SCENARIO: Dinner table – dessert being eaten
Participants – Tomo, Japanese student
Lorena, Taiwan student
Corinne, Swiss student
Walking into the living room – Judi, Host Mother
Judi: Girls, girls, come here quick!
Judi: Faster or you will miss it.
Lorena: What is it?
Judi: Come see. You’ll never see anything like this in Taiwan.
Tomo: What is it?
Judi: The moon – look how full and close it is.
Corinne: Is it time for a full moon? I don’t think so (as she looks at a calendar that is on the refrigerator door.) This calendar does not have the faces of the moon on it.
Tomo: I’ve never seen the moon that big, or that color. Did they bleach it? In Japan we don’t have moons that color.
Judi: I’ll check my computer to see if it is a full moon.
Corinne follows: Checked it out and found that it was a quarter moon. So…what is it?
Judi: Here are the binoculars. Look through them.
Tomo: Sure is a big moon. Is the world coming to an end? Are we safe?
Lorena: It looks like it has stripes on it.
Tomo: The moon in Japan doesn’t have stripes on it. Should we be scared?
Judi to Corinne: Let’s go take a look at it. Do you have room in your car?
Corinne: No, I have my laundry in the back seat.
Judi: Let’s take my car.
Judi: Come on girls. We are going to go see what it is.
Lorena: Do we have time? I am starting to pack for my trip to LA tomorrow.
Judi: You have plenty of time.
Lorena: I don’t want to miss the bus tomorrow.
Judi: I’m taking you to the bus. You won’t miss it.
Corinne and Judi – walk out to the garage.
Judi: Where are the girls?
Corinne: Here comes Lorena.
Judi: Where is Toma.
Lorena: She went to get her jacket.
Judi: We had better go fast or it won’t be there any more.
Toma: Full jacket – I’m ready.
Corinne, after adjusting the seat, she backs out of the garage and heads north east. The light is getting brighter and bigger.
Judi: Go up one more street and turn right.
Corinne: Can’t turn. Too many police cars blocking the way.
Toma: Are you sure we are safe? Is it a UFO that has landed? I heard that the US has lots of “aliens” here. Is that what it is?
Lorena: Have you ever seen this before?
Corinne: Oh, it looks like they are filming a movie. Look at all the trucks there.
Judi: Let’s go up one more street.
Toma: Are you sure it is safe.
Judi: I think it is safe. It is a movie being filmed.
Lorena and Toma: Where are the actresses and actors? Is it anyone we know. Is it a sci-fi movie? Is it the newspaper and television filming the aliens?
Lorena and Toma: (After seeing the movie trucks) I feel like I was “had”. I really thought it was the moon. I was tricked. I thought it was the end of the world, and there is so much I wanted to do before I died.
Lorena: Yea, I was supposed to go to LA tomorrow and I thought I might not get able to go. I am so relieved.
Moral: Don’t judge by the light of the silvery moon. What appears to be in the window of your mind may only be in the living room.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
As long as it wasn’t the neighbor’s “moon”!