The Other Things.

Axel poked the pads of my fingers. “Do you know why you startle at things that jump out at you?” He traced the knuckle on my middle finger. Without skipping a beat, he continued with his thought. “Our ancestors, when they lived in the open, they had to survive somehow. So they developed instincts, like flinching from things that popped out at them.

“Now, I see people glued to their cell phones. I think they’ve forgotten where they came from. Do they remember the perils of being human, before being human meant being a vegetable?

“I worry sometimes, you know?”