The Pink Planet

A Short Story by G.S.Vasukumar

"We're approaching planet Pluto." said the astronaut, Jack Collins.

"Good." said Angelina Fox

"It looks beautiful from here! " exclaimed Edward Stallone.

Suddenly, something hit their rocket and it lost it's balance and started spinning off, very fast and headed in different direction all together.

"What was that?" asked Angelina.

"Maybe a meteorite?" said Edward. " and where are we now?"

"No idea. Pluto is out of sight!" said Jack.

"What's that ?" asked Angelina, pointing her finger.

"Maybe another planet?" said Jack.

"The tenth planet? I thought we only have nine planets?" said Edward.

"Even I thought so." said Jack.

"Let's check it out!" said Angelina.

***

The rocket landed on the strange planet and they came out of the rocket, and started walking on the ground. They saw plants and trees. But everything was pink in colour. The branches were swaying. It meant that there was oxygen.

"I think this planet has oxygen." said Edward, removing his helmet.

They too removed their helmets. They walked towards a tree. Jack plucked a fruit from that tree and gave it to Angelina. She had a bite of it. Then :-

"How does it taste like~?"

"Fine.I haven't tasted anything like this before in my whole life! " She said, having another bite.

They too plucked and started eating it. They ate more, as they hadn't tasted anything like that in their lives before. Suddenly, wrinkles appeared on their faces and their hands, and they started growing old. Their hair turned white from black and brown...

"What's happening to us ~?" asked Jack.

"I think we're growing old all of a sudden!" said Edward.

"At this rate we will die any moment from now." said Angelina.

Soon, they fell down on the ground, losing their strength. Some pink coloured people appeared, held them and made them to eat another kind of fruit similar to what they had eaten sometime back and they came back to normal.

"S'ti dlo nam truif !" said one of them, pointing his finger to the tree, from which they had plucked those fruits and ate them before they could come.

"I don't understand what you are saying ~?" said Jack.

"S'ti dlo nam truif !" He repeated again.

"That should be their language." said Edward.

"Tahw truif si siht ?" asked Aneglina.

"Gnouy nam truif!" He replied, smiling at her.

"What did you say ~?" asked Jack, looking at her stunned. "Have you been to this planet before by any chance ?"

"I asked him, what fruit is it?" she said.

"And what did he say ?" asked Edward.

"Young man fruit!" she said.

"When did you learn their language ?" asked Jack.

"Don't you get it ? It's our English in the reverse order !" she explained.

She asked them how the fruit worked ? They told her if they ate one old man fruit, then they will start growing old slowly. In case they ate more, like they did then they will grow old that much faster. Then they need to eat the young man's fruit within one hour of eating old man's fruits to grow young again. If not, they will die and go to "Toshg Danl" [ Ghost Land ], where such spirits live. They looked curiously at Angelina.

"Yhw t'nod uoy evah nemow ni rouy tenalp ?" asked Angelina.

"On!" one of them replied.

"This is irritating ! Doesn't someone on your planet speak English?" cried Jack. "Doesn't anyone know English?"

"I can!" replied a pink person, stepping forward. "We don't have any females in our planet. It's the young man's fruit that has kept us alive for generations together. Only stupid and crazy people have reached the ghost's land."

"Then who does the cooking ~?" asked Angelina." Don't you reproduce ~?"

"We eat the fruits in the trees. That's our food. So we don't have to cook anything. We can reproduce ourselves. All we have to do is just jump into the well on the top of the mountain. When we emerge out. Another copy of ourselves come out a second later."

"How come you have young children ~?" asked Angelina.

"Simple, whosoever wants to relive his childhood has to eat three young man's fruits and they will reach their childhood. If they want to reach back to normal again then they will have to consume three old man's fruits. That's it!" He explained.

"They shouldn't forget to have one young man's fruit after munching three old man's fruit, right?" asked Edward.

"Yes, you got it!" said the Pink person, who could speak English.

"Do you have any currency ~ ?" asked Jack.

"No currency!" He said.

"Any religions, caste, culture ~?" asked Angelina.

"No..nothing !" He said.

