On May 18, the young scientist reports on her experiment. চিরশ্যামল গুল্মবিশেষ 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 তারিখ 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 পরবর্তি several hours is, “TURNIPS!”
All over the country, the skies fill with vegetables.
Cucumbers বৃত্ত Kalamazoo.
Lima beans loom over Levittown.
Artichokes advance on Anchorage.
Parsnips pass দ্বারা Providence.
And ব্রোকলি lands with a big bounce in চিরশ্যামল গুল্মবিশেষ Evans’s backyard.
In Ottumwa, Iowa, Tony Kramer emerges from his শস্যাগার and shouts for joy, “At last, the blue ribbon at the state fair is mine!”
দ্বারা 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.” ফুলকপি carpets California, শাক blankets Greenwich, and arugula covers Ashtabula.
চিরশ্যামল গুল্মবিশেষ 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 আপেল is renamed the Big Rutabaga.
Arugula, eggplant, avocado, and now rutabaga. As the তালিকা of vegetables that চিরশ্যামল গুল্মবিশেষ did not plant grows longer, she concludes that the giant specimens are not the results of her experiment.
আরো curious than disappointed, চিরশ্যামল গুল্মবিশেষ asks herself, “What happened to my vegetables?
“And whose ব্রোকলি 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 অথবা Norway off the port side.
In the galley an assistant fry cook accidentally jettisoned the entire খাবার supply. As their vegetables drifted toward the small blue planet below, everyone on board had the same thought: Where would their নৈশভোজ come from?
