The Sunset Of The World
13 September, 2002. Edited 29 and 30 August, 2018.
Once there was a spaceship that crashed in a field, and tall, thin, white aliens with slender, caressing fingers and wisdom in their eyes got out and marvelled at the blueness of the sky, the softness of the grass and the motion of the wind; but nobody noticed except the good children, who helped the aliens repair their spaceship and waved goodbye to them as they blasted off back into space.
Once there was a shattering earthquake that split the entire planet in two like a cracked egg, sending molten rock in blazing golden sheets and glowing orange fountains spurting all over the world; but nobody noticed except the good children, who quivered with fear for their parents and begged them to stay inside where they would be safe, and who, when they refused, went with them to protect them from the flames and falling rocks.
Once music started to burst from the stars, the most beautiful music the world has ever heard, filling the earth and making the animals dance and the flowers sing in answer, flooding the heavens until even the air and the light itself became part of the music; until the children closed their eyes and whirled in ecstasy; until the waters sang in their silver voices; until the trees entwined themselves in the music and their sap became soaked in it and their leaves fluttered in time with it; until the music permeated everything and everything became part of the music; but nobody noticed.
Once the aurora borealis spread over the whole sky in vast beaming colours, shot through with rainbows, and comets in silver and gold; and flashes of lightning rent the air in glaring, headsplitting light, while thunder cracked the heavens and black snow fell like soft rain; and the winds showed their forms as giant people with terrible eyes and the trees started to speak; but nobody noticed.
And finally the hearts of the mountains cracked and they fell over, bowed in the dust; and all the animals in the world brought all the children in the world (for now all were good), nudging them with their noses and carrying them on their backs, to a place on the shore where all the sea creatures gathered together; and the Pied Piper looked at them all and smiled; and it was the sunset of the world. Then the Piper led them all through an iridescent door in the waves, which shone silver and gold and every colour in between, for the sun and the moon were shining in the sky together and it was both night and day; to join the fairies and elves and meet the gentle white aliens with slender fingers who would take them on a journey through the universe and show them many wonders; leaving behind them an empty world.
And if anybody noticed, they said nothing about it, and they all went on with their lives, but they were not really living;
And it was the sunset of the world.
