This was the first time Bob had ever tried to land, and he did it with a few extra fumbling steps that pitched Odin off his back and left Bea clinging fiercely to his mane.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut once foot-sure, he gave a self-satisfied snort and looked at Bea as if wondering whether she were ready to try it again.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cNo Bob,\u201d said Bea. \u201cNot now. And don\u2019t you try to go anywhere either.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOdin stood up, pulled his phone out of his pocket, and gave it a few nervous taps. With a small relieved sigh, he pointed toward a corner of the rooftop, behind them.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cLet\u2019s tie his reins over there,\u201d said Odin. \u201cThere\u2019s a railing near the greenhouse roof.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDang,<\/em> thought Bea. Flying had sure thrown her off her game. What she did best was notice stuff, and she\u2019d completely missed the glass roof poking just above roof level at the top corner of the Bean-Tek building.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIs there a creepy exit doorway up here?\u201d asked Odin, looking around. \u201cThere\u2019s always a creepy exit doorway. Typically it would be banging ominously.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBea immediately resumed control of the situation, and scanned the scene. There was no one up here, so they approached the greenhouse roof and looked in.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s there,\u201d she said, pointing through the glass. \u201cThe roof doorway. You can see it on the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShe took Bob\u2019s reins and lashed them snugly to the railing running alongside the greenhouse.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThat\u2019s a lot of foliage,\u201d said Odin, squinting down through the glass roof of the greenhouse.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou\u2019re not kidding,\u201d replied Bea.<\/p>\n \n\tExcept for the slim gap through which she had spied the doorway to the building rooftop, the upper reaches of the greenhouse were thick with shiny jade leaves the size of dinner plates, interlaced with snaking spotted vines.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAnd,\u201d continued Bea, \u201cit\u2019s all koohoo. Come on…let\u2019s get inside.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThey were alone on the roof, so getting in without being spotted was simple enough. The doorway opened into a stairwell, and the stairs led down one flight to another door.<\/p>\n \n\tBea opened the second door a crack and peeked through. There was no one in the corridor ahead, so she and Odin proceeded along it until they arrived at another doorway labeled \u201cGreenhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShe pushed that door open a crack, just enough for them to squeeze through, into a warm damp atmosphere where the scents of fudge, tea, and tangerine mingled in the air.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cDuck,\u201d whispered Bea, pulling Odin under a thick canopy of koohoo leaves. Clusters of thick stalks jutted out of the fragrant soil in the planters all around them, and they took as much cover as they could behind a dense tangle of leaves and stems.<\/p>\n \n\tA Bean-Tek worker in the usual green jacket had entered the greenhouse, lugging a five-gallon container in a garden cart.<\/p>\n \n\tBea and Odin held very still and gazed through the foliage as the man connected a hose with a pump attachment to the container and began to saturate the soil in the planters with a greenish liquid.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cMust be plant food,\u201d whispered Odin.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cLooks like they\u2019re overdoing it,\u201d Bea whispered back.<\/p>\n \n\tA pager attached to the greenhouse man\u2019s belt emitted a piercing squeee.<\/em> He hastily turned a stopcock on the nozzle, dropped the hose, and left through the same door by which he\u2019d entered.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis might be our golden opportunity to move on,\u201d observed Odin. \u201cGot a plan?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBea tried to convince herself she did. \u201cYeah,\u201d she said, \u201clet\u2019s…what? Odin…what the heck?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBea jabbed her finger in the direction of the abandoned plant food wagon, which was now more or less surrounded by a lengthy vine of billowing koohoo. The red wagon rolled several feet down the path, and the hose seemed to hover.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAutomated feeding system?\u201d wondered Odin.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cNo…,\u201d replied Bea, observing with all her might, \u201cit\u2019s a self<\/em>-feeding system. An unintended<\/em> self-feeding system. The koohoo plants are feeding themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d said Odin. He completely forgot about sneaking, stepped out of hiding and walked toward the red wagon. Bea followed.<\/p>\n \n\t Tendrils of looping koohoo had lassoed the hose and turned the stopcock, and the plant was now aiming the hose at its fellows, generously dousing their beds with green elixir.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHere we go again,\u201d said Bea, \u201c…everybody making hasty assumptions about koohoo.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhat?\u201d asked Odin. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHasty assumptions,\u201d repeated Bea. \u201cMola Peggi of the Waddoo Islands told us not to make any about koohoo.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSuddenly, The Beatrix Flannery Reel burst forth in startling jaunty tones from Odin\u2019s pocket.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOdin!\u201d exclaimed Bea. \u201cPut that thing on vibrate!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn his haste to do just that, Odin fumbled the phone and it skittered across the greenhouse pathway, piping merry musical strains as it slid.<\/p>\n \n\tOdin and Bea both dove for it, until Bea\u2019s attention was distracted by the koohoo all around her. It had left off soaking itself with plant food and was now engaged in a peppy exercise that resembled nothing less than an Irish step dance.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOdin!\u201d said Bea. \u201cThe koohoo is dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cLike in the Frostly Building atrium,\u201d he responded, glancing around.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cBut better,\u201d said Bea. \u201cMore organized. More choreographed.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOdin scooped the phone out from under a broad tapping leaf. \u201cLet\u2019s try something else!\u201d he said. \u201cWhat about a waltz?\u201d He punched several buttons on his phone. The Beatrix Flannery Reel was replaced by Tchaikovsky\u2019s Waltz of the Flowers.<\/em> And the koohoo responded, easing into a graceful three-step swaying motion.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAwesome…\u201d said Bea. \u201cBy the way, who was calling you?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWho was calling me!\u201d said Odin. He silenced the phone. The plants settled back to nothing more than feeding each other.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s Michael-Dan,\u201d said Odin. \u201cHe texted. He says \u2018Ew sahnt less gosses…\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHe says what? Let me see that.\u201d Bea snatched the phone and stared at the screen. \u201cFrench…French…dang you Michael-Dan, it\u2019s always French…it says \u2018o\u00f9 sont les gosses…\u2019 where are the kids! Odin, we don\u2019t know yet. Let\u2019s get out of here!\u201d<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was the first time Bob had ever tried to land, and he did it with a few extra fumbling steps that pitched Odin off his back and left Bea clinging fiercely to his mane. But once foot-sure, he gave a self-satisfied snort and looked at Bea as if wondering whether she were ready to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":413,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions\/413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}