DUST KITTIES © By Mary-Ellen Pecci

Cultural Anthropology / Summer 2009 University of Maine Augusta

It was Setamni that the Gallaxy of Ethos, the planet Erutluc, sent to the planet Earth to observe the beings and their environment and habits. His craft was the size and appearance of the head of a dandelion gone to seed. It was capable of becoming invisible when necessary. The craft held finite equipment for transmission of information back to the mother ship which hovered on the edge of Earths galaxy.

Seta (nick name), was to circle the planet and explore the different land masses where there were beings and send back details of types of production and how production took place, and give general descriptions of numbers of people and habits.

The maps, with given names of land masses, were available for him to chart information about the two legged upright beings and their habits. The areas along the midline of Earth had growth so thick in some places he couldn’t see any beings until his craft flew under the growth. Some areas on this midline had no growth at all. These beings, as far as he could determine, did a lot of digging up of the ground in the heavy growth areas. Chasing four legged beings and pulling on their undersides or hitting them with sticks seemed to be common pass time in the barren areas. They all looked very busy and productive. Some built shelters out of sticks and leaves, some built shelter out of skins of four legged creatures.

To Seta, who was amorphous, it was odd to see some beings with extensions protruding from their upper torso and then some others with extensions protruding from their lower torso. When these two beings were together for long periods of time smaller beings were produced. He found this to be common of these beings in all areas where he collected data.

The ends of Earth were made of ice and there was very little activity in these areas. He observed a single small village at the bottom of Earth. At the top of Earth and away from the magnetic field that was detected, there were some beings that appeared to play in the water with sticks and funny looking slippery wiggly creatures would jump out and the beings would whack them in the head with sticks. These beings built shelters out of blocks cut from the ice.

Between the middle and the ends of Earth the landscape was variable and the beings were just about everywhere even flying through the air in tubes and walking on vehicles that moved in the water. Some areas were very congested with beings, and their shelters had to be built on top of each other high into the air. Each of these beings looked different. Their skin colors were different; the second skin that covered their skin was different and it came in a myriad of colors and styles. Every being seemed to have different tasks and produce differently.

As Seta moved into outlying areas with fewer beings he could discern that shelters were built out of plant material and the beings would leave their shelter to 'produce' in other shelters made of metal, concrete, and glass. In the areas with very few beings, they produced from the land or water.

On a rare occasion Seta would see a large village made out of mostly concrete with very few windows, surrounded by huge coils of silver colored wire that had many pins attached to the wire that stuck out dangerously.

The last leg of his journey around Earth gathering data was over what the map told him was the United States of America. This area was similar in data regarding shelter, production, kinship, etc. as to other areas but there were many more of the concrete villages with few windows, surrounded by double coils of the same wire that was as high as the top of the concrete buildings. Each one of these villages had several concrete building that covered a hundred (more or less) acres. These buildings lay in a circular or triangular formation with empty space in the middle.

Seta was puzzled by the lack of obvious beings. Checking his data he discovered that there were several thousand of these concrete villages and encased in them was 2.7 million beings.

Seta decided to observe the habits in the villages a little more closely. Many of these villages were toward the bottom of this land mass and in the direction which Earth’s sun comes up. He chose to observe an area his map called Georgia.

Honing in on an average size village, he heard the mechanical clanking and whining of moving metal and the concrete wall spilled forth many beings whose second skins all looked alike. Most of these beings first skin color was black, but some had different skin color and some had pictures painted on their skin. All were the type of being that had the appendage on the lower torso.

They were involved in some type of play. They would run around in circles or jump up and down sometimes with a small round object. No elation was noted. There was nothing produced by this behavior. A closer look around the interior revealed rows of cages inside which there were concrete benches and concrete places for the beings to sleep. The cages were stacked three layers high and in a circle and in the middle was an area where beings were playing with paper, throwing it in piles on a table. There was no production going on here either. Seta finally found a space where it looked like there might be some production going on but it was on such a minor level as not to be recordable.

There were beings that appeared to be in authority watching all the other beings. They had the same color second skin with very slight difference in style and shade from the beings they were watching. There was no production going on here either.

Seta was receiving an odd transmission by mistake. It must have been because his craft was hovering near equipment that had many wires and boxes. There was a being sitting in front of a box and the beings fingers were moving wildly and erratically on a board. The transmitter was called “The New York Times” and the words said, “The State of Georgia, according to a PEW study, has one in every thirteen people serviced by a corrections department, and now the inmate populations meals are being cut to two meals a day, three days a week.”

Ahuh! Seta said to himself, I get it, this landmass is a giant penal colony.

Seta could hear the very loud sound of a motor and something being dragged. He transmitted his findings just in time before being violently sucked into a long dark tube and crashing into a pile of dirt.