The Cocoa Saga *Part IV* The Discovery
My eyes were shut and my fists were clenched to the sides of the car so tightly I felt myself going numb. As I waited to hear a crash, suddenly all I could hear was laughter. As I opened my eyes, Samuel had clutched his stomach laughing so hard and Kris was giggling oddly in the front.
“I take it you are not familiar with the way Sri Lankan countrymen drive?” Kris asked through a strange giggle. I looked outside the window to find we were back on the correct lane and found myself heated with anger.
“I really did not find that funny,” I said as I leaned back, relieved the ordeal was over. As we continued driving I notice this Russian roulette way of jumping into the opposite lane was just the way they pass slow moving vehicles in front of them. There are only two lanes going in opposite directions, so if you want to pass a car, you have to risk oncoming traffic or just be driving 15 km an hour or less the whole way. I was relieved when we finally arrived at our destination.
“This is a small village not far from Ampara, where the plant was found and the catastrophe had happened,” Samuel said as he led me into the doorway of a small hut. Kris sat waiting in the car as we walked off.
A woman wearing a traditional sari walked towards us as we entered. The lean woman’s hair was wound loosely in a bun, and she smiled broadly as we entered.
“Mr. Mink, so glad to see your safe arrival,” she said as she shook his hand. “I am Padma, and will be leading you into the jungle. You must be Dr. Jeevan.” She looked at me and smiled broadly as I shook her hand.
“Yes, very nice to meet you Padma.” She seemed unusually happy under the grim circumstances.
“Please, follow me.” We walked behind Padma into the next room where three body suits lay on a table. “Please, put these on.”
Once the three of us were fully covered in the suit we put on beekeeper’s helmet to cover us all the way. We followed her outside into the hot sun into the deep jungle.
About thirty feet into the jungle, Padma stopped in front of a giant banana tree. I saw her point at something under the tree. As I approached the tree, I saw the roots of something pulled out on the ground.
“That is the culprit,” I heard a muffled Samuel say as I crouched down to take a better look. I picked up the root and put a few pieces into two vials. I added a few stems as well to my collection.
“Ok, let’s get to the lab,” I said as I stood up.
* * * * * *
“Well, what can you see?” Samuel asked curiously over my shoulder. We were in the Sri Lankan government Bio Lab in the city of Kandy. Although I was exhausted from the trip to Sri Lanka from the United States, I could not stop myself from taking a look at this new organism. It was as though I was reading a thrilling book that I could not put down.
“Give me a minute, ok?” I shifted in my chair as I adjusting the sterilized sample on the stage of the microscope. I adjusted the eyepiece and fine focus to get the best clarity. However, what I was seeing just did not make any sense. “This cannot be right.”
“What?” Samuel said, looking up from the table where the contents of our expedition lay.
“This sample looks like it has been crossed between two already known types of plant life.” I took the sample and moved it into my scanning device. I ran it twice to be sure it would be able to identify which two species it was, since my hunch just did not seem logical. After getting the results back, it verified what I thought all along.
“Which two are they?” Samuel asked now standing.
“Ok, the first one is one I know can be toxic but not necessarily fatal. It’s called Dieffenbachia seguine, also known as Dumb Cane. If you consume any part of it your tongue can feel burning, irritations, as well as severe swelling. It’s fatal only if your tongue ends up swelling to the point where you cannot have access to air.”
“Dumb cane, that’s an interesting nickname,” Samuel remarked with a grin.
“Well, it’s also commonly called the mother-in-law plant,” I replied as I reviewed the scanning results. “I can say with conviction that Dumb Cane is not usually found in Southeast Asia.”
“It isn’t? That’s strange,” Samuel said.
“But that isn’t the strange part. It’s the other one that it has been crossed with that concerns me.”
“And what’s that?” Samuel walked towards me where I was leaning on the counter looking at the results.
“The other crossed plant is Theobroma Cacao, also known as a Cacao Tree,” I said looking at Samuel. “This fatal plant that killed the people of the village was made from Dumb Cane, a toxic plant and the Cacao Tree, the tree that produces cocoa beans and the world’s chocolate supply.”
