex standing up… But no matter how many programs we create and introduce to give ourselves involuntary reactions, we are, and can never ever cease to be, brain. We have been seeking to create the trap that humanity is in – body! And we have done it to simplify our lives. It has worked. Life is simpler with a body. Pleasures are different.