Swamp Thing wanders through his marsh territory, dropping growths from his anatomy as he goes. Chester comes along a little later and discovers these, believing them to be some kind of yam with possible psychedelic properties. He goes back to his apartment to fathom exactly what the substance is but is interrupted by a friend Dave whose wife Sandy is dying from cancer. Chester gives Dave a sample of the substance he’d just discovered, believing it may have a relieving antidote for her pain. Soon afterwards Chester is interrupted again this time by a violent dope-fiend: Milo. Knowing of Chester’s often rumoured drug use Milo decides to pay his ‘old buddy’ a visit and ends up stealing a large portion of the ‘fruit’ thus leaving our hero with very little of the substance left.
Dave gives Sandy her portion of the fruit and she experiences beautiful psychedelic imagery, she walks out into the garden and feels at one with mother earth. They make love in the rain before she dies in Dave’s arms. While Dave’s wife experiences a portion of heaven, Milo on the other hand has quite a separate effect with the substance, experiencing more of the left handed path to the otherness of mortality. He has a violent and ghoulish bad trip before running out on a busy road and being hit by a passing truck, dying instantly.
After learning of the two separate incidents Chester contemplates that the fruit is some kind of “psychedelic litmus paper...you eat it and it tells you whether you’re a good or bad person”. He considers that he should consume the tiny piece that Milo had left him, reflecting that it would tell him of his own moral compass, though he is divided because though he considers himself a good person there are number of stupid thing’s that he had done in his life. After contemplating for a good while he decides that there are certain thing’s he does not want to know about himself...
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