Rust

This image is the goal of my avocado-tree-in-Jesus-planter experiment. I do not have a glass jar, wooden dowels or a sprout. I have a crack in the top of my avocado pit that occasionally leaks a mysterious red, highly viscous substance.

I believe that this is rust. I came to the conclusion when a thin film began forming over the water below the pit. I thought of the ducks that are saved with dish soap when there is an oil spill. I am fairly certain that if I wash the pit in dish soap, it will not be saved.

In less than a day, the film covering the water's surface settled around the mug in an orange ring, an Avocado Saturn in the universe of my kitchen. So far, the cosmos have not treated creatures well in this kitchen, as the dead spiders on the sill and four dead fish so far this year could tell you.

As I stared at the orange ring, I couldn't help but notice that this film had spread to the aluminum foil as well. The coil I had made was speckled with orange sunbursts that were spreading their rays to the water's surface.

Aluminum foil rusts. I have killed the avocado tree before it began. How toxic does aluminum foil make water? How did it begin to rust in less than a day? Luckily, I have three more pits to dig out with my spoon and begin again.