It all started that fine afternoon, it was so calm, I was so happy… but I was a goner! Eight page assignment! Project to complete, Oh my god! I really do have memory loss. “That’s it, I have got to get this done” I said to myself. I stayed up without dinner while my mother and my super annoying brother enjoyed my favorite dish, Lasagna. While they had a good time and went to sleep, I was browsing and studying from the Wikipedia. My head was tucked into my book, but my head was going a thousand places that it shouldn’t. Suddenly I looked up at the clock and for a second I thought I was dreaming. The dust that was floating in the air illuminated by my flash lamp seemed to form a line. They clustered and formed tiny bead like structures.

They squeaked in a deep voice, “We are the sessob, dust of the night!” they marched off into my balcony and I thought they were gesturing at me to follow. I stepped out, and if it weren’t for the railing, I would have fallen all of 20 meters to my death. In front of me where the deck of playing cards had been kept last night were filled with….with….DUST!

I stuttered, “You….you…YOU’RE ALIVE!

The biggest one, I assumed it was the leader. He stepped out and squeaked, “Hmph, you wouldn’t understand would you. You only care about us clinging to the corners of your houses. Don’t we have the right to live too?

“Huh”. I was shocked. I was bewildered. But mostly I was angry. He didn’t speak a single word wrong. Of course they had the right to live. We were wrong because we ignored them. We prodded over to my dressing cupboard with my angry dust tour guide, whom I decided to call Bob. We came to my clothing closet with Bob leading the way and stopped abruptly. Bob screamed out at the top of his lungs which came out as a squeak,

“Well what are you waiting for punk? Open away!”

“Wow, I said to myself, ten seconds after discovering a whole new species and I get trash-talked by a clod of dirt.”

“See he said, reading my mind. You arrogant humans. You guys have no respect for the things we do for you”.

“Ha, I said laughing so much that tears streamed out of my eyes. “You help me! What a joke”.

“They never believe”, Bob muttered, “they never do”. ‘Well punk”, he squeaked, I am in a good mood today, and so I’ll be lenient”. “Well, open the cupboard.”

I opened it and stared closely at my favorite pair of jeans in the dim light of the moon. I saw dust particles holding the fibers together. I looked at the rest of my clothes and every one had dust holding it together.

“And that’s not all.” Bob said, do you know who holds your books together too?”

I rushed over and sure enough I saw my text book pages being held together by more dust.

“Wow, you do all of THIS?!”

“Yep”, Bob said, and in return we are ignored.” I barely noticed my eyes closing slowly.

“The kid needs sleep.” Bob said.

But it didn’t matter. I was already half asleep. I woke up, the morning light shining in my eyes. I thought my experience was a hallucination. But it didn’t matter. For the rest of the day, there was only one question on my mind, “What else can you connect with a speck of dust.”

-Rahul Kurien, 12 years