I could have just left him there.
After all, it was a dead body, and I had my kiddos to think about. I had seen
dead bodies before at parties where Lady Caine made her appearance. But I
abandoned that life to embrace my role as a mother, a nurturer to the spirit of
little people.
Freedom, my six-old daughter
spooned into the dead body. "He just needs a hug. He's sad, Lila." My
kids addressed me by my given name. I wouldn't force the conscript of Mom on
them. She kissed his neck where blood had dried from a torn patch of skin. I
hoped he didn't have a blood disease. Maybe that is how he died.
I cringed, trying to keep
things low-key. "Freedom, however so kind of you." I pulled her off
the corpse, its skin turning leathery. Creepy invisible bugs danced across me.
"How about you rub your hands in the dirt? You don't want to carry his
essence on you." My antaratma hummed.
Freedom looked at me with
her maple syrup brown eyes. "But I love him, Lila."
I took Freedom's tiny hands
in mine and rubbed them through the dirt. Other moms drenched their offspring
in sanitizer any chance they could, destroying life-saving bacteria. No, I
wouldn't subject my kids to that. We cleansed impurities with Mother Nature. I
picked a brilliant dandelion and rubbed it on the lips that had smacked the
corpse. "Let's give you yellow lipstick."
Freedom hit my hand away,
and the dandelion fell to the grass. "No. I want red lips."
In an airy tone, I said,
"There are some tulips over there. Why don't you go rub five petals on
your lips." Maybe that would neutralize any contaminants she had picked
up.
"Yay!" Freedom let
go of my hand and ran to the flowers.
Billowy clouds cast a shadow
over the body. I peered up and became lost in the shapes and how they formed
perfect figures of a flying pig and a boat. I smelled ozone and wondered if it
might rain soon-poor dead man might get soggy.
Revelation, my
seven-year-old son, wrapped his arm around my leg as I watched Freedom pick
tulips.
"Is he dead or
sleeping?" Revelation asked in a feeble voice.
"Death. Death. What is
death? His spirit has rejoined the realm of souls, waiting to return as ladybug
or butterfly."
Revelation scratched his
forehead and leaned toward the body while tightening his grip on my leg.
I had a mystery sprawled
before me. A man had died in the back acres of Forest Park. How long had his
body laid there?
I took a deep breath through
my nose. I didn't smell decay. Perhaps he had died during the night or even
just hours ago.
-So many ways he could have
died.
Drugs?
Murder?
Heart attack?
Had the universe called me
to his side? What should I do? Did I play a role in his unification with the
end of his mortality?
"Should we call the
fuzz?" Revelation asked.
"Hmmm. No. I don't
believe we should. The departure of the soul from the body is a sacred
experience. He might have family who wants to perform a hallowing to his body.
If the POPO carts his body to the morgue, it could disrupt that. Let's see if
he carries identification on him."
I pushed Revelation from my
leg. He stepped behind me and wrapped his arm around his belly while I slid my
hand under the cadaver's stiff buttocks and pulled his wallet out. I squatted
and smelled the oaky wallet.
I held his driver's license.
"Marcus Trenidy. Marcus, Marcus. Who were you in the living?"
According to his
government-issued ID, he lived in the Elms Suburb--a place where people trade
adventure for security. -passion for mundane.
"Lila, Lila,
Lila!" Revelation screamed, turning his voice ragged. He clawed at my arm.
"Don't be afraid of
death," I said, drawing Revelation into me.
He pointed behind me as he
buried his head into my side. "It's the rat."
"Revelation, I taught
you that all creatures are formed from Mother Earth. They all play a balance in
our world. Even the rat."
I pulled him away. He had
his comfort, and now he needed to show bravery.
"Holy Spirit of
everything holy!" I yelled. A giant rat came at us, but I couldn't
classify it as a rat. It had the face and beady red eyes of a rat but the body
of a cat and the wings of a bat.
"That is a morphed
rat-cat-bat." Then I chuckled." Hey, that rhymed."
