TWENTY: Ohglo Large - Part 2

26.

From high in the fever trees, the baboons watch in silence while the glugg-gluggs load Ak onto the back of their Land Rover.

When the gluggs have left, the baboons let go a single, harmonious cry such as Ohglo have never heard, an atonal,

oscillating moan, alternately shrill and deep, "O-O-O-O-O-O-O-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-H-H-H-H-H-H-H..." that do not stop. The baboons take turns breathing to keep the cry going. The sound go on and on, 1-2-3-on. Ohglo's eyes gush with tears.

For the rest of the day, the baboons stay frozen in their perches, hidden in the trees, off and on moaning just to stay in touch with each other. When Ohglo finally join in the moan, he feel better.

In the night, the silence heavy, like the air before the big rain.

The next day too spent moaning in the trees. Ak been the center of the oah for as long as anyone can remember. No one know what to do. The oah frozen with grief. No one dare move.

It Smak who, toward dusk, finally break the spell. She have to eat to have milk for her cubs. She have led the moaning, now she moan louder still than all the rest as she slowly climb down from her tree. Then she silent. She trudge heavily down the trail to the termite hill, her cubs in tow.

Slowly the others follow her.

As Ohglo dig his share of the bugs, he look at Smak for signs of blame or forgiveness in her eyes. He find neither. She won't look at him at all at first. When finally her reddened eyes glance his way, she look right through him. The hair on Ohglo's neck bristle at such a look.

Gradually, somberly, the oah return to its old routine.

Min nurse Ohglo back to health.

By default, Smak take on all of Ak's leadership roles, except defense, a job Gok all too willingly take on himself. Ak was too tyrannical a leader to tolerate rivals, or anything but weak males around him, like Ako, Hok and Dop. None of them could lead a buzzard to a dead elephant.

Smak could fight well enough, but Gok now 1-2 bigger than her. It a fact about baboons that the females are only 2/3rds the size of the males. The females complain of this injustice, but none of them have been able to figure out what to do about it.

Gok want to be the ak of the oah all by himself in the worst way, but he just too young.

So, in an arrangement unique in the 1-2-3-oah-oah-oah, Ak's oah becme Smak-Gok's oah, a coalition.

Smak decide when and where the oah move. Smak decide when and what the oah eat. Smak issue the cries of alarm. Smak give the nightly discourses on philosophy.

Smak believe that "Everything is a baboon" explain as much as needed explaining and that all this talk about how many fireflies can dance on the point of a Wait-a-bit thorn was so much poppycock. But she decide it best not to mess with the Firefly Praising lest it be granted too much importance.

It then left to Gok to station the sentries, direct the scouts, and lead an attack, retreat, or defensive maneuver.

It Smak's decision also that Min be allowed to stay in the oah.

Gok argue, "If she stay, she should be mine!"

"That up to Min," Smak declare with quiet finality.

"But Ohglo's the one that got Ak killed!"

Smak look at Gok sadly, say nothing.

"He didn't mean it," say Min timidly. There is fear in her voice. She and Smak are alone in sticking up for Ohglo, and Min do not have Smak's strength. The other baboons, especially the males, resent Smak's taking power, but are too weak to say anything. At Gok's secret urging, they do blame Ohglo for Ak's death and shun him.

Ohglo hang back from the oah, traipsing along way behind, usually alone.

The vision of the insects haunt him. He falling apart. The single firefly at the center of things, the spark, the germ, the teesy weensy hole, the unity has hatched a swarm of insects. A chunk of Ohglo's center claimed by every sweet-crunch bug he ever ate. So much for the center migrating through the food chain, Ohglo think. After suffering for days the terror of disintegrating, days and days of imagining death and spilling tears, Ohglo can only laugh at his feeble firefly flickering unity.

He tell Min that their idea won't wash.

She explode in anger. "I show you the germ at the center of things. I nurse you when you half-dead. I stick up for you with the others. This the thanks I get. You cast aside my ideas like the pit of a capparis fruit."

"Min, the truth is there's 1-2-3 germs, 1-2-3 sparks, 1-2-3 teensy weensy holes, maybe it all holes. There no ONE of anything! The stupid firefly just light the way for the insect swarm of...of...disintegration."

"Ohglo, you talk crazy! You stop scaring me."

