Second Place Story, 2001.

Life

Colin Roberts

. . .Life! That’s what it was. He had things alive in his tank!

He knew what he would see even before he opened his eyes and raced from the bed to the cabinet, or at least he thought he knew. The sight that met him though, so far beyond his expectations, made him wonder if he could be out of bed but still dreaming.

The tank was brimming, exploding with life. The waters fairly boiled with all manner of things swimming, diving and chasing around, the surface constantly mottled with their swirls and eddies and splashes. And the land . . . the land! There were little creatures crawling all over it, some inching along in long lines, some more active, busying themselves digging into the surface or dragging some of the tiny plants downward; to eat, he presumed.

He had to presume, because these things were so tiny that he could not discern any detail on them whatsoever. He lifted the lid, peered right inside and squinted hard. Then, he could just about make out that some were rounder than others, some taller, some more worm-like, and he could detect some differences in their colours, especially when several like specimens were grouped together.

Andrew stepped back from the tank and gasped aloud. All this after only five days! His first inclination was to run yelling into his parents’ bedroom, to drag them in to see his marvellous new pets, but then he remembered the shopkeeper’s warning. He had to keep it secret, or he risked losing everything. He realised he must do the opposite, and make sure that it stayed a secret, and so carefully, and with some difficulty, he edged the tank back on the cabinet until he had enough room to stack a few books and toys in front to conceal it. It wasn’t totally hidden, of course, but it wouldn’t attract attention. The books and toys didn’t stay there long though; Andrew spent every available moment for the rest of the day shut in his room watching the tiny processions, the proliferations and interactions of his own minute microcosm, playing themselves out behind the quarter inch of glass.

He might have expected the excitement to have kept him awake that night, but after exchanging the “sun” bulb for the “moon” bulb, he found that so much excitement had tired him out. He slept deeply, almost instantly.

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