Justin glanced back along the path his people, the Oogs, had taken. They had left the jungles over a year ago, crossed a huge savannah, and now found themselves at the edge of the World. Here, there was a large expanse of green water. On the other side, strangely, there appeared to be another world. When the Oogs had reached this section of the Arabian Sea, there had been many arguments among the leaders as to what they should do next. Justin's Father, cross-eyed Oog, had said that they must plunge into the sea and remain there until they developed fins. His rationale behind this was a dream he had in which he had been chased by a bison into a deep waterhole, where his terror had changed to delight at the sudden metamorphosis his body undertook. It had felt like prescience to cross-eyed Oog, and when the OOgs had reached the sea, he was pretty certain that the dream had been sent by Great Oog as an instruction. Howvere, all the other Oogs knew cross-eyed Oog's judgment had not been dependable since he had begun ingesting Jimson Weed as an appetizer before the daily communal dinners.

Justin's uncles were named mountain Oog, for his great size and strength, cheetah Oog, for his speed, and worthless Oog, for his sloth. In fact, all the males of that generation had been named Oog. The adjectives had been adopted as a means of sorting out one Oog from another. The name Oog had been given by Justin's grandmother, Eve, to all of her children, even the females. Justin's odd moniker was the result of one of cross-eyed Oog's prescient dreams, and it had taken a lot of convincing before Justin's Mom, looks good Oog, would agree. Cross eyed Oog was sure that someday in the remote future, the strange appellation would be the most popular boy's name among all the humans. Mountain Oog had guffawed and suggested Cross eyed Oog have another handful of Jimson Weed.

At any rate, cross-eyed Oog was quite adamant about the Oog-into-fish concept. In fact, he went out about 20 yards into the gentle surf and sat down patiently, to looks good Oog's consternation. He refused to come in for the evening meal, and darkness found him still sitting patiently, occasionally looking down at hands and feet to detect the first stirrings of the metamorphosis. Justin had not slept that night, and he had heard his Mother rise several times to entreat cross-eyed Oog to come out of the water. Her husband only rose and paddled out deeper, the better to enhance the conditions for change.

In the morning the word spread quickly around the camp : Cross-eyed Oog was gone. Where he had sat, only the open ocean rolled. This convinced several other Oogs that the fish-change had indeed occurred, and they immediately seated themselves in the ocean. They had sat thus for nearly an hour when a fin broke the surface nearby, and their mutual excitement reached a pinnacle as several of them thought they recognized the transmogrified cross-eyed shark Oog. It was only when the hideously-changed former cross-eyed Oog began to snap at and pursue them that they abandoned the sea, gave up any idea of crossing it, and headed north through the sand dunes.

On the northward trail, looks good Oog was inconsolable. Her sobs and cries resounded down the forlorn beach. "Cross-eyed Oog! Sweet dreaming husband! Will you not return to me? Will you not gently teach to us the Fish Way? Why did you bite off worthless Oog's big toe?" And so on, endlessly. At last her lamenting cries adopted a sort of sing-song melody, and she began to repeat what she viewed as the most plaintive and affecting phrases. By the next day, Justin was lamenting along in a sort of high harmony, while several Oog uncles furnished a bass undertone, along with rhythmic grunts and thigh-slapping.

Imagine their surprise when they rounded a particularly high ridge of dune to confront several voyagers from the distant future, complete with digital recording equipment, headphones, and cardioid microphones. The voyager in the red ball cap turned and high-fived the one in the blue ball cap, saying "Well, Justin, I think this is it! The first freakin Folk Song!"

The blue-capped man laughed, saying "absolutely, Justin! Absolutely!"