There was a time when there was only one man in the world. His name was Ano, the Creator had made him from the earth, and he was the father of all people everywhere and every time. He roamed the world and saw all that was in it and realized what a wonderful, beautiful place the Creator had given him.

But sometimes its beauty made him lonely. When he saw the gorgeous passionflower, he was startled by it's complex beauty. He wanted to point it out to some one - but there was no one there to see. When he stood on the edge of a cliff at sundown and watched the flaming sun sizzle into the sea, he felt a quiet awe he wished to share - but no one was there to receive it. And at night, when the stars flamed above him in their clear, bright millions, he was swept away by their glory - and envious because there were so many of them.

'The stars,' be thought, 'they must never be lonely.'

One day in his travels, he found the Creator sitting in a perfect garden, enjoying creation.

"I have looked for you," Ano said.

"And that is why you have found me," answered the Creator. "Why did you want to find me?"

"I have a problem, and I want your help."

"Tell me your problem."

"I am lonely," Ano said. "I can talk, but no one hears. I can listen, but no one speaks. There is so much good, I want to share, but there is only me. I wish to be as I am, for life is very good, but sometimes I wish I was something else, a thing there are many of."

"You are lonely," announced the Creator. "And that's not good. Lonely can ruin a life. Come. I will make some one else so you won't be alone."

The Creator took up a handful of earth, and molded it into a shape, and made a new thing. The new thing was a dog, and the dog and the man began playing in the garden. The Creator took up another handful of earth, and molded it, and it turned into a horse. The man climbed onto the horse and galloped around the garden, the dog barking behind. The Creator dug up handful after handful of the rich, black, new-world earth, and molded new forms that became birds and cattle, fish and worms, lions, and tigers, and bears, and all the animals you've ever seen or heard of.

"These creatures," Ano said, "they are more wonderful than I could imagine. Are they what I am missing?"

"Perhaps," said the Creator. "Look over the world with these new things in it, and then tell me how you feel."

So Ano roamed the world again. And it was worse. Oh, the world was even more beautiful than ever. Now there were multi-chrome butterflies and green-shiny beetles on the passionflowers. Flocks of sea-foam-white birds crossed the sky at sunset, and the starry night air was filled with the happy peeping and croaking of frogs and cicadas. But, more than ever, Ano was alone.

He found the Creator again, this time sitting beside a pond in the cool of the evening, admiring the bugs skimming over the surface.

"You have found me again," said the Creator. "How do you find the new world?"

"Lonely," answered Ano. "It is more wonderful and beautiful and amazing than I imagined it could be, and becomes more so with every sight I see. But lonely. Is it always to be this way?"

The Creator knew the earth had made all the shapes it could. What was left? The two sat silently at the edge of the pond, watching the snake-doctors tap the water, bats swoop out of trees, water-striders...stride over the water. The Creator leaned over to watch the minnows swirling in the shallows - and saw a reflection, the reflection of the Creator's face staring back up from the water, staring at the Creator and watching the fireflies swirling in the evening air. And the Creator understood what shape to use to erase Ano's loneliness. The Creator reached into the water, grabbed a handful of the reflection, pulled it onto the bank, and there beside Ano sat Ino, the first woman and mother of everyone everywhere and every time. Ano and Ino looked at each other, wanted each other, loved each other.

And so the loneliness went out of the world, and Ano never had to search for the Creator again.