Two Degrees Of Separation

Let us linger down there in the cave with the foamy bacteria, the autotrophs and the methanotrophs.

Do they mingle?

Naturally, it is hard to avoid one another in a closed eco system....

but perhaps they have said all they need to say, long ago.

Do they long for news? There is only one way of telling.

Autos and methanos, here's some news for you:

You have not altered in millions of years.

Autotrophs: Call that news?

Us: In a long-term manner of speaking. You are found in almost all soils and on skin surfaces.

Methanotrophs: What about us?

Us: You are everywhere. In the Roman Baths at Bath, on the surface of sea water, in the mouths of cattle, and probably the human mouth and gut.

Methanotrophs: That does sound more interesting.

Autotrophs: Than what? Soil and skin surfaces?

Methanotrophs: Jealous?

Us: No need to be. You have both done exceedingly well. And here is some current news. You are soon to be visited by Pliny the Elder.

Methanotrophs: Woo! Roll out the red carpet.

Us: You haven't heard of him?

Autotrophs: No.

Well, at least now they know he is coming.

Gaius (aka Pliny the Elder) is in the diving centre, with Cristian Lascu and Rich Bodan, choosing a breathing apparatus, when Luminita comes in.

Luminita: All right if I bring Proust through?

Cristian: Not really.

Gaius: Is Arthur with him?

Luminita: Yes. They both want to go Black Sea diving.

Rich: No harm in that, is there?

Cristian: Oh, okay.

Arthur and Proust enter the diving centre, and start looking at diving equipment.

Looking to hire something? asks the diving centre manager.

It's on the house, says Rich. These guys are friends of Gaius. This one's a poet, and this one's a writer.

Ever dived before? asks the diving centre manager.

Yes, says Arthur. Once I was mistaken for Jacques Cousteau.

The diving centre manager finds this hard to believe, and says so. Isn't Jacques Cousteau at least a hundred years old?

Proust can't believe it either.

Gaius comes over.

It is true, says Gaius. We were on Kangaroo Island, studying geological formations, when Arthur was mistaken for Jacques Cousteau. Later, when the mistake was realised, I myself was mistaken for the very same person.

This is not quite how it happened, but Gaius has established Arthur's credentials.

Proust has never been diving, nor has he been mistaken for a diver, but he is of the opinion that if one reads up enough on a subject, one gains a degree of expertise at least superior to those who have not read up on that subject.

Unfortunately or otherwise, the subject that Proust has read up on is not diving, but mistaken identity.

So he finds himself at two degrees of separation....