Patton's stingbulb

“Patton?” Kendra asked. “No. Impossible. He’s dead. You’re dead!”

“You got that right,” Patton said.

“Are you a ghost?” Kendra asked.

“Don’t I seem solid?” He stepped forward and gave her a hug. It felt good to press her head to his strong chest. This was her ancestor!

She backed out of the hug. “You seem perfect. But how can it be you? Chronometer?”

“No,” Patton said. “But we had our adventure with the Chronometer at Fablehaven not too long ago, from my point of view. This isn’t really me, Kendra. I’m a knockoff. A copy.”

“You’re a stingbulb,” Kendra realized. Stingbulbs were rare fruit that could replicate anybody they stung. When planted, the bulb would grow into an imitation of the person in roughly ninety minutes.

“You got it.” Hooking his thumbs in his pockets, he looked at Raj Faranah. “Told you she was a sharp kid.”

“You won’t last long,” Kendra said.

“A few days at best,” Patton agreed. “I stung myself and put the stingbulb in a null box. Left it with the animals in case of emergency. Raj was around back then, but not in charge. It was an elephant.”

“Hinto the Great,” Raj said. “One of our finest leaders.”

“What’s a null box?” Kendra asked.

“You know how a Quiet Box keeps a person in stasis?” Patton asked.

“Yes,” Kendra said.

“A null box is smaller and even more intense,” Patton said. “Time and entropy basically stop in there. I would sometimes store my avocados in this one when they were just right. It also keeps toast warm.”

“And keeps a stingbulb from growing,” Kendra said.

“Until some friendly critters plant it,” Patton said.

“We had the stingbulb for years in case of an extreme emergency,” Raj said. “When we heard you had reached our territory, Kendra, we planted it and told Patton to serve you when you arrived.”

Kendra remembered that stingbulbs were very impressionable and would unquestioningly obey the orders of their first master. “You have Patton’s memories?” Kendra checked.

“I am not really Patton,” the stingbulb said. “I am a replica of who Patton was in a certain moment. I have the personality he had then, the vocabulary, the memories, the aptitudes. I feel like him. And I know I am not him. I know it would be very hard for me to become much more or less than who I am right now. I can’t learn as he learned, but I can perform as he performed.”

Chapter 18-Stingbulb