Simon Had Just Found Out, Definitively
atoms infinitely smaller than our atoms- he would never have wings
- Thrilled?
- the splendor of his funeral clothes
- a foot-soldier in the ranks of science
Simon had just found out, definitively, that he would never have wings. How was that supposed to make him feel? Thrilled? It made him feel like a visitor from a universe with atoms infinitely smaller than our atoms, like a foot-soldier in the ranks of science battling squadrons of superstitious scoffers. It made him doubt the splendor of his funeral clothes.
Had Simon known from the start that he was a millipede and not a caterpillar, he would have been spared the whole turmoil.