He found himself wondering where they had come from.

And who tended them.

Slowly, the five of them began spreading out, drawn by their individual eyes and interests to particular flowers or shrubs. Daniel stood by a sort of cactus that looked like a headless human skeleton covered with yellowish skin and spiny needles.

Stormy had walked over to the wall of windows and was gingerly touching the glass. “Feels solid,” he said, looking back. He knocked on the glass, and Daniel heard a recognizable clink-clink-clink sound. “Might as well try.” Stormy glanced around him, picked up a decent-sized potted plant, and threw it at the window.

It disappeared.

Reappeared.

“What would happen if someone kicked one of those windowpanes?” Daniel wondered, walking over. “Would his foot get caught in that… whatever it is, and then show up again in here?”

“You want to try it?” Stormy asked.

Daniel held up his hands. “Not me. I’m just wondering.”

“I guess you’ll keep on wondering. I’m not trying it either.”

“Hey, guys!”

Both of them turned to see Norton standing before a peculiarly sparse bush with unusually large dark leaves. They walked over and saw as they drew closer that even though there was no wind in the greenhouse, no air-conditioning, no breeze, the leaves of the bush were moving, twitching, twisting in the air.

There seemed something obscene about the plant’s movements, an unnatural and aggressive sexuality to the motions that reminded Daniel of

Doneen

He looked over at Norton, Stormy, and saw the same look of recognition in both of their eyes. Laurie and Mark were heading over as well, and he could tell from the expression on their faces that they had the same reaction to the plant.

A branch reached for him, drew back, reached again, drew back, its strange leaves curving in on themselves invitingly. At the tip of the branch was a small round berry.

Eve and the apple.

That’s what it reminded him of, and for the first time, he thought that perhaps their earlier talk of God and the devil wasn’t that far off.

“What’s the point of this?” Laurie asked. “Why were we led here?”

Daniel shrugged. “You got me.”

Behind Laurie, another plant was moving, a series of skinny stalks topped by orchidlike flowers. Following his gaze, she turned. The red engorged stamen of the closest flower wiggled at her, lengthened to its quivering full extension, a drop of dew dripping from its tip.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said disgustedly.

“Fine by me.”

“Let’s hit it,” Stormy agreed.

All five of them moved back out the open doorway the way they’d come, Daniel bringing up the rear, keeping his eyes peeled for anything unusual, but nothing happened, even the plants had stopped moving, and when they were all back in the hallway the door slammed shut.