"Out, Brief Candle," Said Tom Brightly.
1.
When they emerge from the egg sacs, they are ravenous. They scrounge, steal, and beg.
"We love hot dogs," the Toms say, with relish.
2.
They take shelter at the edges of civilization, where old buildings, once devoted to agriculture, now sit disused.
As they eat, they grow.
And grow.
And grow.
"There's no more room in the hay barn," the Toms say, balefully.
3.
By the time they are large enough, they have also acquired a human-like exterior. Soon, they begin to experience new thirsts, and civilization, with its attendant glitter, attracts them.
So thirsty.
"Another martini would be fine," the Toms say dryly.
4.
More fine liquid.
More fine food.
"We're acquiring additional mass in preparation for the next stage of our life cycle," the Toms wax.
5.
Then, they divide.
"I have a split personality," say some of the Toms, being frank.
6.
And again.
"A fragmentary personality," say some of the Franks, being earnest.
7.
When their identities have settled, some Toms--the Earnest ones--go to sea.
On the pirate vessels they have commandeered, they vie for status, determined to acquire quarters at the back of the ship.
"I claim the Captain's cabin," says each Earnest, sternly.
8.
The other two morphotypes undergo additional physiological changes, which enable them to specialize in the exploitation of alternative habitats.
"We're metamorphosing into marine invertebrates," the Toms say crabbily.
"We're metamorphosing into terrestrial herbivores," the Franks say sheepishly.
9.
Treasure, smaller ocean animals, and grass.
Through high-seas piracy, sea-floor predation, and meadow grazing, they amass phosphates and hydrocarbons, which they use to construct new chromosomes, new membranes, and new reproductive cells.
"We're making copies of our genetic material," the Earnests, Toms, and Franks repeat.
10.
It is time.
After years of separation, they congregate at spawning grounds, where grasslands border oceans.
"We've decided to come back to the group," the Toms, Franks, and Earnests rejoin.
11.
"Semen is coming out of my penis!" some of the Tom-Frank-Earnests ejaculate.
12.
"Conceivably," say the others, with absorption.
Then they bury their eggs.
13.
After spawning, each prepares to return to civilization.
"We are reverting to an earlier morphotype," the crustacean Toms and ungulate Franks say, personably.
14.
Post-reproductive, they accept work in a range of professions. In writing and publishing, for example. Or--more lucratively--in the extraction and refinement of fossil fuels.
"We are punctuating these sentences," some Toms say, periodically.
"We just struck oil!" other Toms gush.
15.
They place what they earn into high yield accounts, marked for their offspring's use. As the years pass, and a new generation of Toms prepares to claim their birthright, additional value will accrue. Eventually, these funds will support an elegant nightlife and a partiality for iconic cocktails.
"We'd like our ancestors' money back, and then some," their young will say, with interest.
16.
Implacably:
Verbs and adverbs echo the content of the speech; descendant echoes ancestor; text echoes the method of delivery.
(Even irritatingly.)
This is why the species persists.
"Because we have produced offspring and secured their material needs, our kind will continue for another generation," the Toms add.
17.
Slower.
Weaker.
After making their final deposits, they rapidly degenerate. Through once familiar spaces, they now meander, confused and purposeless.
"We forgot what we needed at the store," the Toms say listlessly.
18.
Though the species is immortal, the individual is temporary.
"I'm rotting," the Toms say, gravely.
Author Bio
Rachel Rodman's work has appeared in Strange Horizons, The Cafe Irreal, Brilliant Flash Fiction, and many other publications. Her most recent collection, Mutants and Hybrids, was published by Underland Press. "Six Very Short Stories" appeared in Issue #75 of The Cafe Irreal, "Theories of Oz" in Issue #88; and "Ten Very Short Stories" in Issue #92. You can find her online at www.rachelrodman.com.