Special Effects: A Happy Face

"I'm here!"

"I need you for a minute!"

Stephanie left the seat and went back to the house. Her mother was hanging up some washing.

"Give me a hand, will you dear? I've got to get this up before the weather changes. I think we're in for some rain."

"Uncle Knibbs rang."

"Oh yes? Did you have a nice talk to him?"

"Yes," said Stephanie, lifting a heavy, wet sheet and flopping it over the wire, "He asked me to go to that Dance thing."

"To the moon? That silly thing! I suppose you said you would?"

"Mmm."

"I can't say I believe in it myself, but it doesn't seem to do any harm. People seem to need rituals, to keep their lives in order."

"I think its stupid," said Stephanie, "The moon's just a lump of dead rock It doesn't care if people dance to it."

"True," said her mother, "But what would people do if they didn't have festivals, and rituals. Imagine Christmas without decorated trees, and Santa Claus and all those Christmas stories on TV every year? It might get to be very dull without all that."

"We'd think of other things," said Stephanie, poking pegs down on a line of socks, "We'd celebrate by singing, or we'd get together for a big meal. It's just so dumb when people think they can change the way the moon behaves by jumping around in a paddock!"

"People have believed worse things in the past," said Stephanie's mother "The people of India used to think the world sat on the backs of elephants. They said the elephants stood on a turtle, and the turtle stood on a snake."

"I know," said Stephanie, "We're doing that stuff in school. The Greeks thought a strong man called Atlas held everything on his shoulders, and another bunch of people thought there was a catfish underneath everything. And there are still people today who say the world is flat!"