By Way of Introduction...
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A
unicycle rolls across the jungle floor. Only a single wheel is seen lurching and jerking along rough paths. Paws on pedals. A gray blur behind jungle fronds. The ears of the jungle animals, not used to this strange conveyance, perk up and listen as the one wheeled vehicle approaches.
The strange conveyance rounds a final corner and the jungle residents behold an even stranger driver. A large gray wombat pedals the unique cycle unsteadily into the jungle clearing. The wombat is large of tummy, fuzzy of exterior, and clearly not adept in the operation of a one-wheeled conveyance.
A wombat is a marsupial, and hence has a pouch like a kangaroo. The wombat uses this pocket to hold his wallet, his car keys and other necessary objects. This wombat, being stout of figure, has an extra large pouch in which he often carries thick books about his favorite hobby, physics. But as he careens across the jungle clearing, his favorite book is pressed against his nose as he reads to himself, moving his fuzzy lips.
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Many animals in the dark forest have tails. These tails are retracted in unison as every creature nearby avoids the unsteady progress of the single wheel.
The Macaw, perched on a nearby branch, is able to read the title of the tome in which the fuzzy nose is buried. "A young person's guide to Trajectory Motion", by Professor Hazzard.
The enigmatic endomorph pedals on, his fuzzy nose buried in the book, and mouths the words, "parabola" and "wind resistance", completely unaware that every eye in the dark forest is glued on him. He is equally unaware of the tree for which he is headed.
The moose and the caribou exchange a glance. The caribou says nothing. The moose says, "I wonder who that fuzzy gray cyclist is".
The monkey, hanging inverted by his prehensile tail from a low branch, snatches the book from the wombat's paws just in time for the gray cyclist to see the tree he's about to hit.
BONK.
That's the sound of a fuzzy gray physicist bonking his fuzzy gray nose against a tree and falling off his unicycle.
As the wombat grunts to his feet, rubbing his fuzzy butt, the denizens of the dense jungle gather 'round. The wombat puts the unicycle into his pocket and looks around him.
Many fierce beasts surround the marsupial. He looks from face to face and finally, after searching each toothy grin, he asks, "Has anybody seen my book? It's an elementary survey of the physical sciences as regards things thrown or launched". All eyes turn to the monkey, upside down, reading the tome right side up.
The monkey hands the text to the marmoset, the marmoset hands it to the opossum. The opossum scans the cover and hands it to the orangutan, squatting next to the wombat. The orangutan hands the book to the gray stranger who mentally notes the page number and slips it into his pouch. "Twelve hundred fifty one", murmurs the stranger.
"Thanks awfully", say the wombat, fully recovered from his Spill. "How Do you Do?" he asks the jungle in general.
"Who are you? And exactly what kind of animal are you?" asks the moose in particular.
"Why, I'm bub", sez the gray one to the antlered one. "I'm a wombat and I'm very pleased to meet all of you", he says as he scans the teeth and eyes surrounding him, still rubbing the sore fuzzy spot on his butt.
Just as introductions are being made, a golden-brown streak barrels through the crowd, growling and laughing and seeming to contain at least five separate entities and engaged in earnest horseplay.
"A Wombat, you say", echoes the moose as he examines the stranger carefully and not altogether trustingly. "I see".
"Yes, a Wombat" re-echoes the wombat. "See, I've got a pocket". And as if to demonstrate his native marsupiality, he reaches into his pouch and produces a bouquet of flowers. This, along with a fuzzy and slightly charming smile, seems to win over the denizens of the deep forest.
This is how the Jungle, the Bear, the Boar, the Ocelot, the Lynx, the Leopard, the Lemur and all the other fierce and gentle creatures of the dark forest come to meet the wombat. This, too, is how you and I come to meet the fuzzy one.