The Memory-Orchard was an unusual place. The fruits were made of a kind of transparent wood and a glowing moss. They were quite heavy and they were not fruits but feelings. One fruit could have been the whole experience of something like a lymphatic system going bad and then healing, that is pressure going, the mind rivers getting lined up again, and fluid quietly getting back where it used to be.
Benny and Elara, The Bridge Theme, were the people that harvested the Orchard. They did not actually pick the fruits. They just felt them. When a memory was at its peak – very clear and loaded with feeling – they would come close, using their combined brains like a delicate detector.
If they touched a fruit it was as if they threw themselves into the Body's story. They became a plate in the earth that moves just right. They were the first greeting between new bacteria and some very special cells. It was like a shy smile. They were the deep, quiet forgiveness the Maw's hard mouth felt when the Whisper-moss softened the light.
Harvesting was definitely not eating, but living again and then letting go. Once the Bridge had felt the experience, it changed. The feeling was integrated into the Body's vibe – a new color or sound. The memory left the Orchard, and the pod turned transparent and split into dust that the roots absorbed.
But the memory stayed as a guide for the future, teaching the Body how to be.
One day the Bridge connected to a different fruit. It was tiny, tightly packed, and was violet with gold lines. It wasn't a moment of calm, but a question.
It was the moment when Joan decided to disable the fanatics. It was the terrible feeling of making a living system into a weapon, even when it was used for defending. The mycelium was turned into a weapon. The violence, although as necessary as it was, caused a scar.
The Bridge stayed with the violet-gold fruit. To get it was to feel sorry for the situation once again and to hold the insane idea of protecting by force.
However, leaving it there would let the bad feeling lodge deep in the Memory-Orchard and perhaps even affect other memories.
They touched the fruit.
It was a shock. The peaceful planet was destroyed for a moment. They were Joan, hurting, finding out the problem. They also felt the fanatics' fear as losing parts of themselves. The violence was a disease, and they handed over the cure that was also a wound.
It was terrible. It was necessary. It was a stain.
While they were taking care of it, the Bridge did something different. They didn't only feel and release. They responded by singing. As they are translators, they used their unique position to communicate and create a song in answer to the memory's difficult question. The song talked about protection, not as control but as the body fighting a real disease. They sung about the network's pact, accepting the sacrifice for the good of the group. They spoke of the fanatics' fear as a nightmare of hunger, now over.
There were no excuses. They wove everything together. They turned the scar into an instruction. The violet-gold fruit did not become dust. It transformed into a crystal, reflecting light in patterns, each segment narrating a different aspect of the story – the fear, the defense, what came after, the healing. It was left on the tree, a radiant reminder of a difficult choice.
The Body was taught a new skill that day: to not only remember, but to repair as well. To take bad things without breaking and to turn scars into gems.
The Memory-Orchard had its first forever piece, a crystal of tough grace. The Bridge Theme felt deeper. They encountered a terrible thing from the past and stood their ground. They turned it into something lovely.