Space, the final curtain

Little Tiaali Willems, having finished her book, laid it down atop the bedside table. It had been a wonderful read for she adored stories about space travel. She often wondered if one day it would become reality and that journeying into space to visit other worlds would not only be possible but would also be an everyday experience.

She wondered what the people would be like on these other worlds. Maybe they were like the one eyed green monsters with terrible claws as they were depicted in her book : “Children of the Quest” or maybe they were more like her, normal.

She switched off the bedside light and was just about to snuggle down in her cosy bed when her attention was caught by the yellowy moon as it hove into view through her half curtained window. Being at its fullest it was very bright and cast beams throughout the bedroom and danced off any shiny bright objects that it reached.

“At least we've been there,” she thought to herself, “though it's just a bare, dusty and windswept rock, at least astronauts have landed on that. It's a start.”

She remembered her brother Sim saying that there were billions of other stars out there in the galaxy and even more billions of galaxies out there in the universe so there MUST be other planets with other intelligent life existing there. Tam, her other brother, had thought so too, and you had to believe Tam 'cos he was the eldest and he knew everything.

Deep in thought, she watched as the moon continued in its arc heading towards the skyline where soon it would drop down and disappear below the horizon. Although she was only a fifth year student, she had picked up quite an education in astronomy. In regard to the movement of the planets the moons and the sun in particular, she was very adept. With her eyes fixed on the moon she caught a fleeting glimpse of a meteor as it burned brightly through the dense atmosphere of her world.

Still contemplating the possibility of life being far out there in space, she watched as the moon finally dipped below the horizon and shortly after that the room became enveloped in complete blackness. A shiver coursed through her young body.

Although by now quite tired, Tiaali decided to wait awhile until the second moon of her planet arose in the east to cast its beautiful rainbow colored glow on her world. She watched enthralled for some minutes as this new miriad light spectra danced around her bedroom before - taking off her triple lens glasses from the bridges of her two noses and snuggling down in her five metre bed - she tried to sleep.

Copyright 2008: Anthony W. Allsop

Parallel Universe?

Parallel Universe?

I keep having this nightmare where I appear to have been side-shifted into a parallel universe, where everything is the opposite way round to how it should lie.

To a universe where immigrants set the standards which we, the native peoples, have to abide by.

Where the good guy is arrested for merely speaking harshly to the bad guy.

Where the police are powerless to act against the criminal in case they infringe upon their human rights, they sigh.

Where those locked up for their sins demand freedom to indulge in drugs, pornography and Hi-Fi.

Where a "life" sentence can mean just a few months inside.

Where child murderers and paedophiles aren't allowed to commit suicide in jail, even though this preventive measure is against the will of all decent thinking citizens and is deemed by the lags themselves as a blatant infringement of their human rights.

Where bonfire celebrations last for thirty nights.

Where one doesn't feel safe walking through a public space after lights.

Where the government feels the need to increase the price of alcohol, in order to curb binge drinking, and then relaxes the import duty on such goods purchased on web sites.

Where the working man is taxed to the hilt and then taxed/fined at every SAT NAV'D twist and turn of our pot-holed gridlocked highways.

And finally (unless some of my nightmare escapes me), it's a parallel universe where our armed forces are fighting in far off fields in order to impose our much valued domocratic will on the willing enemies of democracies.