The Hollow Men

A nikolas considered.

Before him stood many hollow men. They were men of straw - paper-maché mephistopheles. A nikolas thought that, were he to poke his finger inside, he would find nothing - but a little dirt, maybe.

So instead he tied strings to them and filled them with hydrogen! Some of them complained, but their voices were quiet and meaningless as wind in dry glass, so the nikolas ignored them. Soon he had a whole set of hollow man-balloons! They were painted in festive colours! All of the nikolas's friends came over and danced, filled with joy at the sight.

Then one of them got a little overenthusiastic, started waving a lighter around as though she were at a rock concert, and set the hollow men on fire. (They were men of straw.) They went up like firecrackers, popping in mid-air. Silly nikolas-friend!

Now a nikolas considered. The explosions were pretty, but now his guests were bored. What was a nikolas to do? A friend came up and whispered an idea to the nikolas. Quickly, he adopted it. Gathering all the nikolas-friends together, he arranged them in festive shapes, emulating the shapes of many useful molecules. Also there were sigma-star orbitals! It was quite impressive. Sadly no-one photographed it, though.

Then there was cake!

Yaaaaaaaaay!

Optional Post-Script: As an encore, a nikolas demonstrated the MO of NO. Then he got a cramp! Silly nikolases.