The Marble

“Mom.”

“What?”

 “Can I talk to you? I need some help.”

  “What about?”

  “Well…”

  “Don’t fidget. Out with it.”

 “You remember that experiment I’ve been working on?”

“With the marbles?”

  “Yeah. The bright yellow one, and the ones I made go in a circle around it.”

“You used to talk about it all the time. Then you stopped. I thought you forgot about it. What’s going on? Something wrong?”

  “Well yeah. And no, I didn’t forget about it. I’ve been busy with it. In my spare time. What’s the last thing I told you?”

  “About how one of the marbles overheated.”

  “Yeah. OK. I had problems with that one. I stopped working on that one. I mean, I didn’t exactly stop, I never stop working on any of them. It’s just that I let them do whatever they’re going to do for a while, and then I go back to them. Except one. … Did you know I made one of them turn blue?”

  “No, I didn’t. I knew you made one red. But not blue. How?”

  “It was after I gave up on the one that overheated. It’s the second one in.”

“In?”

  “Or out, I guess I mean. Out from the bright yellow marble. So I started on the next one, the third one, and I was working with the basics, you know. Everything had been really hot, but now I was cooling this marble down, and I put a bunch of heavy stuff in it, some metals and rocks and things, and then I was playing with the gases, mixing them different ways, and I mixed two of them and made water, which isn’t anything really big, because I’ve seen you do that all the time. But it was the first time it happened for me, and I didn’t know I could do it, because you only gave me the basics and had me play in my corner, one edge of this little galaxy. Not that I’m complaining, you’re really busy. I mean, you have everything to watch over, everything that’s moving around, and how you manage everything moving away from each other all at once, and winding down and everything. And bending time, which I don’t know how you do that. So it’s no wonder you gave me a little spot and some material to play with, get me out of the way.”

  “Is there a point here?”

  “Yeah, and I’m just getting to it. So I made water and then I was using the water to help cool the marble, because I was trying to get the temperature right, you know? Like sometimes this stuff just burns up or stays a big gas bubble or just is a rock that gets really hot and cold and doesn’t do much. So I was surprised when I got this one to turn blue, and I had some stuff that floated on the surface of all the molten metal and rock underneath. And that stuff was moving around, I couldn’t keep it still. But then I was busy making rain from the water and using it to cool things off, and that’s when I think I accidentally created some life or something.”

  “Accidentally.”

  “Yeah. … I didn’t tell you any of this?”

“If you did I don’t remember.”

  “OK. OK yeah. So life. Some really weak stuff, too, which I knew had to be an accident, because Mom when you create life it comes out all strong and complete, you know? And mine was barely there. And this blue marble was really small, so I wasn’t sure if it was big enough to handle life, even wimpy life like what I had going. And I thought I told you about this, because there was the same thing that happened to the marble that overheated, I managed to get life going there, too.

“Accidentally?”

“… Well, yeah, accidentally there, too. But I couldn’t get the temperature right, and things got out of hand, and it all just kind of burned off. That was my first real time … You sure I didn’t tell you?”

  “Well, maybe you did, but I might have had a lot going on.”

“Yeah. Yeah well. So I managed to accidentally create this life”

  “You sure it was an accident? You sure you didn’t take some of mine when I wasn’t looking?”

“Mom, I wouldn’t do that, I — trust me. Anyway, so I got this life going, and I thought I would just kind of sit back and see what it would do. Focus on controlling the temperature. Which it turns out was a real pain, because it kept going up and down like crazy, and there were times when it looked like the life I got started down there would just burn off completely. Just like the other one. So things were going along, and I watched this green stuff start covering over everything. So at first I thought maybe the marble was spoiling, you know, but it turned out that green stuff was taking one of the gases and separating out the oxygen, which I remember you told me was one of the important building blocks. Just like when it got trapped in water. So the oxygen was OK, and then after a while there was enough of it, and the whole marble just turned blue. Blue and some white, if you were looking closely. So that was pretty cool.

