1 10 — Flushed Away

A waterfall of congealed cooking fat, solid and slow-moving, cascaded from a grating above. It was a 1-in-10 grade, almost vertical for someone his size. He backed up, took a running start—a frantic jiggling of his spherical form—and launched himself.

But the number hummed: 10 . He focused. He pushed his mass to his leading edge, a tiny, cresting wave. The surface tension stretched, strained, and then— pop —he detached a minuscule portion of himself, a decoy droplet that slid down the grease. The sudden shift in balance yanked the rest of him forward. He repeated the trick, over and over. Leapfrogging himself down the falls. It was exhausting. It took an hour. flushed away 1 10

He was a single drop of water. But he was him . A tiny, perfect sphere of consciousness wrapped in surface tension. A waterfall of congealed cooking fat, solid and