Chapter 27 - Trees
"Hello, this is Doctor Phillip Day."
"Hello, ah, doctor Rice?"
"No, Doctor Rice is no longer with us. My name is Phillip Day. How may I help you?"
"My name is Ben Lopez. I have been calling people in Washington all day and getting referred to yet another agency or person."
"I'm sorry about that. What is this about?"
"I am with forestry management. I had a very unusual experience this morning."
"Yes?"
"I noticed that an unknown species of tree was quickly taking over a hillside which had been cut. This species, of a type I had never seen before, was growing twenty times as faster than any I had ever seen before. To keep it from taking over the whole forest I sent a team to cut them down."
"Is this going to take long?"
"I'm just getting to it. After the first chainsaw was put to a tree, the woodman stopped as soon as he had cut a couple of the saplings because he thought he was having equipment failure. There was what looked like oil spilling over everything. He quit because he was afraid of starting a fire."
"Yes."
"Come to find out the oil, more like diesel, was coming from the tree. I'm totally bewildered and have been trying to find someone to tell me where this plant came from and what I'm supposed to do with it."
"Well thank you for telling me about this. I don't think you should have to go further and call anyone else."
"Good”.
"It didn't start out as my job but I'm sort of becoming the minister of impossible things. I think I know where your trees came from. If you will give directions, I'll have someone come out and take a look. I advise leaving them alone for the time being. Can I also have contact information for you? I'll put my secretary back on to take down all this information. Is there anything else?"
"No. That's what I was looking to find out. Is this related to some of the weird stuff I've been hearing about?"
"I wouldn't be a bit surprised. Hold on and I'll transfer you."
“Backyard biofuel? Well this will piss off what’s left of the oil companies. Corn for biofuel didn’t work out but this just might.” Said Phillip under his breath as he put the call on hold and signaled Nan.
“Check your mail” she said.
It was a report from Africa about refugees finding manna from heaven at their camp each morning. It was a gooey stuff, nutritious but bland. Now these Muslim people had one more thing in common with their Jewish brothers. It was probably nano food but the thankful recipients called it food from Allah, manna.