The Franken cat-rat-bat came
closer, with its haunches raised and a low hissing from its foaming mouth. I
saw a stick next to the corpse, picked it up, and waved it at the hideous
creature. I respected mother nature, but this wasn't mother nature. Could it be
some form of evolution? No matter what it was, it foamed at the mouth. I didn't
want rabies.
I poked the stick into the
side of the beast.
It lunged at me.
Revelation took off in a
run. As the beast's yellow teeth came within inches of my leg, I bopped it on
the head. It yelped and then took to the sky.
It flew!
"We must be
brave," I said in an unconvincing voice.
My heart raced as my limbs
shook. Revelation sobbed. I almost wanted to sob at the unholy encounter.
A silky sensation brushed my
lips as I sat and composed my emotions. I jumped, almost thinking it was the
rat-bat-cat. "I make you pretty," Freedom said as she dusted the
tulip on me.
"Oh, thank you."
I held my hand over my heart
and tried to feign a smile.
"Do I look pretty,
Lila?"
"You do, my little
flower child."
Freedom's lips parted as she
flashed her crooked teeth, slightly too big for her mouth.
My back creaked as I stood
up. "Who wants to go on an adventure?"
"What about the
body?" Revelation asked.
"Can we put him in the
wagon with us?" Freedom asked.
"We do not want to
bring imbalance to his departure," I replied.
"We can't leave him
here?" Freedom said.
"He is with Mother
Nature now." I walked to the wagon and picked up the metal handle. It had
absorbed the heat of the sun and slightly burned my hand. "Hop in, kids.
Let us pretend he is a troll, and we are on our way to the troll's lair to
inform the king troll."
"What's his name,
Lila?" Freedom swung into the wagon, and Revelation hoisted the rest of
his sister in. She pulled her sundress over her legs. "What is the troll's
name?"
"Troll Marcus."
Freedom scrunched her nose.
"I don't like it. Let's call him Rumpus the Troll."
"So creative." I
ruffled the top of Freedom's frizzy hair. "Rumpus, stay here. We go to
your clan in good spirits."
It took us two hours to walk
to Marcus' house. I couldn't believe it. There, in the heart of suburbia,
reigned a monolithic dome. If I were to ever live in a permanent structure, it
would be that. They are one of the most environmentally friendly buildings. The
dude in the park didn't look like the eco-friendly type. By his threads, I had
thought maybe he was a Wall Street sav who had been killed and dumped there.
"This is a funny
house," Revelation said.
"What do you expect
from a troll?"
Freedom tried to jump out of
the wagon but landed on her hands. She looked up at me as her lip pouted out.
"Oh no, you aren't going
to give in to those emotions," I said. "Pick yourself up."
Freedom stood up, slitting
her eyes tightly.
"I see anger on
you," I said. "Let it wash away."
Freedom's face grew tighter
as she considered my words.
"Who will be the first
to inform the king troll of our presence?" I asked, trying to distract
Freedom from her feelings. It worked. Her face softened as she ran to the door.
She pressed the doorbell over and over.
No one answered.
I knocked on the door.
-nothing. I tried the nob, and the door swung inward.
"Hello," I said as
I stuck my head in. "I come baring emergent news. Is anyone home?"
The musky smell of animals
and excrement greeted me. Sounds of trapped animals called out in desperation.
"He has animals. We
better check on them," I said to the kids. We followed a circular hallway
around the dome, then entered another door to find an open room filled with
cages and imprisoned animals.
"Poor babies," I
cried. No animal deserved to be trapped in a cage. I didn't believe in pets.
Mother nature created the perfect home for animals, and it wasn't inside
someone's house.
Revelation asked, "What
are they?" screeching much like the animals.
Energy vibrated in me as I
noticed the animals. I grabbed Revelation and Freedom's hands.
Those weren't regular
animals.
Someone had mutated them.
Probably the dead man.
"Hahaha." Freedom
dropped my hand and ran to a glass case. A furry, black and white snake brought
his head towards Freedom.
"Panda-snake," she
sang.
