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- Saturday 20th August 1994
- (C) Joona Palaste
-
-
- A SUMMER ROMANCE
-
-
- Itzrah stared at Harzti. Harzti stared back at him, briefly closing the left
- eyelid of her centre eye.
- Itzrah and Harzti were, of course, citizens of the planet known on Earth as
- Epsilon Muscae IV, and locally as Zwokion. It was summer (also perihelion) on
- the local year 38572, or the Earth year 2222. And Itzrah and Harzti were
- falling in love, on the planet which had been colonised by humans two Earth
- years earlier.
- The colonising had been an unpleasant process for the Zwokionians to
- withstand. They had had to move into new homes, for the humans had found it
- artistic to erect their colony in the same place the Zwokionians' houses had
- stood. And the Zwokionians could not argue with the humans, being tiny, and
- armed only with the hooks they used to cut Zwokionian rice.
- Zwokionian rice was the Zwokionians' only food. The humans had cut down heaps
- of it and claimed them for themselves, which forced the Zwokionians to take
- emergency action. The price of Zwokionian rice increased ninefold.
- This made Zwokionian school dinners free, for the Zwokionian schoolchildren
- could not afford food outside school, and thus had to eat free dinners to
- prevent starvation.
- Itzrah and Harzti had never eaten in their school cafeteria before. Both had
- favoured a different restaurant, for unknown reasons. But the thought of free
- dinners brought them both to the same cafeteria, and they fell in love.
- "I love you", said Itzrah. "I love you too", said Harzti. And they both lived
- happily ever after.
-