(0:04 - 0:21)
Welcome to Aloe 7's Power to Learn. Today's story is part 2 of Nuua Makes People, written by Melinda Lily Thompson and narrated by Janet Martin. My baby became a child and started to walk.
(0:21 - 0:34)
My child loved to play in the mud. Mommy, it said, now missing a couple of front teeth, I want to be just like you. My child hugged me around the tail.
(0:34 - 0:49)
In the time it took to bend down and hug my child back, my child had changed again. Stop hugging, it's embarrassing, said my child, wiggling out of my arms. My child was getting taller.
(0:50 - 1:09)
In fact, my child was mostly arms and legs. Mom, my child said, sounding impatient, did you forget to make other teens? It's so boring here. Who am I supposed to hang out with? I scooped more clay and got to work.
(1:09 - 1:21)
Looking up from rolling a ball of clay, I saw that my child had changed again. Mother, said my child, now a grown-up. I figured out the mystery of life.
(1:21 - 1:35)
Come here, I'll whisper the mystery of life in your ear. By the time I had lowered my ear, my child had turned to clay and gone silent. My tears fell on the clay.
(1:36 - 1:49)
I had to be faster at making babies. Rolling and shaping clay was too slow. I couldn't make one baby at a time, watch it grow and die before there was time to make another.
(1:49 - 2:01)
It was too lonely and too heart-wrenching. I hadn't been lonely before, but now that I had lost a baby, I knew loneliness. I missed loving someone.
(2:02 - 2:14)
I needed to get busy, something that would take my mind off missing my baby and give me a purpose. I needed a modern method of making babies. No more making babies by hand.
(2:15 - 2:24)
It was too old-fashioned and slow. I took a willow branch and dipped it in the clay. Then I danced around, flicking the clay off the willow branch.
(2:25 - 2:34)
It was much faster, and I got some exercise. I made many, many clay babies by flicking clay. I loved the babies.
(2:34 - 2:51)
I changed their diapers made out of leaves and kissed their boo-boos when they hurt themselves. You people think you're busy? Try being a mom to thousands. Babies, I loved ya, but I had no time to myself.
(2:52 - 3:02)
I didn't even have time to take a relaxing bath. Someone always needed something or was getting in trouble. I needed to make some parents.
(3:02 - 3:10)
I added new ingredients to the clay. To make men, I added yang. For women, I added yin.
(3:10 - 3:26)
I told these new people about making babies. I said, watch what you breathe on, that's how I became a mother the first time. And don't put willow branches in mud and go dancing, unless you're ready to be a parent.
(3:26 - 3:40)
I made lots of babies that way. I'm just telling you. With these new yin and yang people making and taking care of the little ones, I could have a bath by myself at last.
(3:41 - 3:56)
I slipped into the soft waters of the South China Sea. My babies lived their lives, laughing and fighting on shore. I became a grandma, then a great-grandma, and now there are too many grades added to grandma to count.
(3:57 - 4:07)
The End Question. What does this story have to say about the different stages of human life? What do you think about the different stages?
