Marshmallows ( An origin story - of almost everything)

The bull with a caterpillar tattoo on her nose is pushing the wheel-less lorry with her index finger.

But wait, that’s not a bull. It’s an orange goat. And it’s not a lorry either.

It has wings. It’s a boat.

It gets parked at the helipad over the colored river.

There are a few stray golden clouds gathering on the surface of the purple water.

Several green leopards with red beaks are flying under the surface in circles. They are trying to protect their eggs that are now hatching inside the fourth cloud.

They are worried about the bees.

Someone has apparently upset the bees in the deserts of Antarctica yet again. And the lord of the bees has declared war on Atlantis.

If rumors are to be believed, they are likely to go nuclear this time.

They have been preserving flowers for the past three decades for this.

The king of Atlantis is a worried woman these days.

She has been constantly on national television, canvassing for support from various fronts.

However, her own queen is leading face to a revolt against her. The queen is an angry man, scorned and upset because the king did not give him marshmallows from her garden.

This year there was a scanty harvest of marshmallows, and most of them were eaten off the trees by the hungry fish.

That is another reason that is worrying the King, who herself oversees the export of marshmallow jam to other galaxies. Last time an acute shortage of marshmallows had led to a long-drawn conflict between the different milky ways. The king knows that she must somehow pacify the situation and prevent the world war called by the bees. She tries to contact her queen. But his post box has disappeared somewhere.

The queen has taken a break from the revolution and is holidaying at the club of flying whales.

The club has ninety-nine sharks (with yellow whiskers) as members.

There are no whales.

Whales have become extinct ever since they were declared as mammals.

They disappeared to live in burrows, inside the snow factory in the twelfth sky.

Their burrows are hidden amidst the crocodile nests between the gigantic waves surrounding the sky.

The king calls for an urgent meeting. No one turns up.

She presumes that it is because of the kindergarten history test scheduled for next year that people didn’t come.

Most of the citizens are struggling with concepts of advanced integral calculus that they need to apply, to clear this test.

She summons the army commander.

The army commander is a navy-blue cow. He has an idea.

He suggests calling the entire kingdom to watch a movie in the arena, and there the king can make her announcement.

The announcement about the breakthrough in scientific research that had led to the discovery of a new breed of marshmallows.

The new marshmallows have eight feet each and can multiply at will.

They are black in color.

The commander announces the meeting. The whole galaxy turns up.

They get seated in semi- circular rows all over the sixteen oceans.

They are served fish wings as welcome drinks.

The giant screen comes to life.

A two-legged creature is shown lying on a horizontal bed. And lo and behold, he doesn’t fall off even though the bed is parallel to the ground! His eyes are open, which means that he is sleeping. There are two dozen invisible figures who are walking all around him. He is not able to see them.

They are his own ancestors, in exile – lost in time.

He is crying. His lips are open wide, and his cheeks cracked into prominent lines to prove so.

He is very happy. He has a bucket by him that collects his tears of joy. He is completely alive and has stopped breathing.

His abode is coming to life.

His abode is a star called Earth – a smoky, noisy, and petty chunk of gray sand where every creature like him is out to destroy the other, and where each one of them is running a race to check who can destroy their home first.

He cries out in pain, showing his teeth. He is very happy.

He feels responsible. He has led this crusade against his own home.

He is a hero.

“What crap is this?”, says the pink rhino.

"This is even worse than that Sci-Fi you showed us last time, oh King!"

“What crap is this?” – Echo the crowds from all over the sixteen oceans.

The King tries her best to silence them but fails.

They don’t stop even when the health minister announces a free supply of marshmallow wine to all of them for three hundred decades.

They don’t like this movie. And they don’t like this protagonist.

Wasteful, sinful, and lazy! He is sleeping all the time with his eyes open.

“Down with him!”, says the pink rhino – hurling her brown flower at the screen.

“Down with him!’ – Echo the crowds all over the sixteen oceans.

The screen cracks up and disintegrates.

The brown flowers gather at the bottom of the screen and turn into a molten lake. The lake spills and flows out right up to the white sun.

The sun is the coldest star of the galaxy. The brown nectar forms a wreath around the dead sun.

The two-legged creature wakes up & shuts his eyes.

But by now, it’s too late.

His home is now constructed. It lies in shreds all around him.

He is ready to be born again.

His name would be man.

He switches channels and moves over to his next dream.

For some reason, he craves for marshmallows.

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Disclaimers - A. Please read this story for its essence & not the particulars. I mean no disrespect towards any person, gender or community ; B. My articles, blogposts & short stories have no relation to my day job.