Yesterday my small niece and I were standing on her terrace and looking out to sea at Manora Island. I’ve always been fascinated by Manora, as well as the island next to it, which looks very much like a person sitting and thinking about something. I decided to tease her and asked her if she imagined that fairies lived on the island.

“No, God didn’t make fairies or monsters.”

“Well, do you think there are dinosaurs living there?”

“No! God didn’t make fairies or monsters!”

“But dinosaurs are prehistoric animals, not monsters!”

“God didn’t make any of those things, he only made angels and human beings so that we could all be happy.”

“How about tigers?”

She looked at me and burst out laughing. “Tigers don’t live on islands, they live in the zoo!”

I decided to change my tack. “You know what I think? I think that a ship carrying tigers from a zoo in Africa to a zoo in Tokyo passed by, and it sank. Then all the tigers swam to shore and got to the island, and that’s where they live now.”

At any rate, we didn’t resolve who or what lives on Manora Island, but it was a nice piece of idle fancy. As for you, who or what do you think lives on Manora – or who should be living there?

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