Flash! Fiction by Peter McMillan - HTML preview
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27
Penguins behind the glass.
Are they all alive? Some aren't even moving.
I think they’re all alive. Some may be sleeping. I hear they can sleep standing up.
What do they do all day, when they aren’t sleeping, I mean?
Just wobble around, jump in the water—they’re good swimmers—
squawk and flap and swallow fish whole. Not a bad life. Everything they need is here.
What do you think they think about?
Probably nothing much—food, play, maybe sex, if it’s mating season.
Do they mind being watched?
No, they’re simple. They don’t have our sense of individual space and privacy.
I’d get so bored. Don't they get bored?
Wouldn’t think so. They aren’t as complex as we are. Their needs are very basic. If they were like us, this might seem like a prison, but they’re not capable of feeling and thinking the kinds of things you worry about.
Have they ever been anywhere else? Is this the only world they know?