The Recreation of Animals

Space was in disarray, and everything above began to collide and explode. The stars glistened and glimmered, brighter and brighter until it was too much and they exploded or disintegrated or whispered away into the dark. The earth changed. The animals changed. The people changed.

Thousands of years after, humans still lived but in a different world, a world of ice and cold and strange air. The humans that survived created structures out of glass and they created machines and technology to help them live despite it all. They had saved seeds in their pockets and in envelopes and in bags. They had saved the plants but all the animals were ghosts.

Bernadette lived alone.

 Her enclosure was far away from any other. When she looked through the walls of windows, she saw snow and ice and black skies. But in this bleak world, she still found color. If you spent enough time looking at snow, it stopped looking white and started to glisten with color.

 Bernadette spent her days gardening and her nights looking at stars and imagining.

 Her mother had told her stories about animals. Her mother’s generation was the last to actually live at the same time any animals lived. Most species had perished after the initial destruction, but some had survived. Her mother had seen a bird once, shriveled and dead in the snow. Her mother saw the dead bird and new that at one point, her and that bird had been alive together. It was the first encounter with an animal she had ever had. They had breathed the same air, they had seen the same sky. 

Many years later her mother had seen a polar bear. An actual live polar bear trudging through the snow, his hefty white shoulders hunched, a serious gleam in his determined black eyes.

 Bernadette was lonely. She wanted friends. So she decided she would make them herself.

 Bernadette picked leaves from the trees and petals from the flowers. She sorted through the chopped pieces of woods and the fallen twigs and branches. She suited up to go outside to collect snow and fallen pieces of stars. She rummaged through the attic, then the basement and sorted through scraps from antiques. Then she created.

First she made a bird out of flower petals, gears, scraps of fabric and melted snow. Her little bird creation sung songs to her. It landed on her finger when she called for it. Then it flew up toward the top of her enclosure where the tallest tree scraped its branches on the concave ceiling.

Then she made three woodland creatures: a squirrel, a rabbit and a fox. She made them from cottonwood and dandelion puffs and she died their fur from dried flower petal dye.

 Next she made a cat. Her mother told her stories about cats, that they were reluctant friends of humans, that they were fickle and mischievous and delightful. Her strange metal cat purred by cranking its gears. Every time Bernadette scratched between his ears, he cranked his gears and closed his almond eyes.

Last she made a polar bear based on her mother’s description. It was large and noble and as white as the falling snow.

 The enclosure was crowded. The animals all looked wistfully out the window. Since they had metal skin and bloodstreams of frozen snow, she let them outside to wander the frozen tundra. Every morning they left the enclosure, but every evening they came back home.

 Bernadette and the animals huddled around the hearth and told stories. The animals told stories of their tundra explorations. Stories of bleakness and white and of an infinity of snow. She told them stories she made up. Stories of make believe lands full of oceans and forests and lakes and animals.

 One evening, her polar bear did not return. She cried by the fire. The other animals purred and cooed to her. “Don’t worry.” They whispered. “The polar bear is independent. He just wants to wander but he will come back.

After three months, her polar bear returned. Bernadette saw him in the distance. First a slowly moving dot, then, her fur covered polar bear lumbering toward her. Atop her polar bears back was something strange: A human!

 The human was a woman much older than Bernadette. She was wearing her outdoor suit. On top of Bernadette’s polar bear, the woman had made a nest of old ratty blankets which she sat in the middle of.

 “Come inside.” Bernadette said, speaking the language of her people, not sure if this other human spoke the same.

 “Thank you.” The woman said slowly and Bernadette sighed with relief.

It had been eighteen years since Bernadette last saw a human. Her father had died first after his suit had torn while walking the tundra. Her mother died four years later, from fluid in her lungs. Everyone else who use to share her enclosure had died when she was still a child. She still remembered the day she had gone downstairs and found them, ten people she use to know, limp and quiet.

Bernadette made tea to share with the woman. They sat at the table. First, they just looked at each other. The woman spoke first. “You are an inventor.” She said. “I am an inventor too.”

 “What do you make?” Bernadette asked.

 “I make trips to other worlds.”

 The woman’s name was Frieda. She was the oldest person alive on this planet. During her years alive. She had spent her time researching the stars and creating machines.

 The air was getting thicker. It was seeping through the biodomes and the humans were dying.

Frieda sent people off into the stars. She thought they reached planets, but she could never be sure.

 “I thought I was the only one left, but then your bear came to me.”

 “He’s a good bear.” Bernadette said.

“Listen. I’m leaving. This is your only chance if you want to leave too. I can see you are all alone here. I’ve sent everyone I know off to the stars, so I am all alone too.”

 “Where are we going?” Bernadette said.

 “To the stars. To another planet with plants that live outside and sunshine and animals made of flesh and fur and blood.

 “Can I bring my animals?” Bernadette asked.

 “You can bring them. But I don’t know if they will like it.”

 The animals didn’t know either. They were reluctant. They liked the ice and the quiet land they lived in. In the end, only the cat came with Bernadette and Frieda.

“Goodbye!” Bernadette said. She was sitting with Frieda and the cat atop the bear. The bear said he must stay behind, but he would transport them back to Frieda’s enclosure. Bernadette waved at the other animals and they looked back at her with sad eyes.

Her travels with Frieda were the most of the world she had ever seen. It all looked the same though. White ground. White or gray or black sky. Stars late at night.

 They arrived at Frieda’s enclosure. It was huge. Much bigger than Bernadette’s. At least three times the size.

 “There used to be hundreds of people living here. They are all gone now.”

 Bernadette grabbed her bag and her cat off of her bears back. “Goodbye my friend” she said and leaned down to kiss the bears noses. He said nothing in response. Just nodded at her and turned around, heading back to where he came from.

Frieda used the extra space to build grand machines. Bernadette followed Frieda inside and past the machines. Machine after machine. Till they reached their machine that would take them somewhere else.

 “This is our ride.” Frieda said.

 “Meow.” The cat responded.

 Bernadette tapped the side of the machine and said, “Adventure awaits.”

 They all climbed into the machine. Frieda clicked the key into place and the machine started with a vroom. With a light tap of the finger, Frieda pushed a button that opened the glass roof of her enclosure. The machine sputtered and they flew off into space.

Ten years later they arrived.

 It was a small planet but it was a robust planet. There were thousands of species of plants and animals.

 Over the ten years in outerspace, Frieda, Bernadette and the cat had become close. They were a family now.

 They built a home together on the edge of the ocean. They all finally felt sun.

 “We will take care of everything here.” Frieda said solemnly, “We will be gentle and kind and selfless.”

 On planet earth, the animals that Bernadette’s created roamed the icy planes. The animals lived in Bernadette’s enclosure and they created more animals from Bernadette’s scraps.

 Thousands upon thousands of years later, the ancestors of Bernadette’s animals survived. The planet had tilted in a different direction and the snow had mostly melted. There were oceans and forests and sunshine again. There were animals both robotic and real. Things were evolving from sludge. Life was abundant again.

 On the last night of Frieda’s life, she dreamed about the sea and stars.

 On the last day of Bernadette’s life, she dreamed of animals both real and imagined.

 On the last day of the cat’s life, her soul left her body and traveled back to earth, where she was born as the first human being of the second generation. After being born, after breathing and crying, she opened her round eyes and saw blue sky. She could hear the water from the sea splashing the shore. She could feel dreams swirling around in her developing mind. Someday, she would grow up and learn to be gentle with the earth. She would learn to cherish the sun by laying out in it, like a cat on a sunny afternoon.

The End.