November 2023's short story of the month
"Galileo was put on trial and spent the last years of his life in prison for suggesting that the earth revolved around the sun. We think we have a pretty good idea of how the universe works now, but what if we don't? What if we're wrong? What if…" I stammer.
"You can't possibly think that esoteric argument is going to work? You've had how long to prepare this? They are going to eat you alive," Anima says and then takes a sip of her coffee.
I scowl at her over my own cup. I wait before I take a sip. We're trying to appear to have normal human behaviors, and sometimes it's hard for us. We tend to over or under due some traits, including eating and drinking in a rhythm that is distinctly non-human.
"You need to stop over thinking so much," Anima says. She pushes her hair over her shoulder. She's clearly been practicing her human tics.
"Well, what am I supposed to say? I'm being asked to defend all of humanity? How is something of that magnitude even possible?" I ask.
I'm defending humanity, all of humanity, throughout all time in a trial. The trial is being held in a few days. I'm not ready. I've been preparing for this for my whole life, but it's still not enough time. I've only been observing humans for a little over three centuries. It's just not enough to really know them.
"Well, you should reconsider anything that asks questions," Anima says. "Make statements. Tell them what to think. Don't let them think for themselves."
She was right. I didn't want to admit it, but she was. I needed to go in there with a strong argument. The rest of the Elementals were against me.
I was the youngest Elemental on Earth, and somehow I'd lucked into the toughest job. My title was the representative for Humanity on the Elemental council. I not only had to study and observe all human activity, but whenever humans came up in legislation or other activities involving the council, I had to show up to represent them. It was exhausting, and not to mention, nearly impossible.
I did have a team working for me, but even with several hundred lesser Elementals at my disposal, I was constantly running behind on my duties.
The next council meeting was a doozy. (A word I liked that humans used). There was a trial set to begin in a few days, a trial that would decide whether or not it was time to reset the Earth.
You might find the idea shocking, but it was one of the functions Elemental performed. Of course, to my knowledge, we'd never actually acted on or performed a reset on an entire planet, but it was up for debate now.
Anima was talking again, "Of course, if it were me, I would pass the buck." She really was getting much better at faking being human, even her blasé attitude was accurate.
I shook my head. "No, I can't do that," I answered. I didn't admit to her that I'd considered sending in a team of my lesser minions, but that seemed unfair to them. Plus, if I didn't bring my all, even if I lost, I would be punished. Who knows what assignment the council would stick me with.
"Anima, I have to go. I need to go rethink my entire strategy. Thanks for meeting with me today, and please don't tell anyone what we talked about." She nods as I talk, and smiles and winks before she walks away.
I take a deep breath and another sip of my coffee. I don't really like coffee, and I don't need water and food to survive like a human. We drink and eat human things as a novel experience. I also like that people (and other Elementals) will leave you alone while you finish a cup of coffee. It's like it comes with its own force field.
I don't know what I'm going to do. How can I argue that humans should be allowed to continue being the dominant species on Earth. (Though technically they only think that if you consider that we can reset the planet without asking them). Humans are blissfully unaware that they don't actually control their own fate.
The few times that one of them has discovered us, we've allowed them to think we're extraterrestrials. Honestly, we do live on other planets, but we also live here. We don't think of ourselves as aliens. We monitor the whole universe. We're everywhere.
Our primary function is to observe. We watch and take notes. We don't judge, not usually.
As I sit, trying not to panic, a human comes and sits at my table, uninvited.
I don't say anything. I'm not comfortable interacting with them.
For several minutes, she just sits there with her hands on the table not saying anything. She is smiling in what I think is supposed to be a kind and gentle expression.
"Can I help you?" I ask because I can't understand why she is sitting there staring at me.
"I'm sorry for eavesdropping," she says. "I heard you and your friend talking. I assume you were talking about a law case of some sort. I didn't get the details." She stops and waits, acting like I should say something.
"I can't talk about it," I say and start to stand up.
"No, please stay." She pats the table. "I'm not trying to get details. I just wanted to help you."
I'm not sure what to think. How could she help me? She doesn't really know what case I'm working on, and there is no way she's guessed because she doesn't even know Elementals exist. What could she possibly say that could help me? And what did she overhear that she latched on to?
"What do you want?" I ask.
"Like I said, I want to help. I heard what your friend said. I used to be a lawyer, and she isn't right. You can ask questions. Get whoever you are talking to and about to think about things, and the best thing you can do is sow doubt. Questions lead to doubt." She nods as if she's said something profound.
"Well, thank you, I guess. I'll try to keep that in mind." I stand up all the way this time. "I should go."
She smiles and nods.
I walk home trying to think what about the interaction with the lady is bothering me.
She was trying to be nice. That's when it occurs to me. SHE WAS BEING NICE! For no reason at all, she was trying to help me. She didn't have to go out of her way to say anything to me, but she honestly thought she was telling me something I might need to know. She didn't have to do that. Why do humans do that? Why help someone you don't know?
Could I build an argument from there? Something about there being kindness in humans, even when they had no reason to be. I needed to think about that some more. I'd seen plenty of examples of it. If nothing else, it was a possible line of defense. I needed to get some of my minions to compile some really great examples for me.
I needed to make a call. I walked up to a pay phone. I loved pay phones, but sadly, they were going the way of the cassette tape and would soon be obsolete.
I didn't have any coins or cash with me. Drat! As I patted myself down, hoping to stumble upon a missed coin, my frustration increased.
And then, a hand shot forward holding two quarters.
"Here," said a voice from behind me.
I spun around very quickly.
A man was standing there. He'd seen better days. He was dirty and wearing several layers of clothes.
I didn't immediately take the coins.
"What?" I asked.
"Take these," he said.
I looked him up and down again, trying to be subtle.
"No, I can't," I said. "It's not that important. You keep those."
"No, it's okay. Really. I'm going to the shelter tonight, and there isn't much I can do with only two quarters anyway." He dropped them into my jacket pocket and walked away.
What was going on today? I reached in my pocket and took out the coins. I studied them for a long time. That same feeling hit me again. This person had nothing of their own, and yet, he'd given me two quarters to do something like make an unimportant phone call.
I had another thing to add to my argument. I needed to make that call now. If my minions started compiling now, maybe they could find enough examples of this sort of kindness in time. It would need to be a lot.
And then the hard part would be convincing the council that it was enough to counter act the terrible things humans did.
No comments:
Post a Comment