24.
One, two, three moons pass before Ohglo and Gok meet Min again at the 1-2-3-oah-oah-oah.
During this time, Ohglo pine for Min, while Gok try to forget her. Ohglo can see in Gok's eyes that he cannot forget the hurt of watching Ohglo and Min fuck.
Ohglo-Gok-Min la-la-la, watch the three sparks, germs, teensy weensy holes at the center of things flicker, the dance of the fireflies.
One night when a real firefly alight nearby and flash its beacon at them, Min suddenly jump up, spin around three times, and kiss the ground.
Ohglo laugh. "What that about?"
"Praising the Fireflies."
"What?"
"Praising the Fireflies. You show me they at the center of things, Ohglo."
"Yeah, but...." Ohglo feel like there something wrong with this but he don't know what. "But they just are, you know."
"What you mean, they just are?" Gok ask. "They the Center! They It! Min prove it. Everything not a baboon like Ak say. Everything, at the center, a firefly."
"Yeah, but, I mean, not exactly, um, well, I dunno," babble Ohglo. "Germ, spark, hole, firefly, these just words, tell about something we see got no name. But we know it part of us. If you 'Praise' it, then it not part of us any more. Shit, I don't know, it just don't seem right to me."
"Well, I like it, and I going to do it too," say Gok. His eyes narrow, show white. The hair on his neck bristle.
Min look at the ground. "It feel good to do it," she say quietly.
"I don't know," say Ohglo.
When they get the chance, Ohglo and Min amble away from the oahs by themselves. Ohglo-Min 1-2-3-la-la-la-la-la in the brush. By the light of the moon, Ohglo tell her, "Min, I can't live without you."
"I want to be with you, too," Ohglo.
"Can I join your ak's oah?"
"Pak never allow it. He don't think you worth the trouble. He don't like me hanging around you. You'd have to fight him. He kill you."
"Let's form our own oah then."
"We not ready yet, Ohglo. We got some friends in the other oahs, but they look at you funny too. They not ready to follow us."
"Maybe Ak let you in his oah."
Ohglo speak with Ak, his tail between his legs. "What?" Ak bark. "You want to bring another female into my oah? Tell you what. You bring her, but she be mine."
"She mine, Ak."
"Yours? Ha!" Ak guffaw. "Sure Ohglo, but after me and only when I through with her. You got no status, Ohglo. You got to take sloppy seconds."
"No, Ak. Sorry."
"Yeah, sorry, glugg. You want to be big bad baboon but you no want to obey baboon law. I the law around here, and don't you forget it, hear? Now, get out of my sight."
So for the next several moons, Ohglo sneak away from his oah, and secretly meet Min near the border of her oah-oah-oah-plotz. Sometimes this mean passing through the forest and savannah near the farm, where the glugg-glugg Farmer like to hunt. Over the years, the oah make 1-2-3 raids on the farm, whenever food scarce. The Farmer have no love for baboons.
25.
It not long before the other baboons notice Gok doing his Firefly dance. They laugh at first, chee-chee-chee, but when he tell them he is "Praising Fireflies" because they the first and last beings, they start to listen.
The older cubs and some of the young adults begin to imitate him. Whenever they see a real firefly glow in the dark, they too twist around three times and kiss the ground.
Monkey see, monkey do.
Even Ak, alarmed at first by this new fad among the young, learn to favor the Firefly Praising as consistent with the concentric baboon thesis. "Baboons aren't the only things," go his modified serman. "There's two things. Everything is a baboon, but at the center of every baboon is a firefly."
The older baboons of his own oah and even some of the other oahs are quick to recognize Ak's wisdom in reconciling his ideas with one of his ka's.
ka: heir apparent.
Ohglo and Gok have a fight.
"You got baboons worshipping fireflies Gok, grovelling before them. This not right. This not what we meant. Fireflies didn't create no damn universe. That what you got most of the oah believing! How can you do it?"
"What the difference? It make them happy. They need something. What do you know? You just a glugg, and gluggs can't think abstractly."
"Gok!" Ohglo stomach churn. "I don't believe you saying this."
"Believe it!"
"Gok, I love you!"
"Ohglo, you stink!"
Ohglo swat Gok across the snout.
Gok take a bite the size of an apple out of Ohglo's thigh. Ohglo squeal and let the tears flow.
That night, Ohglo limp in pain to see Min. By the time he reach her smell, he sick from the wound in his leg. He let out his secret yell, a shrill glugg scream, "A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a!"
When Min finally find him, he shivering, feverish, in a cold sweat. She lick him all over. She hug him in silence. He sleep in her warmth. She la-la-la him in his sleep.
Ohglo awake at dawn with a terrible thirst. Leaning against Min, he hobble down to the nearby stream.
He scoop a handful of water to drink. The water turn to blood! He spit out the liver taste. At the spot where his spittle strike the stream, a light flicker, a firefly. The firefly rise
into the air and lead out of the crimson stream a host of dead souls -- baboons, gluggs, all living creatures. A loud BOOM! like a gunshot shake the savannah stillness. The streambed open into a canyon. Out of the canyon soar a swarm of dreadful insects, still
led by the flickering firefly: whiteflies, white ants, white termites, white moths, dragonflies, mantises, cicadas, locusts. The insects attack Ohglo and start to eat him. Limping, he run in terror. Ohglo see end-of-world.
In the distance, he hear thunder, a Land Rover bouncing over the savannah. The Farmer!
"We got to warn them!" he croak to Min. He fall over. She rush to him. "Got to get back to the oah...got to warn them...end-of-world...end-of-world..." he mutter out of his mind.
With Min half carrying Ohglo much of the way, they plod back to the oah, Ak's oah.
The Land Rover come near, go away, come near, go away.
There are no forests in this part of the savannah, but a clear-headed Ohglo would find some trees and hide, rather than return to the oah. But Ohglo sure he is dying. He have to warn the oah. He have to see Smak again, make up with Gok. Ak will protect them.
When they reach the smell of the oah, it midday, hot and still. They should stop when they see a bunch of wire boxes -- a bank of cages -- with piles of tempting maize inside. They not so dumb as to try for the maize. They know a trap when they see one. But they should know the Farmer is close upon them, and he not alone.
Just as they catch sight of the rear-guard baboons, Ohglo spot a female glugg-glugg right in front of him, with straight black hair squaring off her dark eyes. He never see anything like her before. He stop and stare. She hold up some kind of box to her face to shoot him. The box go click, and he suck in his breath, but he not dead.
Then he see another glugg-glugg, male, with a red hair and red spots on his face. This glugg pop out from behind a tree and throw a rope around Ohglo's neck. Ohglo scream bloody murder.
Ak swing out of a tree to check out the fuss. He see the gluggs. He yawn ferociously at them. The lids of his eyes go white. He bellow. The glugg holding the rope so frightened he let go.
Another glugg, little, look just like the Farmer, come from behind another tree and holler. The fat Farmer himself appear, raise a gun toward Ak.
Ohglo hear the female glugg scream "No!" in a funny language.
BLAM! BLAM-BLAM-BLAM!
Ak stumble backward, surprise in his eyes. His brains splatter against a tree. He falter. He fall.
Ohglo free himself from the rope and run, his limp suddenly cured.
Ak groan, shudder, and die.
As if Ak's death and order, "every monkey for himself," the oah scatter in all directions and vanish into the trees.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
EIGHTEEN: Ohglo Medium
20.
Baboons don't reckon time in years. At the equator, there's two seasons, rainy and dry, both hot. The sun is a baboon that come out in the day and sleep at night.
Baboons measure time when they need to by months. The changes of the moon in a month bigger than the little shifts of the sun in a year. And there's the monthly flow of blood that baboon females, like gluggs, are famous for. But they rarely count more than the eight months or so of a pregnancy. Age is reckoned in general by size: small, medium, and large.
For her own cub, a mother might refine the measure more closely, with stages, like baby, infant, cub, youth, and adult. Even so, Smak do notice that Ohglo taking much too long to grow up. Often she sneer to Ohglo, "Gluggs can stay babies forever. We not rich like the gluggs. I got my own cubs to mother. I got no time for you, Gluggikins. You have to mother yourself."
So she push Ohglo away from her and make him fend for himself when he only about eight glugg years old -- about medium for him.
His buddy Gok about six in glugg years, he nearly grown. He not as big as the adult males, but he can do all the things that they can do. Smak and the other grown-ups treat Gok and Ohglo more and more as if they were adults.
But Gok and Ohglo still play like cubs.
One day Ohglo and Gok wander from the oah. They hunt Leopard, ek-ek-ek. Secretly, they hope not to find him.
They do find a leopard cub up in an umbrella tree at the edge of one of the many small forests near the oah-oah-oah-plotz. The leopard flash his eyes in silence, all ready to pounce on Gok. The leopard snarl. Gok holler "ek-ek-ek!" and also "Smak!" like little cub.
Ohglo talk to the leopard. "Hey Leopard!" Ohglo shout, waving his arms. "You stupid fool! Don't you see I am meatier than my buddy here? And, if you pick me to eat up, you won't have to leap down from the tree and risk hurting yourself. I will come up to you!" Ohglo scoot up the tree, screeching and hooting all the way. When he reach the limb where the leopard perched, the leopard squeal like a kitty cat, leap off the limb the wrong way, and vanish into the forest.
Gok glad to be alive, but he look at Ohglo funny. That not the way you are supposed to hunt leopard.
To show how brave they are, Ohglo and Gok chase the leopard through the forest. But they know this leopard only a cub and have a fierce mother close by. So after awhile they lose its trail.