There another reason Ohglo hang back from the rest of the oah. Glugg-gluggs. Scritch-scritches.

scritch-scritches: gluggs who scratch on tablets with sticks
all the time; scientists.

Two of these he saw when Ak killed. The female with black straight hair squaring off her face he still can't keep his eyes off. Sometimes he catch her sneaking a banana to the baboons. He hear her loud-whisper "Here's a banana!" Ba-ba, he call her, as near as he can say the word. He wish she could slip him one. The other with red hair, who threw a rope around him that time, he call Spot. Still another he never see before have no hair on his head, only around the ears and above where his upper lip would be if he had one, he call No-lips. He don't know what they want. He don't even know if they want him. But he don't want to find out either. When he see them come at dawn in their jeep he stay hidden in the trees and forage for himself, later, when the oah with its trail of scritch-scritches have moved on out.

He do watch the female, Ba-ba. He like how she smell, like lilacs. He wonder if they la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la, or lay eggs like birds. They seem so stiff, and keep themselves covered up in funny colored bark. Do he know he a glugg like them? No. He monkey. But he not sure they know that.

27.

At the next full moon, Smak-Gok's oah drift to the 1-2-3- oah-oah-oah by the rocky cliffs in search of an uplift of spirits. In the evening, Ohglo sit by the water-hole watching the moon rise above his flat-faced head in the still pond.

Min come along and sit down next to him. She wrap her tail around his shoulders.

"Ohglo," she say softly. "I got something to tell you."

"What?"

"Smak say I'm cubbing."

"Min! That wonderful!" Ohglo yip. He throw his arms around her and lick her nose. "Cubbing! Whoopie! I love cubs! Have you told the others?"

"Ohglo, it not yours."

"What?"

"Smak say it can't be yours. You glugg. Glugg and monkey can't make cub."

"Oh."

"Ohglo, it Gok's."

"Oh."

An icy breeze crumple the surface of the pond. Ohglo quietly fume.

"I must go congratulate him," say Ohglo stiffly. He jump to his feet and run toward Gok.

"Ohglo," Min call after him. "Don't do anything rash."

He find Gok on the cliff conferring with a number of aks, none of whom are fond of Ohglo. Ohglo glare at Gok and yawn threateningly, but his mouth so small, the other baboons only laugh at him. Ohglo redden. He call to Gok, "Let's you and me have a talk."

"Say your piece, Ohglo."

"Alone."

"Oh, all right."

Gok and Ohglo go off by themselves, while the nosy baboons follow them at a distance and watch.

Ohglo swing at Gok.

Gok slam him with his paw and knock him silly.

In a strong voice full of his new authority, Gok declare, "Ohglo. You leave the oah now."

Ohglo, seeing stars, also see Gok's point.

He go say good-bye to Smak. "Maybe it best for you to go, Ohglo," she say softly, her eyes old and sad. "In spite of everything, I'll miss you.

"Go see Gar and his oah at the top of the cliff. Maybe they find a place for you. They thinkers. Gar say he have some idea, maybe you help us, maybe you help all the oahs, I don't know. You go see him." Her voice crack. "Good luck to you, gluggikins. I always love you. You come back and see us, hear?" She la-la-la him fondly one last time. She sniff. She blink. She suck in her breath. A tear stream down her snout.

Then another. And another.

"Smak," Ohglo say. "You crying. You really crying!"

28.

Gar a middle-aged baboon with bright eyes and bald patches. His oah, unlike the others, have and equal number of males and females. They an odd bunch, serious and intense. "So, Ohglo. Welcome!" Gar say. "I hear the other oahs want nothing to do with you. Can you blame them? You cause trouble just being around. You attract the gluggs and their bullets as well. But we are different. You stay with us for a time. You learn from us. We learn from you.

"While the other oahs play at philosophy, we study science. Baboon science. The science of dream-sharing, la-la-la.

"We trying to find out if this ability to paint each others' dreams is unique to baboons, or if other creatures do it. We try it on elephants, zebras. What about gluggs? We know you can do it. What about the others? What about the scrith-scritches, or the cattle-herders?" Glugg call these Masai.

"Maybe you help us find out."