"Snakes don't have
fur." What was it?
Revelation dropped my hand
and went to the cage with the dog that had webbed feet and a duck's beak.
I almost tripped when I saw
the pig with wings. It looked just like the one I had seen in the clouds. Had
that been a premonition?
"We should free the
animals." Freedom said, trying to remove the screen from the glass. We had
snuck into a pet shop four months ago and freed all the animals. Their rescue
hadn't gone the way I had hoped. A week later, the news reported that four of
the dogs I had liberated had gotten run over. The boa had crawled into a lady's
house, and she had chopped off its head with a butcher knife. -so much for
saving the animals.
Freedom pushed off the
squeaky mesh top. The snake lunged up, and I quickly pulled the mesh back on
the glass enclosure.
"We don't know if these
animals are poisonous or dangerous."
"But you said all
earth's creatures deserve to be free. Even the dangerous ones," Revelation
said.
My mouth opened, but nothing
came out.
Freedom again pushed the
mesh back. I quickly returned it and pulled her away from the glass case.
"What should we
do?" I rubbed my elbows as I paced.
Freedom had a reddened chin
from where she had pressed the tulip into it. I recalled her kissing the blood
on the body. I think that was a bite. Had he died from the bite?
"The rat-cat-bat! That
was one of the dead man's creations!" Had the bat-thing bit and killed the
man? Seemed fitting. I didn't feel pity for him. He deserved to be killed by
the creatures he tortured, though it gave me an appreciation for the danger of
his franken-animals.
"I honestly don't know
what to do right now."
"I wanna hold the
panda-snake."
"I just don't think
that is a good idea right now."
Freedom wined. "Why
not, Lila?"
"I think one of these
animals killed the man at the park."
Freedom's face went pale,
and she jumped away from the snake case.
Revelation's arm wrapped
around my leg. "Can we go now?"
"If we leave these
animals, they will die. We must do something."
"Can they live in the
grove with us?"
I lifted Freedom into my
arms. "I don't think so. You know that mother nature's animals weren't
meant to be pets." I put the neckline of my shirt into my mouth and sucked
on it.
"Then let's free
them."
"We can't do that
either. What impact on the environment would these GMO creatures have? They
could disrupt the whole earth's balance."
Freedom melted her body into
mine. She kissed my cheek, and it burned as I remembered her lips had kissed
Marcus' death wound.
"Lila, I'm
hungry."
"Me too."
"Well," I said,
shifting Lila to my other hip. "Let's see what there is to eat here."
"But it is troll
food."
"Yeah, I know." I
went to the fridge, nervous about what I would find. I tried as much as
possible to eat organic, natural food. Surely, a scientific freak like Marcus
would have a fridge full of GMO food. I opened the fridge and sighed. It mostly
had leftover fast food Styrofoam containers. I searched the cupboards and found
a jar of natural peanut butter and steel-cut oats.
"We are in luck,"
I said. "Did he have milk?" I reopened the fridge and, to my great
relief, found a carton of almond milk. I could dig that.
As we ate dinner, I
entertained all the possibilities for rescuing the animals.
Enlightenment hit me.
"Freemont Island," I said as I ate my last bite of peanut-buttery
oatmeal. Several of the nuts stuck between my teeth and gums. I picked a few
out with my finger.'
The uninhabited Freemont
Island was an hour-long boat ride from the bay. About three years ago, I camped
on the island for a little under six months. The whole time we were there, we
never saw one person step foot on it. I didn't doubt that people went to the
island sometimes, but it wasn't often. We could steal a truck, drive the
animals to the bay, then steal a boat and release the animals on the island.
Hopefully, any random changes the animals caused would stay isolated to the
island.
Too bad I couldn't take the
mutant rat-cat-bat there. Oh well, he would just fly off it. But could he fly
over the expanse of the ocean to land? -doubtful.
We walked around the now
darkened neighborhood until we found a white cargo van with rust holes all over
it. Its tinted windows made it look like one of those creepy vans that would
slowly follow you into a dark alley and abduct you. I shivered.