They rest beside a stream. The stream seem familiar to Ohglo, but he don't remember why. They splash in the cool water.
They la-la-la.
la-la-la: to groom, grooming, story-telling, dream-sharing, painting each other's dreams.
They lie close together, almost -- but not quite -- touching, an electric-arc gap between them. Gok gently stroke each of Ohglo's hairs. Ohglo stroke each of Gok's hairs. The Dream ooze out of their pores in rainbow-hued tendrills, and rise up between them. The tendrils join in a cloud, the colors combine. What each of them see is a golden flame engulfing their bodies, slowly, slowly consuming them in light. Ohglo-Gok disintegrate into shards of light, merge together, and dissolve into the fire, which is warm, but not hot. Their souls rise to the sky in wisps of violet smoke. A dream of love. A dream of joy. A dream of death.
Ohglo notice that out of a pocket of fur under Gok's belly, his little red penis poke out. Ohglo rub. Gok purr, eyes go glassy.
Ohglo's penis also grow stiff. Gok giggle and twist around to lick it with his tongue. He close his mouth, and Ohglo feel Gok's dagger-like teeth against him. Ohglo jerk away. Then Ohglo stick his rear-end up in the air as he seen Smak do so often. Gok pant and slobber. Gok mount Ohglo from the rear, slip his penis up Ohglo's asshole. Gok-Ohglo la-la-la-la-la.
la-la-la-la-la: fuck.
Afterwards, they lie quiet in the sun. Ohglo thirst. He reach down to drink from the stream. Water turn to blood. Blood, blood, 1-2-3 blood. A rumbling come on up from deep in the stream bed. The earth shaking. Ohglo-Gok start to run. Before they know it, Ohglo-Gok find they on opposite sides of the stream. The stream open up between them. Their hair stand on end. From out of the depths come swarms of insects: whiteflies, white ants, white termites, white moths, dragonflies, mantises, cicadas, locusts, rising to the sky like souls of the dead. End-of-world.
Gok hear the thunder first. Ohglo take longer to hear, but soon he hear it too. This not thunder from the bed of the stream. This not thunder from the sky. This thunder from the hoofbeats of horses charging through the underbrush.
The two of them run and run away. They meet again on the same side of the stream and scamper up a tree, an umbrella tree. They see several horses ridden by gluggs, glugg-gluggs.
The Farmer! The Farmer whose cattle Ohglo stole moons and moons ago! In the distance Ohglo-Gok see the farm with so many yummy things to eat. Ohglo and Gok freeze behind the leaves and pretend to be plover nests.
"Let's go back to the oah," Gok whisper, fear in his eyes.
"Mmm," say Ohglo, thinking.
When the rustling of the horses through the brush stop, Gok pick one of the capparis fruits that grow on a vine inside the umbrella tree. The capparis fruit look like an apple with a tough skin.
"Look!" Gok cry. The skin of the capparis slightly shrivelled. This mean the fruit inside fermented.
Ohglo and Gok eagerly suck up the mushy capparis wine. As the tree sway in the afternoon breeze, they filled with new courage.
"You think what I think?" ask Ohglo.
"Huh?" say Gok.
"The Farmer up here. The Farmer not at farm."
"Huh?"
"Le's go to the farm, Gok, see wha we can see!" Ohglo slur.
"You crazy, Ohglo." They stumble down the tree and steal down the horse trail, too drunk to be sneaky. They hide in the tall elephant grass.
They sneak up noisily on the house. The house still. The house huge, white, made of the insides of trees, with columns in the front. Many windows. Around the house is a gl green clipped lawn. Around the lawn, a white fence made of pointed sticks like spears. Ohglo and Gok hide behind the fence and peek through with wide-open eyes.
gl green: wet, medium green. Monkeys have 1-2-3 words for the color green.
Just inside the fence is a pink-faced, plump baby glugg, crawling on the grass, digging in the dirt all by himself.
Ohglo can't take his eyes off the creature and sneak up as close as he can. The baby see him, smile, and crawl over to him. The baby press his face against the fence right under Ohglo's nose.
"Isn't he cute, Gok?" Ohglo say.
"Cute? Cute?" Gok mock. "Shit face baby glugg cub. Let's get out of here, Ohglo. Glugg like leopard when it come to cubs."
Ohglo can't resist. He pick up the baby in his arms and hug him. The baby look, smile some more. Then the baby scream. Scream so loud he scare Ohglo. Ohglo drop him in the dirt. Baby scream some more. Dark-face female glugg just inside the door run out, see baby, Ohglo, Gok. She scream. Ohglo and Gok high-tail it out of there.
They run like the desert wind, sober now, through the grasses along the horse trail, past the range cattle. It not long before they hear the roar of a putt-putt behind them. The Land Rover get so close Ohglo can see a pink-faced female glugg driving. Then she stop. She shoot a gun at them. Blam! Blam!
The shots miss, and Ohglo and Gok reach the the forest in time to watch the Land Rover give up, turn around, and go back.
They stop to catch their breath. "Whew! That was close!" say Ohglo.
"I wanna go back to the oah!" Gok whine.
"It be all right. We safe now," Ohglo tell him.
"Oh yeah? What that, then?"
"What?"
"That noise, Ohglo. Can't you hear?"
Ohglo listen. "Dogs! You win, Gok, let's go. Uh...which way?"
"You don't know? You can't smell?"
Ohglo hang his head.
"You a stupid glugg, Ohglo. You can't hear. You can't smell. You only good for trouble. Follow me."
They run until they tired, rest, and run some more. The dogs keep coming and coming.
Soon the dogs are upon them. "Dogs can't climb trees!" say Ohglo.
"They can't?"
Ohglo and Gok scoot up the nearest tree and wait. The lead dog, a red setter, stop to sniff at the base of the tree. Ohglo- Gok drop on the dog's neck. Gok bite. Ohglo reach around and grab the dog's balls. Then he pick up a rock and crack the dog's skull. Blood gush out all over them. The dog shudder, and die.
"You not so dumb," Gok say. "Shall we eat it?"
"Naw, we better go. More dogs coming, then gluggs on horses." Ohglo and Gok run on. They hear the other dogs squeal and whimper over their dead comrade.
When they reach the oah, it is dark, and the dogs silent at last. Each of the thirty or so baboons is sprawled out on its own branch of one of the fever trees in the grove. Some already asleep. Some moan softly at the moon.
Smak snarl at Ohglo and Gok. She climb off her tree and sniff at them. She look like she trying to think of them as grown, can't, give up. She clap each of them sharply behind the ear. Gok stagger. Ohglo fall over.
"I smell all the trouble you been up to, you rotten cubs! You been running scared a 1-2-3 long time. You better not of stirred up any gluggs, hear?"
"Oh no, Smak," say Ohglo.
Gok eyes droop.
Ohglo and Gok find a tree to themselves at the edge of the grove. They la-la-la, but all they picture is running, running, running, blood running out of the dog, could of been them.
21.
At sunrise the next morning, the oah startled awake by the barking of nearby dogs.
Alarms are sounded, "ek-ek-ek," all over the sleeping area. Ak bellow for disciplined retreat, but there is some panic. The smaks have to fetch their cubs and carry them clinging for life to the fur of the smaks' bellies.
Before the oah get under way, the horses come charging into their midst. There are three horses ridden by gluggs, the Farmer and two others. Ak howl, "Every monkey for himself," the only realistic strategy.
The strategy work. The monkeys disappear one by one into the dense upper branches of the fever trees where the birds live.
Shots are fired. One shot whistle past Ohglo's ear. But the monkeys too quick for the gluggs. After circling the area for awhile, the gluggs gallop away.
The oah re-form gingerly after some time. Smaks count their cubs. Suddenly the forest stillness shattered by wails of sorrow. It is Smak. "My cub! My cub!" she scream. Her youngest, Titi, missing.
The baboons search the area.
Ohglo himself find her. She all flattened by hoofbeats. Her guts hang out. He throw up.
Smak clasp the little dead cub to her bosom and lope away from the oah. The oah begin to retreat from the path of the horses. Smak follow along just inside the range of her smell. From time to time she climb the tallest of trees, still clutching her dead cub. From the top of the tree, she howl at the sky.
Ak stride up to Ohglo and glare at him with murder in his eyes. With one look, he let Ohglo know that he blame him for all the trouble, for the oah's having to move, to migrate, and for the death of the cub -- Ak figure he probably the cub's father. He gape a threatening yawn in Ohglo's face. His pointed teeth gleam. He could bite off Ohglo's arm, head, leg, or any part of him. Without words, he send the message, "You the cause of all this! You better watch out, glugg!"
22.
Ak spend his time again pissing on rocks to mark the new boundries of the shrinking oah-oah-oah-plotz. A bitterness take hold of him.
He forced to humiliate himself before his ancient enemy, Olly Big-ears, the chimpanzee and his gang of stupid, uncivilized thugs.
He go up to the chimps' smelly sleeping trees alone, he tell the oah later. "I stick my ass up in the air so Big-ears know I come in peace. I wait forever before Big-shit would see me. I simper and whine at him. 'Glugg, glugg, glugg,' I keep saying. He know what I want. He heard the guns. Me and Olly hate each other, but we hate gluggs worse. Olly raise his hand toward a little speck of his forest. We can hide out there if we need to. At least there's oah-oah-oah-oah-oah."
oah-oah-oah-oah-oah: water.
23.
Monkeys don't grieve for long. Not over cubs. Too many die. Moan a day, and that's it. Make another one.
It not so much that Ohglo is forgiven. It more like the incident with the Farmer and the dead cub are forgotten. Bristled fur still arise between Ak and Ohglo, but Ak hardly remember what his anger about. Ohglo do not remind him.
