Chapter One

 

1 And it happened that there was a Dust Mite, and she knew the world.

​

2 The world was full and abundant.  There was the Floor, and the Wall, and the Dark Space under the Bed.  There were predators, but there was also food everywhere, and there were also mates.

​

3 There was no need for anything else.  There was no room for anything else.

​

4 And the Dust Mite knew that there were other dust mites who lived far away across the Floor.  She had met a few, who had traveled half their lifetimes to reach the Dark Space under the Bed.

​

5 These wanderers told stories.  They spoke of walls other than the Wall, of dark spaces under other objects that were not the Bed.

​

6 And their stories were full of wonderous things beyond imagining.  Objects that moved across the world, leaving nothing behind them but bare Floor.  Beds that were so high that they had no dark space underneath them.  Vast empty plains where there was no wall at all. 

​

7 The Dust Mite marveled at the stories that the wanderers told and at the mythical objects that filled them.  But for herself, she was satisfied in the Dark Space under the Bed where she had hatched, and where she would live out her life, and where she would die.

​

8 If there were dust mites on the other end of the Floor, she would never meet them.  They just as well might be living in a different world from the one she lived in.

 

​

Chapter Two

​

1 One day, the Dust Mite went to see the Great Teacher, who told her: there once was a giant called a Human, and he knew the world.

​

2 The Human also lived on the Floor and lived near the Wall.  But the human also knew the bright spaces high above the Bed.

​

3 And the Human was too large to know the dust mites.  To him, we were as tiny dots on the floor.

​

4 Likewise, the dust mites did not know the Human.  He was too large to see.

​

5 And the Dust Mite said: but teacher, I have indeed seen flecks of dust that were so tiny that I almost could not see them.

​

6 But the things that are larger, like the Floor and the Wall and the Bed, I see always.

​

7 And the teacher answered: the Human was larger still even than the Bed.  So large that no dust mite could see him.  So large that he himself was a Wall.

​

8 And when the Human walked across the world, it was as if a Wall had come and gone in less time than it takes for a dust mite to snap her mandibles.  And the Human lived on the floor along with the dust mites, and they did not know him.

 

​

Chapter Three

​

1 Pity the poor Human!  For he lived among the dust as we do, but he could not see it.

​

2 He walked among the abundance of skin flakes all across the floor, but he never ate of them.

​

3 He feared no predators, but likewise he had no mate.  As large as he was, as powerful as he was, there was much about the world that the Human would never know.

​

4 Likewise, the Human’s world was full of objects so far from the world that the dust mites would never know them.

​

5 There were beds and walls that could move, and appear and disappear.  There were oceans of floor that were not solid, but could move in ripples like water.  There were sources of light that could come and banish darkness – even the Dark Space under the Bed.

​

6 Some have even claimed that there is a wall floating high above the world, so far away from the floor that the floor and this wall meet at no corner, and they are never even within sight of one another.

​

7 To the Human, these things were the world.  And when he thought about the dust mites, if he thought about them at all, he pitied them, because they would never know of these wonderous things.

​

8 And this is how the dust mites and the Human lived in the same world and separate worlds at the same time.

​

9 And then, his story done, the Teacher went off in search of food.

 

​

​

Chapter Four

​

1 And the Dust Mite went back to her nest, with her mind full of these wonders.

​

2 And she ate, and she laid several eggs, and then she walked across the Floor, and she thought.

​

3 And she thought about how, if the Human were real, he would be able to see the whole world spread out before him all at once. Viewing the dust mites from above, he would be able to view the entire Dark Space under the Bed in a single glance.

​

4 With one sweep of his eyes, he would immediately know, all at once, the location of every mite in the nest.  Of every egg, every larva, every nymph.  Of every flake of skin.  Of every predator.

​

5 The Human would have understandings of the world no dust mite could ever imagine.

​

6 One of the greatest mysteries to all dust mites was the question of what created the flakes of skin that fell from the sky for them to eat.  From his vantage point above the world, the Human would know.

​

7 The Dust Mite had always wondered why there had to be predators in the world.  They seemed to serve no other purpose but to destroy.  From his vantage point above the world, the Human would know.

​

8 The Dust Mite often wondered what happened to dust mites after they had died.  From his vantage point above the world, the Human would know.

​

9 What it must be like to be a Human, the Dust Mite thought: to see everything and to know everything!

​

10 But then the Dust Mite pitied the Human.  The price for understanding everything is that there is nothing else to know.  There are no questions to ponder.  There is no magic left in the world.

​

11 Unless there were another Being who was even larger than the Human – who was to the Human as the Human was to the dust mites.  A Being so large that the Human would never know it.

​

12 And perhaps this Being would know things about the world that the Human would never know, just as the Human knew things that the dust mite would never know.

​

13 The Dust Mite could not imagine what knowledge such a Being would have.  The Human may have all the answers to the dust mites’ questions, but the Being above the Human would have answers to questions that the dust mites would never even know to ask.

 

14 Why are there walls that move? the Human might ask.  What is the purpose of the wall floating over my head?  And the Being would know these things, even though the Human did not.

​

15 And then the Dust Mite looked down at the floor beneath her claws and imagined there were creatures living among the dust that were too small for her to see – so small that they weren’t even aware that the Dust Mite was standing over them.

​

16 What things did she understand about the world that these creatures would never understand?

​

​

​

Chapter Five

​

1 And all in a flash the Dust Mite could picture a bed above the Bed, and another bed above that, and another bed above that.  Endless beds, reaching high up into space.

​

2 And she imagined a bed below the Bed, and another bed below that, and another bed below that.  Endless beds, reaching down into nothingness.

​

3 Each bed belonging to a creature who thought it lived alone in the world, because it could not see the creatures above or below it.

​

4 An endless number of creatures, all living in the same world and different worlds at the same time.

​

5 And, at these thoughts, the Dust Mite’s stomach lurched and her head swam.  And the Dust Mite spent the evening staring up at the Bedsprings twisting above her, her heart full of wonder.

​

​

​