Misho and Alli were sitting on the edge of the cliff, looking at the small river down there, in the gorge.
– Dork! – Alli said.
– No, it’s true! If you want the song to be politically correct, you would have to sing, ‘I feel pretty, oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and heterosexually challenged…’ – Misho replied.
She was waving her legs in the air.
– Dork! – Alli reiterated.
– That sounds like the sound some animal would make! – Misho discovered. – ‘Dork! Dork-dork-dork!’ A Dorkosaurus! – he said.
– I love that word! – Alli shared.
– The Dorkasaurus would mainly eat watermelons and seaweed.
Alli shivered.
– I hate seaweed. My biggest fears – spiders and seaweed.
– Seaweed! – Misho responded.
– Yeah, don’t ask me why.
Misho scratched his nose.
– So, the Dorkosaurus would spread its wings and try to fly away…
– Hahaha!
– But will never be able to, since the wings are too tiny.
– Ohh! How sad! – Alli looked at the other side of the gorge. A few swifts were flying in and out of the small holes in the cliff.
– Yes, but they are pretty wings!
– Oh my gosh! Misho, you are horrible! You are taking the words out of my mouth!
– Eh, whatever! I have a faster train of thought! Mine is one of those arrow-trains they have in Japan!
– And what is mine then? – She stopped waving her legs and looked seriously at Misho.
– Um, a steam-train?
– Oh, you are mean!
– I know. – Misho grinned. – Why did we come to that cliff, again? – He looked carefully down, staring at the creek trickling many feet below.
– Because I love heights! And getting very close to the edge…
– We are SITTING on it!
– It is like a rush, because it’s kinda scary… You know, when you’re looking over the cliff and thiiiiiiiiiiis close to falling off… – Her pointer and thumb almost touched.
– EEEEEEEEEEK!!!
– Hahaha! Poor Misho! – Alli waved carelessly her legs in the air, shaking her head left and right in some rhythm, only known to her.
– I have acrophobia. Grumble!
– That’s OK, you can fight it. Better have that thing gone when we go to Paris, to the Eiffel tower for our birthdays, though!
– Oh right! I will need to save some money for that. I better start paying off my credit cards soon! – Misho looked at the small green beetle crawling up a little yellow wild flower. A terrified tiny spider fled the site of invasion.
– Yeah. I need to get organized. I need help! – Alli said.
– Yeah, professional help! One-hundred-dollars-an-hour help.
– Well thanks!
– I could help for only $99.99! – The elfin spider was already building a new home on a nearby daisy.
– Oh good, a bargain! My parents will be so proud!
– You know what? Only for you, young lady, I will make it $59.99 for every thirty minutes!
– Oooh, really? Just for me?
– Yessiree! – Misho nodded, jokingly serious, barely hiding his smile.
– It’s a deal! Here are all of my credit cards. Take them, charge them, copy my signature!
– Half-full or half-empty?
– Half-full!
– Oh, an optimist! – Misho nodded.
– Shocked?
– Nah, not shocked… But I am a pessimist, who is a closet optimist.
– Haha!
– OK, why is the largest airport in continental Europe in such a comparatively small city? – His eyes were wandering in the sky, following the path of a single eagle, flying far above their heads.
– What?
– Frankfurt! It’s a relatively small city.
– Well that was random!
– I know. – He yawned. – So I had spaghetti Bolognese today.
– Yummy!
– I cooked them. From scratch!
– Wow!
– I always cook from scratch! It’s more cooksy. Like ARTsy, but comes from COOK.
– Aren’t you special! – Alli shrugged. – Ah, well, I try to eat right. I almost succeeded… for one day…
– Ha! Who eats right?! Only people, who are paid to do so, like superstars…
– Well I tried!
– … or Alley McBeal.
– Calista Flockhart.
– Yes, she.
– What about her?
– She is skinny!
– Yes she is.
A moment of silence. Alli’s legs were still dancing in the air, waving in a circular motion. Misho closed his eyes for an instant, feeling the sun on his face.
– So the Dorkosaurus would then, after not being able to fly away, lie in the sun and get tan.
– A Dorkosaurus with a tan?
– Yes, it would turn darker green than normal. Just the wings will remain their usual pretty, dappled, variegated, bright colors.
– Oh, how nice.
– And it would just reach its arm and grab a pear from a nearby bush. – Misho reached and plucked a small wild strawberry from under some dark-green leaves.
– Hey, pears grow on trees!
– Not in THIS story! – He threw the berry up in the air and missed.
– OK. – Alli followed the flight of the berry to the rocks down beneath.
– And then the night would come, and the Dorkosaurus would fall asleep under the shade of an apple-pie tree.
– OK, now that’s ridiculous!
– Well, why deprive the little animal of an apple pie just because there were no Homo Sapiens Sapiensuses to bake one?
– Yes, you have a point. – Alli nodded understandingly.
– So in the morning it would wake up, stretch its legs, arms and flutter with its wings! And have a nice apple pie for breakfast!
– And quench its thirst with some chocolate milk from a spring!
– Don’t be silly, there are no chocolate milk springs!
– Why not, if there are the apple-pie trees?
– Well, because!
– Stable reasoning! – Alli threw a small round stone into the creek. They both followed its fall for a couple of seconds. It splashed in the deep middle of the stream.
– Yes. So that’s how its days would go by, until one day a huge meteorite would fall and kill all living things.
– Oh, how horrible!
– Yes, but if that hadn’t happened there would be no people. – Misho shrugged.
– Oh? How so?
– Well, the mess created by the meteorite was the primordial soup! And everything else started from there… you know the rest.
– Right! We learned about that in school.
– See?
– Yeah. – Silence. – I wonder what’s for dinner?
– Chicken Parmesan. The cooks at the cafeteria seem to have some very strict schedule.
– Yummy, I love that. Let’s go!
– Let’s.
They left. The small spider had finished its new home and was waiting for a little lost fly to fall its prey.