La Voz de Galicia – June 24, 2022 →
Again the fly appears when you least need it (because flies are necessary). At four o’clock in the morning, at that time when I always wake up to go to the bathroom, sounds that «buzzzzzzz» of the little fly around my face. It goes in my mouth, and the damned fly then goes out of it as if nothing has happened. I don’t want to awaken Xan, and I can’t kill flies, so I cover my face with the bedsheet. But the buzzing has already gotten into my head, and to forget it, I begin to think about other things; and I set myself off in such a way that I am aware sleep will not return any more tonight.
And now she is here, quite calm, resting on the computer screen as if it belonged to her. I shoo her with my hand, but she returns so, astounded, I stare at her and remember that article about Erica McAlister, the curator of dipterous at the Museum of Natural History in London, and I go in search of it. The New York Times says that «for every person there are seventeen million flies,» and it also affirms that without flies chocolate would not exist. Another reason not to kill it, I thought, I will try to get her out through the window. But no. There she stays.
That same article mentions that the population of common flies «could increase 244% by 2080» due to climate change. And then I thought about the idea of how to share this particular ecosystem (the fly’s, the computer’s, and mine). I returned to the article about McAlister, and I was fascinated not by flies, but by her passion about them. I opened the window again, and finally now, it left, and I got to end the day without getting rid of a living being simply for occupying that space I consider to be mine, but that in fact belongs to all. Because climate change is also due to that fixation to possess all that surrounds us…
