Page 115 - Up Up and Away

well. For even though it was forbidden to unleash anger,

or even excitement and joy, we all had an inkling of what

these things were. One of the activities we tried was

theatre. We would improvise plays and recite emotional

poetry. My parents gave us copies of plays and poems

from their bookshelves, thinking as scientists, that this

would make a wonderful study. I could read English and

several other languages, having been taught by my

parents. This was another area for excitement at the

college - written language. There were several clusters of

students working on a written version of the spoken

language of Andalap, which they called Andanan.

I was teaching English to a large class of students as well

as doing my own studies in science.

It was so much fun to act out the plays and our own

improvisations. We began to laugh a lot, to cry, and to
generally become quite wild. It was such a wonderful

time, and I made many friends. One of the teachers, Illa,
had a bit of a reputation as a magician. She invited some

of us to learn magic in her studio. She would be called a

white witch or a shaman on earth, I think.

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