Consider the World

By Matthew Gerber

**Flaming
Feather**

They think I'm going to Fall. They haven't looked very hard.

For a while I thought it was just talk. Well, no. I didn't think it was just talk from Dominic. He's never had too much of a sense of humor, and Seraphim don't tend to just talk. Things like that get them annoyed, you know. *No* fun at parties. But anyway, Dominic's doing what he always does, and hey, you gotta respect that. Even if he drives me more than half insane sometimes, I respect that. I still can't talk to him yet, though. He wouldn't understand. I mean, how can I --

Wow, that's pretty. Look at it. Just look. No, wait, move to the left a little. There, you've got a better angle now. Look at how the sun reflects off.... good. Good, you see it. Good. It takes most people longer.

What? Dominic? I was--oh yeah, I was. Right. Where was I.... oh yeah. How can I answer his questions when I don't know the answers myself yet? Oh, quit looking at me. It's not that weird. I mean, I can tell him I'm not Dissonant, I'm not planning on Falling or Jumping anytime soon, all the standard stuff, sure, that's fine. But he's going to want to know what--

Hey, little guy! You are a cute little one, aren'tcha, someone's keeping you well-fed....

Yeah, yeah, sorry. He's going to want to know what I'm doing. The thing is, I don't. Would you quit looking at me like that? I don't know why I'm down here. I just know I need to be down here, because there's something I need to find. Or do. Or make. Or maybe it's a little of all of it. Dunno yet. If I knew, I could just tell snake-boy and... oh, man, I love this song. Listen.

Anyway, I could just go back and tell him and keep things put back together up there. Ha, remembered myself this time. Gotcha. Hey, want a sandwich?

What? How do I know it's a good thing? How do I know I'm not going to Fall? Siddown. I'll order. Hey, you want bacon on that? Good, good. Nah, the rye's too hard here, get the whole wheat, trust me.

So how do I know? Sigh. You haven't looked either, have you? Hold still and listen. Okay. Look at your drink. Are you looking at your drink? It's very important that you're looking at your drink. Closely. That's good. Good. Because your drink is everything Heaven's about, so it's a very important drink. Oh, man, I told you to look at it, not sip it. Lemme help you wipe that up.

Okay, look. The drink's got sugar in it, water in it, carbon in it and some other stuff they use for coloring and flavor and stuff. It's got more, but that's enough. Now, you mix the sugar and water and carbon and brown stuff and you get a pretty good tasting thing, right? Right. But the sugar by itself would make you sick, the water's bland, trying to drink carbon would just be weird and you don't even know what the other stuff is and you probably don't want to, even though it's really cool the way they --

"Focus?" You haven't looked yet. Hang on, hang on, I'm getting there.

So you need everything together to make the drink. Yeah, I know, I'm sure you've heard that before. But get this. The sugar came from plants down in Florida somewhere, after some seed and nutrients and water and sunlight decided that they loved each other very much. And the other stuff came from wherever the other stuff came from.

Nothing in this world works by itself. Nothing. Nothing takes action on its own -- everything happens in reaction, in response to something else's action, in response to something that something else did, everything ricocheting off each other and making stuff happen together. That's why I'm down here. There's a message down here. Down here is a message. And I've got to read it. Somebody's got to read it.

Have you ever stopped to think how pathetic the other guys are? I'm not worried about them. Why should you be? Don't look so uptight, I'm not saying we shouldn't do anything, they'll screw stuff up for a while if we don't, but--

Oh, great paint job. Love the highlighting... he did it himself, too. Wow. You know, almost everyone uses shops for--

Sigh. I know, I know. Okay, anyway, just look. Look at it. They actually think selfishness has an argument. They actually think they've got a point. But look at it. Every time hydrogen and oxygen get together and make water, it guts any point they ever had. Every time someone thinks about the fact that all the most fun things a person can do require another person willing to help, they shrink a little. Every time chemicals touch and become something new, every time the sun warms up a sidewalk, every time an electron spins around a nucleus the universe laughs in their faces.

And what's hilarious is, they think I might join up. And you know, I'm starting to think they actually mean it. They actually aren't kidding.

They haven't looked very hard. They really haven't looked very hard at all.

Dessert? This place has great milkshakes...

**Flaming
Feather**

Back to the INC Mainpage.
Back to the Archangels page.

Send mail to the Curator