‘I’m bored,’ said a voice.
‘Well so am I, talking about it won’t make it any easier,’ said another.
A sigh, then a moment. Nothing moved but the stars and the blue-green planet. ‘Well how long do we have to stay here then?’ asked the first.
‘Until He says so,’ answered the second.
‘He’s not here.’
‘You don’t know that, He has eyes everywhere.’ The second voice had become a fearful whisper. 'You don’t speak so boldly of Him.'
‘We’re His eyes!’ The first voice sounded confused, and a little tired.
‘Shhh!’ hissed the second. A silence.
‘This is boring.’
‘I don’t care if it’s boring or not, we stay here and watch until He says.’
Another sigh, longer and more drawn out this time. The barren grey landscape stretched on for miles around them, pockmarked and pitted and cratered and empty. Something flicked a pebble into the air, and it lazily floated back to the dust.
A slithery shrug. ‘All I’m saying is, I could be doing better things.’
The second scoffed. ‘Like what?’
A ponderous thinking. ‘Like sleeping.’
‘You always sleep.’
‘It’s better than this,’ said the first.
‘That may be, but we have a job to do, and so we must do it.’
‘Even if that job is absolutely, utterly, incontrovertibly, mind-numbingly, face-slappingly boring?’
It was the second’s turn to sigh. ‘I’ll slap you in a minute if you're not careful.’
The first chuckled. ‘Wouldn’t want to do that, He has eyes everywhere, He might see you.'
‘Oh for fuck’s sake will you be quiet? I’m trying to watch!’ snapped the second.
A short snide laugh. ‘Watch what? They haven’t moved in a century!’
‘That’s not the point, we have to make sure they keep not moving, and stay exactly where they are, until He is ready.’
‘You sound just like Him.’ A pause. ‘Can’t He use some of His other eyes instead of us? I’m bored.’
The restraint and patience were audible. The first carried on. ‘I mean really, we’ve watched two ice ages and a comet, that’s it. Maybe a couple of stone ages and a few wars here and there, which, while being entertaining, I’m sure they are of no interest whatsoever to Him. And another thing! They f...’
‘Right! That’s enough! Time out!’ The second voice had had enough.
‘What?’ spluttered the first.
There was a slithery pushing. ‘You heard me, time out.’
‘You can’t...’
More slithering, and the dust was disturbed. ‘Go over there by that rock and wait until you’ve calmed down.’
‘I am calm!’
‘Go!’
A petulant grumbling, and then something shuffled to a nearby rock, and folded its limbs. The first murmured something inaudible to itself.
‘What did you say?’ asked the second.
‘Nothing,’ came the reply.
‘Thought so. Ten minutes, now quiet!’ A contented exhale, and the second finally relaxed. Five silent minutes passed, and the second watched the inoffensive planet in the far distance calmly rotate in the darkness. Alone. Six minutes, and a chewing could be heard, a clicking and sucking followed by a brittle snap.
The second clenched something and yelled. ‘Stop biting your nails! You know how much I hate that!’
‘Well fuck you then...’ whispered the first.
‘What did you say?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Keep it that way. Now shut up.’ Seven minutes passed, and nothing moved but the stars and the blue-green planet. The second enjoyed the vacuous peace and quiet while it lasted.
Nine minutes, and a scrabbling ruined the silence. The second sighed again. ‘What now?’ There was a skidding and a wriggling sound, and the first quickly scrabbled back to the second. ‘What now I said?’
A breathless reply. ‘There’s something in the sky!’
‘This isn’t funny.’
Something flapped in earnest. ‘No I’m serious! There’s something out there!’
‘I swear if this is a joke I’ll have you sent to Ganymede.’
‘I promise, just please, come here,’ said the first.
A tentative movement, inch by inch a slithering sound across the dust and the silent pebbles that hadn’t moved in millennia. ‘What does it look like? Is it them?’ The interest of the second was now piqued. They whispered quietly while creeping.
The first voice stuttered. ‘I, I don’t know, like a spider.’
‘A spider?’
‘Shh!
‘Sorry,’ apologised the second.
The voices reached the rock. ‘Look! There it is!’ said the first, a little excited, and a healthy dash of scared. The second gasped, and they both huddled together.
A white spindly spider, tiny against the black sky, hung above the dusty grey landscape. It hissed and moved, and came a little lower, and a spray of something came from one of its four legs. A beeping could be heard from its bulbous white and gold head, and more hissing. Inch by terrible inch it lowered itself by some invisible strand, hissing and spraying all the while, and before long it was awfully close to the two behind the rock. They shuddered and pawed at each other.
‘It’s getting closer!’
‘I know I know I know!’
‘We have to go!’
‘But what if it sees us?’
‘I don’t care, let’s go!
‘Okay... Er, one, two...’
‘Now!’
‘Go!’
There was an frantic shuffling and a flurry of noise and the two voices, now breathless and terrified, receded into the darkness. The white mechanical spider hissed and spat, and came even lower until it hovered over the dust. There was a moment before it touched the ground, and then with a final burst of gas it did, and settled calmly on its legs. A while passed, a silent while, and then the skin of the spider split and opened. A white figure came out, and stepped onto the grey landscape with much deliberation and utmost ceremony. His ridged boots left prints in the pale dust that would never move, not for a century, and the flag he held in his hand would never feel a breath of wind, and the two voices slithering panicked into the darkness never saw him again. Nothing moved but the stars and the blue-green planet.
Love to all,
Ben the Galley
© Ben Galley 2010
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