on the order of the mundane

a travelers tale


nighttime and the unscrewed daylight backs away slowly. cause there's nothing to see here, just the orange incandescence of the streetlamp and the cold dead moon firing hot photons it had stolen from Sol. her feet beat the earth below, as graceful on a human scale as it is cataclysmic on the microscopic and irrelevant on the cosmic. as she rides her flat L-shaped appendages, most basic of all modes of transportation to the store of nearest convenience for a pack of cigarettes and an ice cream sandwich she stops and plucks a leaf, just beginning to crisp in the seasonal heat. this same leaf, she thinks, could have been brushed by her soft hand just two months ago and been new, cool to the touch from it's tiny cells swelled with water which had traveled up to it through the conveyance of the shrubs branches and roots. in a few more months all of it's kin will die, and yet no one cares enough to warn them. she certainly does not, and her wanton murder of a citizen of Thatshruboverthereland is forgotten without remorse as she casually discards it's green body in a gutter like so much... it rises. it rises up. pulls it's roots up. stretches it's gangly legs and behind her she hears a *thump*. and another. *thump*. and a creak here and there too. she turns around and it waves at her from ten feet high atop it's thin legs. she waves back. "so, um, hi", the words forming in her mouth as easily as a lunch order. "HI!" says the jilted green giant jarringly. "do you need something? cause I don't have any change" she lies.
"I CRAVE NOT YOUR CHEAP METAL TOKENS, I AM HERE SEEKING JUSTICE!"
"for what, that little leaf?"
"THAT'S GEORGE TO YOU, MISSY!"
"fine, whatever, I don't have time for this."
"YOU HAVE TIME TO COMMIT HERBICIDE AND YET NO TIME TO PAY THE CONSEQUENCES?!"
"fine, what are the consequences?"
"DIRE! WE, THE PLANTS, HAVE BEEN STUDYING YOUR SPECIES FOR MANY CENTURIES, AND WE HAVE CONCEIVED OF PUNISHMENTS THAT STRIKE AT THE HEART OF WHAT YOU HOLD MOST DEAR!"
"yeah, yeah, yeah, cut to the chase already"
"TO THAT END, FOR OUR HIGHEST CRIME WE WILL BE FORCED TO INVOKE WHAT WE BELIEVE TO BE THE HIGHEST PUNISHMENT WE CAN RENDER UPON HUMANS!"
"alright, so what is it?"
"ONE PAPER CURRENCY NOTE!"

she hands him a buck and continues on her way, cursing him for depriving her of her ice cream funds.