“Why would anyone cross those two?” Samuel eyes were wide now. He knew this cross was not a natural occurrence now.
“I don’t know, but we have to find out.”
To be continued…
“I take it you are not familiar with the way Sri Lankan countrymen drive?” Kris asked through a strange giggle. I looked outside the window to find we were back on the correct lane and found myself heated with anger.
“I really did not find that funny,” I said as I leaned back, relieved the ordeal was over. As we continued driving I notice this Russian roulette way of jumping into the opposite lane was just the way they pass slow moving vehicles in front of them. There are only two lanes going in opposite directions, so if you want to pass a car, you have to risk oncoming traffic or just be driving 15 km an hour or less the whole way. I was relieved when we finally arrived at our destination.
“This is a small village not far from Ampara, where the plant was found and the catastrophe had happened,” Samuel said as he led me into the doorway of a small hut. Kris sat waiting in the car as we walked off.
A woman wearing a traditional sari walked towards us as we entered. The lean woman’s hair was wound loosely in a bun, and she smiled broadly as we entered.
“Mr. Mink, so glad to see your safe arrival,” she said as she shook his hand. “I am Padma, and will be leading you into the jungle. You must be Dr. Jeevan.” She looked at me and smiled broadly as I shook her hand.
“Yes, very nice to meet you Padma.” She seemed unusually happy under the grim circumstances.
“Please, follow me.” We walked behind Padma into the next room where three body suits lay on a table. “Please, put these on.”
Once the three of us were fully covered in the suit we put on beekeeper’s helmet to cover us all the way. We followed her outside into the hot sun into the deep jungle.
About thirty feet into the jungle, Padma stopped in front of a giant banana tree. I saw her point at something under the tree. As I approached the tree, I saw the roots of something pulled out on the ground.
“That is the culprit,” I heard a muffled Samuel say as I crouched down to take a better look. I picked up the root and put a few pieces into two vials. I added a few stems as well to my collection.
“Ok, let’s get to the lab,” I said as I stood up.
* * * * * *
“Well, what can you see?” Samuel asked curiously over my shoulder. We were in the Sri Lankan government Bio Lab in the city of Kandy. Although I was exhausted from the trip to Sri Lanka from the United States, I could not stop myself from taking a look at this new organism. It was as though I was reading a thrilling book that I could not put down.
“Give me a minute, ok?” I shifted in my chair as I adjusting the sterilized sample on the stage of the microscope. I adjusted the eyepiece and fine focus to get the best clarity. However, what I was seeing just did not make any sense. “This cannot be right.”
“What?” Samuel said, looking up from the table where the contents of our expedition lay.
“This sample looks like it has been crossed between two already known types of plant life.” I took the sample and moved it into my scanning device. I ran it twice to be sure it would be able to identify which two species it was, since my hunch just did not seem logical. After getting the results back, it verified what I thought all along.
“Which two are they?” Samuel asked now standing.
“Ok, the first one is one I know can be toxic but not necessarily fatal. It’s called Dieffenbachia seguine, also known as Dumb Cane. If you consume any part of it your tongue can feel burning, irritations, as well as severe swelling. It’s fatal only if your tongue ends up swelling to the point where you cannot have access to air.”
“Dumb cane, that’s an interesting nickname,” Samuel remarked with a grin.
“Well, it’s also commonly called the mother-in-law plant,” I replied as I reviewed the scanning results. “I can say with conviction that Dumb Cane is not usually found in Southeast Asia.”
“It isn’t? That’s strange,” Samuel said.
“But that isn’t the strange part. It’s the other one that it has been crossed with that concerns me.”
“And what’s that?” Samuel walked towards me where I was leaning on the counter looking at the results.
“The other crossed plant is Theobroma Cacao, also known as a Cacao Tree,” I said looking at Samuel. “This fatal plant that killed the people of the village was made from Dumb Cane, a toxic plant and the Cacao Tree, the tree that produces cocoa beans and the world’s chocolate supply.”
“Why would anyone cross those two?” Samuel eyes were wide now. He knew this cross was not a natural occurrence now.
“I don’t know, but we have to find out.”
To be continued…
posted by Shakti at 1:01 PM
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