The van door creaked as I
opened it. Thankfully, it was parked on the house's east side, which had no
windows or mounted cameras. I planned to hot-wire it. Luckily, the fates had
left the keys in the glove box, and soon, we drove back to the monolithic dome.
After we carried eight
strange creatures into the back of the van, Freedom asked, "Do you think
Rumpus the Troll wants to go to the island with his animals?"
I stuck my tongue out. But
the more I thought about it, the more I decided it had to happen. -if the
police hadn't picked up the body yet.
"Yes, we don't want to
leave him all alone in the park. He might get lonely."
I didn't have good vibes for
the man. He had defied nature when he sliced, diced, modified, and created
unnatural creatures. He had kept binders of each animal next to their cages
with detailed notes on the process of making them. He even gave each animal a
scientific name. I had brought the binders along. They should never get into
anyone's hands who might try to replicate the man's work. I would take the
deranged scientist to the island where his body could rot into minerals for the
island. He could recompense his wrong as he fed the island creatures.
I dragged the wagon in the
backwoods of the park. There weren't any streetlights at that end, and the
wheels kept getting stuck on the roots. Perhaps the police had found Marcus.
"Here he is."
Freedom ran to him. "Hi, Rumpus. How are you? Did you miss me?"
Freedom twirled her finger in her hair as she twisted her legs back and forth.
In a very awkward attempt,
the three of us managed to plop the body in the wagon. My back ached from
carrying Marcus wrong. Thankfully, I had seen a ramp folded in the back of the
van. With any luck, we could just pull the wagon and Marcus straight into the
van.
At the harbor, we searched
for the perfect boat with a cargo area at the bottom. It would have to be easy
to steal.
Killer mosquitos siphoned
our blood as we walked around.
"They hurt, Lila."
Freedom smacked at one on her arm.
"I have eucalyptus oil
back at the grove. Little good that does us now."
A sick yellow light cast
shadows everywhere. The dock swayed and moaned like an elderly man. My kids
were used to the outdoors at night, but even this creeped me out. Freedom
whimpered. I felt like joining her but knew I had to look stalwart. I kept scanning
the harbor to make sure we were alone, but one could never tell if people were
living on some of the boats. A clammy chill penetrated our bones. "I wish
I had grabbed some blankets from Marcus' house."
"Who is Marcus?"
"The troll," I
said.
We found the perfect pontoon
boat to steal.
Once we had safely stored
the cages in the second deck, we returned to the van for the body. Marcus'
torso slipped out and pushed Revelation down.
"Help! Help! He's
killing me! Help!" Freedom and I pushed the body back into the wagon.
Revelation shook as he cried.
"Buck up, son. Life
happens. The corpse didn't kill you. I need you to help me and stop
bellyaching."
Revelation wiped his eyes on
the bottom corner of his shirt, then returned to pushing the wagon to the dock.
"Clank. Clank.
Clank." The wagon wasn't quiet as we pushed it over the slotted wood.
"Help me shove him in," I said as I parked the wagon next to the
pontoon. We pushed and grunted until he plopped in.
"Is everything all
right?" a deep voice from the shadows said. Was it the body talking? We
all jumped.
A runner came over. "Is
everything all right, Mam?" He looked at the pile of body in the boat.
"Is your husband okay?"
I tried to go with the flow.
"Oh yeah, sure. He is a little drunk?"
"Do you need help
getting him out?"
"Oh, no. We are going
for a midnight boat ride."
The yellow light turned the
runner's expression jaundiced. "Do you think that is wise?"
"Oh, I don't need you
to determine wise for me," I tried to throw shade. "We will be fine.
My husband proposed marriage to me on this boat ten years ago. Every year, we
take a pleasure cruise on the water to celebrate."
The man's eyebrows raised,
and the shadows made them look pointed and sinister. He looked at Freedom and
Revelation. "Are you two okay?" he asked them.
I stepped in between the
runner and my kids. "Listen, let's keep things on point. I don't take
kindly talking to a strange man alone in the dark. Head along now."
