Alec Sapelovirus was sitting next to Sam Chlorella in the rest room of the New Strain Research Facility and talking over recent events while relaxing over a soothing drink. They were discussing how near the virus as an entity had come to being wiped off the face of the Earth on more than one occasion. “Do you remember when that asteroid hit the Americas back in the age of Freedom” said Sam. Arthur nodded and said, “Oh yes. I lost literally billions of relatives in that one. Those dust clouds. No photo-synthesis under those monsters eh?” and both nodded as they recalled the horrific levels of destruction across all species engendered by the catastrophe.
“Mind You” said Alec, “The age of the antibiotic has not been so good has it? I’ve lost so many chums in that, but at least we are starting to see the back of the horror.” Both nodded and alluded to the new form of viral entertainment which involved visiting hospital wards and seeing the increasing and ineffectual efforts of humans to develop new strains of their medicine to wipe out microbes who had been in existence long before man was even considered as the “Next great joke” to be developed by “The Mighty Consciousness.”
“They always get it wrong eh Sam; mankind I mean” said Alec and both chuckled as they took a sip from the phial of obsolete medicines, now the latest “thrill” drink for viruses, and capable of giving the evening a “buzz” without actually threatening your tomorrows. “How good is that” said Sam, and both nodded. “You just can’t beat a nice shot of anti-malaria serum to jolt you into action can you?” and again, both nodded.
“Humans eh, said Cecil Bocaparvovirus who had just sat down beside them. “They always think they are the cleverest thing on the planet don’t they.”
“But that’s why they are so amusing isn’t it” said Sam and again everyone nodded. “You know what they say” said Alec. “What’s that” asked the other two. “It takes more than one cell to make a genius” and the other two just smiled. The smartest thought in the room is seldom the wisest, but they would leave that discussion to another day.
I love the perspective of this story, Peter. Yes we do consider ourselves masters of all, and it would do us no harm to realise that we are but a small part of a much larger existence. I adore your closing sentence!
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more than a germ of truth here
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There are those within the scientific community who do believe that our microbes are an important part of balance. We do let them get out of hand, though, don’t we?
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Don’t much like the thought of these microscopic critters having their happy hour in my bowels.
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I often wondered what the social life of a virus looks like. After readng this, I suppose it must seem pretty much like that of us humans 🙂 Can a virus get sick btw? What happens if a virus catches a germ?
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Yeah, what we don’t hear, eh? Viruses have got us sussed.
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Well, we have “smart” phones and “smart” bombs. Why not have “smarty pants” viruses sipping a cocktail to our health or lack thereof? Good one, Peter. 🙂
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Brilliant!!
Where the hell did we go wrong, darling?
Kiss from MN.
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There’s always a little bit of truth in humor. Thanks for stopping by. Feliz Navidad y un Feliz Año Nuevo
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I just don’t know how you do it! Time after time!
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