The reason why (An original short story)
Boy, this was a big fly! Huge actually. I’ve never seen fly this big in my life! That is. if I could evaluate its size from where I was, correctly. Sizes seem to deceive when you lay on your back in the bed and look up the ceiling.
It was hot and humid in my hotel room and I felt myself sweating and wanting to get up and get a drink of water from the bottle of "Perrier" I remembered was still in the refrigerator. But I also felt lazy and somewhat apathetic, and in the struggle with thirst these feelings, for the time being, were succeeding.
I watched how the fly traveled along the ceiling surface upside down, then stopped, lifted two of its front legs and rub them against its head, the movement that reminded me of washing one's face.
How in the hell it holds itself with only four legs now? Instantly, though, I realized the irrelevance of such a thought. Explain to me how it holds itself on the flat surface upside down using six legs. How it use four is a problem of much lesser significance.
Come to think of it … Yeah they are light, but still. Does it just stick or creates temporary suction inside its legs, or what?
Strange. Such abilities and yet flies are completely useless animals. I understand about flies being food for birds and stuff, but still. Birds could have eaten butterflies, dragonflies or seeds. Why were flies created? Only God knows.
My mind drifted for a while captured by this thought when suddenly I was taken off of my drift by the foreign presence. It manifested itself in the form of a voice, or at least, the voice was the closest analogy I could come up with. Even though I couldn't hear it literally pronouncing words the phrase somehow materialized inside my mind.
"Aptitude to receive the correct answer is greatly amplified by one's ability to ask the correct question."
Huh? Excuse me? I beg you a pardon… Who was that? The voice was initiated definitely from inside my head, but it wasn't mine. It was a distinct other voice, not just my alter ego or the voice of a reason that always argues with you in the moment of decision.
I could feel the presence and the personality of the interlocutor.
"Have you ever heard of telepathy?"
"I heard of it", I answered, "but I never thought…It was possible" I wanted to add.
"That's what we are doing." The voice continued.
"Mmmmm…." I was surprised, but not as surprised as I would think I could have been. "Mmmmm… May I, at least, inquire who am I speaking with, or should I say "telepathing" if this is, actually, a word?
"You are looking at me for five minutes already."
"You mean?" I looked at the fly now with some new chilling curiosity.
"Yes."
"But, but…" my ability to analyze stalled overwhelmed by the multitude of thoughts marched concurrently through my mind, like the vanguard ant scouts through the wall crack.
"There is no need to jitter and fidget. Yes, you're talking to a fly."
"Are you some kind of a special fly?" I finally composed myself.
There was a considerable pause.
"It's a loaded question. You'd have to be more specific. In my appearance and physiological functions, I am but an average fly. Well, I am a horsefly to be specific. In some way, though, I am special. But I don't think you know enough about flies, in general, to appreciate my non-mediocrity. Your frame of reference is hopelessly shifted. In other words, the spectrum of things I pride myself at could only be appreciated by a fly. At the same time, not every old fly can appreciate me. There are plenty of us who are only born to accomplish not more than create more flies. Thus, my originality could only be appreciated by the group of special, more delicately organized, intelligent flies."
"But your ability to communicate. This is simply amazing, revolutionary, and mind blowing. I can't even express you how much I am impressed, bewildered, I can't even find words. It's… It's against everything that we as people know."
"Oh, that's what you are after. You are such a typical human. You are not impressed with my manners, the preciseness, and certainty of how I clean my beak, with the elegance that I put my food in my mouth, with the complexity and elegance of the ornaments on my wings. What are you interested in…is how we communicate telepathically – the generic ability of every fly, just like the ability to attach themselves to the ceiling."
"But if so," I wondered, "why is it that flies and people, who live for such a long time side by side, has never been involved in the contact similar to ours?"
"Never been in contact? It's not as much that they never been in contact, as much as there was no record of such contact. And the reason for this was…." The fly paused. The pause was significant, so significant that for a moment I thought we lost the contact at all. And yet I felt it wasn't a "look for a proper wording" pause.
"The reason for this was" the fly finally continued, "that there was no person who remained alive after such an encounter."
"What exactly do you mean?" I felt how my back covered with the sweat and my breathing became heavier.
"Quite simply, most of the humans do not possess the ability of telepathy, unless one of us inject them with the astrinogen – a special drug that opens up their telepathic communication channel, but that at the same time has a detrimental side effect on them, if you know what I mean."
Now the hot sweat that seemed to become cold, as slowly the realization of the situation I was in arrived at my consciousness. Now I tried to get up but realized that I was paralyzed and could activate neither of my muscles.
"But who? But when?" My mind didn't want to accept the inevitability of the situation.
"Yes, that was me. And yes I did it while you were asleep. And no this is not immoral or as you might put it inhumane, although as you might agree, my belonging to the fly species doesn't specifically obligate me to behave humanely." Although there was no demonic laugh succeeding this statement, I felt as if its absence as even more sinister.
"That brings be back to your original question, or rather to the absence of it, which was, if you'd allow me to quote you "Why were flies created?" and which, as you also remember I cataloged as incorrectly stated."
The fly now flew down from the ceiling and sat on the nose. The gentle touch of its legs on my skin made me feel incredibly itchy. I had immense desire to lift up my hand and swipe the fly away. The only difference now was that muscles weren't obedient. And boy oh boy, from a close distance the fly appeared huge and disgusting indeed. Although as much as I could I tried not to think to reveal it, so that the fly couldn't sense my thoughts.
.
"The correct question is not "why were flies created", the fact of creating flies is self-evident and doesn't require explanation, but "why were humans created?" To which there is a very simple and comprehensible answer. And the answer is: "Humans were created as a source of food for flies."
With this fly elongate his beak, poked through the skin on my nose, and started sucking my blood. The itching sensation has increased and became almost unbearable to the point that I started crying from my helplessness.
Fly finished, pull out its beak, and started to carefully wash its muzzle, the activity it administered with such self-proclaimed elegance. While doing it I saw it looking into my eyes and now almost sensed the meaning behind this look.
"So," I asked, "how long it would take you to completely drink me up?"
"Just for me alone, it would take about three months, because considering your size, you have about five liters of it."
"Three months" I smiled, "I don't think I will last this long. I think I'll die much earlier than that. So, sorry to burst your bubble, buddy, but you won't have it all."
"I know that, human." The fly responded still looking into my eyes. "That's why I commented about consuming you just by myself. But, we, flies are not so selfish. We are more intelligent than that. And if you have no unassisted ability to communicate telepathically, then we, flies, do. Also, don't think that all we can use of your body is blood. Humans flesh is generally a very nutrition and we prefer human meat to any other, fresh or even better not so fresh."
And that's when I heard the buzz. Making a great effort I slanted my eyes and saw the whole bunch of flies through the open window.
That's it then. I clenched my teeth and closed my eyes shut. This was the last willful act I still could undertake.