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Patience, Grace and Determination or: How I Conquered Your Planet
Her name was Patience. Her sister was Grace. Their Father’s was Determination. They smelt of hard work and Jesus Christ. The old religions. The ones that envied monotonous donkeywork. They slept on stiff beds. They thought this made them pure, but it made them stupid and weak. We were the snakes at the door. Our name was Progress.
We banged on the door but they pretended not to hear. Every day we knocked louder and louder for longer and longer but still, they wouldn’t open it and let us in. We could hear them inside scurrying about, working and praying. At first, we laughed at their old ways but soon we grew tired. Their scurrying. Their praying. Their waste of our time. Every minute spent on their planet was one we were not spending on our own. Once we got tired of knocking, we set fire to their door. This was progress.
We dragged them out. We pushed them down on their knees. We grabbed their heads and forced them to watch their home burn. We told them we would burn them all the same way. Grace was the first to die. Seeing the house burn was too much for her. She fell to the hard ground and twisted her body in agony when she saw her new future. Our future. She screamed, wept and messed herself. Her stench. I can still smell it. Patience muttered to herself as she watched. Determination looked away, his…
