traveled around a lot, or if they had family ties with other countries, they sometimes ended up with the kind of plants we were looking for. UP amp;L has stayed put for a good long time, plus its employees include former Mormon missionaries who’ve poked around obscure corners of the planet. World Botanics hoped to find something in Utah.
The UP amp;L CEO and the HR staff and Polly were all waiting for us. You’d think Benny’d want to go straight up to the sixth floor to settle theNemanthus gregarius question, but he didn’t. Benny always starts on the first floor and works his way to the top, so we started on floor one.
The lobby was a new install, and I was glad Benny didn’t waste even half an hour there. Not much hope of curing cancer with flame nettle or cantea palms. The cafeteria on the second floor had some interestingCleistocactus strausii. Like all cactus, it’s endangered but not yet extinct in the wild-there are still reports ofCleistocactus strausii growiing here and there in the tops of the Andes. As far as anybody can tell, it can’t cure a thing.
We didn’t make it to the sixth floor till after four o’clock, and you could tell that Polly was a nervous wreck.
But Benny walked right past herNemanthus gregarius.
“Hey, Benny,” I said in a low voice. “What about the goldfish vine?”
Benny turned around and stared at it. Polly moved back into her cubicle so she wouldn’t block the view, but after a minute Benny put his hands in his pockets and walked off. Well, poor Polly, I thought.
But just before five, I turned around and Benny wasn’t behind me. I found him at theNemanthus gregarius. Jeez Benny, I thought, we need to know the name of the game here. Declare extract ofNemanthus gregarius the fountain of youth or tell Polly she has a nice plant but nothing special. I steered him out of the building and back to the Marriott.
Abba, Faltskog Listing 47: “Dancing Queen,” day 4. Dinner.
I ordered Benny’s burger and a steak for me. We sat there eating, the only sound between us a muffled “Dancing Queen.” After last night, I was not attempting conversation.
I’d taken time before dinner to look upNemanthus gregarius on the Net. It is not endangered. It grows like weeds in cubicles. It can’t cure a thing.
I didn’t know what Benny was doing.
He sucked up the last of his glass of Coke and put the glass down a little hard on the table. I looked up at him.
“I want to find a new plant and name it for Agnetha,” he said.
“What?”
“My goal in life,” he said. “If you tell anyone, I’ll see that you’re fired.”
“You’re looking for a new plant species in office buildings?”
“I’d actually like to find one for each of the four members of Abba, but Agnetha’s first.”
And I’d thought findingone completely new species was too much to ask.
“When Abba sang, the world was so lush,” Benny said. “You can hear it in their music. It resonates with what’s left of the natural world. It helps me save it.”
It was my turn to be quiet. All I could think was, it works for Benny. He’s had plenty of success, after all, and who hasn’t heard of crazier things than the music of dead pop stars leading some guy to new plant species?
When I wrote up my daily reports that night, I left out Benny’s goals. Some things the higher-ups don’t need to know.
Abba, Faltskog Listing 47: “Dancing Queen,” day 5. UP amp;L offices.
We spent the day looking at more sorry specimens ofCordyline terminalis, Columnea gloriosa, andCodiaeum variegatum than I care to remember. By the end of the day, Benny started handing out the occasional watering tip, so I knew even he was giving up.
“Nemanthus gregarius?”I asked in the elevator on the way down.
Suddenly he punched 6. He walked straight to Polly’s cubicle and stuck out his hand. “I owe you an apology,” he said.
Polly just sat there. She was facing her own little Waterloo, and she did it bravely.
“I thought yourNemanthus gregarius might be a subspecies not before described, but it isn’t. It’s the common variety. A nice specimen, though.”
We left quickly. At least he didn’t give her any watering tips.
Abba, Faltskog Listing 47: “Dancing Queen,” day 5.
Wandering the streets.
The thing about Benny is, if it doesn’t work out and we’ve studied every plant on thirty floors of an office tower without finding even aCalathea lancifolia, he can’t stand it. He wanders up and down the streets, poking into every little shop. He never buys anything-he isn’t shopping. I think he’s hoping to spot some rare plant in the odd tobacconist or magazine shop and to do it fast. I have a hard time keeping up with him then, and heaven forbid I should decide to buy something on sale for a Mother’s Day gift.
We rushed through two used bookstores, an oriental rug store, four art galleries, three fast food joints.
“Benny,” I said. “Let’s get something to eat.”
“It’s here,” he said.
“What’s where?”
“There’s something here, and we just haven’t found it.”
The Dancing Queen was resonating, I supposed. Shops were closing all around us.
“You check the Indian jewelry store while I check Mr. Q’s Big and Tall,” he told me. “We meet outside in five.”
I did like I was told. I smiled at the Navajo woman in traditional dress, but she did not smile back. She wanted to lock up. I made a quick sweep of the store and noted the various species of endangered cacti and left. Benny was not on the sidewalk. I went into Mr. Q’s after him.
He was standing perfectly still in front of a rack of shirts on sale, hands in his pockets.
“These are too big for you,” I said.
“Window display, southeast corner.”
Well, I walked over there. It was a lovely little display ofRhipsalis salicornioides, Phalaenopsis lueddemanniana, andStreptocarpus saxorum. Nothing unusual.
Then I looked closer at theStreptocarpus saxorum. The flowers weren’t the typical powder blue or lilac.
They were a light yellow.
The proprietor walked up to me. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But we’re closing. Could you bring your final purchases to the register?”
“I’m just admiring your cape primrose,” I said. “Where do they come from?”
“My mother grows them,” he said. “She gave me these plants when I opened the store.”
“Did she travel in Africa or Madagascar?”
“Her brother was in the foreign service. She used to follow him around to his postings. I don’t remember where she went-I’d have to ask her.”
“Do you mind if I touch one of the plants?” I asked.
He said sure. The leaves were the typical hairy, gray-green ovals; the flowers floated above the leaves on wire-thin stems. It was definitelyStreptocarpus, but I’d never seen anything like it described.
“I think you should call your mother,” I said, and I explained who Benny and I were.
The store closed, but Mr. Proprietor and his staff waited with us for the mother to arrive. The whole time Benny just stood by the sale rack, eyes closed, hands in his pockets. “You’ve done it again,” I whispered to him.
He didn’t answer me. Just as I turned to walk back over to the cape primrose, he opened his eyes.“Streptocarpus agnethum,” he whispered.
And he smiled.
Abba, Faltskog Listing 32: “I Have a Dream,” day 2.
Agnetha’s grave.
The thing about Benny is, he’s generous. He took me to Sweden with him, and we plantedStreptocarpus agnethum, or “dancing queen,” around Agnetha’s gravestone. Turns out the flower wasn’t a cure for anything, but it was a new species and Benny got to name it.
“Agnetha would have loved these flowers,” I told Benny.