"Do you believe in God ?" asked Edward.

"Who is God ~ ?" He asked.

"The person who created you...who created us !" said Angelina.

"No one created us !" He said. " No one created you for that matter !"

"Then don't you pray ~ ?" asked Angelina.

"Yes, we pray to the sun, without whose light our plants and trees would have died and so would have we." He said.

"Don't you get sick ? illness ?" asked Jack.

"Yes sometimes we do fall sick. Then we turn dark pink in colour. When we take the medicine plant juice, we get to normal again." he said.

"Can you show us the plant ~ ?" asked Angelina.

"Sure, here it is!" He said, pointing his finger at a small plant.

"Jack, why don't you try it ~ ? You've asthma. Let's see if it could cure it." said Edward.

"Fine." He said, plucking and eating the leaves of that plant. Soon he started feeling better.

"How do you feel ~ ?" asked Angelina.

"Fine. It seems to have started working already." He replied.

"Can it cure any disease ~?" asked Edward.

"Yes, almost anything !" said the Pink person. " You will become healthy and normal again."

"Then we should take a few plants to planet earth too." said Angelina." Can we ?"

"Sure, you can!" he said.

"Do you work like us ~ ? what do you do ~ ?" she asked.

"Yes, we do work. Our people had traveled to other universes too. Surprisingly, we came to know that there is life on other planets of other universes too. The only thing is that life has different forms, shapes and sizes." He replied.

"Really? Amazing! Have you visited our planet 'Earth' ~ ?" asked Angelina.

"They did try to visit 'Earth' a couple of times, but there was big war going on during that time. So they had turned back."

"You maybe referring to World War -I and II." said Edward.

"Yes."

"Would you like to visit 'Earth' with us this time ~ ?" asked Angelina.

"Sure, I would love too." He said.

"I don't see any birds or animals on this planet ~ ?" asked Jack, turning and looking around.

"Well, there are. But few in number. Many had consumed the old man's fruit and had died." He explained.

"While only a few survived !"

They enjoyed their stay on the 'Pink Planet'. When the time came for them to say farewell, they took some medicine plants and left to planet 'Earth', along with 'Yoga', the pink man, who can speak 'English'. The aircraft left the 'Pink Planet' and finally reached planet 'Earth'. When they landed on 'Earth' ; they saw no sign of human life on earth..

"What could've happened ~ ?" asked Angelina.

"Maybe, the big meteoroids should've striked while we were away, similar to those which wiped out the ' Dino ' race on Earth long time back." explained Edward, pointing his finger to the spot, which had become hollow, clearly showing that something had hit that spot.

"I lost my family and fellow beings on Earth !" cried Jack, with tears in his eyes, down on his knees. They both consoled him.

A squirrel hopped towards them. Angelina picked him up in her palm. A parrot flew down and landed and Jack's head and they broke into laughter seeing this. Then a dog woofed and ran towards them. Similarly a kitten, followed by a chicken.

"I think you should come and live on our planet." said Yoga, the pink man.

"What about Earth ~ ?" asked Angelina.

"I'm sorry to say this in the next few days to come, many more meteoroids would strike planet earth and whatever life is remaining on Earth will be wiped off forever ! Even the sea and ocean water will get toxicated killing the sea creatures. Oxygen will vanish later from earth. Then Earth will resemble the other planets in this universe, with traces of past life." Yoga said.

"Really sad." said Jack.

They flew back to the Pink planet.

"We can drop this chicken into the well whenever we want to have N.V. But only one of us can marry Angelina." said Edward.

"Which one let her decide." said Jack.

"I've an idea!" Angelina said."Follow me !"

They climbed the mountain and reached the well. She plunged into the well with the chicken in her hand. She came out wet with the chicken in her hand. A second later, another copy of Angelina came out, with another chicken in her hand.

"Who am I~ ?" she asked.

"You're my sister 'Anitha'" said Angelina.

"Really ? I love you, sister." She said, hugging her.

"He is Jack, you would be husband." Said Angelina, introducing him to her.

"Really ? Will you marry me,Jack ?" she asked, looking at him.

"Sure." He said.

The End