Reading Nook

What unites us

Created on Midjourney

Yglennis enjoyed visiting with her human friend on Mars. They especially enjoyed sitting in her reading nook, looking out on the secondary dome their government had installed for non-human species. Yet they couldn’t help but wish that they could take off their breathing apparatus to enjoy the full experience.

The precise mix of gases breathed by humans—primarily nitrogen and oxygen—would kill Yglennis, making that experience an impossibility. Still, they could simulate it in their holo-theater within their own home on Xima Four. They felt they’d done a creditable job of recreating the nook, complete with scattered books and the famous view. It felt real—perhaps too real.

Each time Yglennis entered the nook, they donned their breathing apparatus, terrified, for some reason, that it would somehow contain the noxious air that humans breathed. No matter how hard they tried to convince themselves that they had checked and rechecked the atmosphere, fear gripped them every time they tried to remove the mask.

Today, determined to overcome their fear, they had entered the holo-theater, once again filled with resolve. They connected their farspeaker with that of their friend, Marilyn, and together, yet light years apart, they sat on identical couches, looking out at identical landscapes.

“Are you ready Yglennis?”

“No.”

Marilyn laughed, which made Yglennis gurgle, their species equivalent. “I didn’t think so, but I’m with you today. You’re never going to enjoy your nook unless you take that mask off!”

Something fluttered in Yglennis’s third stomach. Marilyn called that feeling butterflies after some kind of Earth insect. “All right,” they said.

Fighting down the urge to vomit the contents of all their stomachs, Yglennis raised their hand to their breathing apparatus. Marilyn began to count backward.

“Three…”

Yglennis steeled themselves.

“Two…”

No backing out now. Not in front of Marilyn.

“One!”

Yglennis ripped the mask off and breathed in delicious hydrogen. They collapsed in relief, moving only when Marilyn’s voice prodded them.

“Aren’t you going to make some tea? You said you wanted the full experience.”

Yglennis gurgled. “Yes, I did, didn’t I?” Bidding their friend goodbye, they retreated to their preparation cubicle to make a version of “tea” that Marilyn would find as poisonous as Yglennis found her friend’s air.

Maybe someday Yglennis and her human soulmate would overcome the differences that separated them, but it wouldn’t matter if they didn’t. They were forever bonded by their love of reading.

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It took me a while to decide on what to do with my Martian reading nook. I decided the proportions on the being in the picture were wrong for a human and that the mask didn’t make sense in a dome for human habitation. So I decided to write about someone from another world with a different breathable atmosphere.

Yglennis, though very different from us, is not so different after all. She loves a good book, a comfy space, and a cup of tea. If we could just look past our differences, I think we humans would find that we share so many commonalities that could unite us as a species. May we all look for our similarities and try to learn from our differences!