I know why Mars is red

How the Planet Mars got its' red color

 

 

 

 

02/25/2008

 

I know why Mars is red

 

     Boo Bom Boo, the creator of Mars was upset with all the animals on the planet and resolved to destroy all of them.

     Boo Bom Boo went and stood and called out to Penepoloses, the wind goddess and told Penepoloses what she was about to do. Boo Bom Boo said to Penepoloses, “All the animals on Mars are quarrelsome and argumentative. They are always fighting, shouting and arguing. They are not kind to each other. I am going to destroy each and every single one of them in five days.

     In an instant, wind-Penepoloses traveled all over Mars whispering what she had heard to every animal on Mars. There was great panic and the fear.

    All the animals became frantic and run to and fro, all over Mars, calling out to each other trying to find a way to stop Boo Bom Boo from destroying them. Every single one of the animals wept and their tears flowed together and formed a huge lake.

    Creator Boo Bom Boo looked down upon Mars and saw the lake of tears and became very sad for the lake of tears was very big and shiny. But Boo Bom Boo had made up his mind; he would destroy every single animal and make new ones who would be good, nice and peaceful.

 

    The animals gathered for a big meeting to talk about what to do? Snoogle the wise serpent said, “We need to find someone to go up and plead with Mighty Boo Bom Boo so she does not destroy us all from the faced of Mars.”

        “That is a great idea,” said Fyfespun the turtle. “Quick, quick we need to find someone Boo Bom Boo will listen to. O someone quick, come up with a name. Think; think before it is too late. O my O my, woe is us, we are done for.”

    But the big meeting turned soon into the big fight! Monkeys argued with birds; lions argued with crabs; zebras argued with frogs; turtle argued with chimpanzees; snakes argued with skunks and cats argued with grasshoppers! Everyone argued with someone! It was a big mess at the big meet!

    Boo Bom Boo and wind-Penepoloses sat in the wind and looked down at the noisy animals arguing and making a big fuss. Boo Bom Boo said, “Now you understand why I am going to do what I have said I will do?”

     Wind-Penepoloses nodded sadly, “Yes I can see they love fighting more than anything else.”

   

   The meeting of the animals went on for two whole days and still they were fighting and arguing. No one agreed with any one. They shouted, yelled and screamed at each other till Sadface the monkey climbed atop a huge boulder and began pelting all the other animals with stones. Finally everyone turned to look up at Gooface who held his hands high in the air and yelled for quiet, “Quiet, quiet you noisy lot. You are making too much noise. Listen I have a brilliant idea,” he said.

     Every one kept quiet and waited for Sadface to continue. “I say we send an emissary to meet with Boo Bom Boo to plead with her to stop this terrible thing.” Everyone burst out clapping and cheering, “Yea, yea great idea, yeah.”

     But Snoogle the serpent snapped at him saying, ‘I already said that you mangy wangy monkey. Where were you? Were you not listening?” Suddenly all the animals burst out laughing and making fun of Gooface, “He does not listen well. He does not listen well; what he does well is to steal everyone else’s food, climb a huge rock and make faces at them.”

 

     They went back and forth again another two days until finally Fyfespun yelled “STOP” and got every one to be quiet. Fyfespun said, “We have to send someone to Boo Bom Boo tomorrow or we will all be dead. Dead! Do you hear? We will all be dead if we do not stop this foolish argument.”   

    So they all kept quiet, thinking hard about what Fyfespun said. Then Moper the Gopher said, “Why not send Snoogle, Fyfespun and Gooface? You three are the only ones who have come up with smart ideas. And you all have ticklish names and you all are an odd bunch. So why not you three?”

        “Yeah, yea, say why not you three, yeah,” all the animals yelled and shouted and cheered. “Send up Fyfespun, Snoogle and Sadface to meet with Boo Bom Boo tomorrow.”

 

    Very early on the day Boo Bom Boo planned to destroy every animal on Mars, Gooface, Fyfespun and Snoogle set off to meet with Boo Bom Boo at her Bumple.

    Boo Bom’s Bumple was a huge cave. The thing about the Bumple was it was nowhere and everywhere. Anyone who went up to meet with Boo Bom spoke to wind-Penepoloses. Wind-Penepoloses then spoke to Boo Bom Boo. Boo Bom Boo would always say, “I will meet wherever they choose.” And on the day of the meeting, Boo Bom Boo’s Bumple would go to the meeting place and wait.

