After breakfast, Niki and Big Wally strolled down the sidewalk. They passed a supermarket.

     "You want to know what a botanical is?" Big Wally asked. "There. Right there. Those are botanicals." 

     Next to the entrance, on either side, carts were filled with what looked like fresh strawberries, cherries, carrots, onions, and heads of lettuce. The sign over the carts confirmed Big Wally's statement: BOTANICALS! ONE TENTH THE PRICE OF OTHER VEGETABLES! 

     "A tenth the price?" Niki asked. "How can they do that and expect to make any money?"

     "You're scaring me again," Big Wally said. 

     "All I..." 

     "Botanicals have been around since January. Botanicals have changed the world." 

     "They look..."  

     "There's no more starvation on the planet. Botanicals are super-weeds. They grow everywhere under any condition, and what you feed them they become."

     "What?"

     "Even meat. Feed a botanical a cheeseburger, and two weeks later you've got a side of beef, or at least something that looks a hell of a lot like a side of beef."

     "​What?"

     Big Wally stopped walking. 

     "I scared you again."

     "Where have you been for the last year?" 

     She's a good forty pounds overweight, Niki thought. Look at all that extra flesh jiggling around under her clothes.

      "I'm thinking I'd like to take a nap after all that food," Niki said. "You know any good motels around here, Big Wally?"

     "You don't need a motel," Big Wally replied. "I know where there's an apartment that's only about a block and a half from here. The woman who rents it's a friend of mind. We can be there in five minutes."

​     "What are we waiting for?" Niki asked.  

                                                       CONTINUE