Eco-detour

The sun came up on a dreary morning; fog stuck to the grass like a tick on a beast, and the light of the sun penetrated the belly of every living thing, bringing a soft shadow to the ground, the Earth. Although the fog was heavy, things could e seen a short distance away, and the creatures continued the daily routine.

Although partially humidified, the ants kept carrying, the ant eaters kept eating, and the wolves kept killing. The trees swayed back and forth, communicating a slight discomfort, a need to move and to be active, but the fog and the sun kept them silent, providing their essentials. A road stood as bricks on a church, lonely like a high-schooler on his or her way home from school. There hadn't been a single car to drive on it in days, it is as if there was a train wreck a few days earlier, or some sort of catastrophe. Dryness spilled from the cracks in the road, soil underneath searching for life, moisture, some comfort. As the fog drifted into the morning dew, the sun brightened as though someone was gradually making the light brighter at some dinner party, playing the role of lights technician. The hungry soil, the frustrated trees, the labor intensive ants, and the soft wind all perked in a sudden shock, as though they had just been electricuted.

A small car became visible in the distance: a blue Toyota Prius with its brights on. All the windows appeared to be closed, although the passenger occasionally opened one slightly, only to close it again. The Prius roared through the silence that was this ecosystem, and although compared to most cars quite quiet, this one made a racquet, as it was the only mechanical object to be here in days. Coming to a soft halt the Prius gradually slowed as though it was stopping at a stop sign. A woman got out of the driver's seat and started kicking the tires, one by one. The trees fell into trance, the ants were amazed. They hadn't seen or heard or smelled something like this in years. The deer stopped in their tracks, and forgot about the sustenance that once was craved. The wind, although continuing similar motions and still gently blowing, got curious and wondered what was disturbing their usual patterns.

The woman finished her kicking, and sat down to have a banana and peanut butter on the bumper of the car. Then, all of a sudden, a small boy opened the passenger side door and crawled out, and wobbled to the edge of the road where the grass lived. He started digging his hands into the ground and soon enough he touched an ant hill. The ants, out of their nature and out of pure intuition and surprise, crawled onto his hand. The boy stood up and softly called out to his mother,

"Mommy! I got ants on my hands!!!"

All things, including the leaves and ants, the deer and trees, soil and birds, even the mother stared directly at the boy in such unfathomable awe as the entire ecosystem in that wilderness started changing.