Keenan Cupped Her Hands, And In Her Hands She Held Worlds

[koganbot]

Keenan cupped her hands, and in her hands she held worlds. In one world the fingernail creatures would hold constant parties. Well, we might question whether these were what we would call parties, since it was in linking arms and dancing and doing something that they called "whooping it up" that the fingernail creatures created the Z-formula from which they drew sustenance. And if they didn't whoop with fervor the output of Z-formula would be meager and nutritionally deficient. So what they called "partying" and "whooping it up" we might think of as analogous to tilling the soil and growing the crops. In other words, partying was serious business: what we would call "work." Of course, they had fun when they worked, but what they meant by "fun" isn't what we mean by "fun." For us, fun means we are enjoying ourselves, while for the fingernail creatures fun means winning the approval of one's fellows. So when the question arose, "Are we having fun?" the only acceptable answer, the one that wasn't taken as an insult, was, "Yes, we are having fun. We are whooping it up."

Anyhow, this was just one of many worlds that Keenan held in her hands, but this world worried her. It wasn't her standard practice to intervene in her worlds; rather, her role was simply to observe and appreciate. But she worried that the fingernail creatures weren't really having fun - that fun was not a possibility, had been contaminated by the desperate parties to which fun was attached. The word "fun" existed, but the concept had been lost. But Keenan had an idea. While, strictly speaking, she didn't intend to intervene in the world of the fingernail creatures, she decided that she would permit herself to introduce the fingernail world to another world. This posed risks of course. What if the fingernail creatures, with their puritanical partying, infected the other world with their parties of drudgery? Well, Keenan decided to risk it. She had worlds in her mouth as well as worlds in her hands, and the saliva people in particular really knew how to have a good time. So, now was the moment to introduce the fingernail creatures to the saliva people.

Keenan put her hand to her mouth and began chewing her nails.