Ohglo stay with Gar's oah for many moons. Gar's oah hardly move from its grove of fig trees in the center of its small plotz far away from the other oahs, and the nosy scritch-scritches. The baboons eat hardly anything but figs. This give them time to la-la-la most of the day, but it also make their shit loose and stinky.

Ohglo learn how every hair-root in la-la-la connected to a different image, different in each baboon, but the same in one baboon over time. When you la-la-la the same baboon over and over, you learn how to make all kinds of pictures in the other's mind that you can see yourself.

He learn too about the 1-2's.

1-2: triad

Gar's oah organized by 1-2's. Everybody go with two other bodies at the same time. Each one fuck two. But not the same two. Same one, but one other. Gar go with Urg and Tik. Urg go with Gar and Wug. Tik go with Gar and Pok. Wug go with Urg and Bim. And so on like that, no hard and fast rules. Male-female don't matter. This way dreams merge and stay fresh. This way Gar's oah develop unity. Each triangle interconnect with every other triangle. Gar's oah grow as more stray baboons get caught up in the net.

Ohglo learn all this la-la-la-ing the baboons of Gar's oah. Gar tell him not to stick to a 1-2 but go around to all of them and get the big picture. He have plans for Ohglo.

But one time, after many moons together, Ohglo-Gar la-la-la, and something happen. Gar-Ohglo crouch by the side of the dirty stream that run through the fig grove. They nuzzle up on each other, an electric arc gap between them. Between their forefingers and opposable thumbs, they gently stroke each of one another's hair-roots. They adjust their breathing so it just the same rhythm.

"Breathing very important," say Gar.

Then it Ohglo that show Gar the vision. Ohglo scoop a pawful of water to drink from the stream. The stream turn to blood. Blood, blood, 1-2-3 blood. The stream-bed open into a canyon, deep and dark. Ohglo spit out the blood taste into the canyon and where his spittle strike, a light dawn. The light a firefly and it take to wing. It fly to the sky. Behind the firefly, the insect swarm: whiteflies, white ants, white termites, white moths, dragonflies, mantises, cicadas, and locusts, all rise to the sky in a violet cyclone like souls of the dead. Now at the bottom of the canyon a desert of white sand glare in the pitiless sun.

End-of-world.

Ohglo-Gar look at each other. Ohglo cry. Gar blink his eyes.

But Gar say softly, "Let go, Ohglo."

Ohglo let go, breathe. The stream gush back into the canyon, clean, clear, and cool, blue as the sky. In the center of the stream the light still flicker, a rock, the moon.

Ohglo suddenly flow out of his body and merge with the stream -- the light, the rock, the moon inside his head, he flow down, down, down into a vast sea of water stretch all the way to the sky. The source of the universe.

An ibis alight on the top of his head, all white but for the tips of its outer wing-feathers which are black. The ibis speak from its down-curved beak, itself the shape of a scant crescent moon. "Flow, Ohglo, flow, flee, fly! Flow, flee, fly!"

End-of-world-but.

Ohglo-Gar lie entwined for a time in the unearthly quiet.

"You know what this mean, Ohglo?"

"No."

"It mean the oahs in trouble. It mean the whole 1-2-3-1-2-3-plotz in trouble."

1-2-3-1-2-3-plotz: world

"It mean you called on to act, Ohglo. You got to do something. This a dreadful vision you tell about. Where it coming from? It coming from gluggs, Ohglo, from the glugg in you. The glugg in you see something terrible happening. It your mission, Ohglo."

"Mission?"

"To go among gluggs. To find out what this about. You wise for a glugg. You go find out what it is, this terror the gluggs dreaming about and then you come back and tell us. You go la-la-la the gluggs and then return to la-la-la us. You be making a great contribution to baboonkind."

"I don't know, Gar. What do I do, let those Ak-murdering scritch-scritches capture me like I think they want to? They kill me too."

"Maybe not them, Ohglo. We been studying them some ourselves. They very stupid. They don't even speak. You right, they smell like killers. Find some friendly gluggs. Maybe you find the ones that birthed you."

"I don't know, Gar. I don't know. I leave you now. I go see what I can see. Gluggs won't take me back. I no glugg anymore. I monkey. But I go. And I come back some day and tell you what I see."

The next day, in the red morning sun, Ohglo hug Gar good-bye and follow the murky stream down hill to see what he can see.