The brief was to write a paragraph around the idea of I don't know why you bother. This was all I had time to write, in ten minutes.
"I don't know why you bother," Em said, touching the injured bird's wing with one finger.
"Don't do that," Jay said absently, as she tore a piece of surgical tape off a roll, and gently wrapped it around the bird's body, to hold its wing in place.
"For heaven's sake, its not as if it can think or feel, so why bother?"
Jay looked up. She almost smiled at Em's face, so indignant. So much feeling. over something Em thought of as worthless.
"Even wild birds don't want to die or be in pain," Jay said. "Humans don't have a monopoly on emotions and caring, you know."
"Don't talk rot!" Em snapped. This was verging on the deeper things of life, and she was not comfortable at all.