Chapter Seventeen

Ry had fallen asleep.
It was the middle of the night as Nasia was still watching movie after movie. When he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer and closed them for the final time she took it upon herself to grab what DVDs he had on his bookshelf and put them in as he had done. Most of his movies were what was called animation and seeing the imaginations of humans fascinated her beyond anything so far.
They created false beings and weren’t too opposed to alien life it seemed. She watched the entire series of little yellow, talking gibberish creatures and a green ogre with a princess and donkey in one night. But even these movies showed emotions that humans felt. It seemed no matter what they created emotions and feelings were always apart of it.
Meaning to hit the button that ejects the disk she accidentally hits another button that changes the image on the screen. Weird boxes show up in a row each looking different then the other. Picking up what was called a controller, she hits the arrows that were on it like she seen Ry had done. Each time she did the boxes popped up making a tune sound. Wondering what would happen if she clicked on the one button he seemed to love to push she hits on the red box with a word that stated, Netflix.
The images change again on the screen with the sound of a quick drum beat. Her eyes widen when she sees more of those movie images and starts going through them. According to the rows it stated what types of movies they were. She scrolled down until one caught her attention.
Documentaries.
Understanding that the word was based on real life events she scans the row of different images. Quite a few of them was about their planet. But there was one that immediately caught her interest. A title that held the word War in it. Looking back at Ry, he was faced away from her on his bed, still on top of the bed covers, snoring softly.
Hitting play she comes closer to the screen and was fixated on it from start to finish. Putting the controller down she didn’t understand why. Why did they fight each other? The word hate and discrimination was brought up quite a bit. She didn’t like these two emotions. They sounded horrible and mean. But most of all she was confused that she was experiencing these at all. What was happening to her that she was feeling this way? Was it being here on this planet for too long, was she in this form more than she should have been? Was it causing her energy to shift more like a human?
Rubbing her forehead in frustration she looks down at the CD player he had given her. She knew what music was, she’s heard it before during her visits of the other countries she’s been too. But it was music with no words. They just played the instruments that made people dance.
But this music was a bit different. When society started to become more hectic and loud she started to distance herself from them and focused on her mission instead. But now she was amazed how quickly they had evolved in such a short amount of time. Just like in the movies, the emotion of greed seems to play a big part in humans. She found a dictionary on his desk and realized that they were words with meanings behind them. When she looked up the word greed it helped her understand what the emotion does.
Can humans not help themselves when it came to that? It seemed so. Was greed what was causing the earth to die? By building and creating to make more money, money that grew on the very trees that keeps them alive, they were killing their own home just for something that will mean absolutely nothing once they die. Some wanted the glory of going down in history.
But once the earth perishes in complete ash none of that will matter. Because there will be no one left to even remember them. They all will be completely wiped out from history altogether and their names will be forever lost in the space of time. All because of their own destruction. Because of their greed.
Putting the headphones on her ears, something that Ry had told her that they were called, she pushes the button he had shown her. Soon a soft melody plays. Intently listening to the words and wondered about the meaning behind them.
“You’re the bravest of hearts, you’re the strongest of souls, you’re the light in the dark, you’re the place I call home.”
Before Ry had fallen asleep he had given her a piece of paper with the song titles and artists who sung them.
“Some of the songs are my mom’s favorites and I figured they hold some purpose of maybe something you can understand how we see things as humans.” Was what he had told her as he yawned.
She sat there leaning against the bed, knees drawn up as she held on to the CD player, listening. The room started to get lighter causing her to look through the window where the first rays of the sun filtered through.
Getting up she looks down at him for a brief moment before leaving his house all together. Maybe she could observe others for a little while. Maybe she can walk around and watch how humans interact with each other. Families, friends, acquaintances and such. Are humans like the ones in the movies?
As she walks down the sidewalk a new song plays. A sad song. “When the day is long, and the night, the night is yours alone, when you’re sure you’ve had enough of this life, hang on. Don’t let yourself go, cause everybody cries, and everybody hurts, sometimes.”
For the next few hours she walks and looks around her. A couple fighting, children playing, people talking at cafés or restaurants, people looking lonely, some looking bored, or happy. Mothers looking exhausted with children who are rowdy, fathers looking clueless with their teenage children.
She went inside stores, malls, parks, restaurants, anywhere there were human interactions. All the while song after song played and when she came to the last one she would replay it all over again.
By the time she made it back to the redwoods she wasn’t sure on what she was feeling or thinking. But one thing she knew for sure on and that was Ry had it right. These movies and songs were making her understand. And the one thing she was beginning to question on is,
Was it really fair to exclude all humans from existence?


*Songs mentioned: ‘If that’s what it Takes’ by Celine Dion and ‘Everybody Hurts’ by R.E.M.