GAIA

Mother and father were to stay away all night in a leap year party almost all night, but I had said that I didn't need a baby sitter.
I had turned on all the lights in the apartment, and the phone-number were on a piece of paper at the refrigerator door.
Nevertheless I was afraid.
I had had two bottles of lemonade and eaten muffins and potato chips while I was watching TV. After "Pictures from Norway"
there was something about the UN, then it was time for the Detectives, but I didn't dare to watch, because I was alone.
I didn't want to watch SKY-channeleither, I didn't know what to do...
I found my space construction set and started building the big space-station. But this was also a little scary when the moon lit up room.
I thought about what my father had told me about the earth and the universe.
It was the leap year night and full moon. A full moon was once a month, but leap year occured only every fourth year.
I tried to figure out how often both happened on the same date, but the calculation was so difficult that I decided to go to bed instead.
Just when I was falling asleep, I woke because I thought I heard someone crying. I went into the living-room again.
The moonlight was making the carpet white. I put on my glasses, got the remote control from the bookshelf and turned on the TV.
There was nothing on NRK, not on Swedish television either. Super-channel was as dead as the other channels,
and Sky only sent the same videos I had watched four or five times before. I pressed the text-TV button.
"WE PUT POISON IN OUR OWN DISH," I read.
"Will the North Sea be dead in fifteen years? A group of British scientists say so...."
I switch to the pages called "The Magazine." On these pages usually there were something funny to read.
"FORESTS ARE DYING ALL OVER EUROPE. New tests show that 70% of Europe's forests are threatened....."
And these were supposed to be funny ? I think I thought that all grown-ups must be crazy.
I turned to page 401, "Kid-pages". Perhaps I could find some funny jokes there. First I read a foolish joke about an engineer
who always walked in the middle of the road because he was afraid of the "wild" flowers.
A boy called Thomas had written it.
Suddenly I saw my name on the TV-screen!
- ANDERS, it said. YOU HAVE TO CHANGE TO CHANNEL 8. I AM THERE.
I wasn't meant for me, was it ? It didn't say any more. Just
- Anders. You have to change to channel 8. I am there.
I didn't understand a thing, but I turned off the text-TV and switched to channel 8. There was this girl at my own age.
Her skin was pale white, her hair was long and dark and she had a green sweater. It looked as if she had just cried.
- Hello, she said. - You are called Anders, right ?
I thought it was a regular TV-program even if nothing used to happen when we switch to channel 8. That's why I didn't answer.
- You have to talk to me, Anders, she said.
- OK, I said in a low voice.
Now I could se the girl. She stood in front of a large piles of garbage. She had to be poor, because her clothes were ragged.
I could see that she had tears in her eyes. Nevertheless she smiled in a special way.
Tears and a smile. I was like rain and sunshine at the same time.
- What's your name, I asked.
- I am Gaia.
Two big dimples showed on her face.
Gaia... My father had told me that Gaia was the Greek name of the Earth, but I didn't know that girls could have that name.
- It is a Greek name, I said. - My name is also Greek, because it comes from the name Andreas which means "man".
I don't know why I said all this, but I wasn't used to talk to girls. At least I wasn't used to talk to girls
who suddenly showed up on my TV-screen.
- Where do you live ? I asked.
- In the Milky Way, of course!
Now she smiled again, but her smile was sad also.
- I do, too. Anders Nitter, 3 Clover Road, Oslo, Norway, Europe, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way.......
- Iack, you have a too-long address. Don't you know that all people live in a small house in a big street called the Milky Way ?
- You are kidding!
- No, it's true.
She looked at me with her black eyes that sparkled seriously. It was strange to see that black eyes on a girl
with a skin as pale-white as hers.
- Why are you so pale-white ? I asked.
Her body shook for a second - You must not ask me about science, Anders.
- Why is your skin that pale-white, I mean.
- That's because I am sick. Didn't you know ?
- What is wrong with you, then ?
- It's called..... pollution. Didn't you know that either ?
She turned her head and sort of pointed at the enormous pile of garbage in the background. It had to be the garbage that made her sick.
