Before me, the flood

by Amanda Bonaconsa

A series of events occurred the second time an ark had to be built, which leads us right here, to this story.
One: the Eternal Father did not trust mankind for this new task.
Two: the Animals, for their part, thought it was better to consider the hypothesis of self-management, given their previous history.
Three: mankind had caused so many disasters, on several fronts, that the time left to act was running out.
Four: never ever entrust a Sloth with the task of writing the boarding lists.
Five: don’t leave a scorched emphysematous Koala, a starving exhausted Polar Bear or a Seal that nearly choked on a plastic bag wrapped around its neck to decide whether or not a couple of human beings can be added to the list of those who will board the ark. They will end up taking the noble decision to save only one human being: a Girl, who was actually the only one ready, with her yellow raincoat and rubber boots on, able to live on the bare necessities, incapable of abuse and great at teamwork, once she set her goal.
When the sky turned leaden and the waters started to rise, in the general turmoil, the Animals realised that the Sloth was late with the calls and therefore the male Dragonfly and the female Zebra were missing from the final headcount. Then the storm began, the ark set sail anyway and the storm quickly turned into a flood.
Since the Eternal Father wanted the planet to be as hospitable and clean as He had created it, and since to achieve this goal all the concrete eyesores erected without any taste or harmony by humans had to be removed, the second flood lasted longer than the first one and even the male Humpback Whale perished among the raging waters. That loss caused general despair and added the grief of the female Humpback Whale to that of the male Zebra and the female Dragonfly.
When the waters started to withdraw, but there was still no land in sight, the mating season began: the animals instinctively knew that pregnancies and brooding would have lasted long enough to repopulate the lands whenever they would appear on the horizon. So, when the Dove came back with the olive branch and the animals left the ark to repopulate the globe, nobody was surprised at the sight of that weird being with Zebra rear, Dragonfly wings and Humpback Whale body, given the great harmony that had reigned on board right from the start.
The Chimera, perfect inhabitant of skies, lands and seas, noticed the silent Girl standing sadly in a corner with no fellow human being to share the happiness of that first sunny day with. So it joined her and said: «I’m alone now too, would you like to come and see the world with me?». The Girl smiled and nodded, was mounted on the Chimera and together, through Sky, Sea and Land they got to know the New World.