For himself, Ohglo begin to make up stories about his adventures to tell the younger baboons.
He add many stories to the basic lore of the oah. The stories start out simple, such as: tzzz oah-oah-oah-oah glugg pop. This translate into the images of la-la-la as an emotional autobiography -- what it feel like, by and large, to be a glugg living among the baboons. Stroking each of the cubs gently as he repeat his tale, he give them love, ambivalence, fear, confusion, humor.
By the time he get to the details, his zeal go to his head. The six calves he once stole become a whole herd of cattle. The Farmer he once managed to escape from and leave in his own booby trap is killed by Ohglo in the retelling. The glugg baby he once picked up is "kidnapped" according to the legend.
But even the smallest baboon cub know that all stories are lies, and all the more eagerly do they believe them.
Ohglo's fame as a story-teller come to rival his notoriety as a trouble-maker.
He might be even more famous, but now that the oah-plotz is smaller, the oah get to fewer 1-2-3-oah-oah-oahs.
1-2-3-oah-oah-oah: gathering of baboon troops.
But every other full moon or so, Ak's oah do make it to where the other oahs gather by the cliffs to argue.
Ohglo and Gok dream of busting out of Ak's oah and building one of their own.
They listen to the chatter now. Some of the other young adults are thinking too.
There is a tough female name-of Min who is collecting a following. A female baboon leading an oah, is rare, and usually happen only when the male ak suddenly die.
Min call her idea the Germ theory. She preach that at the center of the mind is a teensy-weensy spark, the first and last germ. Ping! is the word she squeal for it. She believe that this germ in each living thing, the center, live beyond death and pass through the food chain from one being to another.
"The spark at the center of you is a teensy weensy hole that time pass through," Min sing with a far off look in her eye. "You pass through it yourself whe you die. You burn up in a slow fire. Your become dirt. Then you reborn as something else. The spark at the center live on. If a worm eat your spark, you become a worm. If a flower suck it up, you become a flower."
Ohglo and Gok gaze at her in wonder. Min have bright grey eyes that beam like moons from under her deep, heavy brow. Around her hot pink face are tufted side-burns of the softest fur, white, speckled with gold and olive brown. Her snout slope gracefully down to her nostrils, delicately flared. Her mouth have a thoughtful tension to it. Her neck is soft and cudly, like the feathers of a baby bird.
Ohglo and Gok both fall out of their heads over her. Her ideas are like a splash in a spring-fed stream.
One pre-dawn morning when the sun is just a pale memory at the edge of the sky, while the 1-2-3-oah-oah-oah still snore on the crags of the cliff, Ohglo wake up thirsty from a dream about sand. He climb down from his perch next to Gok and go down to the water-hole for a drink. The full moon is setting, blue and elephant-sized. Ohglo stare at the moon. "That's no face, that's no baboon," he think to himself. "Ak wrong."
He gaze at his own reflection in the water-hole. "She'll never love a flat-faced freak like me," he whine.
Then suddenly a fine long face appear just above his reflected in the moonlit water. Ohglo start. He lose his balance. He almost fall in, but the baboon grab him.
"Min!" he yell.
Min giggle and slap her sofly calloused paw over his mouth to shut him up. She hold him in her forelimbs. Ohglo hesitate, then hug back. It feel fine to be close with Min. "La-la-la?" she coo.
"La-la-la" Ohglo answer.
They hobble forelimb in forelimb into the brush away form eyeshot of the other nosey baboons.
Ohglo feel Gok awake at his perch, watching them.
Ohglo-Min la-la-la.
They lie together in the grass, almost -- but not quite -- touching, an electric-arc gap between them. The wispy, rainbow- hued tendrils of their dreams ooze out of their pores and intertwine. Ohglo and Min as separate beings drift out of their bodies and scatter in the breeze like the head of a pregnant dandelion. At the very end of each of their dreams are the two sparks at the center of things, the first and last germs, the teensy weensy holes.
"Fireflies!" Ohglo laugh.
"What?"
"Fireflies! Your sparks look just like fireflies."
"Oh. They do., don't they? I like that. Fireflies! The firefly at the center of things. You so clever, Ohglo!" She give his flat face a lick with her tongue.
As the two fireflies flutter above it, the bottom fall out of the water-hole. The fireflies suddenly sucked into the dark cavity and Ohglo-Min dream web sucked and sucked down with them through the earth.
End-of-world.
Cringing with terror, they keep on falling through. Down, down, down they go, faster and faster. Just when they about to vanish in the hot molten core of the earth, they land with a soft plop on a cool, quiet rock, the moon. Ohglo-Min awash in cool white fire of moonlight.
End-of-world-but.
They cling togther in the unearthly quiet. Ever so softly, their joint being flutter back to earth. A rush of warmth charge them up and re-ignite the fire that burn warm inside their bellies.
Min stand up and stick her fiery red rear in the air by Ohglo's face. Beaming below her ass-hole are the magnificent blushing red callouses, smooth, hard and hairless, bulging lips to her vaginal mouth. Ohglo press his face against the swelling, tasting then lapping up the sweet and juicy nectar.
All-over trembling, Ohglo mount Min from the rear. Min turn her head, bite his shoulder, and scramble forward, giggling. He try again. She bite again, her fangs drawing blood this time. Again he jump her. The time she gnaw him gently, but she let him stay and slip and slide inside her.
Ohglo-Min la-la-la-la-la. By the pale light of the moon, Ohglo-Min fuck.
They lie together as one being and watch the sun rise.
Baboons don't reckon time in years. At the equator, there's two seasons, rainy and dry, both hot. The sun is a baboon that come out in the day and sleep at night.
Baboons measure time when they need to by months. The changes of the moon in a month bigger than the little shifts of the sun in a year. And there's the monthly flow of blood that baboon females, like gluggs, are famous for. But they rarely count more than the eight months or so of a pregnancy. Age is reckoned in general by size: small, medium, and large.
For her own cub, a mother might refine the measure more closely, with stages, like baby, infant, cub, youth, and adult. Even so, Smak do notice that Ohglo taking much too long to grow up. Often she sneer to Ohglo, "Gluggs can stay babies forever. We not rich like the gluggs. I got my own cubs to mother. I got no time for you, Gluggikins. You have to mother yourself."
So she push Ohglo away from her and make him fend for himself when he only about eight glugg years old -- about medium for him.
His buddy Gok about six in glugg years, he nearly grown. He not as big as the adult males, but he can do all the things that they can do. Smak and the other grown-ups treat Gok and Ohglo more and more as if they were adults.
But Gok and Ohglo still play like cubs.
One day Ohglo and Gok wander from the oah. They hunt Leopard, ek-ek-ek. Secretly, they hope not to find him.
They do find a leopard cub up in an umbrella tree at the edge of one of the many small forests near the oah-oah-oah-plotz. The leopard flash his eyes in silence, all ready to pounce on Gok. The leopard snarl. Gok holler "ek-ek-ek!" and also "Smak!" like little cub.
Ohglo talk to the leopard. "Hey Leopard!" Ohglo shout, waving his arms. "You stupid fool! Don't you see I am meatier than my buddy here? And, if you pick me to eat up, you won't have to leap down from the tree and risk hurting yourself. I will come up to you!" Ohglo scoot up the tree, screeching and hooting all the way. When he reach the limb where the leopard perched, the leopard squeal like a kitty cat, leap off the limb the wrong way, and vanish into the forest.
Gok glad to be alive, but he look at Ohglo funny. That not the way you are supposed to hunt leopard.
To show how brave they are, Ohglo and Gok chase the leopard through the forest. But they know this leopard only a cub and have a fierce mother close by. So after awhile they lose its trail.
They rest beside a stream. The stream seem familiar to Ohglo, but he don't remember why. They splash in the cool water.
They la-la-la.
la-la-la: to groom, grooming, story-telling, dream-sharing, painting each other's dreams.
They lie close together, almost -- but not quite -- touching, an electric-arc gap between them. Gok gently stroke each of Ohglo's hairs. Ohglo stroke each of Gok's hairs. The Dream ooze out of their pores in rainbow-hued tendrills, and rise up between them. The tendrils join in a cloud, the colors combine. What each of them see is a golden flame engulfing their bodies, slowly, slowly consuming them in light. Ohglo-Gok disintegrate into shards of light, merge together, and dissolve into the fire, which is warm, but not hot. Their souls rise to the sky in wisps of violet smoke. A dream of love. A dream of joy. A dream of death.
Ohglo notice that out of a pocket of fur under Gok's belly, his little red penis poke out. Ohglo rub. Gok purr, eyes go glassy.
Ohglo's penis also grow stiff. Gok giggle and twist around to lick it with his tongue. He close his mouth, and Ohglo feel Gok's dagger-like teeth against him. Ohglo jerk away. Then Ohglo stick his rear-end up in the air as he seen Smak do so often. Gok pant and slobber. Gok mount Ohglo from the rear, slip his penis up Ohglo's asshole. Gok-Ohglo la-la-la-la-la.
la-la-la-la-la: fuck.
Afterwards, they lie quiet in the sun. Ohglo thirst. He reach down to drink from the stream. Water turn to blood. Blood, blood, 1-2-3 blood. A rumbling come on up from deep in the stream bed. The earth shaking. Ohglo-Gok start to run. Before they know it, Ohglo-Gok find they on opposite sides of the stream. The stream open up between them. Their hair stand on end. From out of the depths come swarms of insects: whiteflies, white ants, white termites, white moths, dragonflies, mantises, cicadas, locusts, rising to the sky like souls of the dead. End-of-world.
