NINETEEN: Ohglo Large - Part 1

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.