Brian Eno - Little Fishes
June 05th, 1778
Morning
...
Fratley told me that he could see the entire universe from his father's room. Maybe he was referring to its window.
— Look! It's moving! – He said right inside the room, while I walked upstairs.
— Yeah, yeah... – I said with not as much enthusiasm as Fratley. Perhaps he saw the people by the window and I would be very disappointed if he did not. If he saw ghosts, I'd be a little afraid.
— This thing has a billion legs! – What the actual hell!? I must see it right away! So I ran upstairs, a thing I usually don't do unless I'm wearing pudding pants.
— What did you say? Hey! Come on, let me see! – I was very happy about it, and if Fratley lied, I don't know. He's too young to be beaten up, and I don't think it's polite to beat up a friend in front of his mom.
— Here! – Little Fratley pointed not at the window, but instead, he showed me a thing called... called... I wonder what the heck is that thing on his father's desk. – Check the microscope, and you'll see.
— Alright. – Microscope, huh? I went towards the chair Fratley stood at. He jumped and let me go up to see that thing called a microscope. Never heard about it, never saw, never tasted, but if the boy saw something in it, I must see too. That, or he is a little delusional.
I can hear his father crying in agony through the papers and stuff he left on the table. Pens, scissors, rulers, more papers, a huge, and I say HUGE globe, some skulls, piles of papers, I think Fratley's dad is a very smart man, if not a bit disturbed too.
— Look... do you see? – Asked Fratley as he told me to put my eye near the microscope. And then I saw a freaking monster!
— AAAH! I saw it! I saw it! – I almost fell from the chair. It really had a billion legs, Fratley was not lying. He did not told me it looked so ugly and squeaky and that being said, I'm glad the creature is so small, even more than my cousin's dick. Now dare to say it in front of Dan, hehe...
— It's called Paramecium. – Fratley explained. – They live in the water just like us. Well, not really, but they need water to live. I guess all living beings need water, but parameciums just live on it. Near stagnant water, dad said. He found most of these in a swamp. Oh! And those leg things, they look like hair eyes, don't they?
— Do they make us sick? – I asked. That paramecium thing had a billion legs, stars, and it looked like a small Malboro ready to throw in a Bad Breath or something harmful.
— I don't think so. My dad said that lots of bacterias are actually helpful, like those little balls you see in the bean's roots. They're like breathers or something to the earth, I don't know. Wish my dad could explain a lot better with his complicated words... He even has a bot with lots of complicated words, the book itself is called dit-dicti-dictina-dicto-uh... Dictionary, I guess.
— What are the kids doing at father's bedroom? – Suddenly, Fratley's older brother came in. Older not quite so, like two or three years plus five. Eight, goddamnit. I'm beginning to think and sound like Fratley, I wonder if that's good or bad.
— Oh hi Zack! – Fratley greeted his brother shyly. – I wanted to show my friend Jack the microscope.
— Parameciums, huh? – Zaccharias said. We call him Zack because Zaccharias sounds like an old man's name. What's with adults giving children an elder's name like Joseph, Mariah, Sosthenes... Heh, Dan and I laughed so hard at a child called Sosthenes, but now I feel bad for that. He has no fault his parents have a bad taste.
— Hey, there's another paramecium, not just one. And there's three of them. – Now I think parameciums are the coolest. Don't know why, maybe it's the first time I saw them, and there's nothing ever close to doing or seeing something for the first time. Eventually it gets boring, but before that happens, I will enjoy what's to be enjoyed. Nature's wonders never cease to amaze me.
And now I can confirm I am acting like Fratley. I became Fratley but that's not the end of the world, and I feel fine.
— WHOA! What are they doing!? – I think I saw something I should not have. Yet I can't take my eyes away from it!
— What's happening? – Fratley said all worried. He wanted to look at the microscope but his brother pulled him out.
— Hey, let me see it too! – Zack climbed the chair and we shared each microscope's lens. He got the right one and I got the left one.
— I wanna see it too! – Fratley too wanted to see and I felt bad for him.
— Be quiet! Oh, nasty... They are dividing and some of them are screwing with each other, and that's gross! Yuck... can you tell what's happening, Frat?
— I can, if you let me see.
— No, I'll say what's going on and you tell me what it is. – I wish I could take my eyes away from what I'm seeing, but like Zack, I just can't. Something's going on and I don't know what.
— But Jack... he's my friend... – I felt poor for Fratley. He too wanted to see it so bad. Guess he knew better what was with the parameciums. – Dividing, you said? They are making clones. Screwing each other, like spaghetti in a fork? Exchanging nuclei? Like, they're giving each other their little balls?
— Exactly. – Zack answered. Yes, that's how I too would describe the thing, though not really.
— Dad said parameciums reproduce both in sexual and assexual ways. – Fratley replied. That meaning... is what's happening… Right here in front of us!?
— So, that is sex. – I said, taking a further peek at the paramecium's secret sex affairs.
— It's the only kind of sex we're allowed to see. – Zack said. For some reason we both felt shaken whenever we said the s-word, like it was a sort of swearing but not really. Without sex I would not have been born, none of us would be.
— Fratley... do you wanna see? – I got tired quickly of seeing the parameciums doing it. It ain't fun at all.
— Sure! – He hugged me, all excited and doing weird noises. ~ Thank you, Jack!
— You sure wanna see it, Frat? – Zack asked with a concerned voice. He was not an ass at all to his brother.
— I do! – Fratley said, all cheerful. He climbed the chair and shared the microscope's lens with Zack, and then he saw it. And little Fratley was never the same. Or maybe he is. – Funny, my fishes do the same thing except they dance before laying lots of eggs. I asked mom if she danced to dad and then layed a whole lot of eggs. She said nothing about the eggs, though.
What an odd little fella. I don't want him to change at all.