Then I got put into somewhere new.

          My new home was bright and clean. It was a huge tank which was a pretty good imitation of my natural environment. There was sand and shingle, rocks with crevices, weeds, food, drink, sex, a current, things to see and do. I shared the tank with several other lobsters, but it wasn’t crowded. The one thing I did notice was that new lobsters kept being put into the tank, but it never got too crowded.

          It took me a while to realize why.

          Lobsters were being taken out. I only noticed this when I heard Ezra calling out. I looked around and something pink was pulling him up out of the tank. Then he was gone and I forgot about him. Or rather, I forgot his name, but I remembered the feeling of panic that had spread through the tank. All of us lobsters were going around in a state of high agitation – for a few hours after Ezra’s abduction – with our claws flailing. There were several fights and two lobsters lost claws.

          One other thing about this tank – every so often, strange creatures come to the front of it and tap it. It’s fucking irritating. I don’t know why they do it. It’s my only complaint.

          Then it happened to me.

          One minute I was swimming – walking – along, minding my own business, the next, I was grabbed by something – I don’t know what, pulled out of my environment and dropped onto another table, this time a metal one. I was doused in something fiery and very painful. It burned my body, making me squirm in agony. I screamed, but no one listened. Then I was picked up again and carried a short distance. Suddenly, I could feel the heat. It came from below me. I looked down. What I saw made me shit and piss. They just fell out of my body, so great was my fear. Below me was a huge pot of boiling water. The steam boiled my eyes. I was blinded.

          Then I was dropped into the boiling water.

          In 1651, a Scottish philosopher and political thinker named Thomas Hobbes said that life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

          He was wrong.

          It isn’t.

Relativity & the Lobster

© R J Dent (2010)

www.rjdent.com

http://rjdent.wordpress.com/