Their Call, Calico: The Series
Part One
Table of Contents
Based on Original Published Work by Author
There once was a bear, but not any ordinary bear, not humanized nor civilized, but a bear whose life was forged to the zoo. His fur was black, with spills of white and red, and his eyes a hue of innocent blue. His claws were clipped, his roar depressed; only four and very stressed under circumstances fit for human kind.
CHAPTER ONE
Calico, the name of names
To fit his color only touched
By that of human kind. From
Time to time he was nudged
By nose of two of his companions.
Calico, a tenant, in the boundaries
Of bars, could only correspond on sides
Towards five meters East or West, amongst
The other bodies of fine animal hides.
His dashing neighbors carrying the San-Fran hospitality,
Were a pair of dashing flamboyancies;
A barking deer named Martackadong,
That went about his fancies.
To the East was Corinthia,
A tiger of Siberian descent,
She would seldom take daily walks.
But when the zoo closed, she would repent
To feel the real night whose brush was
Clean on her fur- she told Calico, who’d listen.
Corinthia would tell Calico stories about her
Youthful times in San Diego, when her fur would glisten
With the pulchritude of the evening air, alive.
Calico dreamt of his time collapsed with this unwinding wind,
And only tales that were laid by the tiger’s tongue
Glazed onto his impure mind.
A mind impure does not dividend to that of human kind. Calico
Non-sociable, Calico content. Calico was not the lion Fiona,
Nor Corinthia, he was a donation to the zoo from a maternal form,
Never met. His mother delivered and died in Phoenix, Arizona.
Above the bars held the letterhead indicating Asia.
Below the bars was a variable indicating life watched.
Ahead of the bars was the fantasia
Of children, forms and mouths in plenty
Carrying bags, ice cream, and pop, complaining,
Yelling, fretting that the tiger would come loose.
But Calico, Calico refraining
From the public eye. The rest was stratospherical,
Around the bear and dreams were a common antidote to
Stress, and he would ignore.
Authorized on his status, a doctor, who
By the name of Rachel Kladiffe drew a view
On the perplexities of this bear, whose surroundings
Seemed appropriately manufactured for his kind.
She began to diagnose and develop findings.
Kladiffe betwixt and bewildered, captured
Merriment lost in the turquoise eyes of a balloon-carrying child,
Whose mother sulked under happiness, ruptured.
Calico would eye them, but never met eyes to end.
At Twelve PM, Kladiffe, verified, was certain that
Calico would require sociable features for his exhibit; or
She could contrast on what happened at
Austin’s zoo to the bobcat that refuted to discipline himself justly.
The following day, thirteen hours passed this, zookeeper Ryan Bettings
Came into the pen, laid out greens, and bridged to Calico.
Calico in pleasure, as he knew this figure by birth, started coming
In a manner of a canine salutation; but yielded to realize that was not
His internal thirst and hungered opportunity he desired.
Bettings, from recent spreading of “the news” conjured to her attention
That maybe sweet Calico was in love, and that would be admired
By the zoo, if it gave him an addition to disable his solitude.
Calico. Calico was not in love, yet did not attain its definition,
Lacking knowledge of “lonesome”, or unity, or just wanting freedom.
Though, on higher ground, life must have indignation and isolation, otherwise liberation would not be at high request.
Calico, flabbergast to foresee that Bettings felt negative on his move,
Galloped back at her.
At which she captured a theory that she was dreamt as food.
Bettings shut the bolt-splattered wall, as Calico fell on its face.
Calico, confused gave it a push. Actuated solely by the zoo,
His life was trapped. Never understanding its reason, place,
And but to dream of wind enchantment, and parceled desires.
Not knowing his life, but to sit and loathe about the day not to come.
Martackadong barked, and Corinthia roared as the slam fired.
Calico extracted on what just went on, and not only did Martackadong
Wimper, he wept, as he knew what happened to Alberta- the previous
One.
He told Calico the story of the cone that one child who came along
To see his pen, who accidentally dropped it and red cold liquid spilled onto
His bamboo vegetation. It happened the day Alberta left, and a child
Who was looking at her cage saw the red liquid from underneath two
Of Alberta’s blankets near the bamboo, and began to cry.
The father judging
This bizarre matter glanced, and smiled, “We’ll never know Alberta.”
But Calico didn’t think, didn’t know what to expect that his conduct- hers
Was even a threat. And so Calico, smudging
His clipped paws into the dirt, sulked and moaned until the night gave help.
The next day, the president of the zoo, Mr. Gerard along with Dr. Kladiffe
Discussed on a course, whether or not this shadow feature of a welp
Could ever be quite a “panda”, such a panda, as humans see fit. Dr. Kladiffe
Brought into account that he saw others, and that keeping him would be
An Expense; just an if.
Onto the decision, then.
Mr. Gerard informed Bettings, who couldn’t help but share her shed
Of tears, an alibi that what Calico did was a mistake.
But Mr. Gerard was forward, and encountered him as if he were dead.
