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| Photo credit: NASA |
Rule Breaker
Spirits
are not supposed to interfere with mortal lives. That was one of the Rules.
Deshi knew the Rules well: it had been there when they had agreed upon them.
And yet, though it served its role adequately in the cosmos without any
complaints – not like Ophir who was now overseeing the mortals from inside the
Earth – it wanted something more. It wanted, and it waited.
From its vantage point among the
stars, Deshi watched the Earth. It watched as humankind learnt to defend itself
from threats, develop tools to fashion as weapons and utilities. Other Spirits
thought Deshi strange, for there was an entire universe for them to observe and
there were events out there considerably more amusing that watching an entire
species take thousands of years to discover fire,
of all things. The humans were unfathomably stupid, the other Spirits decided,
and Deshi was a fool to think them interesting.
Deshi didn’t listen to the other
Spirits. They didn’t understand what it saw in the humans: that despite their stupidity
and poor hygiene they were a remarkably resilient species. They survived natural
disasters, cosmic war damage, famines. No matter what was thrown at them the
humans would pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and come back again the
next day for more. Deshi fell in love with the humans.
And that was against the Rules.
#
“Deshi,
the other Spirits are laughing at you.”
Deshi did not take its focus off the
Earth and yet it could see Etanah looming above it.
“Let them laugh,” said Deshi. “They
are foolish.”
“You
are foolish,” said Etanah. “Foolish for thinking those pathetic humans are
worthy of your attention. If they could see us, they would worship us more than
they worship the ones they call Kings.”
Deshi chose not to engage with
Etanah’s conversation, gesturing instead to the scene she was concentrating on
below.
“You see these humans? They have
nothing. They must give all their coins to tax collectors and have sold their
first-born child to a trader. They have much to be depressed about, and yet
still they keep in good spirits so as to not worry their younger children. They
are not pathetic. They are heroic.”
Etanah looked over at the Earth but
all it could see was a deprived human family sitting in their own filth. Etanah
sneered.
“If you must watch them, why not look
over the cleaner ones?”
Deshi sighed: Etanah didn’t
understand. None of them ever did.
“Do you not get bored, watching them
struggle?” Etanah persisted.
“Never.”
Etanah moved away from Deshi, amazed
that a Spirit could be this taken with the lowly humans. Etanah was already out of
the Earth’s orbit when Deshi quivered.
Far below Deshi on the Earth, a baby’s
cry was not answered. It rang out among the hills and yet nobody came to soothe the child. From the fresh blood glistening on his pink skin, Deshi could tell
it was a new born somebody had abandoned.
This was not new. Babies were often
left out by humans who either could not provide for another child or did not
want one. Such babies were taken as meals by hairier mortal creatures, or
had their lives stolen by the elements of Nature. This child was unfortunate but he would meet his end
soon.
Except he didn’t. The baby continued
to cry and cry and nothing was done about it. Deshi scanned the area around the
child and found no threats to his survival, though there were also no saviours
either. The wails of distress rang through Deshi, piercing its core and tugging
on the matter that made up the Spirit. The baby’s face turned red and then
purple as he screamed for a help that would never come. His tiny hands balled
into fists, a vein throbbed on his head. He needed help.
Deshi checked that Etanah was
definitely not in the Earth’s orbit. It was rare for the other Spirits to come
out this way and when they did, they didn’t stay long. Deshi would not have witnesses for the act it was about to commit. It rose from its
position on the edge of the Earth. With one last look around at the stars, it
dove forwards and plunged to the Earth and the baby.
Though the Spirits had agreed upon the
Rules, none of them had ever thought to break any of them. That was, until the
day of my birth.
