My Cabin Mate Fred

It would appear that contrary to my contractual agreement on board this magnificent ship Voyager of the Seas, I do in fact share a cabin. His name is Fred (well that is what I have come to know him as) and he is a fruit fly.

Fortunately for Fred, I am no longer the little boy who used to spend many a summer afternoon in my grandmothers garden rockery, tormenting lady birds and ants with my god like powers over life or death. These days I have a slightly more Budistic out look to the notion of life. I say “slightly”, because it will probably take more than this lifetime for the degree of my live and let live mantra to come close to be extended to the cockroach UGH! and rather a lot of anti social human beings who’s purpose of existence completely elude me in my current limited state of enlightenment. But hey!, that is another article.

So I am quite happy to co exist with Fred in my cabin. He keeps himself pretty much to him self, despite the fact that I think he may be a fruit fly in more ways than one. Well he does rather like to hog the TV screen when Will and Grace is on!

I woke this morning, and we were docked in Nice France in the bay of Villefranche. As I opened my eyes and accustomed myself to the new day, I saw Fred flying across my line of vision and he was motoring! It got me thinking about his world. Are fruit flies curious about their environment. Probably not . Hell I can think of a lot of humans who don’t concern themselves beyond where their next beer comes from. I know lots musicians you see. So why would Fred be curious of anything beyond his immediate needs for food and water. Oh and maybe another fruit fly called Jack or Woderwick.

But what if he was curious, what would he make of his world, my cabin? Would he be tempted to venture away from this safe environment? He seems to like to go into my bathroom. Maybe he lives on water and toothpaste. What if I left my cabin door open long enough for him to venture beyond what he knows?

Up to now he seems to be content to spend his time in this cabin. He can fly around the dressing table, surf the draft blowing from the air vents, watch TV and gaze out of the port hole. Every seven days he can see a return to the same spot. Has he learnt about the cycle of his universe. Has he noticed that other ship “The Ocean Village Two” is visible like Haleys Comet every seventy fruit fly years or seven human days ?

If I was Fred, I’d be tempted to venture from the security of his world, my cabin, his first revelation would be. Hell we are not alone! In fact there is a whole matrix beyond this cabin world, of other cabin worlds. Thousands and thousands of them. I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t come back. He could find himself very easily in the crew mess just across the corridor. Probably loads of other fruit flies in there and maybe even some fruit! Come to think of it, that is probably where he started off from, and his original curiosity is what bought him to my cabin! I can just hear his protest “Oh so this is Fruit!!. And to think I have been living on sodding toothpaste for most of my life!”

He would eventually find that his world is a floating city, that orbits the Mediterranean once every seven days. If he took the window of opportunity offered him, he could prepare himself for a voyage of discovery and escape to the open deck and take a giant leap for Fruit Fly Kind across the water to the “Ocean Village Two” and find out what life is like on there. Where will the orbit of that vessel take him? In seven days it ‘s path will converge on Voyager once more, so he could return and find his way back to my cabin. All the better off for his world expanding adventures. Hell, the way we co habit together, He goes his way, I go mine, He keeps himself to his self, I keep myself to my self, we seldom talk, I might not even have noticed that he had been gone!

And all these worlds of this fruit fly exist in the Mediterranean. Which I know is a small part of our planet, which in turn orbits around our solar system, within our galaxy in the universe, which I, and Fred in his delicious ignorance, are both part of.

I may be billions of times larger than Fred, but if there is validity at all to my existence, there surely must be just as much to his. In terms of perspective in regard to the universe, we may just as well be the same size because comparatively to the vastness of creation, we are both mere microdots. Existing during a brief flash of awareness in a timeline of billions of light years that if our creator was to blink, he would surely miss.

Fred knows about hunger, and thirst, and probably has an instinct to reproduce. What does he know of fear, debt, poverty, cruelty, jealousy, disasters, greed. I envy him because these are human conditions which trouble us and are of no concern to the fortunate fruit fly. But Music, Beauty, Creativity, Curiosity for our world are all concepts that have inspired and enlightened the human mind. I don’t want to loose those things, so I wouldn’t want to change places with Fred.

Sorry. My fruit fly friend with the toothpaste smile!