Bucket and Aino made their way through the crowd. There were many distractions, but then, the distractions were the event. A group was assembling a bridge out of gems, and they were trying to figure out how to lift the keystone into place. The structure would not hold their weight until it was placed, so they couldn’t climb it. The tallest of the Ololians could not quite reach high enough.
Bucket overheard their conversation and offered I can hold that.
They balanced the crystal on his rim, and he floated up with it. He had no difficulty maneuvering it into place. Nothing could have given Bucket more joy.
Afterwards, he buzzed off to see who else he could help.
Aino went into the museum. The TNI2 greeted everyone as they entered. Aino never got tired of looking at it. It conjured stories in her head, not only of the adventures Flash Meridian had had in it, but also the thought of an object that was made on Earth, a faraway planet that seemed fantastical. Yet here was the evidence that such a place actually existed. There were no schools on Olo. No churches either. People learned from each other, and from the holograms that depicted its history. They also learned from the planet itself. Do you want to know what else there wasn’t? Banks. There were no banks because there was no currency. The Ololians lived on mounds of gems. Oceans of jewels stretched out as far as you could see. When the whole world is paved with treasure, what do you value? I’ll tell you what they value on Olo. They value each other. Don’t get me wrong… the stones were pretty. Beautiful! But they weren’t precious.
The museum had been built on the spot where Flash Meridian had first touched down on Olo. This was the very location where Flash had met the king and queen. It had actually been built around the TNI2 right where it came to rest. It housed many historical artifacts connected not only with Flash, but with life on Olo after the whales broke out of the soil, dislodging the entire planet.
Another wing was being added on to the museum. It would house exhibits related to Olo’s natural world. It would include the jewels, of course, as well as the plants and various creatures that shared the planet.
Speaking of plants, I want to tell you about some of Olo’s fruits. They, like the gems, were available to everyone, every day, but on festival days like this one, they were arranged on tabletops and carts all over the plain.
Olo was home to one very juicy fruit called karkkia. The leaves were thick and rounded like earth’s succulents, and they came in a variety of colors and flavors. You would t know what you were getting until you opened it up. At its peak of ripeness, you could slice the leaves into what looked and tasted like gumdrops or Turkish delight. The trees were known as jokesters, because if you reached up to pick a squishy sweet leaf that wasn’t quite ripe, it would burst. You would be coated in the delicious sucus, the sap or juice. Your skin would then take on the surprise color. It was all in fun. The wearer need only rinse in a lake or river and ideally, under a waterfall.