August 3, 2005
Bad Ficton (2)
A white furball zooms across the blank of space in her spherical shell. The craft's casing is made of a heat-resistant plastic her people created many aeons before the Earth people evolved.
Her confident, blue eyes peer through the translucent shield as she expertly maneuvers. She plunges through the stratosphere. Crashes at 2 million miles per hour into a speck of the Pacific Ocean.
Not a problem for Furball 202.
Impact velocities don't hurt the Furball Populations. Which is why they could survive the sequences of asteroid belts that pelted their planets. Generations later the memories of those days are mere traces of myth. Now, namelessly and singularly, furballs leave their home galaxy to find less turbulent places of shelter.
Furball 202 is one of their expert explorers, those who choose to lose themselves on tangents and follow rays of otherworldly suns. The most curious ones. Built so as not to age. Heat won't ruffle them, and crashes don't faze.
She scoots to the edge of an archipelago the Earth natives call Japan. Rolls ashore. Shakes salty water free. Moves inland, sleekly.
“こんにちは," the natives say. (Konnichiwa). Must be a greeting of some sort, she surmises.
"私、宇宙からきました" (I’m from space), she replies.
"ふーん" [Expressing vague interest]. "あ、そうですか。"(Oh, really?)
"おなかへってるでしょうか。" (You must be hungry.) "お寿司いかがですか。納豆はだめかしら。じゃ、ざるそばかなんか。" (How about sushi. Do you like Japanese dish, natto? What about special cold noodles?)
“わたし、たべません。” (I don't eat).
“ふーーん.” [More curiosity.] Then the natives eye each other. Move closer. Form a circle to surround Furball 202. Unaware she knows jujitsu (柔術).
Posted by Dipika at August 3, 2005 10:17 PM
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