When Europeans first discovered the lost island of what is now known as Popayaloco, they were amazed at the exotic variety of flora and fauna. Birds of the most startling colors, hues foreign to any conventional rainbow, would burst from branches laden with fruit of the most startling shapes and textures. The sailors thought they had discovered paradise, the Garden of Eden, Jannah, Elysium, and Valhalla. The native peoples of the island were as beautiful as any angel or houri they could imagine.
Today, the island that was thought to be paradise, Eden, Jannah, Elysium, and Valhalla is paved over with the condominiums and other concrete palaces that are the triumph of Western Progress and Improvement. The birds and monkeys and other animals are still there, kept a safe distance from tourists by glass panels and the metal bars of their cages. The wild fruits have succumbed to commercial pesticides and pollution and can now be found only in history books. The native peoples renowned for their beauty and peaceful ways roam their ancestral home at the wheels of taxicabs or in maid and bellhop uniforms.
The natives, much to the astonishment of anthropologists, environmentalists, and
other hippies, do not seem overly worried about the dispossession and destruction of their home.
There is a legend they whisper amongst themselves, a tale told to all the native Popayalocon children before they cut their first milktooth. The Popayalocon people know that when the very worst has come, their protector and Queen will come down from her Coconut Grove and save them all. It has happened before and it will happen again. Until then, the Popayalocon pass the time and drive their taxicabs and wait on the poor Europeans who are ignorant of fate and their own impending doom.
See more styles.
