How beautiful the moon looks up there! Radiant! Beaming! Charming! The stars around it giggle and shine. Why do they giggle? Well, wouldn't you giggle too if you knew of a secret that only a chosen few knew and you saw the people believing in the lies shown and told to them. What is that secret, you ask?
It so happens that a few years back I went to the Tumpledore Beach. It was quiet and serene. So serene that I could hear two mottlehogs talk to each other. I pretended to be asleep and then I overheard them. And when I did, I was so stunned that I really looked more dead than asleep. You see, the moon isn't up there in the sky! No sir, no ma'am! Not in the sky, it is in the sea! And what you see up there in the sky is a reflection of the moon in the sea. I'm sure you are just as stunned as I was that you look more dead than asleep, just like I did. I would have kept the pretence on but my curiosity got the better of me. I quickly grabbed both the mottlehogs. They got caught unawares, literally so as well.
“This can't be true! The moon can't be in the sea!” said I.
“This is true.” said the mottlehogs.
“Well, why does it wax and wane then?” said I.
“It's not waxing and waning at all!” said the mottlehogs.
“Please explain that.” said I, almost pleadingly.
“We can't. We are not supposed to.” said the mottlehogs.
“Why not?” said I, angrily.
“We will be punished if we tell you.” said the mottlehogs.
“I will punish you by squeezing and squishing and crushing you if you don't tell me.” said I, threateningly.
The mottlehogs sighed and said “The moon never got a chance to go up there in the sky. It was always in the sea. But humans always tried to remove it from the sea. So the fishes said that they will bite the pieces of the moon and hide them away, which they did but which you won't believe and which the humans didn't either. So they dived in the sea to check but we could not have that sort of an intrusion. Born a terrestrial, be a terrestrial. We didn't know how to stop them. So Zemphu came up with an excellent idea. He proposed flying up to the sky.”
“For what, to whom and why?” said I inquiringly.
“Don't interrupt us, woman human! The sky has always looked down at earth with love. So Zemphu flied to it for advice. The wise sky gave us a brilliant idea. It said it will reflect the moon during the night so humans think that the moon got fed up of them and went to live up in the sky. And you know what? It worked. The fishes started putting the pieces of moon back together exactly the way they had pieced it off. Yet, every now and then a stray human goes in the sea to check if the moon is there. So every month the fishes piece off the moon and piece it back together. And so the humans think that the moon waxes and wanes.” said the mottlehogs, giggling away.
“This can't be true! How come no one knows about this? No, this can't be true!” said I, unbelievingly.
“Well, whoever lets this secret out disappears.” said the mottlehogs.
“Disappears?” said I, wonderingly.
“Yes. Like this!” said the mottlehogs and poof! They disappeared! There was nothing in my hands. I looked around. They certainly had disappeared! Just because they told me the secret about the moon in the sea. Well, aren't you all glad I told you all this secret too? Oh!
