Riding the Wheel
Back when people lived in caves and saber-tooth tigers roamed the land, the world was sharp. From the blades of grass to the teeth on those tigers, everything went straight to the point. All the people had spiky hair.
Well, except for one girl. Her hair was wild and wavy. She talked in circles, and everyone had a hard time following her. When her tribe gathered food from the field, they loaded everything into big carts. The carts had wheels, but they weren’t the kind we have today. No, these wheels had four straight sides and four sharp points. The strongest of the clan had to push the cart to make the square wheels turn.
The little girl went to school to learn how to build the square wheels, but she was dyslexic and couldn’t count. The first wheel she made had 3 lopsided sides. Her classmates laughed. The second wheel had 7 very uneven edges. Then there was a five-sided attempt. Her teachers tried everything but couldn’t get her to make square wheels; they had no choice but to kick her out.
With nothing to do, she sat and watched her relatives push square wheels all day. “There’s got to be another way!” she’d think to herself. So she’d experiment, but every time she’d try something, the others would laugh at her.
Deeply ashamed, she ran up the hill and far, far away. As the sun went down and she felt utterly alone and hopeless, she looked up and saw a full moon－a perfect circle.
“That’s it!!” She grabbed a stone and started carving.
Five sides turned to seven and then seventeen. The girl kept carving more and more until there were infinite sides and then none at all. The wheel was so smooth it slipped out of her hands and started rolling.
She chased after it and then leaped on top of it. Riding the wheel all the way through the village and beyond. Legend has it she’s still riding that wheel today.
Riding the Wheel
Story and artwork by Pi Luna
Created out of tiny pieces of paper cut out of recycled magazines.
16 x 16 inches
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