Short Story from Aesop's Babbles (Rejects from the original fables collection)
Once upon a time there used to be two planets by name Uranus and Neptune. Uranus was male, while Neptune was female. Naturally, they were attracted to each other and fell in love. They could easily get approval for marriage, as both belonged to the same class - fuming gas giants.
But marriage was no bliss. While Uranus always remained blue, Neptune was Red, Green or Blue depending on the time of the day. Both could spin all day long either on horizontal axis or on vertical axis, But never the same way. Now everyday, Uranus rose 2 hours later, but set 2 hours earlier than Neptune. Neptune had never known this before! Sigh!. But she put up with it, as Uranus had promised her many a moon and also bought her special rings. Neptune liked her rings, but always thought they pale in front of her neighbor Saturn’s.
In their younger days, they thought life was just about happily spinning near each other like DINKs (Double Income No Kids) do on earth. Neptune spun very hard, everyday. Those days, there used to be strong gender bias in the galaxy especially against female gas giants. But neptune was determined to break the Gas ceiling. One day they saw a cute little Pluto wandering around aimlessly. Overcome by gravity, they took him in & soon they were one happy family like the DINKWADs (DINKs with a Dog).
But when god heard about this, he was very angry. "Nobody is above the laws of universe", he proclaimed. "The life of all planets revolve around their Son .. err Sun", he added. Soon Uranus and Neptune were making long term plans for their Sun. What will he be like? Which orbit should they put him in, when he is ready to spin on his own?. Getting an orbit these days was very difficult, especially after 33% orbit reservations were introduced for the asteroid belt. Uranus wanted him to be a Red Giant, while Neptune wanted him to be a White dwarf. Meanwhile, Pluto was no more getting the attention he was so used to all these days. Soon he was relegated to a sub orbit and eventually declared a Non Planet.
By the time he was 20 mn years old, Sun moved out on his own into the company of the inner planets. He lives very far these days and rarely ever visits them. Both eagerly await the return of Uncle Haley once every 70 years and keenly listen to his stories about their Sun’s life in the inner orbits. His big face off with the Angry Mars or his brief fling with the pretty Venus. Age has caught up with both Uranus and Neptune. They biding their time until the supernova explosion, when like all other planets before them, one day they will be sucked into the black hole.
Moral of the story : Men are from Uranus, Women are from Neptune
