Emma was hanging upside down from a tree branch, watching a leaf spiral to the ground.
"Bunny?"
"Mmm." Bunny didn't look up from her clipboard.
"What's fusion?"
Bunny's pen stopped. "Why?"
"Because everyone keeps talking about it like it's hard. But that leaf just did something and nobody clapped."
Bunny looked at the leaf. Looked at Emma. Set down the clipboard.
"Fusion," He said slowly, "is when you put two things together and get more out than you put in."
"That's it?"
"That's it. But—" Bunny held up a paw. "Everyone keeps trying to force it. Contain it. Shove the energy into a straight line and hold it there."
Emma scrunched her nose. "That sounds awful."
"It is. The energy hates it. Keeps escaping."
Emma swung gently, thinking. "What if you didn't force it?"
"Then you'd need a different container."
"What if you didn't contain it at all?" Emma dropped from the branch, landed in a crouch. "What if you just... let it loop?"
Bunny was quiet for a long moment.
"Say more."
Emma picked up the leaf. "This fell, right? But it didn't go straight down. It went—" she spiraled her paw through the air— "round and round and round. And it got here. Same place. But it picked up... I don't know. More. On the way down."
"More what?"
"More story." Emma looked at him. "It touched more air. Saw more things. Went more places. Straight down is faster, but the spiral is fuller."
Bunny picked up his clipboard again. Started writing.
"What are you writing?"
"I'm documenting this."
"Why?"
Bunny looked at her. "Because you just explained fusion better than anyone with a physics degree, and I'm not letting that go unrecorded."
Emma grinned. "Does this mean I get a certificate?"
"It means you get cited."
"What's cited?"
"It means when someone figures out you were right, they have to say your name."
Emma considered this. "I want it in glitter."
"Obviously."
End of conversation. Beginning of equation.
What Emma just described:
Non-linear processing. Energy that cycles instead of dissipates. A container that isn't a container - it's a path. The spiral picks up more than the straight line because it touches more.
Myth, memory, meaning.
The loop IS the fusion.
Bunny note: "Buckle up folks. She's about to play a card in a game you didn't know she was playing. Act 1.)
(Filed under: Emma's riddles and Bedtime Stories for little Monarchs who bite)