The strange creatures who visited you at your home to converse and discuss with you are real characters amongst us. The tallest, the fattest, and the shortest live with us and we see them daily wherever we go, with the same mentality and physical features.
Who wants to live on this planet with its growing pollution, ignorance, and lack of conscious? That is what the shortest called for in the previous episodes. Who have not met the pedant who talks like a playback record and everyone wants him to shut up? This is the fattest. The tallest appears to be their leader whom they follow and obey; this kind of leading character lives among us also.
Back to your final story with your visitors; the previous episode ended with you screaming in their faces, demanding to know their identity and the truth behind their visit. The tallest calms you down, saying: “We come from a faraway galaxy called ‘Andromeda’, located about 2.5 million light years from here; it is known to be the twin of your galaxy, the ‘Milky Way’. The reason behind our visit is to substitute you on Earth”. You are surprised by his words, but he does not allow you to interrupt and continues “Do not be surprised my friend; we are your copies and our number there equals your number here on Earth. When we saw the situation here, our trip was long and we chose you among others to tell you the mission we came for.”
This time, you reply impatiently “What? Do you mean that you have visited other people?” The fattest answers you “Yes, yes, but they were different in culture, shape, religion, color, way of talking and expression. At the end of these visits, we concluded that…” The tallest interrupts him “Wait my friend, do not continue; he may not stand the rest of your story”. You answer excitedly “No, no, let him continue; what do you mean by saying that I will not stand the rest of the story? I heard and saw from you a lot of things that would scare anyone else, but I am still normal and talking to you.” The tallest replies “Sure my friend, you are one in a few special persons on this planet; you are brave, open minded, and smart.”
When we asked you for a place to talk to Earth’s inhabitants, we were thinking of announcing our idea, but it seems that it is not a good idea because it is not necessary that what you heard, comprehended, and accepted would be understood and accepted by the rest of the Earthlings. Our conversation with you tonight is enough for us and we will communicate with our colleagues in this mission to reevaluate our meetings.”
The fattest interrupts: “What are you saying buddy? Do you mean that we may change our plan in substituting the Earthlings?” The tallest answers “No, nothing will change; we will replace them. Every one of us will replace the one similar to him; the tallest creature replaces the tallest Earthling, the fattest replaces the fattest, and the shortest replaces the shortest, every consort replaces the person who is similar to him in shape and specifications.” You rub your eyes, bewildered by what you have heard; when you remove your hands off your face you do not find them!
Just like that? You ask yourself while searching for them in the entire room; behind the curtains, under the bed, behind the door. You look out from your room window to find that it is morning and a new day is about to start; you look behind you doubting their existence, then you look to the street again and you do not know whether to believe what happened or not. You finally sit on the nearest chair in mere disbelief; then you become sure that all what you have experienced is true not a dream and not insanity.
You ask yourself “Why not? This is indeed the perfect solution for a new civilization to rise on Earth. Yes, there is no way to renovating this planet other than substituting ourselves with virtuous creatures that have a strong will to reconstruct this planet, and work on resurrecting the meanings of justice and beauty in our life”. You hear knocking on your room’s door beckoning you to go have your breakfast and start your day.
You leave your house with a smile on your face; you focus on everything and everyone around you, and you contemplate the faces of your friends and colleagues. Is it possible that the substitution has happened and we have changed? Or have it not happened yet? Your smile turns into a grin when you see a very tall person, a very short or a very fat one; you conclude that the human being, may he be short or very short, tall or very tall, fat or very fat, is the epitome of human civilization by his thoughts and characteristics.
Illustrations by Mohamed Khamis.
The episode was published in SCIplanet printed magazine, Autumn 2015 issue.