Two figures (a male and female) sit with shoulders hunched on opposite sides of a table overlooking the valley. It is dark, the sun has long disappeared behind the horizon for the final curtain call this year, and the lights from the braziers in the valley below flicker away like drunken fireflies. The air is cold. The wind bracing. But the tea hot and very good. The male humanoid is rather tall and dressed casually in fashionable gear; a pair of loose cut jeans, a t-shirt emblazoned with the logo ‘Ape4ever’, on top of which is a hoody to keep the chill at bay. The female is wearing a black dress, figure hugging, with a low plunge line. She is gorgeous. In fact she is utterly, maddeningly and devastatingly gorgeous and Superfly is in two minds as to whether to ‘let her go’ or make her fall in love with him. She has dark wavy hair and glittering eyes like diamond cutters that not only pierce the night but also seem to pierce time itself. Superfly is momentarily dazzled by these beacons of hope.
Through these beacons she is gazing at him intently. Her name is Sofia. She finds that there is something about him; something she is unable to put her finger on, something decidedly odd. Not odd in a bad sort of way but odd in a good way. For some reason she finds herself drawn to him. It is inexplicable! To her he radiates a combination of excitement and adventure and at the core of it a carefree nonchalance and childish honesty. But there is something else too in this milieu; an other worldliness about him. She wants to get to know him better.
On the other hand Superfly decides that emotional entanglement with an earth girl is not the way to go; especially when he is desperately trying to escape from her world. Besides he couldn't possibly take her away with him and there's no knowing whether she'd even want to go. So he decides to 'let her go'. The tactic is to bore her with conversation so that she moves on to someone more interesting. The conversation is on the subject of ‘Coral Atolls’. He is trying to bore her to death with geology but it doesn't seem to be working:
[Superfly] 'In the Pacific Ocean surrounded by deep blue fathomless depths lie what are known as Coral Atolls. Coral Atolls are little ‘islands’ of coral just below the waters surface that form a shallow light-blue lagoon. The water in the lagoon is at waist height and beyond the wall of coral that surrounds the lagoon the water level drops to tens of thousands of feet into the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. How were coral atolls formed? Huh? Do you know? No? Well let me tell you! This used to be a mystery but no more because it was solved by Charles Darwin in 1836, during his famous 5 year voyage around the Earth in the Beagle. By the way have you heard of Darwin?’
[Sofia] Yes, as a matter of fact I have! His the monkey man isn't he? The one who said we come from monkeys?
[Superfly] (raising a surprised eye brow) 'Well er not quite. What he meant was that we share the same ancestor with the chimps. Anyway, well Darwin in a flash of insight suggested that coral atolls are the tips of now fully submerged submarine mountain tops. What happened was this. In the distant past when the Pacific was not as deep as today the tips of the underwater mountain were able to rise above the water as little islands. When the Pacific sea-bed lowered so did the mountains and as a result the islands gradually descended. Now, coral only grows at a fixed depth a few metres from the surface of the water so as the mountains submerged the coral, to maintain its depth, continued to grow upwards. Voila! Thus cogito we have the coral atolls! The mountains have long vanished below the water but the atolls remain like little rings of shallows in the deep Pacific’
[Sofia] ‘Wow! That is soo cool! So what you’re saying is that the coral used to grow on the tips of the underwater mountains and as the mountains drowned the coral grew upwards to give us these coral islands? That is genuinely fascinating!'
[Superfly] (bemused and now drowning himself) ‘Yes, er that’s exactly right’
It was clear that the strategy to bore Sofia with geology clearly wasn’t working. This was by far the strangest Earth girl he had ever met. And he had met many in the year he'd been stranded on Earth. She seemed to be genuinely interested in what he had to say! Strange that. He thought that perhaps a heavy dose of ‘ecology’ might do the trick:
[Superfly] ‘The organisms that live in the atoll are part of a micro ecosystem. Being thousands of miles away from the nearest Pacific island they are entirely dependent on the fragile environment in which they live. The atolls in affect are a self contained world-within-a-world; supporting many organisms from tropical fish to mollusks to polyps and of course the coral organisms themselves that secrete the coral matter. To the fish, the shallow coral atoll is home and beyond the walls of the coral walls lies a dark and dangerous world; but luckily for them the coral wall surrounding the atoll prevents the entry of large pacific predators like sharks and big fish. However, if the sea level was to rise (say from Global Warming for example) the coral would be unable to grow in sync with the rising waters thus flooding the atoll and submerging it further below the waves’
[Sofia] ‘That would be so awful! My heart goes out to those fish. Poor little fishes!’
[Superfly] (now raising both eyebrows) ‘But you see I am trying to make an analogy between the coral atolls and the earth. The earth is like a secluded coral atoll and its inhabitants, i.e you, are the benighted little fish totally ignorant of the world about them. Like the fish you humans have a lack of perspective’
[Sofia] ‘What do you mean 'you' humans? Your funny! But anyway what do you mean by 'lack of perspective'?’
