In the kitchen, she poured herself some coffee and grabbed the package of cookies. On the TV, images of war were playing. Whether near or far, they all look the same. Each time the scenario is the same. Some accused others, looking for reasons to justify the unjustifiable. She changes the channel where it is explained that other planets would shelter life.
She took a sip of coffee while pressing the remote control to stop the flow of images. She thought, not without a certain cynicism, that mankind is looking for life at the ends of the universe without managing to preserve it on Earth.
And if they had failed? It was difficult to say after all. Perhaps humanity would last, but for how long? Humans were on the edge of moving on, either to a higher stage or to self-destruction.
She looked at the cookie carefully. There was so much culinary genius behind that little cake. She knew the history and the evolutionary theories. She had studied them, taught them. She had visited the caverns where they had engraved and drawn. Art had appeared from the beginning, with the beliefs. Could art save humanity?
The espresso machine was docile and benevolent. It made a little noise, but an excellent coffee. It was already her third one this morning and the report she had to give was not progressing. Would there be a nuclear war? Would it be the end of the human race? She believed in human beings, but she had to admit that disappointment was prevailing lately. A new feeling invaded her, weariness. It was probably time to retire.
Her study, a kind of history of humanity, she had started a long time ago. Regularly she put her project on hold, took breaks. Each time she resumed it, she discovered with amazement, sometimes with horror, how they had evolved. The size of their brain had evolved faster than their level of consciousness. After millennia of progress, it would soon be a century before they reached a sort of plateau before starting to regress. It would only take a few hours for them to disappear completely under the fire of nuclear bombs or a few centuries to make the planet unlivable. It was only a matter of time, unless they reached a higher stage. Some humans had reached that stage, but only a large-scale collective change could save them.
She opened the door to the garden. It was time to get some fresh air, to bounce around. She wondered if it would be better to work on other projects, with the plant world and insects. She squinted her eyes and put a finger to her mouth. She did this during her phases of intense concentration. "How could I have been so naive to imagine that this would never happen again?" she thought. Perhaps it was because of this blinding and recurring obsession with denying their true nature and hiding it from their consciousness. In doing so, she was only being reborn with more and more strength. A child throwing a tantrum is controllable, but humanity had become a brutal and uncontrollable teenager.
She looked up at the clouds. "Who could stop it, reason with it?". She felt powerless. She felt trapped. How could she ignore the horror and at the same time pretend that nothing was happening? It was a balancing act, untenable.
The neighbor, a charming old lady, greeted her. She answered with a wave of her hand and then headed for the small back door. She wanted to escape from her fellow human beings. Perhaps only the untamed nature could soothe her. She suddenly felt light and free on the narrow, unkempt road that sloped gently down to the forest. The town houses gave way to pavilions and then to more isolated houses. After a farm, the road became a path and went under the canopy of trees. She did not turn back to the city. She stared into the undergrowth and stretched out her arms. She walked through the ferns, caressing them with her fingertips. She followed the wind, touched the bark of the trees. Only the insects were witnesses to her passage. She would have wanted to change her shape, her name, everything. Her body would lengthen, become long and slender, she would be able to glide between the trees, curl up in the branches. She would be so light she could hop on the canopy. And she would evaporate, every molecule of her body would settle on the trees. Her consciousness would melt into that of nature. It would be a one-way trip, to forget men and their madness, to reach a world without borders.