Gok hear the thunder first. Ohglo take longer to hear, but soon he hear it too. This not thunder from the bed of the stream. This not thunder from the sky. This thunder from the hoofbeats of horses charging through the underbrush.
The two of them run and run away. They meet again on the same side of the stream and scamper up a tree, an umbrella tree. They see several horses ridden by gluggs, glugg-gluggs.
The Farmer! The Farmer whose cattle Ohglo stole moons and moons ago! In the distance Ohglo-Gok see the farm with so many yummy things to eat. Ohglo and Gok freeze behind the leaves and pretend to be plover nests.
"Let's go back to the oah," Gok whisper, fear in his eyes.
"Mmm," say Ohglo, thinking.
When the rustling of the horses through the brush stop, Gok pick one of the capparis fruits that grow on a vine inside the umbrella tree. The capparis fruit look like an apple with a tough skin.
"Look!" Gok cry. The skin of the capparis slightly shrivelled. This mean the fruit inside fermented.
Ohglo and Gok eagerly suck up the mushy capparis wine. As the tree sway in the afternoon breeze, they filled with new courage.
"You think what I think?" ask Ohglo.
"Huh?" say Gok.
"The Farmer up here. The Farmer not at farm."
"Huh?"
"Le's go to the farm, Gok, see wha we can see!" Ohglo slur.
"You crazy, Ohglo." They stumble down the tree and steal down the horse trail, too drunk to be sneaky. They hide in the tall elephant grass.
They sneak up noisily on the house. The house still. The house huge, white, made of the insides of trees, with columns in the front. Many windows. Around the house is a gl green clipped lawn. Around the lawn, a white fence made of pointed sticks like spears. Ohglo and Gok hide behind the fence and peek through with wide-open eyes.
gl green: wet, medium green. Monkeys have 1-2-3 words for the color green.
Just inside the fence is a pink-faced, plump baby glugg, crawling on the grass, digging in the dirt all by himself.
Ohglo can't take his eyes off the creature and sneak up as close as he can. The baby see him, smile, and crawl over to him. The baby press his face against the fence right under Ohglo's nose.
"Isn't he cute, Gok?" Ohglo say.
"Cute? Cute?" Gok mock. "Shit face baby glugg cub. Let's get out of here, Ohglo. Glugg like leopard when it come to cubs."
Ohglo can't resist. He pick up the baby in his arms and hug him. The baby look, smile some more. Then the baby scream. Scream so loud he scare Ohglo. Ohglo drop him in the dirt. Baby scream some more. Dark-face female glugg just inside the door run out, see baby, Ohglo, Gok. She scream. Ohglo and Gok high-tail it out of there.
They run like the desert wind, sober now, through the grasses along the horse trail, past the range cattle. It not long before they hear the roar of a putt-putt behind them. The Land Rover get so close Ohglo can see a pink-faced female glugg driving. Then she stop. She shoot a gun at them. Blam! Blam!
The shots miss, and Ohglo and Gok reach the the forest in time to watch the Land Rover give up, turn around, and go back.
They stop to catch their breath. "Whew! That was close!" say Ohglo.
"I wanna go back to the oah!" Gok whine.
"It be all right. We safe now," Ohglo tell him.
"Oh yeah? What that, then?"
"What?"
"That noise, Ohglo. Can't you hear?"
Ohglo listen. "Dogs! You win, Gok, let's go. Uh...which way?"
"You don't know? You can't smell?"
Ohglo hang his head.
"You a stupid glugg, Ohglo. You can't hear. You can't smell. You only good for trouble. Follow me."
They run until they tired, rest, and run some more. The dogs keep coming and coming.
Soon the dogs are upon them. "Dogs can't climb trees!" say Ohglo.
"They can't?"
Ohglo and Gok scoot up the nearest tree and wait. The lead dog, a red setter, stop to sniff at the base of the tree. Ohglo- Gok drop on the dog's neck. Gok bite. Ohglo reach around and grab the dog's balls. Then he pick up a rock and crack the dog's skull. Blood gush out all over them. The dog shudder, and die.
"You not so dumb," Gok say. "Shall we eat it?"
"Naw, we better go. More dogs coming, then gluggs on horses." Ohglo and Gok run on. They hear the other dogs squeal and whimper over their dead comrade.
When they reach the oah, it is dark, and the dogs silent at last. Each of the thirty or so baboons is sprawled out on its own branch of one of the fever trees in the grove. Some already asleep. Some moan softly at the moon.
Smak snarl at Ohglo and Gok. She climb off her tree and sniff at them. She look like she trying to think of them as grown, can't, give up. She clap each of them sharply behind the ear. Gok stagger. Ohglo fall over.
"I smell all the trouble you been up to, you rotten cubs! You been running scared a 1-2-3 long time. You better not of stirred up any gluggs, hear?"
"Oh no, Smak," say Ohglo.
Gok eyes droop.
Ohglo and Gok find a tree to themselves at the edge of the grove. They la-la-la, but all they picture is running, running, running, blood running out of the dog, could of been them.
21.
At sunrise the next morning, the oah startled awake by the barking of nearby dogs.
Alarms are sounded, "ek-ek-ek," all over the sleeping area. Ak bellow for disciplined retreat, but there is some panic. The smaks have to fetch their cubs and carry them clinging for life to the fur of the smaks' bellies.
Before the oah get under way, the horses come charging into their midst. There are three horses ridden by gluggs, the Farmer and two others. Ak howl, "Every monkey for himself," the only realistic strategy.
The strategy work. The monkeys disappear one by one into the dense upper branches of the fever trees where the birds live.
Shots are fired. One shot whistle past Ohglo's ear. But the monkeys too quick for the gluggs. After circling the area for awhile, the gluggs gallop away.
The oah re-form gingerly after some time. Smaks count their cubs. Suddenly the forest stillness shattered by wails of sorrow. It is Smak. "My cub! My cub!" she scream. Her youngest, Titi, missing.
The baboons search the area.
Ohglo himself find her. She all flattened by hoofbeats. Her guts hang out. He throw up.
Smak clasp the little dead cub to her bosom and lope away from the oah. The oah begin to retreat from the path of the horses. Smak follow along just inside the range of her smell. From time to time she climb the tallest of trees, still clutching her dead cub. From the top of the tree, she howl at the sky.
Ak stride up to Ohglo and glare at him with murder in his eyes. With one look, he let Ohglo know that he blame him for all the trouble, for the oah's having to move, to migrate, and for the death of the cub -- Ak figure he probably the cub's father. He gape a threatening yawn in Ohglo's face. His pointed teeth gleam. He could bite off Ohglo's arm, head, leg, or any part of him. Without words, he send the message, "You the cause of all this! You better watch out, glugg!"
22.
Ak spend his time again pissing on rocks to mark the new boundries of the shrinking oah-oah-oah-plotz. A bitterness take hold of him.
He forced to humiliate himself before his ancient enemy, Olly Big-ears, the chimpanzee and his gang of stupid, uncivilized thugs.
He go up to the chimps' smelly sleeping trees alone, he tell the oah later. "I stick my ass up in the air so Big-ears know I come in peace. I wait forever before Big-shit would see me. I simper and whine at him. 'Glugg, glugg, glugg,' I keep saying. He know what I want. He heard the guns. Me and Olly hate each other, but we hate gluggs worse. Olly raise his hand toward a little speck of his forest. We can hide out there if we need to. At least there's oah-oah-oah-oah-oah."
oah-oah-oah-oah-oah: water.
23.
Monkeys don't grieve for long. Not over cubs. Too many die. Moan a day, and that's it. Make another one.
It not so much that Ohglo is forgiven. It more like the incident with the Farmer and the dead cub are forgotten. Bristled fur still arise between Ak and Ohglo, but Ak hardly remember what his anger about. Ohglo do not remind him.
For himself, Ohglo begin to make up stories about his adventures to tell the younger baboons.
He add many stories to the basic lore of the oah. The stories start out simple, such as: tzzz oah-oah-oah-oah glugg pop. This translate into the images of la-la-la as an emotional autobiography -- what it feel like, by and large, to be a glugg living among the baboons. Stroking each of the cubs gently as he repeat his tale, he give them love, ambivalence, fear, confusion, humor.
By the time he get to the details, his zeal go to his head. The six calves he once stole become a whole herd of cattle. The Farmer he once managed to escape from and leave in his own booby trap is killed by Ohglo in the retelling. The glugg baby he once picked up is "kidnapped" according to the legend.
But even the smallest baboon cub know that all stories are lies, and all the more eagerly do they believe them.
Ohglo's fame as a story-teller come to rival his notoriety as a trouble-maker.
He might be even more famous, but now that the oah-plotz is smaller, the oah get to fewer 1-2-3-oah-oah-oahs.
1-2-3-oah-oah-oah: gathering of baboon troops.
But every other full moon or so, Ak's oah do make it to where the other oahs gather by the cliffs to argue.
Ohglo and Gok dream of busting out of Ak's oah and building one of their own.
They listen to the chatter now. Some of the other young adults are thinking too.
There is a tough female name-of Min who is collecting a following. A female baboon leading an oah, is rare, and usually happen only when the male ak suddenly die.
Min call her idea the Germ theory. She preach that at the center of the mind is a teensy-weensy spark, the first and last germ. Ping! is the word she squeal for it. She believe that this germ in each living thing, the center, live beyond death and pass through the food chain from one being to another.
"The spark at the center of you is a teensy weensy hole that time pass through," Min sing with a far off look in her eye. "You pass through it yourself whe you die. You burn up in a slow fire. Your become dirt. Then you reborn as something else. The spark at the center live on. If a worm eat your spark, you become a worm. If a flower suck it up, you become a flower."
