by Alina Nour (b. 1953)
excerpt CHAPTER ONE: WHERE LYL AND EVY SHOW UP "We like it on Earth because there are pockets here that don't need fuel to get around!" said Evy."You mean the people who live on this planet carry small pockets around with them," Lyl completed her sentence."But what is it like where you come from?" Ada burst out laughing, her curiosity aroused."Where we come from it's the other way around," explained Lyl. "The pockets are larger than we are, they have engines, a button for a steering wheel and we use them to go wherever we like. Even to the outer space! This one for instance, the one we are traveling in, is a cosmic pocket."Ada eyed the strange pair curiously. A little boy and a little girl, no taller that a thumb, were floating in front of her window settled as if in a genuine vehicle in a comely blue velvet pocket which they steered using an eiderdown button. "Hey, earthling, how about telling us your name?" they called to the little girl."Of course," she answered happily. "My name is Ada. But people call me Fussy-Ada.""And I am called Lyl," cried the little boy in the cosmic pocket."And I am Evy," the girl next to him introduced herself."But we too have our nickname!" the boy added. "We are also known as... 'the pocket aliens'! That's probably because we are so small we fit perfectly in an earthling's pocket. Or because we travel through space using a motorized pocket for a vehicle... which reminds me: do you happen to have a couple of vials with lighter gasoline? We could really use some... we are running rather short of fuel!"Ada answered she had what they needed. She ran back to the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboard drawers. She knew her father kept a few spare vials there for his lighter. When she came back to the room holding the "fuel" she noticed that the little aliens had in the meantime alighted on the windowsill. Lyl broke the three vials she had brought and carefully poured the contents into a special compartment of the engine of his cosmic pocket."You know, this was a big surprise to me," Ada resumed the conversation. "My mom had just made my bed and told me 'Good night.' But I wasn't sleepy. So I came to the window and I was admiring the starry sky when I heard a strange whirr coming from above. I couldn't make out just what it was at first. I thought maybe it was a plane flying far up. Then I heard the whirr getting nearer... and I saw your comical... sorry, I meant cosmic pocket floating in front of my window. Ha-ha! It looked not only strange, but downright silly!""After all," Lyl took it amiss, "we don't quite get you, earthlings, either... you yourselves look rather silly to us, you know! And that's because you drag these teeny, cramped pockets around with you all the time. Just because they are too small for you and you can't use them for locomotion as would be proper. Now really, why don't you make them larger? Are you by any chance too lazy for that?" Ion Creangă, 1987
by Alina Nour (b. 1953)
by Alina Nour (b. 1953)