The Form and the Void

 

‘So, what is it?’ She was not as impressed as he’d hoped.

‘It’s a universe.’

‘Oh.’ His wife sniffed as she looked down on his creation. ‘What’s it for?’

‘Well… it’s… it’s….’ He looked around his shed for inspiration. ‘Well, you always said I ought to do something about that form and void I had at the back of the shed. Well… this is it.’

‘What’s it for, though?’ She poked at one of the galaxies, which set it spinning.

‘I don’t know,’ he admitted. ‘I was just tidying up the shed and it got a bit dark back there, so I said ‘Let there be light,’ next thing I knew there were these suns and planets all over the place.’

He pointed out one of the spinning globes. ‘I rather like that one there… Soil… the blue and green one.’

She peered. ‘I suppose its okay, if you like that sort of thing. I wish you’d made something a bit more….well, useful.’ She took her glasses off and looked down at the spinning blue–green globe. ‘Ew! There are things on it… vermin all over it.’

‘Those are not vermin, those are my creations!’

‘What are they… horrible pink and hairy things?’

‘I call them humans,’ he said.

‘Well, get rid of them. I don’t want them escaping off that thing and getting into the house.’ With that she turned and strode off, slamming the door of his shed.

Still, he thought as he tipped the whole universe into a rubbish sack for the recycling, he’d only wasted six days on it.