Ohglo and Gok gaze at her in wonder. Min have bright grey eyes that beam like moons from under her deep, heavy brow. Around her hot pink face are tufted side-burns of the softest fur, white, speckled with gold and olive brown. Her snout slope gracefully down to her nostrils, delicately flared. Her mouth have a thoughtful tension to it. Her neck is soft and cudly, like the feathers of a baby bird.
Ohglo and Gok both fall out of their heads over her. Her ideas are like a splash in a spring-fed stream.
One pre-dawn morning when the sun is just a pale memory at the edge of the sky, while the 1-2-3-oah-oah-oah still snore on the crags of the cliff, Ohglo wake up thirsty from a dream about sand. He climb down from his perch next to Gok and go down to the water-hole for a drink. The full moon is setting, blue and elephant-sized. Ohglo stare at the moon. "That's no face, that's no baboon," he think to himself. "Ak wrong."
He gaze at his own reflection in the water-hole. "She'll never love a flat-faced freak like me," he whine.
Then suddenly a fine long face appear just above his reflected in the moonlit water. Ohglo start. He lose his balance. He almost fall in, but the baboon grab him.
"Min!" he yell.
Min giggle and slap her sofly calloused paw over his mouth to shut him up. She hold him in her forelimbs. Ohglo hesitate, then hug back. It feel fine to be close with Min. "La-la-la?" she coo.
"La-la-la" Ohglo answer.
They hobble forelimb in forelimb into the brush away form eyeshot of the other nosey baboons.
Ohglo feel Gok awake at his perch, watching them.
Ohglo-Min la-la-la.
They lie together in the grass, almost -- but not quite -- touching, an electric-arc gap between them. The wispy, rainbow- hued tendrils of their dreams ooze out of their pores and intertwine. Ohglo and Min as separate beings drift out of their bodies and scatter in the breeze like the head of a pregnant dandelion. At the very end of each of their dreams are the two sparks at the center of things, the first and last germs, the teensy weensy holes.
"Fireflies!" Ohglo laugh.
"What?"
"Fireflies! Your sparks look just like fireflies."
"Oh. They do., don't they? I like that. Fireflies! The firefly at the center of things. You so clever, Ohglo!" She give his flat face a lick with her tongue.
As the two fireflies flutter above it, the bottom fall out of the water-hole. The fireflies suddenly sucked into the dark cavity and Ohglo-Min dream web sucked and sucked down with them through the earth.
End-of-world.
Cringing with terror, they keep on falling through. Down, down, down they go, faster and faster. Just when they about to vanish in the hot molten core of the earth, they land with a soft plop on a cool, quiet rock, the moon. Ohglo-Min awash in cool white fire of moonlight.
End-of-world-but.
They cling togther in the unearthly quiet. Ever so softly, their joint being flutter back to earth. A rush of warmth charge them up and re-ignite the fire that burn warm inside their bellies.
Min stand up and stick her fiery red rear in the air by Ohglo's face. Beaming below her ass-hole are the magnificent blushing red callouses, smooth, hard and hairless, bulging lips to her vaginal mouth. Ohglo press his face against the swelling, tasting then lapping up the sweet and juicy nectar.
All-over trembling, Ohglo mount Min from the rear. Min turn her head, bite his shoulder, and scramble forward, giggling. He try again. She bite again, her fangs drawing blood this time. Again he jump her. The time she gnaw him gently, but she let him stay and slip and slide inside her.
Ohglo-Min la-la-la-la-la. By the pale light of the moon, Ohglo-Min fuck.
They lie together as one being and watch the sun rise.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
SEVENTEEN: Ohglo Small
13.
Once a monkey cub name-of Oah-oah-oah-oah-glugg, Ohglo for short. Ohglo roam with his furry buddies down by the stream near the oah-oah-oah's sleeping tree.
oah: I, me.
oah-oah: you.
oah-oah-oah: troop, family, we.
oah-oah-oah-oah: friends, friendly beings, monkey, moon.
oah-oah-oah-oah-oah: life, spirit, water.
Concentric circles in a stone-struck pond.
The cubs play a game like hide-and-seek: every monkey hide and then all wait to see who give himself away first.
Ohglo hide in a hollow log just out of the water. Ohglo thirst. Ohglo reach into the stream with his paw to scoop some water into his mouth. The water turn to blood. Blood, blood, 1-2- 3 blood taste in his mouth. Stream open into a canyon. Out of the canyon swarm a host of insects -- white moths, white flying ants, white flies, locusts, cicadas, dragon flies -- all rise to the sky like souls of the dead. Ohglo spit out the bitter blood. Dazzling light from the spot where his spittle strike blind him. The stream turn to white sand. The sun glare off of it and burn his eyes.
Then Ohglo see a big bird, an ibis standing on a rock, looking at him, it's plumage all brilliant white except for the tips of four outer wing feathers, which are black. Its long stork legs are orange-red. Its long bill curve down from between its eyes, itself the shape of a scant crescent moon.
Ohglo say, "Hi, Ibis."
Ibis say, "Now you have seen it. One day you will fly like me over the great, great, 1-2-3 great water to join your own kind again, the gluggs, and warn them of what is to come."
glugg: human.
"Oh," Ohglo say. He do not really believe this bird.
14.
Ohglo travel with the troop, which the baboons call their oah-oah-oah, or oah for short. Baboons shorten all their words.
Ak is the biggest so Ak is the leader. Ak one-two times bigger than Smak. Ak have big old olive brown crinkly mane like lion. He have pink face with a thick, thoughtful brow, and a long snout like a dog. His mouth filled with many shiney white, sharp teeth.
Ohglo fear Ak. Ohglo wish he have a big mane and sharp teeth.
ak: father, bully, leader, sun, devil.
The oah travel every day at sunrise, looking for food. Ak go first with his brothers and cousins Ako, Hok, Dop, the scouts. Scouts climb up the trees here and there looking out for enemies: Leopard and Glugg.
Smak follow with Ohglo and the other cubs, with Smok and Smik, Ak's other females and with Sako, Smuk, and Sopi, their sisters.
Ohglo slow. Ohglo can't keep up with other cubs and have to ride on Smak. He small for a glugg. But he do load Smak down. Other cubs tease him. Glugg, glugg, glugg, nya, nya, nya.
Cubs wrestle Ohglo, bite and scratch. Ohglo cry. Ohglo's eyes gush with water. Monkeys never cry. Monkeys never see eyes gush with water. Monkeys suck Ohglo's cheeks for water.
Monkeys don't worship much, but they worship water. Savannah of oah-oah-oah-plotz is dry for much of year.
Oah-oah-oah-plotz is not large. The oah cover the whole habitat in 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3 suns.
The oah stump the plains, hills, and forest of oah-oah-oah-plotz searching for water, for figs, for banana, for various roots and berries, for the capparis vine that grow in the umbrella trees, for termites and ants, for ibis, ostrich, and plover eggs, and sometimes small game like rock hares, steenbok, dik-dik, and klipspringer. There 1-2-3, 1-2-3 foods to learn, and what there is change all around from the full moon to the dark moon. While they learn what to eat and what not to eat, the cubs pull up the grass and chomp the meaty corms. They also listen for
the dance of the bees.
First time Ohglo see cubs find honeybee, cubs squeal and chatter. Cubs surround flower where bee buzzing and watch. Fuzzy baboon heads twist and turn to follow bee's dance.
Cubs follow bee to hive. Sneak up. Gok, the biggest cub, crawl up right under the hive which hang from the limb of baobab tree, bark real loud and hit the hive with stick. Ohglo watch bees swarm. Ohglo watch cubs flee. Ohglo too busy watching to flee. Bees catch Ohglo. Bees sting. Sting, sting, sting, 1-2-3 sting. Ohglo holler, 1-2-3 holler.
That night at dusk the oah come to rest in a grove of fever trees. While the cubs wrestle, the big baboons la-la-la.
la-la-la: groom, grooming, story-telling, dream-sharing, painting one another's dreams.
Smak la-la-la Ohglo for first time, smoothing over every strand of his hair, picking lice and soothing beestings. La-la-la excite every nerve and make brilliant pictures in the mind like wide-awake dreams. The pictures are visions, stories, folktales.
Baboon folktales very short. Here are some of the tales Smak la-la-la Ohglo:
The most popular tale is tzzz pop. Two words. "Once upon a time, the end." Smak tell this one over and over.
tzzz f-f-f pop is a ghost story. It doesn't sound like much, but when told along with heavy grooming, a young monkey see vivid images of old monkeys dying, dissolving into the dust, and then rising to the sky in wafts of violet smoke.
Ohglo's favorite is the love story, tzzz la-la-la-la-la pop. The imagery of this story show Ak chasing Smak, Smak sticking her rosey rear-end in the air, and Ak 1-2-3 fucking her. Baboons don't censor their stories for children they way gluggs do.
15.
As Ohglo grow, he learn baboon ways. Every month, at the time of the full moon, is the 1-2-3-oah-oah-oah, or the gathering of the oahs, along a bank of cliffs. Whatever baboon troops are anywhere near the cliffs come together there to argue and party. Such gatherings have close to a three hundred baboons, and the noise keep Ohglo awake all night at first.
The males and females argue in separate bunches, but they both argue about the same thing: the nature of the universe.
Ohglo listen to these frightening arguments, which often as not, end in all out brawls. As time go on, he come to understand that each oah have a different theory as to the nature of the universe. These different theories are the reason there are so many different oahs. If a leader (ak) can't convince his smak's relatives of his particular theory, he will organize his own oah from among the disgruntled baboons from the other oahs.