"You aren't alone. You
have your husband who looks like he needs help."
I responded salty.
"Head along," I said.
"Okay," the man
jogged away, occasionally turning his head back to look at us.
Once the kids had settled
into the pontoon, I pulled the cord to the motor, which revved to life. My
hands still shook from the encounter with the runner. At least he wasn't the
boat owner. That would have gone in a whole different direction.
"Good thing he didn't
see the animals," Revelation said.
"Good thing."
The fish-smelling wind
lashed at our faces, and we buried ourselves in some towels we had found on the
boat. "We will ever get there?" Revelation asked.
"Yeah, this ride seems
longer than I remember."
Once we reached the edge of
the island. I dropped the anchor. "Help me unload everything."
The cages didn't take much
doing but dragging that body through the water and onto the sand made my
muscles howl in agony.
The light of dawn chased the
darkness away. Exhausted, we curled together under the pile of towels and slept
for hours. We woke about midday, sweltering under the hot sun. Sweat drenched
us.
"Alright, let's
liberate these creatures," I said.
We opened the steel cages,
and the animals bolted for freedom. The dog-duck came to Revelation. Revelation
giggled as he petted the canine.
I opened the glass case of
the snake, and then tipped it to the ground. The panda-snake slithered out,
then headed straight at Freedom. She no longer saw it as cute and scampered up
my leg. I picked her up, and we ran from the snake. It came at us, and Revelation
chucked a rock at it. The snake stopped and then headed the other way.
Purity filled me as we
watched the animals disappear into the thicket. I half expected the pig with
wings to fly away, but I think its body was too heavy.
"Lila, I am
hungry."
Others would have killed the
pig for food. Thick acid made its way up my throat at the thought.
"I know there are
berries just over there," I said, pointing to the island's north. It had a
rich growth of fruit, roots, and mushrooms.
When night came, we made a
large bonfire and burned all of Marcus' binders.
Never should anyone repeat
his experiments.
"Can we live here
forever?" Freedom asked.
I was anxious to return to
the grove and check on our tent. If we left it uninhabited for too long,
someone would move into it and take all our things if that hadn't already
happened.
"No, my flower child.
But we will come back in a year to check on the animals, and then we can stay
for several months."
"Why can't we stay
forever?"
I rubbed my hand over her
arm. "We just don't have the right supplies with us."
During our few days on the
island, we never saw any of the creatures we had freed.
"Let's check on Rumpus
before we leave.". We had eventually pulled him into a growth of ferns. We
headed to it to say our goodbyes. A horrific smell greeted us. His body was
returning to Mother Earth. Suddenly, I realized something.
"No one set your spirit
free," I said. Despite his stench, I consecrated his body with spring
water and did a ritual for death. I stilled my inner self as I practiced
Anapansati.
"Go free, Marcus. And
may you return as a mosquito that someone squishes."
After we loaded the pontoon
and drifted away, the dog-duck and pig with wings stepped out from the brush.
"Bye, bye, bye,"
Freedom called as she waved to them.
The dog-duck sent us off
with a bark that sounded more like quacking.
"May the universe work
in your favor," I called.
"Will Rumpus the Troll
be okay?" Freedom asked.
"He is part of the
island now."
Marcus had brought the
animals to life, and now, his flesh would nurture them if they were omnivores.
Even if they were herbivores, he would fertilize the earth, and delicious
plants would grow from the minerals he shed.
The sun warmed my arms as I
relaxed. The beauty of the island begged us to return. Maybe we would be back
before a year. I could smell the dead man's decaying body on my hands. -yuck.
"Don't you think Rumpus
will get lonely?" Freedom asked.
"He gets what he
deserves." I pulled the cord on the motor four times, and the engine
sputtered and then roared. We sliced through the water as the island became
smaller and smaller.
And I just left him there.
After all, he was a dead body, one who had tried to disrupt nature, and I had
the balance of the universe to worry about.
_______________________________________________________________
The Body
by Stephanie Daich
