Life

Suddenly a jolt pulled at the biologist boots. He looked down to realize the ground he had been standing in was a sinking patch of mud and his decision to move had called to his realization that he was stuck up to the ankle in mud. He let out a snicker at his inability to move and the sound his boots made as he helplessly wiggled them in the mud. Letting out a sigh he proceeded to look up outside his own situation to take in the jungle he had taken for granted before he had gotten stuck. He observed his surroundings with an unexplained interest temporally forgetting that he was slowly sinking into the mud that made a spiral sinkhole around his circumference. Looking up at the elegant leaves and vines that covered the trees around him he became intoxicated with the life he began to realize was present in the jungle. He took in the smells of strange flowers, plants, and animals that his biologist nose struggled to identify. The noise of the jungle enveloped him and he was suddenly more in tune with his senses than he had been just before being trapped in the mud. He felt the steamy air moving sluggishly around the jungle floor he heard the noises of strange birds and animals and he began the process of indentifying them through his biological knowledge. He identified the smells of plants that lived in the jungle, the calls of the birds each one so unique, and the rustling of the common insects he knew lived in this jungle.

All the wile he sank deeper into the mud.

Taking no note of this he felt the urge to call to the bird he had come to study. Pushing the warm air from his lungs and through his teeth he mimicked the call of the bird, and he was inexplicably able to mimic it perfectly. He rejoiced in this and let out a soft laugh part in amazement and part realizing that he was calling to a bird. To his furthered joy the bird called back. It sounded like it was not to far away and the man rejoiced letting a smile form on his face withered form studying texts most of his adult life. He let out another call and waited for a response. The bird then flew over and perched on a branch where the man saw its black red beauty reflected of the wet leaves on the vines that encompassed the tree like millions of arms reaching upward for the sun the top of the tree had found. The man marveled at this sight and stopped a while to observe the bird before he uttered a softer call as not to scare it away. The bird answered in a harmony that the man found so vibrant and brilliant that he had no choice but to imitate the call once more. The bird responded again and the man rebutted and this process went on like a debate between philosophers fundamentally opposed only if the philosophers had the voices of angles and sang their debates in harmony.

Or so it seemed to the man now knee deep in the unrelenting mud.

Delighted as he was in the relation ship he now shared with the beautiful bird the man now scratched his brown hair and wondered how he was going to deal with the mud. In denial the man looked back up at the bird and the joy its beautiful call brought him caused him to forget the consequence of the mud and simile with joy. The man had come here to document the habits of the illusive bird and now seeing it jump around the branch and groom itself right in front of him filled his heart with joy. He then though about what a success he would be when he showed his colleagues the many photos and documents he would be able to make with his knowledge of the bird he had learned simply by observing it through his perspective in the mud. The man reached into his pocket and withdrew his small digital camera, which he pointed, at the bird that now seemed to be not at all discomforted by the man in the mud. As soon as he had taken a picture another bird called and the man immediately recognized it and called back. Not three seconds latter a bird flew down by the first and sat at its side. The man speculated that this must be the mother as it was larger and cast a motherly look down at the first bird. What a sight the man marveled and he thought that this was the most beautiful thing he had seen in his biologist lifestyle.

Suddenly the man realized that he was waist deep in mud. He let out a little cry and tried to move around but the mud held tight. His agitation so passed as he said to himself oh well this is not to far from the path someone will come along and help. He rested patiently as the mud crept up his stomach at an accelerated rate. He turned his gaze to the birds and realized that two more had perched on the branches next to the original two, and as if sensing his gaze they all turned and looked back at him intently. He smiled thinking that this could very well be the biggest documented group ever seen. The man reached for his camera but the mud had taken it long ago. He cursed and yelled for help, but he didn’t let this fit overcome him and he stopped not long after he started as not to upset the birds. Then another bird bigger than all the rest flew the first branch and caused the first two birds to move to different perches. The man gasped at the creatures’ brilliant hooked beak and vivid color scheme.

What he did not acknowledge was his arms that he let slip into the mud as it began to reach his shoulders. Suddenly he became more aware then ever before of the inevitability that awaited him as he looked down at the mud he could now press his face in. He thought clearly for the first time that he was going to die. He had some knowledge of this before but as if the curtains had been open he saw the truth clearly now and there was no denying it. Being a rational man he decided not to scream and cruse in woe but marvel in wonder at the five rare birds he had seen today, birds so rare most go through their lives in the jungle not even knowing that these birds exist. The man just gazed at their beauty as he slowly descended into his grave and the mud reached his head. He felt a pang of acknowledgment in his brain and not knowing why he accepted this as if he had known about it sense he entered the jungle in the first place. His mouth and nose descended into the mud all the while his eyes on the beautiful birds that watched with only a look of bewilderment. The man closed his eyes and let the darkness take him felling happy as of his accomplishments and regretting nothing. In his final moments his body completely submersed in unrelenting mud he recalled the beauty of the birds and let that beauty and his accomplishment of being able to befriend them take control of his mind as the cold mud sucked him into the earth. And so ended the life of the unnamed biologist as has ended every living things life in all of time.