Eating The Host

What's wrong with it? Eat it. It's Mango, says the tortoise.

I love Mango, says baby B-B. I can't EAT her. She brought me here. No wait, she didn't.

That's like me, says the tortoise. Darwin didn't bring me here either. I'm not even Harriet.

What happened to Harriet? asks baby B-B.

She died, says the Tortoise. She was over a hundred.

And now you're eating Mango, says baby B-B. So she must have died.

This is fruit, not your Mango, says the tortoise. What was she, a bird?

Yes, a bird, says baby B-B. She was golden, with blue wings and tail feathers. She taught me everything. No wait, not everything....

Ha ha, laughs the tortoise. What didn't she teach you?

Not telling, says baby B-B. She would have, but she had to fly home.

How to fly? guesses the tortoise.

Yes, but Arthur taught me how to fly later, says baby B-B.

Who's Arthur? asks the tortoise. Is he a bird too?

No he's a human, says baby B-B. He dropped me down the stairwell.

Risky, says the tortoise. You could have died.

Not everyone dies, says baby B-B.

Yes they do, says the tortoise, eyeing the fleshy chunks of Mango.

Baby B-B is scared.

He hops off the back of the tortoise who isn't Harriet, Darwin's tortoise, (so whose tortoise is she?).

He flies up into the branches of a jacaranda.

From there he can see Gaius, Dries and Terence, who are searching the bushes.

Perhaps they are looking for him.

He flutters down.

Where were you? asks Terence.

Learning something, says baby B-B. Everyone dies.

No they don't, says Terence. I don't.

Well, says Gaius, I think you'll find, if you face facts, that we all do.

And then we eat them, says baby B-B. It's gruesome.

No one would do that, says Terence. Unless they turned into a red milkshake and a biscuit.

Hee hee, titters baby B-B, feeling suddenly better.

Dries wonders how Terence could possibly know such a thing.