Animalcule

He placed the pebble of amber under the microscope.

- Is it the thing shaped like a trumpet? she asked.

He briefly looked her in the eye before staring back at the fossil. 

- How on earth could such a thing exist? It doesn't make any sense. It would negate life. If it were activated, it would be the end of the world. It's beyond my understanding: if this animalcule really could do what you claim it can do, we wouldn't even be here to ponder about it. It would have eradicated life on earth. Or at least life as we know it. We would have evolved in a different way.

He grabbed it and watched it roll in his hand.

- You should destroy it, she said.

The small ball settled in his palm. He closed his fist on it. He took her hand and placed the future of the human race in it, pushed her fingers over it as if to nestle it, then covered her fist with his hands.

She didn't say no to the question he never asked. 

Hélène L.

*  *  *