Above Nature
Tuan had built the forest cabin with his own hands. It was his retreat from the modern world, the dog-eat-dog of city life. He kept it stocked and spent as much time as he could there but in between, it was not empty.
On that wet summer night, when he woke up to find his walls and ceiling crawling, black with cockroaches, he brushed them down and put them outside. They too were God’s creatures. He had never knowingly killed or eaten another living being in his life.
Unfortunately the cockroaches, not being intelligent, had no such scruples.
Creepy Oonah. No more short breaks in the country for me.
Jennifer
Comment by jennifer walmsley — June 6, 2008 @ 8:41 am
Great one Oonah!
They say that after a nuclear war it’s going to be the cockroaches and rats that survive but it may not be so exclusive a club. Obviously our own evolutionary weakness is to have moral scruples, illustrated by your story, but maybe we are the new Neanderthals? I’ve definitely noted a new breed of politicians, business leaders and thugs all seeming to lack humanity as I know it.
Apologies for the rant but your writing struck a chord.
Cheers
Comment by mark dalligan — June 6, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
EXACTLY, Mark. Glad it struck the right one :)
Comment by Oonah V Joslin — June 6, 2008 @ 3:19 pm
Urgh! That’s a killer last line…
Comment by Frances — June 7, 2008 @ 1:46 pm
Awesome.
Comment by Doxx — June 14, 2008 @ 8:52 pm