What If the Earth was the other way...?

Around Kliptora in forty days part 5!

Nathalia Avra

Days through 21 through 25: Frenchi

"Bonjour!" The man at the counter greeted me.

I smile and return it back, "Bonjour."

The man wore an entirely different outfit! He had long cotton pants that had those umbrella openings and his shirt was half sleeved and he had a nice pair of black shoes unlike all the other Kliptorans I have seen.(Except Preethi, the singer and a few of the theatrical people.)

I got ahead of myself. Sorry. Let me start from the top. Frenchi is our next stop and Frenchi, as the name suggests is a mini France. I remember going on small tours to France through a train on weekends. My favourite thing about France we're the Boulangeries. No matter how trivial my knowledge of French language or culture is, when it comes to cuisine, I will get an A+.

Back to Frenchi, the port was beautiful. It had a river passing by. There was a beautifully constructed bridge going from the port to the other side of Frenchi. Frenchi had a sort of a shape where there is a squeezed middle part. So, the river was crossing that part vertically, joining the water bodies on either side. And the bridge separated the two vast areas of the continent. People buzzed here and there.

The counter looked kind of like a telephone box in London. It was lean and rectangular and only the man I mentioned before stood in there without getting suffocated. Tina conversed with the man and I guessed what would have been the conversation about; assigning us a temporary stay room.

Tony was busy reading something on his tablet.after a few moments, we were escorted to our stay rooms and Tina bid us goodbye.

Anyway, the stayroom looked like a small apartment in the thick jungle of apartments. The narrow alleyways between the parallel rows of stayrooms, went as far as I can see. Compared to the other continents, I have been to, this one is the most congested. The building looked like a one storey building on an alleyway with a concrete open terrace. Inside it was cosy and there were curtains for the windows( which is the only extra detail in the stayroom.)

From what I have observed, Kliptora goes with these standard house designs. A stayroom should have three rooms, one bathroom and a kitchen. Each continent just gave their own twist to the designing part. Just like how my friends and my assignment looks before submitting to the teacher.

Each continent also divided their work area and residence area into two parts of the continent. For example, Mandrea had their factories on one part of the continent and the stay rooms were on the other part of the continent. The thing that struck me was, there was sort of a discipline even from the way the buildings are made; it was structured and all that. It was also easy to navigate. "Where is the factory?" "Well, it is at the other end of the continent." "Thank you for stating the obvious!"

"Why are you smiling at the bed?" Tiny asked.

"Nothing." I say, stopping my mind from creating a ridiculous conversation with an old Kliptoran lady and me.

He walks towards the chair and sits. He crosses his legs slightly and looks at me, his expression remaining the same. (How do these Kliptorans keep a straight face all the time?) I sit down on the bed, my hands spread out and touching my bed.

"How do you like Kliptora so far?" He strikes a conversation. That was a first.

"It is amazing. It is beautiful, the culture and all. I really loved the library at Greka. I also loved the dumplings at Mandrea. What about you, anything that was of significance?"

"I enjoyed the tour. I am glad Professor sent me on this journey. "

I wait for more and he just stops. I smile awkwardly and he stares at me. After a minute long of staring, I get up and say, "I should get some shut eye."

He knits his brows and asks, "What did you say? I didn't understand."

Again, I forgot these guys don't talk the way I talk. "I meant, I am going to sleep."

At that, Tony gets up and walks out. I lie down and sleep through the day.

Next night, we reunited with Tina and they took me through the sonic boomer again! I vomited as soon as I reached the other side and the thought of doing it again makes me want to stay at this part of the continent for eternity. Unfortunately, the port is at the other side of this "vomit inducer" ( vigorous air quotation).

After making myself comfortable and safely disposing the bag of my disgust towards this contraption, I took in the big gigantic building looming above us. The thunder crackled as the black mansion and the clouds grew blackish grey. We three gaped at the humongous building. Just kidding. The building was white. It was one storied but wider, Just like the factory of Mandrea.

One more observation, there were no rains or thunder or any other weather phenomenon I have felt on Kliptora for the past so many days of my travelling. I noted down in my mind to ask about that to Tony.

"Let us enter." I say and skip ahead of both of them. The moment I walked in, I was transported to a huge boutique. There were racks of clothes, some had different styles. Some were the same boring karate outfits. One thing I found was even with different varieties of clothes, they were all single shaded.That jarred me a lot. Why can't they discover designs like polka dots or stripes or checkers and then again, they are aliens and seeing them in presentable dress was a bonus.

