"EDE" drabbles by Sarah Carellian
Hydra and seek
EDE
Up on the moor, behind the lead works he found an old horse pond. (You can tell this was a while ago, no-one has horse ponds now.) It was oozing green scum and sliminess, just perfect, this was paradise.
He hooked, he dipped, he slipped.
Later in the scum from his sodden shoe he saw her, luxuriating, stretching, sinuous arms seeking.
Bang! She was gone, just a green blob left on the pondweed.
Then, peeping out, there she was again and he snagged her.
Seventy years later I admire the slide of Hydra viridis in all of her glory
The collection
EDE
"Will you help?", she asked.
"With cataloguing the collection?" I said.
It was agreed.
I never knew that such a brief exchange would alter my life.
I started, working from pictures, transcribing the labels on the slides.
Two thousand slides, sixty year's work.
"Who?" I thought,"Who was this man, so precise, so skilled?
"How did he keep it up? So many slides, so painstakingly made?
"Why did he spend his life making these objects?"
And that was it! I was hooked.
Now I have to find out about him, know about him, write about him.
Now my time is committed.
