Donna stood amid a large crowd of people on a reddish dirt road as wide as two big city avenues placed side by side. On one side of the road stretched a brilliant sapphire sea; on the other, enormous saffron-yellow cliffs gleamed against the bright cerulean-blue sky. The scene was bathed in a golden light so intense that everything stood out in sharp contrast and almost without shadows. Donna rubbed her eyes as they ached in the sudden brilliance and oppressive heat.

No one paid attention to her even though she balanced a lemur on her head, probably because most people on this road presented an even stranger image. They wore varied outfits. Long embroidered robes and giant feather headdresses, medieval suits of armor, white draperies that vaguely reminded Donna of Ancient Greece, khaki military uniforms and h...

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