EXTINCTION

ME:  Here’s your newspaper Grammy.  Although I don’t see why you can’t get your news on the internet and save a tree or two.

GRAMMY:  Ha!  Look who’s talking, Miss Buried-in-Books.  If you want to save a damn tree, get yourself one of those book-reader thingies.

ME:  No.  I thought about it, but it would just be too weird not having books in the house.  It’s even kind of scary.

GRAMMY:  Scary?

ME:  It’s like we’re facing the extinction of the written word.  When it all goes digital, nothing will be permanent.  Read it today, change or delete it tomorrow.  And if anything ever happens - POOF! - all that information is gone.

GRAMMY:  You know, that would make one hell of a good story.

ME:  Ooh, you’re right, Grammy!  A dystopian novel.  And I could write it!

GRAMMY:  Yeah.  On the computer causing the problem.  And when it’s finished, you can kill a tree to make a book.  It can be one of those self-fulfilling prophecy things.

ME:  Oh, wow, Grammy.  You're so right!  I could be like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells!

GRAMMY:  No.  They would have gotten the sarcasm when they heard it.

Artwork:  Red Tree Factory