Adventures in Aipotu -- Episode 2The Woman on the MoonDamini walked towards the swaying palms that grew like gatekeepers of the beach. The palm trees formed a rim along the coast. Soon they gave way to high grass. The grass was, in fact taller than her and swayed in the breeze. She could hardly see anything else except for the clear blue sky above. Damini wondered whether this was like the wild grasslands of Africa that she had read about. Were there lions and tigers lurking among the grasses waiting for an unsuspecting prey? That was a frightening thought so she decided to stop thinking. Something flitted by her. She looked up to see a butter fly. Or was it a butterfly that flu? No, wait, she was getting it all wrong. She could not be bothered with the constraints of language. She decided to enjoy the creature flutter around.
The butter-fly looked down at her and said ``Hello there.''
When the world was young and green ``Wow, that was profound,'' Damini exclaimed. ``Yes,'' replied the butter-crooner. But I need to cool down or I shall melt. So she fluttered her wings and flew away. Damini watched the butter-fly. ``That certainly was an interesting song,'' Damini thought. Seemed strange that everyone on Earth thought there was a Man on the Moon when actually it is a princess. Clearly folks on Aipotu would know better being closer to the moon. No wonder that no one on Earth knew of this song. She would try and remember the song and tell every one on Earth about it. All these thoughts pranced through her head as she walked along. Abruptly, she stopped in half stride. There was some noise from far away. Quietly she listened. The wind carried some voices to her. She began to walk towards these voices. She could hardly see a yard ahead of her - so dense was this wall of grass - and yet she walked on. Soon she could voices chanting. But she could not yet understand what they were saying. Suddenly she felt herself sliding down a smooth surface. The grass fields ended quite abruptly. A yellow glare of sunshine blinded her for a second. As she squinted, she realized that she was sliding down along the surface of what looked like an immense bowl - like a large stadium. Sliding down, she saw that there were people at the base of this strange bowl gathered around some very large structure. She had picked up quite some speed along her slide and reaching the base she crashed into a man who was standing next to an easel. ``Waaaatch AAOuuut,'' she yelled but the man was focused on his painting and hardly moved. She crashed between the legs of the man. The man and the easel fell on top of her in a heap. The man quickly picked up the easel, set it up again and began to draw, frowning at Damini. Damini got up, straightened her shirt and dusted off her pants. She was not hurt at all. Of course, this was a smooth surface with no dust so there was nothing to dust off - but Damini dusted herself more out of habit than because there was dust to be dusted.
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