Ak and his followers are identified with the doctrine that "everything is a baboon." An oah is a baboon with Ak himself as the literal head. The moon is obviously a baboon as any fool can see just by looking at its face. By extension, the sun must be a baboon, with a ruthless, evil streak ("nothing but a baboon could be so mean," Ak preach). The earth too is a baboon with water for blood and grass for hair.
"The universe (oah-oah-oah-oah-oah-oah) is a series of baboons inside baboons," Ak would bellow, la-la-la-ing these ideas with whoever will listen. "Concentric baboons in a stone-struck baboon," he joke, butchering a traditional baboon saying. The "proof" of this notion is simple: "Look, you dummies, if you look straight into a still pond what do you see?" Most baboons know the answer, but Ak sometimes lead the denser ones to the
water-hole so they can see for themselves.
When Ohglo first understand this sermon of howls, grunts, and barks, he sneak off his sleeping rock down to the water-hole and look straight into it. What he see -- that he do not look at all like the other baboons -- so frighten him in its impossibility that he forget it right there and decide once and for all that Ak is right, everything is a baboon.
But Ak too can see that there is something different about Ohglo that contradict his concentric baboon thesis. To Ak, Ohglo is a baboon and he is not a baboon at the same time, a stubborn fact that fly in the face of theory. As a consequence, Ak hate Ohglo.
Fortunately, none of the other oahs notice that Ak harbor a living contradiction in his own oah. They are too busy defending their own theories. One oah that once gave Ak a terrific drubbing philosophically and literally, believe that the universe is a constant struggle between the force of water (good) and the force of sand (bad). Still another oah believe that the phallic banana tree create the universe, and no baboon of that oah eat bananas. When the ak of this oah die of starvation, the others quickly find other beliefs and join other oahs.
Smak and the other females of the oah stick up for Ohglo against Ak. Smak believe the concentric baboon thesis as strongly as the next monkey, but she simply accept Ohglo as an odd-looking baboon.
Of course she know he is a glugg, everyone know that. The question is, are the gluggs another form of baboon or something quite different?
Smak and the other females have their own bone to pick with Ak, and sometimes it is Ak's bones that get picked. They grudgingly accept Ak's leadership on account of his size, but they hate his schplurtz, a word that is wet with spit when sneered as only Smak can sneer it.
schplurtz: arrogance.
One time Ohglo lie awake in his fever tree and listen to Ak and Smak argue about him.
"He go," say Ak.
"He stay," say Smak.
"He go!" say Ak.
"He stay!" say Smak.
"HE GO!" say Ak.
"HE STAY!" say Smak.
"HE GO!!" say Ak.
Smak smack Ak. Smack! with her paw. Smik, Smok, and Smuk all jump on Ak.
Ak beat up bad. Smak won't nurse Ak's wounds, won't let Smik, Smok, Smuk or any other female nurse him either.
Ohglo nurse Ak, lick his sores. Ohglo hate to lick sores. But Ohglo think if he lick Ak sores, maybe Ak will accept him into the oah.
After three suns of Ohglo licking his sores, neither of them saying a word, Ak finally say "Ohglo, maybe you baboon after all, even if you is funny looking." Ohglo sigh and smile. Then he go wash out mouth in the water-hole.
16.
Here are some of the monkey proverbs that Ak picture to Ohglo when Ohglo lick his sores:
Nothing from nothing is nothing.
Fair is fair.
Life is life.
Life is tough.
Forget it!
I'll dream your dreams if you'll dream mine.
Life is death's dream.
To see the truth, you have to look up your own asshole. That's why you have an imagination.
17.
One day Ohglo stomping about with the oah when he come to a stream same-as old stream, trees same-as old trees, paths same-as old paths. He try to remember what his glugg-smak, Ma, look like, but he can't.
He do remember something else. He follow his nose down a familiar path to a spot he is sure is same-as where the old Luo village was. No village. Instead, there's a great big farm with a great big house, rows and rows of vines hanging with ground-nuts, fields and fields of pineapples shining sweetly in the sun, and 1-2-3 cattle.
Ohglo rush to tell Ak. He shout at Ak excitedly in his pidgin-monkey something like "Glugg-grub!" This sound like the monkey word for "human food." But it also sound like the monkey insult "you eat human shit." Ak clap Ohglo sharply on the ear.
Ohglo often have this trouble with monkey language, in which words, being few, have so many different meanings.
Ohglo try to grab Ak's paw and lead him to his discovery, but Ak brush him aside roughly. The idea that a glugg cub could know anything is ridiculous. Gluggs can't think abstractly.
After much wheedling and jibber-jabbering, Ohglo finally convince Smak to follow him. He drag her complaining to a hillock overlooking the vast farm. Smak see enough food to keep the oah in the gravy for the next fifty years. She yawn in amazement.
"Glugg-gluggs!" she swear.
glugg-gluggs: pink-faced Invaders, white people.
When Smak tell the others what Ohglo have discovered, Ohglo become a hero. The other cubs hug kiss, and la-la-la him. And they don't pick on him for the rest of the day.
At dawn the next morning, the oah descend on the glugg-glugg farm. At the first field they come to, the baboons fill up their arms with pineapples and drag them away to safety. But Ohglo's mouth water for beef.
Ohglo sneak away from the others and into the field where the cattle graze. He find five of the plumpest calves and herd them together. He rip a hole in the wooden fence. He grab on tight to the calves' tails. Then, with a piercing cry, he stampede the other cows through the hole in the fence, out to the wild savannah.
Ohglo pull his calves by the tails backwards, confusing any trail he might leave, and hiding from the view of the glugg-gluggs. In the distance near the house, he can see the glugg-gluggs scurry about in the clouds of dust raised by the stampeding cattle. He see them mounting horses and putt-putts, and raising their own clouds of dust to chase the cattle.
putt-putts: Land Rovers.
It is dusk before Ohglo's awkward progress finally catch up with the oah in its grove of fever trees, preparing for the night. The baboons are surprised to see him, as they have given him up for lost or killed. Baboons know all too well the murderous boom-booms of the glugg-gluggs.
The monkeys surround him and drown him in praise for his brave deed. Ak himself clap him hard across the back. "Oh you are quite the thief, Ohglo!" Ak declare. Ohglo feel his first flush of pride. Ohglo grab one of the calves by the ears and slam itsneck against a sharp rock, spliting the big vein so that the blood gush out hot all over him.
Ohglo get sick watching the creature die. He lose his appetite. So he offer the calf to Ak. Ak rip open the beast to get at the choice curdled milk in its belly. When he have eaten his fill, he leave the rest for the other baboons to fight over. Smak snarl her way to be next, and take enough meat for herself and the youngest cubs. Then come the others' turn to squabble. The biggest and toughest get their meat first, but the others don't have to fight that hard since there is plenty for all.
When nothing remain but bones, Smak haul Ohglo aside. "You think you big bad baboon now, Ohglo, but I don't know. I don't think we heard the end of this. I fear for you, gluggikins. I think you will bring us trouble. You will come to no good."
Ohglo answer her beyond his years. "Smak, don't scare me like I some little cub. I get the best deal I can for my oah. Why can't we be as fat as the glugg-gluggs? Why we have to scrounge for food and make our nests in nasty trees and bumpy rocks? I be the prince of thieves."
But Smak no fool. That night, the oah surprised by the rustling of horses through the brush. The glugg-gluggs hunting for their calves. "Ek-ek-ek!" come the shrill cry from the scouts in the treetops.
ek-ek-ek: leopard, hyena, jackal, glugg, danger. Watch out!
Help! Let's get out of here!
So in the middle of the night, the oah have to gather up its cubs and move on, leaving the calves behind. Knowing how stubborn gluggs can be when they hunt, the oah keep moving quickly for days until they get to the other side of oah-oah-oah-plotz. Without much thought, Ak piss on rocks to ring in the borders of the plotz so the oah won't come so close to the glugg-glugg farm for awhile.
18.
But it happen that the glugg-glugg farmer had seen a strange kind of monkey steal his calves, and he track down this "monkeyman" for many suns. The farmer dig booby traps all over the savannah.
One evening while Ohglo romp through the brush with his buddy Gok, Ohglo fall into one of these traps, a deep pit covered over by small trees overlaid with grasses and brush.
Gok yelp for the other baboons to come help, but the farmer close by and hear him. He come galloping up on his horse. Gok and the others take flight in the treetops.
The farmer hop off his horse and take aim at Ohglo with his boom-boom. Then he laugh. "Ach, you monkeyman!" the fat farmer seem to say in glugg-glugg language, "Why you steal my cattle?"
Ohglo guess at the farmer's words and answer him in monkey language. "Who me? Why you talk so rough? You see I am only a cub. I only care about sleep and monkey milk. Do I look like a robber of cattle? Believe me, glugg-glugg, I did not bring your
cattle home. I speak the truth."
But of course the farmer do not understand, and Ohglo's jabbering make him angry. He raise his gun to his shoulder again to shoot.
Just then, Gok jump down from the tree, bite the farmer in the left buttock, and butt him into the pit with his head. It the farmer's turn to yelp. The farmer drop his gun. He very fat. While he struggle to his feet, Ohglo grab the gun and use it as pole against the farmer's big belly to vault himself out of the pit. Ohglo hold the gun like he see the farmer do.
Monkey see, monkey do.
The gun go off in the air -- ka-BLOOM! Ohglo and the other baboons hair stand up straight. They scared to death. They run.
After that, Ohglo and Gok become the best of buddies.
Ohglo break up the gun and for awhile use the steel barrel to beat against the rocks to make a strange kind of music. This delight the oah. But by the next full moon, he have forgotten it someplace.
