gistfile1.txt

"Momma, a story!" Libby pleaded in a room full of grumbling children, in various stages of preparing for bed. Libby was the youngest, the last and most demanding holdout for bedtime stories.

Her mother was a strong and fierce woman capable of most, but felt herself weaken at the sight of her child's pleading eyes. 

"Please! Just one!" 

The mother sighed. Her duties could wait. "Just one, Child."

A murmur broke out amongst the children, most privately delighted at Libby's obnoxiousness. 

"Let me tell you a story about the beginning of things..."

"Ugh." Her oldest, Fort, tumbled in their bed. "I've heard this one *so* many times, mom..." 

Mother took a beat. "But Libby hasn't, dear." Fort murmured and turned over in their bed, pretending not to listen. 

"Let me tell you a story of the beginning of things. 

First, there was nothing. And then, there was something. What once was perfection was now defined by its disparity: there was all that was perfect, and all that was not. Perfection, sensing the change, defined itself in opposition to its imperfection, and named itself, 'One'. 

'One' Set itself to investigating the strange invader, breaking off a piece to investigate further. This piece, "Two", spent all its time focusing on the imperfection, only eventually noticing that *it, too*, was different than One. Soon, One and Two each sent Envoys to investigate the other, each gaining sentience and specificity until Perfection had cooled, broken into beings of primal importance. 

There was a prime of Warmth, a prime of Cold. A prime of Light, a Prime of Dark. The largest segment of the being known as One was now known as Order, and the smallest of the Primes - the prime that came from the coalesced Imperfection - was a woman known as Chaos. 

Soon, the prime known as Order announced that they were with child, producing a cosmic egg on the dias. The Primes all came to offer gifts to the new child - Warmth offered fire and blankets, Cold offered persistence and grit. Light offered stars and growth, while Dark offered shade and contemplation. Order gave the child its form. 

The primes, however, did not trust chaos, remembering from whence she came. They debated on what gift they would allow from this daughter of imperfection. Chaos politely waited for them to decide, eyes hidden behind her lattice mask. 

When the primes deliberation ended, they decided: She could only offer the gift of words to the new child. To chaos, this was sufficient. 

Chaos approached the egg and leaned next to it. None of the primes could hear her gift, as it was whispered so softly into its side. I wonder what she said to it as it grew, children? What would you say?"


Her children were almost all asleep. Libby, through heavy lids, offered a suggestion. 

"I'd tell it to grow big and strong, Mom." 

Smiling, her mother leaned over and whispered in her child's ear. 

Mother nestled into bed with her daughter. "I think that's what she said, too. Do you want me to stop so you can sleep?"

"no, keep going." Libby's voice came muffled through sheets. 

"Okay, dear.

No one knows what chaos said to the child as it slept in its egg. In time, the child would hatch, emerging from the broken shell as a glimmering ball of light. 

"World!" Order spoke, and the primes came to know this knew child, World. 

However, chaos's gift had not yet been realized. For moments later, another ball of stars floated up from the once-empty shell. After that, another, and another, each unique and sparkling in its own right, one for each moment that Chaos had been made to wait while the primes deliberated on her allowed gift. Soon, the prime-space was chock full of these new world-children. Having no choice, the primes flung them into the sky, with new worlds spawning from the egg-shell joining them in the sky.

And that's where we leave the story, libby. All of us, here, grandchildren of the forces of perfection. We're just little specs dangling in balls of light. Born to order, but gestated in chaos. That's all stories    are, lib by. just..."


Heavy lids closed among a calm summer night.