Rice
Leslie had microscopic dreams. She spent most of her waking hours looking into microscopes. Miniscule life forms, clandestine forces that owned the world. In her dreams she lived in a rice grain. A virus was her lover.
She stopped him before intercourse. What if I got the virus, she asked. He said, that's what I'm planning on! Awake, she was tiny--four feet ten, ninety pounds. The smallest researcher on Antarctica. Discoverer of a hydra-looking alien organism. Her voice squeaked when she handed her superior the sample, said, I found this buried in the ice. The words: you're never to speak of this. The world's end passed from her hands.
She scurried back to her rice grain, waited for her lover.