The farmer, however, do not forget about Ohglo. In time the oah would learn that glugg-gluggs are vengeful and have long memories.
19.
Baboon life no paradise. Your throat always dry. You always hungry. Ohglo lucky he like sweet-crunch bugs, because meat is rare -- very rare, as in raw. Baboons eat a lot of grass, and grass don't stick to your ribs.
But it fun to la-la-la, fun to wrestle. Ohglo wrestle his buddy Gok. Gok soft and cuddly, with big eyes and brownish fur spreckled with white. Gok, like Ohglo, is about half grown (baboons full grown at seven years old). He always nibble at Ohglo, never bite.
One time Ohglo and Gok wrestle. Ohglo accidently shove Gok so that he land with a rock between his legs, crushing his balls. Gok let out a shriek. His face droop in sadness. He looks like he will burst if he don't cry.
"Sorry, Gok, I no mean it," Ohglo say. Ohglo la-la-la Gok. "Gok you need to cry."
"Cry? Cry? How cry?"
"How cry? Well, what I do is I squinch up my eyes, squeeze my eyeballs, and imagine death."
"Death?"
"The end. Nix-oah."
nix-oah: death.
"Oh, yeah," Gok say. "Nix-oah." He get all deep and serious looking, and squinch up his eyes.
"That it, Gok. Now picture all that pain it take to die, to give up on that 'Gok' you been fighting for for so long."
Gok's face wrinkle like an ancient monkey. His head shake and tremble. He draw in his breath through his bared clenched teeth, like he in great pain. Out of his belly rise a mournful moan, "o-o-o-o-o-o-o-a-a-a-a-a-h-h-h."
But when he feel his eyes and his cheeks, they dry. Not a tear anywhere. Try as he might, Gok can not cry. Not for the life of him.
Once a monkey cub name-of Oah-oah-oah-oah-glugg, Ohglo for short. Ohglo roam with his furry buddies down by the stream near the oah-oah-oah's sleeping tree.
oah: I, me.
oah-oah: you.
oah-oah-oah: troop, family, we.
oah-oah-oah-oah: friends, friendly beings, monkey, moon.
oah-oah-oah-oah-oah: life, spirit, water.
Concentric circles in a stone-struck pond.
The cubs play a game like hide-and-seek: every monkey hide and then all wait to see who give himself away first.
Ohglo hide in a hollow log just out of the water. Ohglo thirst. Ohglo reach into the stream with his paw to scoop some water into his mouth. The water turn to blood. Blood, blood, 1-2- 3 blood taste in his mouth. Stream open into a canyon. Out of the canyon swarm a host of insects -- white moths, white flying ants, white flies, locusts, cicadas, dragon flies -- all rise to the sky like souls of the dead. Ohglo spit out the bitter blood. Dazzling light from the spot where his spittle strike blind him. The stream turn to white sand. The sun glare off of it and burn his eyes.
Then Ohglo see a big bird, an ibis standing on a rock, looking at him, it's plumage all brilliant white except for the tips of four outer wing feathers, which are black. Its long stork legs are orange-red. Its long bill curve down from between its eyes, itself the shape of a scant crescent moon.
Ohglo say, "Hi, Ibis."
Ibis say, "Now you have seen it. One day you will fly like me over the great, great, 1-2-3 great water to join your own kind again, the gluggs, and warn them of what is to come."
glugg: human.
"Oh," Ohglo say. He do not really believe this bird.
14.
Ohglo travel with the troop, which the baboons call their oah-oah-oah, or oah for short. Baboons shorten all their words.
Ak is the biggest so Ak is the leader. Ak one-two times bigger than Smak. Ak have big old olive brown crinkly mane like lion. He have pink face with a thick, thoughtful brow, and a long snout like a dog. His mouth filled with many shiney white, sharp teeth.
Ohglo fear Ak. Ohglo wish he have a big mane and sharp teeth.
ak: father, bully, leader, sun, devil.
The oah travel every day at sunrise, looking for food. Ak go first with his brothers and cousins Ako, Hok, Dop, the scouts. Scouts climb up the trees here and there looking out for enemies: Leopard and Glugg.
Smak follow with Ohglo and the other cubs, with Smok and Smik, Ak's other females and with Sako, Smuk, and Sopi, their sisters.
Ohglo slow. Ohglo can't keep up with other cubs and have to ride on Smak. He small for a glugg. But he do load Smak down. Other cubs tease him. Glugg, glugg, glugg, nya, nya, nya.
Cubs wrestle Ohglo, bite and scratch. Ohglo cry. Ohglo's eyes gush with water. Monkeys never cry. Monkeys never see eyes gush with water. Monkeys suck Ohglo's cheeks for water.
Monkeys don't worship much, but they worship water. Savannah of oah-oah-oah-plotz is dry for much of year.
Oah-oah-oah-plotz is not large. The oah cover the whole habitat in 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3 suns.
The oah stump the plains, hills, and forest of oah-oah-oah-plotz searching for water, for figs, for banana, for various roots and berries, for the capparis vine that grow in the umbrella trees, for termites and ants, for ibis, ostrich, and plover eggs, and sometimes small game like rock hares, steenbok, dik-dik, and klipspringer. There 1-2-3, 1-2-3 foods to learn, and what there is change all around from the full moon to the dark moon. While they learn what to eat and what not to eat, the cubs pull up the grass and chomp the meaty corms. They also listen for
the dance of the bees.
First time Ohglo see cubs find honeybee, cubs squeal and chatter. Cubs surround flower where bee buzzing and watch. Fuzzy baboon heads twist and turn to follow bee's dance.
Cubs follow bee to hive. Sneak up. Gok, the biggest cub, crawl up right under the hive which hang from the limb of baobab tree, bark real loud and hit the hive with stick. Ohglo watch bees swarm. Ohglo watch cubs flee. Ohglo too busy watching to flee. Bees catch Ohglo. Bees sting. Sting, sting, sting, 1-2-3 sting. Ohglo holler, 1-2-3 holler.
That night at dusk the oah come to rest in a grove of fever trees. While the cubs wrestle, the big baboons la-la-la.
la-la-la: groom, grooming, story-telling, dream-sharing, painting one another's dreams.
Smak la-la-la Ohglo for first time, smoothing over every strand of his hair, picking lice and soothing beestings. La-la-la excite every nerve and make brilliant pictures in the mind like wide-awake dreams. The pictures are visions, stories, folktales.
Baboon folktales very short. Here are some of the tales Smak la-la-la Ohglo:
The most popular tale is tzzz pop. Two words. "Once upon a time, the end." Smak tell this one over and over.
tzzz f-f-f pop is a ghost story. It doesn't sound like much, but when told along with heavy grooming, a young monkey see vivid images of old monkeys dying, dissolving into the dust, and then rising to the sky in wafts of violet smoke.
Ohglo's favorite is the love story, tzzz la-la-la-la-la pop. The imagery of this story show Ak chasing Smak, Smak sticking her rosey rear-end in the air, and Ak 1-2-3 fucking her. Baboons don't censor their stories for children they way gluggs do.
15.
As Ohglo grow, he learn baboon ways. Every month, at the time of the full moon, is the 1-2-3-oah-oah-oah, or the gathering of the oahs, along a bank of cliffs. Whatever baboon troops are anywhere near the cliffs come together there to argue and party. Such gatherings have close to a three hundred baboons, and the noise keep Ohglo awake all night at first.
The males and females argue in separate bunches, but they both argue about the same thing: the nature of the universe.
Ohglo listen to these frightening arguments, which often as not, end in all out brawls. As time go on, he come to understand that each oah have a different theory as to the nature of the universe. These different theories are the reason there are so many different oahs. If a leader (ak) can't convince his smak's relatives of his particular theory, he will organize his own oah from among the disgruntled baboons from the other oahs.
Ak and his followers are identified with the doctrine that "everything is a baboon." An oah is a baboon with Ak himself as the literal head. The moon is obviously a baboon as any fool can see just by looking at its face. By extension, the sun must be a baboon, with a ruthless, evil streak ("nothing but a baboon could be so mean," Ak preach). The earth too is a baboon with water for blood and grass for hair.
"The universe (oah-oah-oah-oah-oah-oah) is a series of baboons inside baboons," Ak would bellow, la-la-la-ing these ideas with whoever will listen. "Concentric baboons in a stone-struck baboon," he joke, butchering a traditional baboon saying. The "proof" of this notion is simple: "Look, you dummies, if you look straight into a still pond what do you see?" Most baboons know the answer, but Ak sometimes lead the denser ones to the
water-hole so they can see for themselves.
When Ohglo first understand this sermon of howls, grunts, and barks, he sneak off his sleeping rock down to the water-hole and look straight into it. What he see -- that he do not look at all like the other baboons -- so frighten him in its impossibility that he forget it right there and decide once and for all that Ak is right, everything is a baboon.
But Ak too can see that there is something different about Ohglo that contradict his concentric baboon thesis. To Ak, Ohglo is a baboon and he is not a baboon at the same time, a stubborn fact that fly in the face of theory. As a consequence, Ak hate Ohglo.
Fortunately, none of the other oahs notice that Ak harbor a living contradiction in his own oah. They are too busy defending their own theories. One oah that once gave Ak a terrific drubbing philosophically and literally, believe that the universe is a constant struggle between the force of water (good) and the force of sand (bad). Still another oah believe that the phallic banana tree create the universe, and no baboon of that oah eat bananas. When the ak of this oah die of starvation, the others quickly find other beliefs and join other oahs.
