Umm, not the place we thought

[Read chapters 1-46 here. Only one chapter remains. A new project will follow.]

We continued up the high ridge, keeping our eyes out for drones.

I thought of the praying mantis that landed on my windowsill back in New York. It had seemed like a miniaturized drone, a super-sophisticated little thing. The kind of device my uncle was always so worried about – he assumed the Westerners had it all figured out, the best scientists. He assumed that they were just better than us in all ways. Everybody did. We all thought they must be more advanced, richer, more powerful. It was how the narrative had been set. But now, in this wilderness, where the innovations were even more basic than those in New York, I knew the praying mantis had just been a bug. Just a praying mantis. A beautiful, complex creation of God.

“Or whoever,” said Carmen.

“Well, something more complex than what we humans could put together,” I said.

“I’m not so sure these Westerners are all that brilliant,” said Carmen.

“We shall see,” I said.

I suspected she was right.

[Read chapters 1-46 here. Only four chapters remain. A new project will follow.]

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