Chapter 1
A chemical holocaust happened in the most peaceful place — a bathroom — on a bright shiny Friday morning in Duisburg, Germany. The deep blue poison used for the Holocaust had a sweet fragrance of Jasmine, that submerged the pungent smell of the victims. The fragrance travelled across other rooms through the open wooden door.
In the bedroom beside the bathroom, a middle-aged man was tired after doing household chores and was napping on the couch, leaving his TV on. Television advertisements echoed the walls of the bedroom: “BoomBoom Toilet cleaner! Kills 99% germs. Now with micro-crystals and fresh new Jasmine fragrance.”
Meanwhile, in the bathroom, a young amoeba, the only survivor of the chemical holocaust, was sobbing and limping along the edge of the bowl of the closet. Devoid of joy and hope, it cursed its miserable fate and tried to sleep to forget what happened that morning but sleep was unattainable for the only survivor of that traumatic day. Its wounded body and mind countered its desire to sleep.
After half an hour, the sweet sound of a nightingale reached the bathroom as a ray of hope. The amoeba cried for help and waited for the nightingale to answer. However, the sweet sound never entered the bathroom again.
“What to expect from a nightingale when I am wanted by none, not even by death,” Amoeba thought with a heavy heart.
After a few minutes, the sound of marching ants reawakened the hope and the amoeba called them for help.
“We are kinda busy. Yesterday, we lost our home and all the food we had stored due to the heavy rain and now we are trying to find a place for our new home. If we don’t make it by the sunset, the queen will be mad,” replied one of the ants and marched away. Then came the blue-winged butterfly with black stripes. Amoeba cried for help and the butterfly came close towards the window.
“Ah,” sighed the amoeba and said, “finally someone came to rescue me from this hell.”
“Sorry, I didn’t come to help. The smell of jasmine was irresistible, and I thought I could collect some nectar from here. But this place isn’t anything I had imagined outside,” the butterfly replied.
“Please save me from here,” amoeba pleaded.
“My feet is my tongue. My clean feet are meant to touch the nectar; the nectar of sweet smelling and colourful lantanas, Aesculus, penstemons, lilies, violets, daisies and other flowers. Mother nature made me a butterfly to enjoy the treasures of nature and not to obey inferior worms. Goodbye,” replied the butterfly and fluttered its majestic wings.
The rude response from the butterfly stabbed the tender heart of the amoeba. The helpless amoeba remained silent for a few minutes and stopped looking at the window. The amoeba thought, “I don’t know why I am still alive. Maybe to suffer more from the absence of my loved ones. Oh, this loneliness is tearing me inside. What a worthless piece of life” and continued lamenting. After lamenting awhile, the breathing dwindled and it stopped moving as if it had abandoned its body.
A female mosquito arrived afterwards. It shook its light transparent wings but the amoeba didn’t respond to the breeze. The bemused mosquito buzzed around, but the amoeba didn’t respond to the noise. Finally, the mosquito poked the amoeba with its sharp needle but the amoeba ceased to respond. The mosquito glanced around and touched the dry toilet seat with its black pointy legs and flew away towards the nearby pond.
The pond was 3 feet deep surrounded by sweet flags. The giant petals of water lilies and lotus covered much of the surface and concealed the guppies from predator birds. Guppies roamed underneath with their fins scattering sunlight into tiny rainbows like a prism and enjoyed the free buffet of green algae, earthworms, and scrummy mosquito eggs.
The mosquito landed on a lotus leaf to collect some green algae and water. Suddenly, a guppy shouted, “Territory has been breached!” Other guppies rushed towards the spot and touched the water surface with their big mouth and yelled, “Back off or die! Scared by the hostile situation, the mosquito flew a few steps away from the pond and begged, “Please, I need this. A poor little being is dying of hunger.”
“Final warning! Dare not breach our territory or we tear your body into fine pieces for a delicious lunch,” cautioned the guppies.
With an aching heart, the mosquito decided to find food from somewhere else and flew away from the pond. On its way, the mosquito noticed a conical brown beehive hanging on a pendulous branch of an oak tree. An idea struck the mosquito. It rushed towards the beehive. Guard bees stopped the mosquito and the mosquito shouted to the beehive, “You all owe me some algae and water from the nearby pond”
After a few moments of silence, a powerful feminine voice replied from one of the hexagonal wax cells, “how come we owe you some algae and water?”
The mosquito replied, “Oh! Your Majesty!“, bowed down and resumed, “I would like to say that we, the mosquitoes, bestow sleepless nights and diseases on your prime enemies — the humans.”
“So what? They still haunt us like a shadow and devour my kingdom,” replied the same feminine voice.
“Yet we never quit from our mission. Besides, I have always heard from others that the queen bee is the most magnanimous and magnificent being in this world. I believe in them,” answered the mosquito.
Floored by the praise, the queen bee said, “I am pleased with you,” and commanded, “escort her to the pool!”
“Thank you, Your Majesty!” the mosquito expressed its gratitude.
A dozen bees flew around the mosquito and they escorted her to the pond. The guppies saw this from a distance and laughed at them. Upon reaching the pond, the mosquito whispered to the escort, “I need a distraction” The bees flew around the pond and touched the petals, which enraged the guppies. The guppies collected some water in their mouth, pierced the water surface and spat on the bees like cannons. Bees manoeuvred in the air to dodge the water cannonballs. Some of the aggressive bees collected tiny gravel stones and dropped them into the pond like bombs from planes. During this chaos, the mosquito came near the edge of the pond and collected a few drops of water and algae with its pointy mouth. After filling its stomach with the elixir to save the amoeba, the mosquito flew in circles in the air, signalling the bees that the mission was accomplished. The bees accompanied the mosquito until it reached the destination and they headed towards their hive.
The mosquito hurried towards the closet to know whether it was too late. Fortunately, the amoeba didn’t move an inch and unfortunately, it stood as lifeless as a rock. A spout of water with bits of algae shot out from the needle mouth and dropped on the dry body of the amoeba. Nothing happened to the amoeba. The mosquito bowed its head with immense remorse and whimpered, “I should have reached here earlier. Forgive me.”
Water drops and bits of algae began to move. Pseudopods, the tiny false feet, of amoeba surrounded and started absorbing them like a sponge. The transparent body displayed the water drops and algae getting merged with it for resurrection. The resurrection process lasted for a few minutes and the amoeba gazed at the mosquito in admiration and cooed, “You are such a compassionate being!”
“Oh stop it, you!” replied the humble mosquito, “It was an easy task.”
“Saving someone from death is never an easy task,” replied the amoeba.
“At first, I thought of taking you out from here. But then I thought it was a bad idea because the outside world is full of predators. So I decided to leave you here for a while and searched for food and water. Forgive me for being late. If you didn’t wake up, I would have been anguished,” explained the mosquito.
The mosquito said, “My name is Ana Pheles. You can call me Ana and I will be your friend from now on. You aren’t alone in this water closet anymore” Curious Ana enquired, “what is your name? What happened to you in this water closet this morning?”
Haunted by the memories of the Holocaust, the amoeba began sobbing and Ana said, “Oh, I am so sorry. Don’t tell me if you don’t want to.”
“No.. No… It is okay,” replied the amoeba and began to narrate its story to Ana…
