apple vs rock

There you are standing vertically, miniature on this orblike floating world that's stuck in a colorless infinite nothingness covered in clear liquid between heaps of hot and cold minerals surrounded by billions upon billions of varieties of the exact same DNA structure consuming each other then dying or multiplying and dying for 5.5 billion years, long after an inexplicable explosion billions of light years away began pushing everything away from itself, slowly, forever.
And it's a beautiful day. The sky is blue, the air cool. Somebody smiled at you, your phone buzzes as a friend calls. Down the street is a your favorite breakfast cafe, but you need to go to Trader Joe's.
The planet Mars floats lifeless and quiet. Red dust moves in little tufts as pressures rise and fall, air molecules get pushed in invisible clouds. A few gusts of wind tap softly against a little round red rock, perched over a bunch of smaller red rocks. The wind is mild, and the rock is pushed forward a bit by its force. Inching the rock down towards the edge of the other rocks, the wind moves it closer and closer to a red hill that slopes down just beyond. The wind picks up as pressure changes and a stronger gust whips at the moving red rock. The littler rocks underneath it sink away and gravity starts to pull the red rock over them, into the dust and off from its other rocks towards the hill.
Inside Trader Joe's you pick up an apple and look at it. It has a bruise on one side, so you put it back down. You pick another, two bruises, and put it back. Taking a moment you scan the neatly uniformed pile of apples and see a perfect round one just big enough. You pick it up, turn it over, and on the back there's a little brown gouge from shipping that you frown at. Frustrated, you quickly put it back down. Three apples below it give away and slip from their places, dashing down the pile and towards the edge in a rush of speed.
The pebbles have pushed away and the red rock begins to roll. Gravity takes hold of it and in a steady new urge the rock's rolling down the hill towards the bottom. A tail of dust spits up behind it and a little path is carved as the rock spins fasterin its travels. The rock now rolls steadily towards a brand new crop of rocks at the base of the slope.
The three apples reach the edge and jump off. You scramble to catch them all but your hands are only big enough for two and with an "ahh!" the third apple thuds against the tiled floor. The lady next to you cocks her head.
The red rock rolling careens closer to its new outcropping. Ten feet away, five, three feet, one...
in the silence of the Martian landscape a little bang echoes in the wind.
You stoop to pick up the third apple and look at the lady, embarrassed. She shakes her head, pushes her cart forward and moves away. You smile because it's still a lovely day, put the apple back on the pile and move on.

The END!

(based on a true story)

Mikie