Subjective Morality

Archive for August, 2009

I was in a McDonald’s, and somehow worked up the nerve to ask for a job. The manager seemed only too happy to oblige, and told me to get behind the counter. Behind the counter is where I saw Sarah Tanner again. She looked horrible. There was this big, green hole on her right cheek; it looked like the skin had been eaten away. I hadn’t seen her in several years, so you can imagine my surprise. She was a weepy girl, often crying during her shifts. The manager usually comforted her.

I handled my duties like any novice McDonald’s employee; I made mistakes, accidentally gave some people the wrong drinks. One of my successes was when a guy asked for a straw and I brought a package that—due to a manufacturing error—had three straws in it, and this pleased the woman next to him who had also asked for a straw.

Ed from Ed, Edd, and Eddy was there, talking in his pubic voice about jawbreakers and scams and all that stuff. I used to love that show when I was a kid. Shame Cartoon Network canceled it.

Sarah and I once sat down at a table on our break where we caught up on the going-ons since last we saw each other. She talked about being a cheerleader and her brother and her boyfriend. Then I dared to inquire about her face. Seeing the look she gave, I immediately rescinded my question, but she answered it anyway. She had a disease that ate her skin from the inside-out.

That’s when I woke up.

The tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta) is a caterpillar commonly encountered in gardens throughout the United States and northwestern Mexico, but is less frequently found in the Great Plains and southeastern regions. They are considered a garden pest, eating large quantities of food in short periods of time, hence the name Manduca, which is Latin for “glutton” (though other species of hornworm do insignificant damage to plants). They can grow up to 70 millimeters in length and have white stripes on their sides. They also have horns on their rears that look like weapons, but are actually harmless and may serve the purpose of confusing would-be predators into thinking the back-end is the front, therefore making it less likely that the predator would attack the hornworm’s head. It commonly eats plants from the Solonaceae family, such as tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, peppers and eggplants. They can be difficult to see because their green coloration helps them blend into the surrounding foliage. They are closely related to (and closely resemble) the tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata). They can be distinguished either by the markings on their sides or the color of their horns. Tobacco hornworms have seven diagonal lines while tomato hornworms have eight V-shaped markings, and tobacco hornworms have red horns while tomato hornworms have black ones. Tobacco hornworms also have mechanisms for sequestering and secreting nicotine, a neurotoxin found in tobacco which is toxic to most insects.

Larval development usually lasts about 20 days, and then the larvae burrow into the soil to a depth of about 10-to-15 centimeters and develop into a pupal cell. The pupa is around 45-to-60 millimeters in length and has a large “snout” on its head-end, which is more pronounced in the tomato hornworm than the tobacco. The pupa is brown in color and times vary on how long the pupal stage is.

The adult form of the tobacco hornworm is commonly known as the Carolina Sphinx moth. They feed on the nectar of flowers and have the ability to hover, earning them the nickname of the “hummingbird moth”. They usually fly at dusk and are rarely observed by humans.

The eggs of the tobacco hornworm are spherical or elliptical in shape and have diameters of about 1.5 millimeters. Their colors vary from light green to white. The adult usually deposits the eggs on the lower surfaces of foliage, but they’ve also been found on upper surfaces. The eggs will hatch in two-to-eight days, but the average is five. From then on, the tobacco hornworm usually goes through five instars (periods between molts) before sexual maturity. First-instar larvae have long horns that stick straight up. As it progresses through instars, the horn gets smaller and curves forward.

The tobacco hornworm’s main predator is the parasitoid wasp, Cortesia congregata, which lays eggs inside the hornworm while injecting symbiotic viruses that turn off the hornworm’s internal defenses, making it a living incubator. The parasitic eggs hatch within two-to-three days and then the larvae will undergo two molts inside the host. After 12-to-16 days, the larvae will emerge out of the hornworm, killing it, and spin cocoons on the bloodless carcass from which the adult wasps will eventually hatch.

When I was younger and actually had fun, I had the misfortune of being a little stupid. My father was helping my neighbor replace his fence and one of the old fence-posts was still on the ground. I liked to pretend I was a samurai warrior back then and I swung brooms around my head and pretended I was killing people. One day, I was feeling particularly energetic and jumped up and down on top of this fence post while swinging said broom over my head. On the third or fourth jump, I felt this excruciating pain In my foot.

Yes, I had jumped right on a protruding nail and it had went right through my foot. It didn’t hurt much after the initial shock. Just this dull pain down there. My naïve child instincts told me to go inside and put a Band-Aid on it, and Band-Aid it I did. I didn’t want my parents to know what I’d done and I really needed to rest, but unfortunately they wanted to go to CompUSA, so they dragged me along, limping. I tried to hide my limp but it hurt too much to walk without it. My eagle-eyed mother of course noticed and asked me about it, at which point I decided it was time to tell them. They gave me this spiel about not being stupid and all. They took me to the doctor the next day and I was fine afterward.

He stopped short when he saw what I was wearing.

Although it was a little broad in the shoulders, my father’s old costume fit nearly perfectly.

‘Where are you going?’ A stupefied grin appeared on the officer’s face.

I put the car in first.

“I’m going to save the world.”

Then I floored it.