Excellent Hommage to Faulkner in sci fi Short : The Rows of M.L.E. by Bill Schott

Ms. G had finally died, and the people of the Rows were invited to attend the funeral. Some were curious about the pre-host-house, which no one, save an old Technical Zero-E Beta or "TOE-B" housekeeper, had seen in at least a decade. It was a unique home, passe now, as geodesic domes atop quarter-mile-high towers had long since been abandoned as a building style. Now that the flood waters had receded, such drastic, elevated structures were no longer necessary. The other towers had already toppled from lack of pre-flood foundational reinforcements, or had been purposely demolished to make way for the new "living homes." These new homes had been aligned in measured strips and had become known as the Rows. Their incarnation had altered home life forever. The monolith of dead steel that pierced the pink sky was a constant reminder to the inhabitants beneath it, of the hated past and the wastefulness of their ancestors. Homes that did not respond to the human touch were simply useless to them. People needed homes that cared for them, and homes needed people too. Alive, Ms. G had been an anachronism. She was a throwback to the days when life was a more surprise-oriented existence. What happened to one, on a daily basis, was never quite fully known ahead of time. A mortal unit might wake at the beginning of a day and not fully comprehend the day's events, except in reflection at the day's conclusion. No one could imagine an entire twenty-four hours of suspense and uncertainty. There was no concept of such a ghastly, terrifying existence. She had lived in almost total solitude, but for the TOE-B, who tended the beans that flourished on the girders of the tower. Occasionally, it also evicted a nesting mole-squito, which may have flown or climbed up the tower. The creatures seemed to think that they could burrow into the lifeless metal as its kind often tried doing down below in the real houses. Mole-squitoes were, as far as anyone knew, the only remnants of the genetic horrors unleashed during the last century. They were created to travel unseen beneath the conventional detection equipment of that era, and attack humans. They would pierce the flesh with their hypodermic-like mouths. Surreal in every way, they were a living reminder, as Ms. G's tower was a dead reminder, of a past that would be gladly forgotten. The funeral, a quaint ritual which served as an oasis in the sea of life, was an occasion when humans would gather and take account of a particular human's contributions to the maintenance of personkind. As each human went through the death cycle, the time would be spent talking about that entity and considering whether 'continuity' should or should not be granted. In Ms. G's case, the question was of a major importance. In Ms. G's time, the world was a different place. However, a one degree shift in the Earth's revolution created a misalignment with the solar system that changed everything. The polar caps melted, and what would become the new sea level, was three hundred feet higher than what it had been previously. The composition of the atmosphere changed slightly, which caused a third of the world's life to expire. The sudden floods, which actually took several weeks to occur, took the world by surprise. Many strange governments released their private terrors onto the Earth in a last effort to be of some significance. Biological cocktails turned the oceans into evolutionary maelstroms, which mutated every living organism and even affected the molecular tendencies of previously non-organic material. New fungi formed from the inanimate. It exchanged chemicals with whatever it touched, and instantly created a symbiotic relationship. It became the go-between for the rock and the life that crawled upon it. It arose from the waters, after a century of development, and became known as Mutational Living Elemental, or M.L.E. The people of that time, like Ms. G, had adapted to the many changes that had occurred. Those who had been privy to the suspected consequences of the planetary axis shift had constructed durable, elevated environments that were able to withstand the suspected cataclysmic upheavals. She and the TOE-B lived in the tower for many years. Her activities were a mystery, but the TOE-B was often seen gleaning the beans from the stalks. Ms. G had not been included in the "funerals", which took place below in the Rows. Life cycles were routinely revitalized by walling up an expired person within a home. After three days, a resurrected hybrid would return to life's normal activity. The homes, made of malleable M.L.E., exchanged cellular fluids and created, from death, a new life. A life, no longer merely human, but connected to the Rows, and happy to be so. Ms. G had never died before. The TOE-B had died once, but was regenerated using some forgotten science that returned life, but did not blend it with M.L.E. It remained as mysterious as Ms. G, living high in the magenta heavens, seemingly disinterested in the activities of the creatures beneath her stilted dome. How long had she lived? A communication, which the TOE-B delivered by dropping a gondola, with