"FWLS19" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

A Future We'd Like to See 1.19 - Bad Trip
By Twoflower (Copyright 1993)

Don't get me wrong. Working in a little hut out on the
middle of nowhere in some jungle world is very placid and scenic,
but it can be the pits sometimes.

See, the problem was that in Zephyr's quest to make the
Ultimate Hallucinogenic, he had somehow gotten it into his head
that leaves from the Canabawana tree would make for the most
vivid images. However, according to the encyclopedia page we
ripped from the Yttian public library, Canabawana trees only grew
here, on this as yet unnamed jungle world.

The jungle's very pretty, all multicolors and such, but can
be the pits, as mentioned. There're these weird snakes that try
to sell you insurance... alright, before you start laughing and
think I've been tripping already, I should mention that I've got
witnesses as to this fact. Don't ask me how this happened.
Snakes don't even have voice boxes for crying out loud.

We've tried smoking leaves from about a dozen different
kinds of plants, and although one of them made me throw up for an
entire night, none of them came remotely close to what we were
aiming for. Supposedly this Canabawana tree leaf, when refined,
provided 12 hours of vivid, creative hallucinations with no side
effects other than being slightly drowsy and noncreative the next
day. He had heard about it from this one holoanimator guy who
claimed he had a small supply of it, and used it for inspiration
on one of his films. Since it won an award for best short
subject of the year, Zephyr figures the stuff'll sell for
zillions, or something.

"Got the next batch ready," Zephyr said, plopping down a
crate of today's pickings from the jungle. "We'd better start
sorting."

"How much longer are we gonna be here?" I complained,
sifting through the plants and picking out the pink ones, which
made me vomit previously. "I'm sick of nonworking plumbing and
such. I want to go home."

"Frankie boy, if we find this plant, we'll be millionaires.
No addictive qualities! No side effects! Just slap a warning
label on it and it's actually legal on half the colonies that
have drug laws."

"And if we don't find the plant, we'll have spent three
months in the middle of nowhere sorting leaves. Not how I
pictured my summer vacation to go, honestly."