Anyway, Tina explained that this is the first floor of the biggest textile factory and boutique of Kliptora. The further you go down, you see different stages of it's work. The bottommost floor is where cotton and silk are woven into threads. It was dark and the sounds of churning could be heard. I barely could see anything but. I could make out giant machines and Kliptorans walking here and there.

Next step was the dyeing of the threads and compiling them in stacks and the place was much brighter and quieter. The constant buzzing of a drier loomed over the side. The next floor had the treadmill, where Kliptorans sat in front of weaving machines that look like the ones on earth. They are these structures with threads arranged parallel to the frames and the machine goes up and down and somehow we have a cloth. After making sheets of clothes, the sheets are transferred to the tailoring section and there they stitch the clothes into those "beautiful" karate outfits we find on the top floor.

Tony was more interested in finding out how the machines work and Tina was not at all interested in anything.

"So, you hate clothes?" I ask.

"No. I do not hate them. When I started being a soldier, my first task was to export dresses across Kliptora. My first day did not go well."

I leaned on a pillar and Tina looked at me. I was waiting for her to continue but she didn't. "O...kay. What happened?" I nudge.

"I took the Engame one to Latina and Latina's to Arabacia. I also spilt water all over the clothes while helping to put them in the submarine. "

"A that happened in one day?"

She nodded. With that Tina walked away. That seemed like a horrible first impression. No wonder, she doesn't feel like being here. I, on the other hand, enjoyed being here. I bought a couple of clothes. After that, we made our back through the vomit inducer back to our stay room.

The next day was eventful. It was 'célébration du coton'. It is a festival celebrating the harvest of cotton, that is the basic income of Frenchi. I now get to celebrate on an alien festival!

The residents of Frenchi, we're all present at the resident side of the continent. It was a holiday. All of them decorated their houses, sorry, stayrooms with lights. Tony and I also decorated our temporary stayrooms for fun. I made shapes of hearts and Tony said it was good. We wore our finest clothes. I wore a wide open blue top with puffed sleeves and a skirt-like pants (I think they are called Palazzo in India.) I was happy to wear something other than those karate clothes. Tony wore the same blue shaded karate clothes.

At midnight (which is noon here), all the residents gathered at a concert ground which looked exactly like the concert ground in Engame. The port to Frenchi we're closed. There was a man standing on the stage. He proceeded to give a speech. It was in Frens, so, like I said earlier, nothing I understood was said.

After the speech, Everyone started running here and there. I was really confused. I just stood in the middle of a stampeding crowd which went aimlessly everywhere! I got knocked out a few times and after like a few minutes in hell, there was a sharp sound. The people stopped and looked at each other smiling. I smiled at a girl who looked twelve perhaps. She wore the same outfit as me but in a light pink shade. Her hair was black and cropped. Her eyes were grey and she smiled showing off her flawless teeth. Her pale skin complimented her eyes. She approached me and I slowly approached her.

She held my hands and I awkwardly grinned. I looked around to see people holding each other's hands. Did they just shuffle around to touch random strangers hands? Okay… I scanned the crowd for Tony and Tina and didn't find them.

I brought my gaze back to her and smiled and said the one of the only French I know, "Bonjour!"

She said the same thing. To me, her voice is sweet and soft but monotone. She gave me a piece of cloth and I took it. I saw a beautiful flower painted on the cloth. "Merci." Thank you, I said.

She nodded. We stood awkwardly until I remembered Tina handing me and Tony a piece of cloth each and asking us to paint or embroider something on it. I did paint a cute puppy beagle, which looked like Tongo. I miss Tongo now!

I take it out and present it to her. She takes it and utters a cute, merci, beaucoup and I nod at her. Suddenly, the waters around the stage burst into patterns and light colours and everyone started dancing.

"Camila." She says and walks away.

I smile and say,"Nathalia. Salût!"

She turns her head and gives a small smile.

I walk around, occasionally shaking my hips and waving my arms. After like two rounds of walking around the stage, searching for my tour guides, I find them chatting.

"Nathalia! I hope you enjoyed the ceremony. Shortly after food would be served." Tina called out.

"Yes, it was fun and thoughtful." I say and I literally felt to smile and think how cute the ceremony was. If I have to interpret the gesture, I think the cloth represents their bread as it is their source of income. Sharing a decorated piece of their creativity to another person and the whole scattering around so they get to meet new people; I loved it and I am not going to forget Camila of Frenchi.

I show Tony and Tina Camila's art and Tony shows me Tina's art which was a beautiful sunset (I mean 'helo-set') and Tina showed me Tony's. It was a telescope embroidered with blue and black thread. They were married together. I smile.

The rest of the festival went on like any event, and just like that our stay at Frenchi was over.