Buffy and Skip, the queen and king of Olo, held a celebration to commemorate the creation of their planet.
When I speak of the creation of Olo, I am not referring to the destruction caused by the exodus of the whales, and the subsequent renewal of the planet. These events were also memorialized, of course.
Olo had its origins in a faraway galaxy. Its seed germinated and grew in the fertile soil of the creative minds of two earthlings, who longed for another world.
A place like Olo can not be made out of nothing.
The mystery remains, how a world can grow from a seed the size of a human cell. Infused with electric pulses, that cell makes connections and grows into… anything.
The inhabitants of Olo pieced gemstones together on the plane below the castle. They allowed the crystals to dictate how they fit together to form a model of a summer camp with its cabins, chapel and dining hall. An amethyst walkway led down to a patch of cobalt, as flat and smooth as a lake.
The royal couple arrived on whaleback. They slid down the pectoral flipper, and landed, feet firmly planted next to the replica of the canteen building near the beach, and they were flooded with a feeling of déjà vu. They had in themselves, a vestige of their earthly counterparts which responded to the phantom camp and lake, the place of Olo’s birth.
Flash turned the pages of the Ololian book as he read this account, holding the book up to show the pictures to Poikani. A piece of Flash also lived on in that place, through his daughter and his grandson.
When the speeches began, Flash said he wished he could hear them.
You can, Bucket said, and the sound came crisp and clear.
Flash Meridian marveled at his new friend Bucket. Besides the audible treasures he offered, nothing was left out to clutter the small ship that everyone shared.
Poikani enjoyed Bucket’s company, and the two of them invented games where one would copy sounds made by the other.
You could ask Bucket trivia questions, and he would answer. He would play music to help you fall asleep. All of this was entertaining and helpful, but Lem sensed there was something more about him that they didn’t know.
She mentioned this to Flash, and he only pointed out that there were things she didn’t know about him, too, and vice versa.
You can’t have people figured out, he said, and pointed out that that is what makes people interesting.
She only glanced at them and smiled at seeing Poikani shaping a nest inside Bucket with the furry black hide, and giggling at the sight of it trailing behind him like a long black wig.