{"id":849,"date":"2019-03-24T22:22:59","date_gmt":"2019-03-24T22:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetembo.com\/clip\/?p=849"},"modified":"2020-10-27T03:35:34","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T03:35:34","slug":"mosquito-and-whitefly-are-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetembo.com\/clip\/2019\/03\/24\/mosquito-and-whitefly-are-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Mosquito and Whitefly are Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

Mosquito and Whitefly are Dead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Setting: Mosquito and Whitefly flutter over a shallow sea; the chemical scent of their food driving them onward. Mosquito has just learned that they are to deliver a message, but they will die as soon as the message is delivered.<\/em>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201cLet’s not do it. Let’s not deliver our message.\u201d He flips a coin, it is heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitefly: \u201cIf we don’t do it, what do we do?\u201d She flips a coin, it is heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201cWe could work on our flying, try to perfect it.\u201d He flips a coin, it is tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitefly: \u201cPerfect it how? Why? If I fly too much, then I’m somebody’s lunch.\u201d She flips a coin, it is tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201cIf we deliver our payload, we die.\u201d He flips a coin, it is tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitefly: \u201cBut that is the only purpose we have.\u201d She flips a coin, it is tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201cWhy don’t we at least look at the message?\u201d He flips a coin, it is heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitefly: \u201cWhy?\u201d She flips a coin, it is heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201cSo we know what it is.\u201d He flips a coin, it is tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitefly: \u201cWon’t that kill the mystery?\u201d She flips a coin, it is tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201cHow many times have we both thrown the same thing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitefly: \u201c89 already. Rather improbable I think.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201cYou throw first this time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitefly: \u201cI’m going to look at the message.\u201d She flips a coin, it is tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201cWhat does it say?\u201d He flips a coin, it is tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitefly: He takes the message out of its viral envelope and reads it: \u201cACGACACCCTGACTTA.\u201d She flips a coin, it is tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201cWhat does it mean?\u201d He flips a coin, it is tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitefly: \u201cI don’t know, I’d say it is morally ambiguous at best.\u201d She flips a coin, it is heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201cI’d say it is ambiguous, ambiguous at best.\u201d He flips a coin, it is heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitefly: \u201cAgain the same. Does this mean we are somehow entangled?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201cI don’t know. Hey lamprey, do you carry a message?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamprey: \u201cYes, I am to deliver it to a fish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201cCan you throw a coin at the same time we do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They all flip, all the coins come up heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They all flip, all the coins come up heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They all flip, all the coins come up tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamprey: \u201cSatisfied?\u201d He swims onward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitefly: \u201cWhy do we have to die to deliver a message that we don’t understand? We could be destroying the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201cWe could be saving the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They both flip, both coins come up heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitefly: \u201cHow many is that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201c96.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitefly: \u201cWe are here.\u201d Whitefly lands on the leaf of a tree. She is hungry. She sips the sap out of the succulent leaf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mosquito: \u201cYes, I guess we eat.\u201d Mosquito lands on a bird. He is hungry. He sips its delicious blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both fall over dead. Their coins drop. One is heads. One is tails.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n


A removed excerpt from \u201cProperty of Nature\u201d after edits rendered the passage obsolete. Reproduced here with permission from the author (me<\/em>). \f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>Mosquito and Whitefly are Dead Setting: Mosquito and Whitefly flutter over a shallow sea; the chemical scent of their food driving them onward. Mosquito has just learned that they are to deliver a message, but they will die as soon as the message is delivered. Mosquito: \u201cLet’s not do it. Let’s not deliver our message.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetembo.com\/clip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetembo.com\/clip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetembo.com\/clip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetembo.com\/clip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetembo.com\/clip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetembo.com\/clip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetembo.com\/clip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions\/850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetembo.com\/clip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetembo.com\/clip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetembo.com\/clip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}