Chapter 1

Everything swam before Bibi's eyes. She was as drunk as one could be. She didn't know where to walk anymore, since her intoxicated brain had forgotten where she had come from. The bar she had spent the previous seven hours in was located a good deal away from her hotel, and since it was the first time she was on holiday on Madagascar, she didn't know the directions well. Bibi stumbled, in her semi-conscious state, across the near-empty streets of Morondava, using street lanterns and houses for occasional support.
After a while, she saw the beach. Bibi remembered vaguely she had walked there earlier that day when she left the hotel, so she decided that was the place to go. She staggered forward over the beach, swinging left and right, and fell a couple of times, but because of the soft sand, Bibi didn't get hurt.

"Where issshh the hotel?" she murmured. She wanted to go to bed. The 25- year old zigzagged forward on the beach for about twenty minutes, hoping to find her hotel.
But then, the beach ended in thick bushes, an entrance to the jungles of Madagascar. Hardly able to think properly in her highly inebriated state, hardly able to think at all, she entered the bushes, stumbling through the thick green. She didn't know where to go. After another twenty minutes of walking, she wasn't able to stand upright anymore. The large quantities of exotic cocktails and glasses of pure gin finished their work. Bibi fell over, and before she hit the ground, she was already soundly asleep, the lush green softening her fall.

When she awoke, she was lying on a mat of woven reeds. The sun was high in the sky already; its light could be seen piercing through the jungle vegetation. Bibi didn't know where she was. Sitting upright, suffering from a hangover, she looked at her surroundings.

Jungle.

Nothing but weird plants. Where had she gotten into this time?

"Awake?", she heard a voice say behind her. Startled, she turned. A Caucasian man, maybe 35 years of age, stood there, with a mocking smile on his face.

"W...What? Who are you? And where am I?" she asked. She still had cobwebs in her brain.

"My name is Frank. And you are in the middle of the jungle. I found you this morning. Lucky for you I have to do my research here, otherwise you might never have made it back." Frank grinned. "Did I scare you? You scared me too. I thought you were dead. A corpse, maybe raped before being killed, and left here to be eaten by the local fauna."

Bibi stood up as Frank, still smiling mockingly, explained he noticed to his relief she was still breathing and had smelled an alcoholic air around her. The conclusion how she ended up here was quickly drawn.

"I...I had a party last night," Bibi lied, embarrassed, after she had introduced herself. It wasn't the first time she awoke somewhere she didn't want to, usually the police station or the hospital. It was the third day she was on the large island located in the Indian Ocean, next to Africa, and she had ended up yesterday in a nice cocktail bar in the city of Morondava. And now, she found herself somewhere in the jungles of Madagascar. Bibi didn't feel too well about it.

She looked at the man, smiling at her. She had to look up to him, as she usually needed, since she stopped growing at 5'2. She didn't really like it, and many times she wished she were taller.

"And what are you doing here?", she asked.

"I conduct research. I'm a biologist, a botanist. The study of plant life, " Frank added, seeing Bibi's puzzled look. "I study the unique plant life of Madagascar. No other place in the world has produced so many unique species of plants and animals. And now, I have found something really exciting. Something that might change the world."

Frank pointed behind him, a look of sheer pleasure on his face. Bibi saw a large green stem, quite smooth, with a patch of dark green moss on it. Following Frank's finger upwards with her eyes, she saw the stem ending in an umbrella-like hood, yellowish in color, about 50 feet from the ground. It took her a few seconds to realize what it was.

A blossom.

She was standing before a gigantic flower!

Frank picked up a small flower from the ground and showed it to her. It resembled the giant flower in every respect apart from its size. The flower Frank held before Bibi's astonished eyes was hardly three inches, while the flower in front of her was 50 feet at least.

"But...what..." Bibi didn't know what to say. Was he fooling her? "Did you discover gigantic flowers?", she asked, vaguely remembering a story of Jules Verne about an island where everything was much bigger than normal. Or was it written by Jonathan Swift?

"No, not really." Frank said. "The flower is huge, true, but it belongs to the same species of plant. Its growth is caused by something else." He grinned.

"OK...", Bibi replied, waiting for the conclusion.

"I found a few plants, much bigger than they should be. After some research, I discovered that the gigantic growth is because of the moss here on the stem. It produces a chemical agent that it injects in its host. The agent causes the host plant to grow at an alarming rate. Then, the moss feeds itself with the water and nutrients the host plant produces in abundant quantities now. This continues until the moss has gathered enough energy to produce offspring in the form of seeds, which will be blown away by the wind, to find another host. Then the moss dies off and the cycle begins anew." Frank grinned. "And I have spent my research on this moss, which I dubbed "witches' moss", and the growing agent for the last three years. Soon, I can promote on it. I've isolated the agent here in my little lab, everything financed by Harvard. They don't pay well, but, hey, who says no to three years on Madagascar to get the title of doctor, and a lot of fame afterwards?"

Bibi watched the small flower in Frank's hand and the big one in turn. Where had she ended up? Was she still dreaming or something? No, she wasn't, everything was real as it should be. Including her hangover.

"That is interesting," she said, "but I'd like to go to my hotel in Morondava. And I have a hangover. I need some rest."

"Don't worry. I know the way out of here. And I have some painkillers in my home. Come! It's only ten minutes walking from here", Frank offered.

"Well, I'd like to take the bus or a taxi. Can you call one for me, please? I don't have a phone on me."

"Me neither, but I'll call one at home for you. My house is next to a small road running towards Morondava. Until you want to walk, but that takes about an hour. You certainly walked quite a distance yesterday!", Frank smiled.

Bibi didn't reply. Deciding she could trust him, she followed Frank a bit sheepish towards his house. The two walked for a while until they reached a small house that was indeed built next to a dusty road.

"OK, I'll call you a taxi if you like. No bus here. But I could also drive you back, I have a car myself," Frank said when she was seated in his living room with a glass of water in her hand, in which an aspirin dissolved with soft sizzling noises.

"Fine, thanks, I'll take the taxi," Bibi said. She was looking at her reflection in the mirror glass of a cupboard door. She saw her face, as rundown as ever after a night of heavy drinking. Her light-brown, thin hair hung loose and unkempt, her grey eyes appeared smaller than normal, her skin pale. She sighted and drained the glass.   

Frank had called a taxi, and told her the cab would be at his house in about twenty minutes. "Here on Madagascar, things go slower than in the States," he grinned. "It is sometimes an advantage," he added, seeing Bibi's expression.

"Twenty minutes," Bibi repeated, not pleased. All she wanted was to go back to her hotel as soon as possible and have a shower.

"Yes," Frank said, and after a short pause "maybe you want to see my lab? Come, I'd like to show you what I've done so far. I'm sure you'll like it."

Bibi wasn't sure she'd like it at all, but it was better than sitting in the small living room and looking at herself. She stood up and, feinting interest, followed him.