  “So now I remember what you said about being able to put life together that would use that oxygen, so I started to experiment. I made a bunch of really dinky stuff, and it mostly just moved around in the water and then started getting pretty big. I mean big by my standards, blue marble standards. Then some of it washed up onto the rocks, those big plates I was still trying to settle down. And life moves really fast once it gets going. But of course I don’t need to tell you that.

  “So now the life is on land, and it starts getting bigger there, too. I don’t have to do much, just watch and occasionally jump things along. What you call mutations I think. So this big life has different ways it’s starting to cover itself. Some of it is just using skin, and that would dry out and the life would quit. And then some developed patches on the skin that became scales and some grew this fine stuff that was fuzzy and I called it fur. So now we’ve got these huge scaly things crawling around and smaller furry things getting out of the way and things swimming in the water and some things even learning to fly, and — You didn’t tell me that all of life eats itself. Or each other.”

“I didn’t think I had to.”

  “OK. I guess. But that’s what I learned. Everything eats everything. And boy, is it messy. I mean, everything is pooping all the time. Well, the green stuff isn’t. But even with it, the green stuff would sometimes turn colors and then fall off and it would disintegrate and other life would eat it, too.

“So the place is a big mess, but I figure, maybe that’s what life is. Mess. So I decided to test the mess, I guess I was bored one day, and I took a really tiny marble, just a chip from a bigger one that fell apart a while ago, and I poked it through the gases around the blue marble and let it hit. I didn’t think it would do much, not like the earlier time when I had a way bigger one hit, and that one ended up going around the blue one.”

  “Is there more of this?”

  “Yeah, Mom, I’m getting to it. I am. So the reason I mentioned the littler one that hit the blue marble, is because it ended up burning off all the bigger scaly life and only left the little furry stuff behind. Mostly. There were some smaller scaly things too, but that was about it. I had no idea life was that temperamental.

  “So I figured the scales were OK but not great, and I experimented for a while and finally got feathers to work.”

“We’ve been doing feathers for a long time.”

  “Yeah, but no offense, Mom, but you all never would share any of that with any of us. My friends or me, I mean. So I had to figure it out on my own. I made up a whole bunch of these things, and I sent a whole lot of them off over cliffs before I could get them to fly properly. I put their skeletons on the inside, which is another thing I bet you did and never let on, either. I had already built the ones with skeletons on the outside, and those had been a lot easier to work with, so I had made a whole lot of them. I could never get them very big, though. They survived the big blast, too. There’s a whole lot of them still around, so I’m not worried about them. At all.

  “So now I had a few leftover scaly things and all sorts of stuff in the water, and the green things were doing pretty well, and now I had these feathered things flying and these furry things running around. So things were going pretty well. I was still working on getting the temperature right, but it was mostly staying within a smaller zone that seemed to work with all that life down there. Sometimes it would get hotter and sometimes colder, and the things would move around and grow longer fur and make changes to adapt. I was playing lots of games with ice and water and making floods and stuff and it was pretty cool.

  “Then something happened, and I don’t even know how it got started. Some of the furry things started getting bigger heads, and then one of them started to get a really big head. I figured these things wouldn’t work out, because the head would be so big it would mess the creature up completely, so I left them alone. For quite a while.”

  “What did I tell you about leaving those things alone for a long time?”

  “Yeah but Mom, you do. You do! Don’t give me that look. And anyway it wasn’t for that long. And then I look down again and those things are balancing those big heavy heads and now they’re walking on two of their four legs. I didn’t plan for that. I mean, I didn’t with them. I did with the feathered things, but they still had wings that worked and helped them fly. Mostly.”

“This is getting needlessly confusing.”

  “Yeah, Mom, I know I know! But you told me life would get confusing if I wasn’t careful, and it did, and I don’t know how you keep it all straight. Maybe we should talk about that.”

