Final Part, Draft One, Bacterium Story

Incredible, that is was. Worlds and creatures previously unknown to him crowded into his mind, their names and words somehow accompanying their images.

            “You wish to know the meaning of life,” I am disclosed the bacterium's aspiration, “But first I will tell you this: every creature’s purpose is different, though they all follow the same pathway; striving towards higher consciousness. This is something that goes on and on, forever and ever, and is once again different from one being to the next.”

            Throughout I am’s short speech, different images, sounds, and feelings flashed through the bacterium’s mind; first the touch of fur, feathers, skin, and scales accompanied by thousands of three-dimensional pictures of all creatures known and unknown throughout all of creation; then a bright point of light, and a feeling of great warmth and yearning; and finally, an image of a great, winding staircase, a snow-capped green mountain, and the darkness of space, stars twinkling and streaking by as if the bacterium were traveling at a great speed. He had never seen or felt any of these things, but he knew what they were.

            “What is my purpose, I am?” The bacterium asked, his mind straining to take everything in.

            “Your purpose, dear one, is whatever you choose. The general purpose of your kind is to grow and reproduce and digest, as it is the general purpose of my kind to consume your kind. This is the purpose that creatures are often lost in, passing over the universal purpose of walking the path of higher consciousness, but that does not mean that both purposes can’t coexist peacefully in every creature’s life.”

            “Does that mean I can deviate from the general purpose to pursue the higher purpose?”

“Of course,” I am answered, “Your life is what you choose.”

“How can I do that? I have no idea where to begin, though I’ve been feeling around for the path all of my life.”

“You are already on that path.” I am kindly said, and the bacterium experienced the sensation of a hand on his shoulder (he had none), lips on his forehead (he didn’t have one), and compassionate eyes peering into his (he hadn’t any).

“You always have been, that is what led you here, to us. You must remember that you’ve always known all of this; that was why you had that wish in your core, to know the meaning of life.”

“Will I ever achieve this 'higher consciousness', I am?”

“Of course you will; you are and you already have many times already. Higher consciousness isn’t something to achieve and forget. It is the journey of ages, progressed over many lifetimes.

“Now is the time for parting; albeit not the kind you are thinking of. It is the time for you to become Yourself, though not separate, bacterium.”

The bacterium found his shape again, he was once more himself, and he saw I am before him, his shape rippling, and faintly glowing.

To his surprise, he found that he also glowed, and his heart (though he didn’t really have one) leaped with a new feeling; joy. So many emotions all at once; he had also discovered love after his strange and enlightening encounter with the being I am.

The bacterium set forth once again, with new eyes, new tranquility, the new found feeling of love, and a great eagerness for life, the unknown, and the journey that lay behind him and stretched on ahead of him forever.

 (Truly, I do not have the experience required by this undertaking, but it was fun to try, and I intend to revise it, and perhaps someday far in the future, I will have what is required, and this story will be exactly what it is supposed to be. Revise it I shall, experience or no, for this whole story is quite the garbled mess, despite the editing I have already done.)