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The End of Life
He’d been struggling with the idea of ending it for weeks now. Life just hadn’t turned out they
way he had wanted it to. At one point, he had thought there was so much potential, that the sky
was the limit. But things had been going downhill quickly, and he wasn’t sure that it would ever
get better. That it could ever get better.
He went into his office and took out a piece of paper. On one side of the paper, he made a list of
all the things that had gone horribly wrong: Lying, stealing, cheating, religion, killing, molesting,
using, rule-breaking, poverty, greed, hatred, racism, sexism, raping, polluting, and taking. The list
could go on, but he stopped himself. What good did it do him to dwell on the atrocities? That would
help no one. On the other side of the paper, he tried to make a list of all the things that had
actually gone right. As hard as he tried to make the new list longer than the last, he could not.
It consisted of one word: Love.
Was love enough to save humanity? With all the wrong in the world, would love really be enough? Would
love stop him from doing what he knew needed to be done? Could love stop him?
He went into his backyard to sit under his favourite tree while making the final decision. Tears were streaming
down his face. He really didn’t want to have to end it all, and tried to think of all the wonderful things that
humanity had produced out of love; the acts that could save the world. He thought about music and stories.
Both were wonderful by-products of love that he would miss if he ended it all. When humans entertained
each other, it was one of the only times that he saw real love. But it didn't make up for the horror.
He made up his mind to do what needed to be done. He stood up from under the tree, took a huge breath to
gather his courage, and walked toward the house.
He entered his lab and took earth out of the solar system. As the scientist held it between his fingers,
he thought of how the life he had created had failed to meet his expectations. He had started with dinosaurs,
but had grown bored of the giants. So he wiped the slate clean and created humans. He gave them the potential
to do great things with the planet due to their intellect. Instead, they created fairy tales and inequalities.
He had let the experiment go on too long, thinking that their intelligence would outweigh their foolishness.
It had not, and the suffering was immense. He couldn’t bear to watch it anymore. Now he was left with the
decision to euthanize his pet in an attempt to put it out of its misery. He took one last look at the
life existing between his fingers, and then threw the globe against the wall of his study. As the remnants
lay shattered and dying on the floor of his lab, he turned his back on life and walked out.
Katrina Dobson
Email: Katrina Dobson
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