- You didn't tell me exactly where you live.
- Don't you understand anything ? Are you as stupid as all the others.....
She sat down at a dirty barrel and hid her face in her hands.
- Gaia, I said. But she didn't answer. - Gaia, I cried, I was afraid she might go away.
Then she look up at me.
She was so beautiful I couldn't take my eyes away from her. I didn't matter, because she couldn't see me.
I had never looked at a girl this way before. She made me feel happy and sad at the same time.
Suddenly I thought of a film I had seen a long time ago. It was about some Martians that all of a sudden appeared on TV.
And Gaia had told me that she lived in the Milky Way.....
- Are you a Martian or something like that ? I had to ask.
- Nonsense, she said resigned. - You are, Anders.
- Am I ?
- Well, not exactly a Martian, then. You are an "earthborn", but it doesn't matter what you call your planet where you live.
The most important is that you love it.
I had to laugh. But I a way she was right. It wasn't more strange to be a Martian than an "earthborn".
- Why don't you tell me where you live ? I asked again.
- That's because I live everywhere. I live here. She pointed at the big garbage piles.
- Don't you have any parents ?
She nodded her head like she had a secret.
- Don't they look after you, then ?
She shook her head, and it looked as if she was going to cry again.
- Why not ?
- Don't you know ? They are too many.
- There are only two.
She shook her head again.
- All the people on this earth are my parents. But when a lot of people are to take care of something, no-one does it properly.
She looked up at me :
- It might happen that I do die.
I didn't understand a thing, the only thing I did understand was that I felt sorry for this girl.
- My name is Gaia. - Don't you understand ?
I started to fool with my spectacles because I didn't know what to answer.
- You are pretty cute with those glasses, she said, and I leapt into the air.
- But you can't see me when you just are on TV.
- I can both see you and hear you, Anders.
- Can you step out of the TV, too ?
- Of course I can, I am everywhere. I am in the flowers and the trees and the lakes. That is where I am most sick.
Now she started laughing.
- I am both boys and girls, you see. I am grown-ups, as well. Because you are me, all of you.
- This was strange.
- But it is even more strange that you don't understand this...... terribly sad, too. If you just could understand that you are one
living organism, you wouldn't let go of so much poison in nature, because no-one voluntary poison themselves.
Now she stood up and started to walk back and forth in front of the garbage-pile. I could see that a wind was blowing,
because her hair moved.
It looked as if she was cold.
- You are so beautiful, I said.
- Oh.
- Look here! She said suddenly, she started walking across the garbage-pile. While she stood on the top,
she pointed down at a large city.
- Do you see the yellow fog which is over the city ?
She had turned her back against me.
- Yes, I said loudly, I can see it.
- It is poison, Gaia said. - Do you see the trees down there, too ?
- Yes, I said, almost angry, because the trees didn't look good.
- They are almost dead. The air is so polluted that they can't breathe.......
She turned around and came towards me. I was as she was looking out of the TV-screen and into the room where I was.
- Do you see that the full moon is up, Anders ?
- I nodded. It is leap-year and full moon.
- If you were standing on the moon looking at me like a glittering pearl on the sky,
then you would see that I am as much alive as you are.....
- But I see it now, I said. I have understood!
- If you had a telescope, you would see that I am sick, too.
- Can you really see that from the moon ?
She nodded.
- From space you can see all the big cities like ugly wounds.... And from the cities the freeways beam in all directions.
Then there are new cities. It is as if something evil spreads all over the planet.
- You'll be healthy again soon, I said, because I felt terribly sorry for her.
- That's up to you, she said. -And all the others.
That was the last thing she said, because she suddenly disappeared and so did the enormous pile of garbage.
Instead came a picture of planet Earth on the screen. Below the picture the word GAIA was written in large letters.
I remember I thought that the picture must have been taken from the moon...........

Permission to put Jostein Gaarders "GAIA" on the Web has been given by Mia Bull Gundersen at Ascehoug's Publishing House, Oslo Norway.

Translated by Tor Arne

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