    Fyfespun, Snoogle and Gooface met with Boo Bom Boo in the middle of a large desert. Waiting with Boo Bom were wind-Penepoloses and Yokto the spokesmite. Yokto spoke for Boo Bom. No animal had ever heard Boo Bom speak.

    Yokto was tiny and small. He was a teeny weeny tinny tiny nanomite creature. Yokto was almost invisible. No one knew exactly what Yokto looked like since he was so small.

    Yokto came and stood and shouted in a loud tiny voice, “This is what Boo Bom Boo, mighty creator of Mars says Welcome to my Bumple.” The three animals are so scared they can hardly talk. Boo Bom has her servants bring out a very old book, the ‘Book of Trickings’ which is older than Mars. It takes five servants to open the book, two each on one side and the fifth to read it. The ‘Book of Trickings makes a terrible creaky noise when it is opened because it has been closed for a very long time.  

    Yokto says, “Boo Bom Boo asks that I read you ten questions from the ‘Book of Trickings’. If you are able to answer all ten questions within five days, mighty Boo Bom Boo will spare your lives.”

    The three animals perk up a bit. They whisper that ten questions should be no challenge. “Yes,” they tell Yokto, “Tell Boo Bom Boo we agree and will answer the ten questions.”

     Before the questions are read, Yokto tells them about the Big Sludge’, a huge pile of sludge and mud which will climb over Mars and destroy every animal if they fail to answer all ten questions correctly.

     Fyfespun says to Yokto, “Go ahead and read out the questions. We will come back with all the answers on the fifth day. Go ahead Yokto, go ahead.”  

     Yokto reads the questions out and says, “Now go and seek the answers. Come back when you are sure you know all of them. Boo Bom Boo wishes you a safe trip back.”

 

    The three animals return and tell the others what happened. Fyfespun reads out all the questions and tells everyone to go and think long and hard. “Come back here on day four and on day five we will all go up to Boo Bom Boo’s Bumple and tell her our answers.” He ends with the shout of fire, “Ye Yay Moya! Go all go.”      

    Four days go by quickly and no animal has been able to find even one of the answers to the ten questions. There is great panic and fear.

   No one has a clue or answer. The wise serpents have no answers. Neither do the crafty turtles. The brave eagles that travel far and wide and the intelligent monkeys have no answer too.

     Now there is real panic and Moper the Gopher begins to cry, “O shudder me shudder; O shankings me shankings. O Shudder booble poogle. Mars is undone. Woe unto us! Who can save us from Boo Bom Boo?”

     All the animals were now sad and scared terrible. They headed home to prepare their last meal before Boo Bom Boo sent the Big Sludge to destroy them the next day.

   

    There was a little red bunny living on Mars. She was as red as poinsettias. Every other animal said she was a freak because there were no red bunnies on Mars. She was the only red bunny ever. All the other bunnies and animals avoided her. No one knew what to call her because she was so weird.

    Because she had no friends she made up imaginary friends and stories and played all by her self. She told anyone who would listen about her imaginary friends though there were none. All her family and friends, except her mother, laughed at her stories and made fun of her. They mocked her and called her a fibber. Soon the name stuck and was shortened to Fibfib. Everyone called her Fibfib, even though she was not a real fibber, and that is how the little red bunny got her name.    

   Fibfib had no idea what was going on until one evening Snufftooth her mother told her all the animals were going to be dead the next day because no one was able to answer any of the ten questions from the ‘Book of Trickings’.  

   Fibfib stood up and declared boldly, “I can answer the ten questions and tomorrow I will go up and answer them. Her father Brownebum was so amazed and shocked that he burst out in giggles. He laughed so hard he fell out of his chair in stitches saying, “Oopsie oopsie me tummy. Oopsie ouch ouch. Me tummie hurty hurts from me laughing muchy much.”   

    Fibfib’s brothers Furtwart and Tumpoop made fun of her too. But Snufftooth believed Fibfib and smuggled her to Boo Bom Boo’s Bumple in a huge pile of grass the following day.

