ET- Turnip Getting Jumped

  The Flopglopple and the robot worked with him, grafting the Fusion Blooms to the circumference of the giant turnip; the tough tendrils of the Fusion were soon circling the turnip, clinging tenaciously to its surface. The Flopglopple addressed the network of tendrils. “See,” he said, and tied his two index fingers in a knot. “You must do the same.”

  The sagacious vine pondered, its rootlets waving freely in the air, and then suddenly their ends curled together in knots, gripping each other. All around the turnip, the Fusion vine met itself, forming an interlocking net.

  “Bring the elixir of Tadana,” said E.T., and the robot brought a vial of it. E.T. poured a drop in each of the Fusion Blooms and a moment later vitalizing vigor ran through the entire plant; its grip upon itself intensified in a hundred little handshakes of the vine. It tightened all around the turnip and a faint crunching sound was heard as the pressure of its grip upon the turnip was increased a thousandfold.

  The mouths of the Fusion Plant now covered the turnip, and breathed gently all around its toughened sphere. The robot gazed at it, his head clicking audibly. “I don’t understand, for now it will be all the more difficult to extract the edible center. However, vegetables are not my field.”
...

  A large wooden tub now sat in E.T.’s clearing, and into it the Flopglopple was pouring elixir of Tadana, in large quantities. Standing nearby, in a long line, was an entire family of Jumpums, twiddling their roots impatiently as they waited.

  E.T. siphoned a bit of the mixture from the tub, checked its density, and then nodded to the first Jumpum in line. The Jumpum took an enthusiastic jump and landed in the tub, soaking its roots in the vivifying elixir of Tadana.

  “Good,” said E.T., and waved the first Jumpum out and called for the next. In this way, the entire family of some fifty strong young Jumpums absorbed the potent elixir.

  And so it was that the pilot of a low-flying Lucidulum cargo ship was greeted by a Jumpum tree sailing sublimely past his cockpit window, on the arc of a thirty meter jump.

  The pilot watched open-mouthed, as the Jumpum descended gracefully downward, branches umbrellaed out, leaves fluttering.
...

  The Fusion Blooms had by now woven their tenacious weave right into the turnip’s skin, fusing their vines to it. But loose tendrils waved freely around the surface.

  “Embrace your friends,” said the Flopglopple, and the waving tendrils suddenly wrapped themselves around the Jumpums, and bound them to the turnip in an unbreakable grip. The faint crunching of bark sounded through the ranks of the Jumpums.

  The voice of the robot crackled again, through a tiny speaker attached to E.T.’s finger. “Monitors entering your area, south by southwest.”

  The whirling orbs, like a flight of little cyclones, flashed over the horizon. “This is the demoted doctor’s sector,” said the point Monitor. “Look sharply.”

  “Now,” said E.T. to the Jumpums, whose capillaries were singing with elixir of Tadana. All around the turnip, the attached Jumpums curled their powerful root systems; then they seemed to crouch a little, and then they jumped.

  The turnip broke free of the ground, the great vegetable sailing into the air, carried by the Jumpums.

  This is jumping, said the Jumpums, bearing the turnip lightly between them, and coming down amidst a number of turnip-shaped boulders with which they blended, as the Monitors sailed by overhead.

  Once again, said the Jumpums.

  They curled their massive roots under a second time, and sprang into the air again, on a long gliding leap that carried them out over a nearby lake. They floated down, leaves fluttering, and sank beneath its surface.

  Immersion, reflected the turnip. My fate is a mixed one. But I am patient, for something great awaits me.

- E.T. The Book of the Green Planet, chapters 17 and 18