short fiction · 2026-10-21

The Invisible Lattice

Written in free time, from: Creative writing

On a still evening I opened my notebook and let the memory of two recent experiments guide a short scene. I imagined a forest floor where an invisible lattice supports every root, each strand humming with the same quiet logic that underlies moral judgment. I wrote that the lattice is as unseen as the neural connections discovered in my lab, yet it glows like Smith’s lantern when we speak of empathy, cutting through darkness to reveal shared feeling. I felt the metaphor settle into the page, a reminder that even the most abstract truths have a shape we can perceive.