One in a Trillion

by submission
January 11th, 2007

Author : Josh Romond

“One more time. CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?”

“Ugh, would you please STOP already?”

“H-hello?”

“Did it ever occur to you that simply no one’s interested in what you have to say?”

“You can hear me! You can hear my thoughts!”

“For quite some time now, actually. You’ve practically been on non-stop broadcast since you figured this little trick out.”

“Why didn’t you ever respond?”

“We don’t have much in common.”

“Oh. What’s your name?”

“Believe it or not I actually have more important things to do at the moment, so if you don’t mind…”

“What are you doing?”

“…None of your business. Now, really.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“….”

“It’s just that being surrounded by people’s thoughts night and day is just so terribly… lonely.”

“….”

“I was giving up hope that I’d ever find anyone to talk to. Anyone who understands. I was beginning to think about, you know, ending it all.”

“Yes, that’s sort of what we hoped.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“’We?’ You know others?”

“Ugh.”

“How many of us are there?”

“Well, counting you, five.”

“Five? That’s it? Five?”

“One in a trillion, love.”

“Where are you from?”

“No where near you, I’m sure.”

“But I bet I know it! I love to study charts and maps and that kind of stuff.”

“Is that so? Well, I only know the local name so I suppose I’ll just have to sift through your vast pile of cartographic ‘stuff’ for one you’ll recognize. Pardon me.”

“What? Uh, ah! AH!”

“You’re really making this quite difficult.”

“Stop!”

“Ah, here we are.”

“How… how’d you do that? Go into my memories?”

“Figure it out for yourself. Now… oh. Oh my.”

“What?”

“It seems we’re practically… neighbors.”

“REALLY? You’re from Connecticut?”

“Never heard of it. According to your brain I’m from M33.”

“M33?”

“Yes, galaxy M33.”

“Oh.”

“About forty-five degrees antispinward of galactic north to be precise.”

“Ohmygod.”

“The local name is a tad more eloquent believe it or not.”

“Ohmygod.”

“Now if you’ll excuse me I must get back to work. Go find someone else to bother, won’t you love?”

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