"The Thing about Benny," Vanishing Acts By M. Shayne Bell Edited by Ellen Datlow ISSN: 0-312-86961-4
Reviewed by: Preston Hunter

The titular Benny would be an unusual character for any writer, but is especially unusual for Bell. Unlike the frequently utilized everyman that populates many other Bell stories, Benny is rather quirky and inscrutable. Benny is an employee of World Botanics, circa 2020, whose job it is to find previously undiscovered plants in the cubicles and offices of old office buildings. Apparently many species or subspecies no longer found in the wild have been unknowingly preserved as potted plants by office workers. The hope is that other plants will be found which yield cures for disease, such as the plant found which prevents artery blockage. Benny has an unusual knack for the job, which he ascribes to the Abba music he listens to constantly on his headphones.

The story is narrated by Benny's co-worker, who describes how Benny sets his player on continuous loop and listens to a single Abba song constantly for a week, at which time he switches to a different song. When he has run through all of Abba's songs, he starts over. This story takes place over nearly a week of time, spent in the offices of Utah Power and Light in Salt Lake City. Benny listens to "Dancing Queen" the whole time. Benny never responds physically to the music -- he never taps his fingers or foot, sways, or gives any indication that he's listening, except for occasional inscrutable comments. Benny has other quirks, such as always eating the same thing for dinner -- a hamburger and fries, which his co-worker always has to order for him. When the narrator/co-worker asks Benny over dinner if he has any goals in life, Benny waits a day before answering him: His goal is to discoverfour new species of plants, to name after each of the members of Abba.

Like Benny, this story has a deceptively plain exterior which masks unknown depths. The plot is easy to follow, but there is clearly a lot more going on underneath the surface. I'm still not sure just what the story is all about, although I'll guess at a piece of it. Benny talks about the bridge of a song, and then says of bridges in general that they get you to someplace new, but still let you go back to where you came from. Bell himself is somewhat of a bridge, simultaneously a part of two very different cultures, cultures which usually prefer walls rather than bridges between them. The environmentalist concerns providing the impetus for Benny's work, and the motivation for this story, may also form a sort of bridge -- one which has potentially universal appeal and wide support, but which is also frequently ignored. Looking for rare plants while listening to Abba's "Dancing Queen" in offices populated by Latter-day Saint returned missionaries may be another example of Bell's attempts to navigate choppy waters between opposite, parallel shores.

"We finished eating, and I carried Benny's things up to his room for him. At the door he turned around and looked at me. 'Bridges take you to a new place,' he said. 'But they also show you the way back to where you once were.'"