  

   On the way to Boo Bom Boo’s Bumple animals would come up to Snufftooth and say, “What do you have on your back?” And she would smile and say, “Nothing just a pile o sweet grass in a sack for our last meal.” This brought tears to the eyes of every creature who heard Snufftooth’s answer. All this while Fibfib the red bunny stayed quiet inside the pile of sweet grass.

    Soon every one was gathered at Boo Bom Boo’s Bumple at the top of a tall mountain with a flat top like a table. Everyone was frightened and in great despair. Torment was written on every face. Then there was the tiny loud voice and Yokto came and stood forth. It was difficult to see him because he was so nanomite small. Behind him sat Boo Bom Boo in a magnificent chair cut out of solid rock. Next to Boo Bom stood wind-Penepoloses.

     Yokto said, “Do you have ready the answers for mighty Boo Bom Boo, creator of Mars?” There was quiet for a very long time and Yokto repeated his question, “Do you have ready the answers to the ten questions for mighty Boo Bom Boo?”

     Still there was no answer, then finally Gooface the monkey went and stood saying, “Yokto, great spokesmite for Boo Bom Boo, we have no answers ready. A great wail went up in the air as Gooface said this, and all the animals began to cry. Some began leaving to go home to prepare for the final day of death when the Big Sludge would climb all over them and eat them up.

     Then Moper the Gopher began to wail once more, “O shudder me shudder; shankings me shankings. O shudder booble poogle. Mars is undone, woe unto us! Who can save us from Boo Bom Boo?”

      Suddenly there is a swishing, swashy noise and suddenly Fibfib the red bunny leaps out of the sack of sweet grass yelling I can. I can! I can save us from Boo Bom Boo.”

      A huge gasps go up high into the air at the sight of the freak red bunny. Everyone is shocked that Fibfib thinks she can answer the ten questions which have stumped everyone else.

          “Hufflepuff,” Yokto says in surprise. “And what do we have here,” he said peering hard at the strange dark red bunny, the likes of whom he has never seen before.

       Fibfib says in a brave little voice, “I am Fibfib the red bunny and I will answer all the ten questions you have and even more.”

        “Ooohh,” another gasp goes out from the gathered animals. Some begin to leave thinking it is all over. How can this freaky little red bunny save them? How can she answer the questions from the ‘Book of Trickings’ which have befuddled even the wisest and smartest animals? 

      Yokto says to Fibfib, “Are you sure you can answer the questions little one?”

            “Yes I can. Let me have them quick.”

            “OK here we go.”

 

            Yokto “What is better than force?’”

             Fibfib, “Persuasion.”

         

             Yokto, “What do you do if the mudfish comes from the deep muddy pit and says the crocodile is dead?”

             Fibfib, “You do not dispute or argue with him.”

 

             Yokto, “What does the vulture say over and over again whenever there is a rainstorm?”

             Fibfib, “Tomorrow I will build my house.”

 

             Yokto, “What happens when you teach a fool how to use a chewing stick?”

             Fibfib, “He uses it even when he is asleep.”

 

             Yokto, “What is greater than nurture?”

             Fibfib, “Nature. For you can take a goat from the bush, but you cannot remove the bush from the goat.”

 

             Yokto, “When nakedness promises to give you clothing what do you do?”

             Fibfib, “We say to nakedness, tell us your name.”

 

             Yokto, “What happens when the mother hen dances before the hawk?”

             Fibfib, “The hawk is not impressed.”

 

             Yokto, “What did sleep say to sorrow?”

             Fibfib, “I do not know you.”

 

             Yokto, “Why do you have to love your neighbors and enemies?”

             Fibfib, “Because they are the same people.”

 

             Yokto, “Who is a prince or princess?”

             Fibfib, “A prince or princess is anyone whose father or mother lives.”

 

         Yokto turns and says to Boo Bom Boo, ‘O mighty creator of Mars, the little red bunny has answered all the questions from the Book of Trickings aright.” Boo Bom Boo is so pleased with Fibfib’s performance and answers she spares all the animals and allows them to go back home.

 

     All the animals are delighted and happy. There is loud celebration and jubilation. Now everyone wants to be like Fibfib. All the bunnies and every animal go out and paint themselves poinsettia red all over.

    

        And that is why Mars is red.    

 

The end.

                    

  

             02/27/2008