Ella set off down the street, when she reached the corner a large black dog slid out of the hedge and walked beside her. Her guide. She pulled her hoodie up over her head and walked looking down at the pavement. She noticed that Shuck took a couple of unnecessary turns. Covering their tracks she thought. It wasn’t far though, under a mile so they were soon at the house, Shuck waited while she opened the gate and then walked through. He is being very careful she thought.
They walked up to the door and it was opened by a nice looking old man, grey hair thinning, but Ella thought he looked very well. “Hi, I’m Ella.”
“Hello Ella, nice to meet you, I am Edmund, we are in the conservatory. But would you like something to drink.”
“Yes, please, what do you have, just what is easiest though.”
“Tea, coffee, squash, coke?”
She could smell coffee. “A coffee would be lovely, if that is ok?”
“That will be fine, I have a pot made, go through to the conservatory and I will bring it to you.”
She walked through the living room, a new looking aquarium stood out in a room of good, but old furnishings. There were a handful of brightly coloured fish swimming around in it. Eostre was waiting for them. She was dressed in denim jacket, jeans and a t-shirt with a familiar look to them. There was a saucer in front of her with a small snail on it.
Ella smiled at her “Hello, nice to see you in clothes. And with a snail?”
Eostre replied “The snail is an experiment. It was a success.”
Edmund arrived with her coffee. Eostre went on, this snail is one of a series of experiments I am running, I need to learn how to build a human, so I started with a amoeba, which is about as simple a life form as you can find and I have moved up to this snail, it works as a snail should, so I thought we could go and release it into the garden so it can live out its span.
Ella said “So, that is not a real snail? It is something you made?” She kneeled down and peered at it closely. “Well, it looks like a real snail.” She poked it gently with her finger tip. It eyes retracted on their stalks. “It acts like a real snail.”
Edmund nodded “Yes, impressive, isn’t it.”
Eostre explained “It has real snail DNA, but it was assembled rather than grown, following the rules set out in its code, but its consciousness, is mine, like Shuck’s, a tiny consciousness, just as much as it needs. But unlike Shuck, this is truly alive, not just an energy pattern.”
Ella was fascinated. The snail had found some biscuit crumbs on the saucer and was busily consuming them. Then it turned and looked straight at her, as much as a snail can look straight at anything. It went back to the crumbs, but she got the feeling it knew who she was. “So what, we are going to take it into the garden?”
Eostre nodded “Yes, we might as well do that now. She got up and they all walked out onto the wide terrace at the back of the house. Eostre went over to the flower border at the end and gently lifted it off the saucer and placed it on the flagstone at the edge. “Bye bye.”
She walked back to Edmund and Ella and turned to look back at her snail. At that moment a thrush landed on the terrace, picked up the snail, cracked its shell on the stone flag and ate it.
“Oh no!” Ella shrieked.
Edmund looked horrified.
Eostre turned to them “No, it has fulfilled its path, it has become part of the ecosystem. The thrush eating it validates the success of the experiment and four thrush chicks will be fed on it. And the snail has not died, it conscious has returned to me, ready for its next task.”
Edmund and Ella looked at each other, utterly bemused.
Eostre went on. “And, I have also gained additional data.”
Ella looked at her, puzzled “Additional data?”
“Yes, I know what being eaten by a thrush feels like.”
Edmund said “Ella, I don’t think that is something I have ever wanted to know.”
“Me neither” She replied “I think we should hold a short ceremony in memory of Brian The Snail.”
“Magic Roundabout?” I used to love that said Edmund. “How about we light a candle for him, I am sure I have one somewhere.”
The went back inside the house, Edmund found a large candle and lit it. “Bye bye Brian.”
Ella echoed “Bye bye Brian.”
Together, they blew out the candle, looked at each other and started laughing. Edmund leaned toward Ella and said “I think we are going to get along well”
“Yes,” she replied “Fellow sufferers!”
Edmund looked serious “Now, Ella, I asked Eostre to invite you here today, because, firstly, she has told me quite a bit about you and I thought it would be a good idea for us to meet and get to know each other. And I am pleased we did that as we seem to get on very well.”
Ella nodded “Yes, I think we do too.”
Edmund continued “The second reason was because of the need for both of us to be discreet about her, about her capabilities.”
Ella nodded again “Yes, I understand. I really don’t like hiding anything from my dad though. Particularly things which are important.”
Edmund said “Well, that speaks volumes about you as a person. In my career as a barrister, keeping other people’s secrets became almost second nature to me, but in my private life, well that was a very different matter and I felt much as you do. But, and I hope this will help, it is not forever, very soon, Eostre will be able to protect herself, us and your friends and family from the kind of direct threats she mentioned to you. But there is also, well, I am not sure it is right to call it a threat as such, but it could be even more uncomfortable, and that is publicity. Things like social media, the traditional media as well as conspiracy theorists can leap onto something and blow it out of proportion and once it has happened it tends to not go away. Something like that could prove a great inconvenience. So, for example, Shuck has now been trained to appear and disappear from hedges. Just bear it in mind.”
Ella smiled “Yes, he did that very slickly when I was on the way here, he looked like he could have just been having a nap in there or something. OK, I will bear that in mind and it is good to know the first, the threat bit is not forever.”
Edmund smiled back “Good, I think I am done, thank you for listening.”
Eostre said “Ella, if you liked the snail, you should come and see my fish.”
Eostre led them over to the aquarium “The snails are real ones, Edmund bought them from the shop for me and Shuck went with him and harvested the DNA for the Zebra Danios, Neon Tetras and the Guppies, I am very pleased with them. But that one over there, it doesn’t look very interesting and I wasn’t sure it would work, but I think it has turned out very well. I sent Shuck to the Natural History Museum for its DNA, it is a Knightia eocaena. They went extinct fifty million years ago, back then your ancestors were things like Notharctus, an early primate, a bit like a modern lemur, learning to leap between branches.”
“Still learning.” Said Edmund
Ella giggled “Me too. The tetras are the ones I Iike best. Very pretty. Are you going to keep the aquarium Edmund?”
He nodded “Yes, it is something I have always fancied having, but never enough to actually do it. And Eostre says she will take care of it, so I get to enjoy it without any effort. Ella, you are welcome to stay for dinner if you would like to?”
Ella “Sorry, I would love to, maybe another time? I have to go to a pre-course briefing, it is a chance to get to know some of the other students who I will be studying with and there is a session with the course director. I need to spend the evening prepping some stuff to take with me, graphics, drafts of ideas.”
Eostre, turned from the aquarium “That sounds interesting. Can I come with you please.”