a bean leaf parasol, and bean vine tether, into the center of the Rows, made no specifications. There was only a simple statement, written in an ancient language that needed to be translated by one of the Ripe. The Ripe were those whom had been around the longest. They still remembered old things. They remembered the waters. Some remembered seeing Ms. G once. They knew her language. The message was translated as reading, "I die. You come. I live." A group was assembled and five climbers started up the giant "beanstalk." The vegetation had grown to engulf the tower, which was more than twenty-five hundred feet high. Climbing to the dome and returning was estimated to take two days. There were many hidden dangers in the ascent. One climber was attacked by a mole-squito. Both climber and creature plummeted through the center of the dense foliage. They were already more than three hundred feet up, so no one heard what happened to the falling climber. At five hundred feet, the climbers rested. Two climbers picked beans and began eating them raw. The Ripes had forbidden the eating of the beans. The vines were not allowed to grow away from the tower either. The Rows created a natural defoliate that kept the vines from encroaching on the homes. No reason was ever given. The beans were tasty and filling; however, within minutes, both climbers lost the feeling in their hands and feet. They couldn't hold on to their ropes. Both fell from the vines into the thick bean leaves that parted and returned to mute the screams of the falling pair. The remaining two climbers resumed the trek up the tower. They didn't fear death, as they would always have their homes to go back to. On the third day of the climbing, the two reached the base of the dome. It was truly a marvel to behold. The dome entrance was pearl-laden, and the walkway, which seemed to lead to the center of the environment, had a shiny golden luster. Beans grew everywhere, and the vines ran along the walls and ceiling. At the center of the immense vine conspiracy, like a white aphid in the center of a solid green outcropping of green hair, was the TOE-B. Never speaking, the TOE-B walked the hundred meters which covered the distance between it and the two climbers. It produced another message, written in the same language as before. Neither of the climbers could understand it. They spoke in their own dialect, which the TOE-B seemed to understand. They wanted to see Ms. G. The TOE-B motioned for them to follow; the three traversed to the center of the dome. There, in an emerald vapor, lying on a bed of giant bean leaves, was the body of Ms. G. The first climber approached the still form and leaned in to inspect for signs of death. Ms. G's eyes then suddenly burst open. Vines came to life and entwined the startled climber. The TOE-B squirted some type of fluid at the other climber, which touched his arm and made his muscles become unresponsive and frozen. "You are a female?" asked the TOE-B, of the Row-ite climber whom Ms. G's twined tentacles held immobile. She quickly nodded in the affirmative. Looking over to the paralyzed climber he asked, "Is a male?" Another positive acknowledgement came from the flustered female. The TOE-B moved to the paralyzed figure and brought him closer to Ms. G. Within seconds, the female climber was hoisted upward and held suspended a few feet above the bed. Ms. G slowly inclined to a more erect stature, as if a flower rising slowly to meet the rays of a nurturing sun. As the female looked down on Ms. G, she saw that the bean-leaf bed and the bean vines, and, as the truth filled her mind, the entire bean stalk, was all a part - connected - with Ms. G. It didn't grow from the ground up to the dome. It began with her, and grew out to seek the world below. Ms. G pulled the male climber close to her quivering, lime-colored body. "Ms. G will mate with the male," the TOE-B stated coldly. "He will absorb her essence and she will become like he. He will carry her within him." Looking at the female he added, "You will be fertilizer." The vines that held the female suddenly tightened and twirled about, piercing her flesh and wringing out her blood. The blood cascaded down upon the grotesque pair, now writhing in a forgotten abandonment, only partially understanding the macabre, fertility ritual. The next day, at the base of the tower, the male climber's body and that of the TOE-B, were found. It was thought that there had been a struggle, and they had both fallen. In the matter of the TOE-B, it was decided to let that being return to the earth. It was planted near the spot where it had fallen. The other was taken to his home and walled up. Everything would be all right. In three days they would know what had happened in the dome. In three days, the home and the man would be as one again, and they would know. The home already knew. Its beige exterior had taken on an avocado hue. The homes that touched this home began emitting an emerald aura. The bean vines, for so long held in abeyance, and confined to the tower, had begun moving slowly forward -- towards the Rows of M.L.E. Recognized Author Notes Images from A Rose for Emily

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