270. Among the Lotus Eaters
Amy walks over to the lotuses. They're so beautiful... so captivating. After a few minutes she decides she's had enough, but finds that she can't bring herself to look away. She just stares at them for five minutes, ten, fifteen. A voice in her head tells her that she really ought to be getting out of here, but she quiets that voice and tells it that nothing could be more important than appreciating beauty, and the more she stares at them the more she realizes that these lotuses are the most beautiful thing she's ever seen.
At last she feels a strange new compulsion. She wants to taste the lotus blossoms. She wants to have that beauty inside of her, and maybe its beauty will become a part of her and she will become luminescent. The voice in her head screams that this is a bad idea, that she should just walk away and get on to more important business, but she shuts the voice out. She steps into the planter and wades over to the lotuses. She reaches out with her right hand and gently, tenderly picks one. She brings it up to her face to admire up close. She sniffs it and loses herself in its intoxicating aroma. Finally, daintily, she nibbles delicately on a petal of the lotus flower.
The voice in her head stops. The only thing Amy wants to do is stay here and eat lotus flowers, all day, all night, for the rest of her life.
And she does.
Amy is in no condition to continue this adventure.