And it seemed to them that their world had cracked. Just like when you are inside a thin shell, and up to then you thought it was the whole world. Like the sea fish swim and swoosh around in, you were not even aware that your movement was cramped. That’s all you knew from the beginning. True, when you were just a tiny embryo and the amniotic fluid felt like an enveloping vast ocean, with currents and a promise of islands you could dream of. Though you had never really felt a breeze, inside of your thin enclosure once in a while you heard noises from afar and maybe those tiny pores in the outer casing allowed a faint sensation of wind to penetrate, if you happened to be placed at the right angle to catch a whiff of it.
So from inside whatever outer layer you were wrapped in, you could occasionally get a fleeting glimmer of a larger world out there, yet you sensed it wasn’t meant for you
So, as I was saying, they began to get an inkling that their world was on the verge of cracking. It started with people getting sick. You know, in one corner of the world, it wasn’t just the seasonal flu with the usual departure of old people in the thousands, so one day a doctor, a well-meaning, naïve sort, sounded the alarm. The people up in the what they call ‘the chain of command’ did not like that, and started scolding him for causing unwarranted alarm…