Smak and the other females of the oah stick up for Ohglo against Ak. Smak believe the concentric baboon thesis as strongly as the next monkey, but she simply accept Ohglo as an odd-looking baboon.
Of course she know he is a glugg, everyone know that. The question is, are the gluggs another form of baboon or something quite different?
Smak and the other females have their own bone to pick with Ak, and sometimes it is Ak's bones that get picked. They grudgingly accept Ak's leadership on account of his size, but they hate his schplurtz, a word that is wet with spit when sneered as only Smak can sneer it.
schplurtz: arrogance.
One time Ohglo lie awake in his fever tree and listen to Ak and Smak argue about him.
"He go," say Ak.
"He stay," say Smak.
"He go!" say Ak.
"He stay!" say Smak.
"HE GO!" say Ak.
"HE STAY!" say Smak.
"HE GO!!" say Ak.
Smak smack Ak. Smack! with her paw. Smik, Smok, and Smuk all jump on Ak.
Ak beat up bad. Smak won't nurse Ak's wounds, won't let Smik, Smok, Smuk or any other female nurse him either.
Ohglo nurse Ak, lick his sores. Ohglo hate to lick sores. But Ohglo think if he lick Ak sores, maybe Ak will accept him into the oah.
After three suns of Ohglo licking his sores, neither of them saying a word, Ak finally say "Ohglo, maybe you baboon after all, even if you is funny looking." Ohglo sigh and smile. Then he go wash out mouth in the water-hole.
16.
Here are some of the monkey proverbs that Ak picture to Ohglo when Ohglo lick his sores:
Nothing from nothing is nothing.
Fair is fair.
Life is life.
Life is tough.
Forget it!
I'll dream your dreams if you'll dream mine.
Life is death's dream.
To see the truth, you have to look up your own asshole. That's why you have an imagination.
17.
One day Ohglo stomping about with the oah when he come to a stream same-as old stream, trees same-as old trees, paths same-as old paths. He try to remember what his glugg-smak, Ma, look like, but he can't.
He do remember something else. He follow his nose down a familiar path to a spot he is sure is same-as where the old Luo village was. No village. Instead, there's a great big farm with a great big house, rows and rows of vines hanging with ground-nuts, fields and fields of pineapples shining sweetly in the sun, and 1-2-3 cattle.
Ohglo rush to tell Ak. He shout at Ak excitedly in his pidgin-monkey something like "Glugg-grub!" This sound like the monkey word for "human food." But it also sound like the monkey insult "you eat human shit." Ak clap Ohglo sharply on the ear.
Ohglo often have this trouble with monkey language, in which words, being few, have so many different meanings.
Ohglo try to grab Ak's paw and lead him to his discovery, but Ak brush him aside roughly. The idea that a glugg cub could know anything is ridiculous. Gluggs can't think abstractly.
After much wheedling and jibber-jabbering, Ohglo finally convince Smak to follow him. He drag her complaining to a hillock overlooking the vast farm. Smak see enough food to keep the oah in the gravy for the next fifty years. She yawn in amazement.
"Glugg-gluggs!" she swear.
glugg-gluggs: pink-faced Invaders, white people.
When Smak tell the others what Ohglo have discovered, Ohglo become a hero. The other cubs hug kiss, and la-la-la him. And they don't pick on him for the rest of the day.
At dawn the next morning, the oah descend on the glugg-glugg farm. At the first field they come to, the baboons fill up their arms with pineapples and drag them away to safety. But Ohglo's mouth water for beef.
Ohglo sneak away from the others and into the field where the cattle graze. He find five of the plumpest calves and herd them together. He rip a hole in the wooden fence. He grab on tight to the calves' tails. Then, with a piercing cry, he stampede the other cows through the hole in the fence, out to the wild savannah.
Ohglo pull his calves by the tails backwards, confusing any trail he might leave, and hiding from the view of the glugg-gluggs. In the distance near the house, he can see the glugg-gluggs scurry about in the clouds of dust raised by the stampeding cattle. He see them mounting horses and putt-putts, and raising their own clouds of dust to chase the cattle.
putt-putts: Land Rovers.
It is dusk before Ohglo's awkward progress finally catch up with the oah in its grove of fever trees, preparing for the night. The baboons are surprised to see him, as they have given him up for lost or killed. Baboons know all too well the murderous boom-booms of the glugg-gluggs.
The monkeys surround him and drown him in praise for his brave deed. Ak himself clap him hard across the back. "Oh you are quite the thief, Ohglo!" Ak declare. Ohglo feel his first flush of pride. Ohglo grab one of the calves by the ears and slam itsneck against a sharp rock, spliting the big vein so that the blood gush out hot all over him.
Ohglo get sick watching the creature die. He lose his appetite. So he offer the calf to Ak. Ak rip open the beast to get at the choice curdled milk in its belly. When he have eaten his fill, he leave the rest for the other baboons to fight over. Smak snarl her way to be next, and take enough meat for herself and the youngest cubs. Then come the others' turn to squabble. The biggest and toughest get their meat first, but the others don't have to fight that hard since there is plenty for all.
When nothing remain but bones, Smak haul Ohglo aside. "You think you big bad baboon now, Ohglo, but I don't know. I don't think we heard the end of this. I fear for you, gluggikins. I think you will bring us trouble. You will come to no good."
Ohglo answer her beyond his years. "Smak, don't scare me like I some little cub. I get the best deal I can for my oah. Why can't we be as fat as the glugg-gluggs? Why we have to scrounge for food and make our nests in nasty trees and bumpy rocks? I be the prince of thieves."
But Smak no fool. That night, the oah surprised by the rustling of horses through the brush. The glugg-gluggs hunting for their calves. "Ek-ek-ek!" come the shrill cry from the scouts in the treetops.
ek-ek-ek: leopard, hyena, jackal, glugg, danger. Watch out!
Help! Let's get out of here!
So in the middle of the night, the oah have to gather up its cubs and move on, leaving the calves behind. Knowing how stubborn gluggs can be when they hunt, the oah keep moving quickly for days until they get to the other side of oah-oah-oah-plotz. Without much thought, Ak piss on rocks to ring in the borders of the plotz so the oah won't come so close to the glugg-glugg farm for awhile.
18.
But it happen that the glugg-glugg farmer had seen a strange kind of monkey steal his calves, and he track down this "monkeyman" for many suns. The farmer dig booby traps all over the savannah.
One evening while Ohglo romp through the brush with his buddy Gok, Ohglo fall into one of these traps, a deep pit covered over by small trees overlaid with grasses and brush.
Gok yelp for the other baboons to come help, but the farmer close by and hear him. He come galloping up on his horse. Gok and the others take flight in the treetops.
The farmer hop off his horse and take aim at Ohglo with his boom-boom. Then he laugh. "Ach, you monkeyman!" the fat farmer seem to say in glugg-glugg language, "Why you steal my cattle?"
Ohglo guess at the farmer's words and answer him in monkey language. "Who me? Why you talk so rough? You see I am only a cub. I only care about sleep and monkey milk. Do I look like a robber of cattle? Believe me, glugg-glugg, I did not bring your
cattle home. I speak the truth."
But of course the farmer do not understand, and Ohglo's jabbering make him angry. He raise his gun to his shoulder again to shoot.
Just then, Gok jump down from the tree, bite the farmer in the left buttock, and butt him into the pit with his head. It the farmer's turn to yelp. The farmer drop his gun. He very fat. While he struggle to his feet, Ohglo grab the gun and use it as pole against the farmer's big belly to vault himself out of the pit. Ohglo hold the gun like he see the farmer do.
Monkey see, monkey do.
The gun go off in the air -- ka-BLOOM! Ohglo and the other baboons hair stand up straight. They scared to death. They run.
After that, Ohglo and Gok become the best of buddies.
Ohglo break up the gun and for awhile use the steel barrel to beat against the rocks to make a strange kind of music. This delight the oah. But by the next full moon, he have forgotten it someplace.
The farmer, however, do not forget about Ohglo. In time the oah would learn that glugg-gluggs are vengeful and have long memories.
19.
Baboon life no paradise. Your throat always dry. You always hungry. Ohglo lucky he like sweet-crunch bugs, because meat is rare -- very rare, as in raw. Baboons eat a lot of grass, and grass don't stick to your ribs.
But it fun to la-la-la, fun to wrestle. Ohglo wrestle his buddy Gok. Gok soft and cuddly, with big eyes and brownish fur spreckled with white. Gok, like Ohglo, is about half grown (baboons full grown at seven years old). He always nibble at Ohglo, never bite.
One time Ohglo and Gok wrestle. Ohglo accidently shove Gok so that he land with a rock between his legs, crushing his balls. Gok let out a shriek. His face droop in sadness. He looks like he will burst if he don't cry.
"Sorry, Gok, I no mean it," Ohglo say. Ohglo la-la-la Gok. "Gok you need to cry."
"Cry? Cry? How cry?"
"How cry? Well, what I do is I squinch up my eyes, squeeze my eyeballs, and imagine death."
"Death?"
"The end. Nix-oah."
nix-oah: death.
"Oh, yeah," Gok say. "Nix-oah." He get all deep and serious looking, and squinch up his eyes.
"That it, Gok. Now picture all that pain it take to die, to give up on that 'Gok' you been fighting for for so long."
Gok's face wrinkle like an ancient monkey. His head shake and tremble. He draw in his breath through his bared clenched teeth, like he in great pain. Out of his belly rise a mournful moan, "o-o-o-o-o-o-o-a-a-a-a-a-h-h-h."
But when he feel his eyes and his cheeks, they dry. Not a tear anywhere. Try as he might, Gok can not cry. Not for the life of him.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