  “Maybe. Some time. But not now. So”

  “So, so yeah. So I got these big-headed things on two legs walking around, and they start losing their hair, and I’m thinking that’s going to be it, because whenever one of the things on that marble does something strange, like forgets to grow skin or scales or something, it just burns off and the rest of the stuff takes its place. So I thought that would happen here, too.

  “But these big-headed things started moving all over the place. A couple of times they almost burned off, but they didn’t. And there were more and more of them wandering around and killing and eating other stuff. These things could eat anything! I mean, other life down there just eats this or that, but these big-headed things ate everything that came in their path.

“And then they made fire. Well, they didn’t make it, really. I was using fire all the time, with the yellow marble, and then on the blue marble. I would burn off all kinds of the green stuff from time to time, just to see what it would do. But that was me doing it. I didn’t think those big-headed things would do it.”

  “I probably should have warned you.”

“About what?”

  “About stomping those things out before they get started. They’re like weeds. Once they get to a certain point”

  “Well like yeah, Mom, that would have been helpful, you know? It really would have. Because I didn’t think to just go in there and do that. And before I knew it — I mean, it happened really fast, I think when I had gone to the bathroom or something, they were building all kinds of things and digging into the blue marble and pulling out all the stuff I’d made, and they were using it and — well, they kept booting all the other things out of the way. Except for a bunch of the other things that they kept around, just to eat. I mean, what a disrespectful bunch!

“But that wasn’t all. No, they were busy taking that fire and throwing it at each other and killing each other and burning each other’s things down, and — oh, it was just a mess.

  “And there were more and more and more of them. So I tried disease a few times, because I remember hearing you say that disease could fix things.”

  “Only in an emergency, and it doesn’t work that well, anyway.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I found out. So I did that a few times, and there was one time I knocked them back by I don’t know, maybe half. But they were really good at avoiding it. You’d think with no hair and big heads and being slow and all that, they wouldn’t make it.

  “But they came back, and then they started figuring out how to work with my own tools! They set off these itty bitty explosions, and I could tell because of — what do you call it?”

  “Radiation?”

“I guess. That was just a few minutes ago. So I knew they were starting to play like they wanted to”

  “That’s the problem with them. Every single time. They want to join us, even though they’re puny and stupid. So. Now you come to me.”

  “Yeah, because Mom. Now there are billions of them. Pooping all the time. Fighting all the time. Trashing the place. And now the temperature — well, it’s getting messed up again. They’re doing it this time. But it’s so noisy down there.”

  “That can be a problem. Did you do the language thing?”

“Yeah, pretty early on, but Mom, only because I heard you talking about it with your friends. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known what to do. I did it with the feathered stuff first, a while back, for fun, you know? Just to see what it would do. With these big-headed things, I — Well, yeah, I had to make sure they were scattered by it. That just got them madder at each other, though.

  “And they would do really bizarre stuff, like — like cut their reproductive organs. I mean, that has to really hurt! Who does that kind of thing, anyway?”

  “They do. They use it to tell each other apart.”

  “Yeah, but I gave them different colors so they could do that!”

“You did colors? Now that’s really dangerous. I bet they”

  “Yeah, Mom, they did, they started using it to — what’s the word? Hate on each other. I only made a few colors, though. It was bad enough. And the gender thing? Getting them to see all the different possibilities? Don’t even go there, Mom. So”

  “So now.”

  “So now yeah. It’s a mess. It’s out of control. They’re all over the blue marble. They’ve even made it to the gray one that goes around the blue one a couple of times. You can’t see them until you get really close, but they’re there. Messing it all up. There’s more of them now, than, that”

“So you’re wondering what to do.”

  “Well. Well — yeah. That’s why I came to you. Is it worth saving? I mean, I put a lot into that blue marble, and now it’s just”

“Well. I think it’s for you to decide. You have a few options. You can intervene. Just squash it. Or just let it fizzle. Because that’s what they’ll end up doing to it. They’ll burn it up, or make a miserable failed star out of it when they decide to, you know, go all in on killing each other. Or you can keep trying.”

“Keep trying. … Huh.”

  “It’s your marble.”