[Superfly] ‘Look, there’s a lack of perspective on the part of humans. Humans live there lives in a world of moderate speeds, they, sorry we, see a limited range of the electromagnetic spectrum through our eyes i.e. we don’t see all the frequencies only the one’s corresponding to colour. We don’t see Radio, Microwave and Gamma frequencies for example and we hear a limited range of sound frequencies, and we live a limited number of approximately 70 or so earth years. How are humans supposed to fully appreciate and understand the events; the colossal and mind boggling events happening around them? The crucial point is time. Mountains rise and oceans fall and this takes time. Millions and millions of years. Human beings with lifespans of 70 years and a recorded history of 3,000 years or so are ill suited to record let alone appreciate such geological events. Hence, the reason why the vast majority of humans shuffle about their daily lives in a torpor of ignorance. Just like you!’
Superfly watched Sofia for a reaction but non came. She seemed to be trying to absorb everything he had said. And now for the coup de grace:
[Superfly] 'And here I am. Me! Scuttling amongst these stupid benighted creatures of the dark - your brethren - your stupid ignorant brothers and sisters - your thick mum and your equally 'in the dark ages' thicko dad! I am like a God! I can see the history of the world and the future of mankind in the palm of these hands! And you know what? You have no future! Your all gonna die!'
[Sofia] (pauses)
[Sofia] ‘It must be a curious sensation to walk around observing humanity in all its variety; knowing the gulf that exists between what you know and what everyone else knows. It must be rather lonely being you?’
The girl was clearly reaching out to him. Wanting to coddle him with her heart, entreating him with her earnest eyes. His behaving like an arrogant no-it-all had back-fired. She loved him for it!
Superfly decided it was time to try something else to get her off his back. She was too lovely. She was too intelligent. She was too caring. She was too pretty and his heart was in jeopardy. He had to shake her off. So he decided to try out some abominable poetry on her:
[Superfly]
‘Tiger tiger burning bright
In the forests of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?’
[Sofia] 'Mm! What are those strange words you speak. You weird Mr Freaky!'
Superfly peered up at the sky, his mind sozzled in a befuddlement of Darjeeling Tea. Then he looked at the girl and moved his head closer to hers.
[Superfly]
‘I have travelled among unknown men
In lands beyond the sea
Nor earth did I know till then
What love I bore to thee’
[Sofia] (sighs) ‘I must admit you are rather odd’
[Superfly]
‘The odder I am the more you see
See thy tearful eyes; swimming in infinity?’
[Sofia] (smiling) ‘Will you stop doing that Sir Poet! It is sooo annoying!
[Superfly]
‘Forgive me for I never caused to annoy
Hear my heart it cries; for land ahoy!'
[Sofia] ‘You are crazy. Do you know that? Stark raving mad’ and then she kissed him on his cheeks.
[Superfly]
‘The stars and heavens are in a twist
My lonely heart wrapped in a kiss
Beyond the shores of pirate lands
I stole your kiss with sleight of hand
Where did it go? Where lay hidden that kiss?
It's on my cheeks I see but why not on thy bottom little Miss?’
[Sofia] Kisses Superfly him on his lips
[Superfly] (now concerned that his poetry is having the opposite affect)
‘Behold the stars they weep for me
Burning brightly for all to see
A mortal kiss from lip to lip;
I fear my love will shackle me to this
An Earth benighted with darkness and sloth
My existence to be forever forgot’
[Sofia] ‘What do you mean ‘shackle you'? Is my kiss nothing but a shackle?’
[Superfly] (thinking that's better. This is finally working)
‘Pity me for I have sinned
Nothing in this world but ruin
Awaits me for I fear
The mind forg'd manacles do appear
The bird that soars mighty and free;
high and brilliant that is me
Above the clouds and beyond the oceans
there I rest free of love and such silly notions’
[Sofia] ‘You’re a selfish ogre! You think love is a prison? I offer you my love and you throw it back in my face like a dirty dishcloth!’
[Superfly]
‘It is not your love that I fear;
but the mind forg'd manacles do you hear?
They come in the night to drag me away;
steadfast I must be and never to sway’
[Sofia] Throws her drink in Superflys face and trudges off in an angry huff
[Superfly to himself]:
‘A fiery temper and fiery heart;
go hand together what a blast
I have hurt and sinned and many things more;
but who’ll catch my heart when it falls?
I must escape this forlorn planet;
make haste Yes! I must plan it.
But wait! I hear a countdown do I not?
A New Year beckons I almost forgot!
My New Year resolution is to escape
From this sombre and infernal place
But first I must visit that wonderful man
whom I met in that seedy Pakistaan
His name was The Vagabond I seem to recall
an invitation I have for an evening call
Amongst a planet where darkness frights
I’ve found a candle burning - in the night
A lonely candle it may well be;
wavering hither and thither like some Bohemian Rhapsody
Whose immortal refrain now fills my ears
how dost it go? I remember! I swear!
Yes! I hold it in my mind.
Let the New Year roll in to the following lines:
‘Is this the real life
Is this just a fantasee
Caught in a landslide
No escape from realitee'
Happy New Year for all and me!
Say I: 'do you doubt my sanity?'
There is depth I say in these perilous lines
Look closer and perhaps you may find
The secret of life I have found
Quick! I must hide it!
Before New Year is crowned!'
****