Grabbed his legs back with four other men on tact.
Bettings belted “they’ll kill him”, and who will? The liquid, the needle or
The hand that holds him back.
Kladiffe began to smile,
As Bettings thought her judgment wrong-of him.
Calico was placed behind where Martackadong, and Corinthia long forgot.
Bettings shook Dr. Kladiffe and asked for a whim.
Dr. Kladiffe who lost but his smirk addressed her in verse:
“Ryan Bettings, the answer runs amuck
That Calico is to be carried in a truck.
But how I’ve made my decision,
Is his heart lonely?- my intuition.
He belongs in the wild maybe he’ll get laid.
Either way, your day is paid.
But before you fret, I never inserted a GPS chip,
So, there is no way Mr. Gerard knows Calico has not been chipped
And that he is our panda bear to keep:
No more.”
Bettings was confused, bewildered, and let out a “why”.
Dr. Kladiffe was silent.
He looked at Corinthia and the flashing cameras. It was his intent.
He turned to Bettings, and towards the glaring Golden Gate.
He said “Because of us.”
CHAPTER TWO
Rivets in the thousands, at a morning’s wake.
Calico, tired Calico, endured a long awake.
As the bump and tumble of a tweed basket fumbled and tossed itself
Over his bare-metered cage, and a chain around his neck.
Calico could barely stand, as there were no others caged and it seemed like the ground was gone.
Wooden Crates, and every few seconds, a bump, and they would move
Around unwillingly.
Calico tried to get up, but he was caged shut.
Calico then realized this was how they made ice cream. But above
Him, was an overly heated light as the air in the cabin was somewhat frosty. Calico pattered, and paced in the unanswerable enigma.
Hours, the wooden boxes had moved up to his cage, hours, and hours
Ago. Then a streamlined delta of wind, a charisma
Of soothing halogens, but no, not chemical air. It was never felt before
By Calico. He twitched. It wasn’t fear. It was different, odd.
Calico growled and pawed, and the wind brushed against his face.
Calico began to slowly twist his sopping fur brazed skull, and clawed
To his left and clumped his paw against the plastic barrier, but
A barrier with holes. The holes had a set of eyes with charming black lashes.
Calico prepared to inch back but banged his tail. There was a nose not like anything he’d ever laid eyes on except Jose the Stallion. Lashes Colored like ashes.
But to compare was a long neck of white sand, almost marble marked fur
Sifting down the plastic holes on what seemed to be like the rails in front of his cage at the zoo. But, then there was a mound and the brushing blur of a small broom; no, that was her tail.
“Who are you?” said Calico to the elongated horse.
“I am dying, death, loss,” said the creation.
“Who are you?” said Calico again confused by the answer,
Only to hear more remorse.
“They’ve killed me, for my existence grants them leverage to make me their victim.”
“Who? I do not see any mark of death, you’re not cold or red,” Calico said.
“Hilly Dallia, I am…a dromedary camel they say, but hath
Committed that I am a Pure Kind, but they have led
Me to die elsewhere- [for] hath I to die amongst the
Hands of these bandits. They’re taking us away, bear.”
“Martackadong told me. wha-“
“And what did they name you?
You sound like you’ve believed
Them and lost your sense of the pure quality.”
“My name is Calico,” said Calico relieved
As to finally feel a connection.
“Calico, yes- they name you for your red stain;
They name you because your real body is
Nothing compared to their love of display, and pride.
They hate us Calico, tis
Time enough. We’re in a plane in the third dome of air.
Calico, Martackadong is dead, too.”
“Dead? I never introduced you to him yet,
He’s just behind the door through
Those crates,” said Calico.
“Crates, Calico, is what happens to us,
The pure kind- when we die.”
“Hilly Dee-l-ia, when I die I turn into
A cone of cold red cream, and I
Run through the vegetation.”
“Calico, you don’t know. You
Don’t know. They’re the gorilla
Whore, the Pure Kind killers, who
Will do anything they please for
Us to lose power. I shall sing, yet
I am weak, and too old to serenade.”
Song. “ The Gorilla Whore ”
Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmm Mmmm Mmmm
Brick and mortar, sand and flame
Twice an hour passing sane. Rain.
He had come, she had… came.
Capacitated till all the blame,
Was a loose, conspiracy
And all the fame
Was just hierocracy.
Now they call it: democracy.
And all the… lame.
Numbers are all gone.
Fortunes laid.
Tomorrow comes.
And they all get paid.
The gorilla whore, the gorilla whore,
They took our lives, they hosed us
Down, Spit on our love,
And they knocked us around.
Killing up a thousand stars,
They broke Jupiter’s son-is Mars,
And topical dome is called the sky,
They fed us up in jars on the street
While we loyal-ed and hid underneath this bid of
A time we had lost, and it cost us our lives.
The gorilla whore, the gorilla whore,
You can ask it for something,
It will ignore,
You can beg for something
And… take a little more!
The gorilla whore, the gorilla whore, the gorilla whore.
Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmm Mmmm Mmmm
Time and Future, Traffic trade
Trapeze murder across the Everglades. Fade,
It was the only nightmare, they came across,
And our tent escape failed, It was all ablaze-d Away.
And all the fame
Was just hierocracy.
Now they call it: democracy.
And all the lame.
Numbers are all gone.
Fortunes laid.
Tomorrow comes.
And they all get paid.
The gorilla whore, the gorilla whore,
They took our lives, they hosed us
Down, Spit on our love,
And they knocked us around.
Killing up a thousand stars,
They broke Jupiter’s son-is Mars,
And topical dome is called the sky,
They fed us up in jars on the street
While we loyal-ed and hid underneath this bid of
A time we had lost and it cost us our lives.
The gorilla whore, the gorilla whore,
You can ask it for something,
It will ignore,
You can beg for something
And take a little more!
The gorilla whore, the gorilla whore, the gorilla whore.
Over a thousand pin drops, rain and I bled
Walked alone, and then in a cage
They hunted me down, killed my own mother
Locked me up on the cold barren floor,
With nails, and needles, if I could roar-
Those Gorilla Whore!
[ reprise ]
Song. End.
“The Gorilla Whore?” Calico turned to the side of the cage
Quite far complexed. “Hilly Dallia? Are you sure we’re going
To die in this moving back room?”
“Die? They will slaughter us in appreciation, without pith.
Darling, they’ve tried to destroy us for thousands of years why
Would they end the odds now for any revelation?”
“Rev-uh-lation?”
“Honey, don’t you recall? If not- the gorilla whore have turned you
Into a subordinate impurity, a pet, and you are their weaker.”
Then, like the rambling through beakers
And tossing of jars and chemicals aside like
A scientist looking for a way out,
The crates and cages flew forward.
“Oh, heavenly camel Pap take me on your hump.”-
Screamed Hilly. “Get ready to die my furry friend.”
“But death is to become ice cream?”
“And what would that mean?”
“That the humans would never…”
“Oh yes they would, oh yes they would.”
The room tilted more and the heat lamp fell off,
Calico, dear Calico, felt the chill air and began to cough.
“Silly pure kind friend, you are dying already,” she said.
“Hilly, no the room is tilted for a reason, we’re going to
Become mouth-watering miracles.”
“And that is…good, darling? I would spit against it.”
The room tilted back and the cages slid in the 1st position.
“See, we didn’t die, and we did not become ice cream-
A double whammy!” confessed Calico with passive glare.
“A double whaw? Listen pure kind, if you talk like them,”
Hilly spit a wad in a crate carrying pineapples,
“You’ll bathe like’em and stop licking your fur clean, and
They’ll brush you- oh they will brush you!”
Calico was silent as her opposite intentions did not
Attract his, as he was impatient that the process was
Taking so long.
“You know what Calico?”
“What Hilly?”
“They’re going to kill us.”
“Okay.”
“Calico?”
“What?”
“Well, I don’t tell too many about Hilly Baba.
But Hilly Baba was my bull. He was all bull,
And no cow, as he didn’t have nipples. But
Bull he was, he was, he was.
We had two young ones on the way; at least that is what
He wanted for us both. Sometimes, I miss him… everyday.”
“What happen to Hilly or Baba?”
“Well, to get from hoof to cage is very self-explanatory.”
Calico was distressed and dry, and realized the room was
Very, very still.
Hilly Dallia closed her eyes, and spurted out bits of her tune.
Too still, Calico thought; Calico content, Calico concerned.
The sounds went off. Hilly spit again into the pineapple crate,
And tilted her head, and tears ran down her demanding lashes.
Her pleading lashes.
“It’s not that bad Hilly.”
Calico- who had only seen this reaction
From Martackadong when he lost his meal one day had no idea
Of the extremity at which she wept.
“They are…are coming.”
She whimpered. The footsteps beated.
Calico attempted to sit up straight but bumped his head.
Suddenly two men [ of Eastern descent] came over and smiled.
One had a nametag with Charlie Yu, the other nametag on the
Other person said “My name is Rick Yu, but call me Dick.”
Rick and Charlie picked up his cage, and Calico just eyed these
Two men in; which Calico’s eyes were to them: cute concern.
“They’ll kill you, and you’ll never know it.”
She said in a distanced
Pitch.
Calico quiet, suddenly saw buzzling sunlight and felt very warm
And sticky all over, and he suddenly urinated in his cage.
Rick noticed and laughed, “Panda is horny around men.”
The other one said, “They kick him out for reason.”
Then, they placed the cage into a dark room.
Several minutes after, a familiar voice joined him in this
Bizarre twist to becoming a dairy product.
“We’re almost there, the next light after this dark room.”
She Moaned.
The room vibrated, and the cages started hopping about.
“I guess this must be the mixing process,” Calico said
To keep things upbeat as Martackadong had indicated such.
Another bump, another bump.
Calico became quiet too, he didn’t know what to do.
Then suddenly Dallia screamed:
“WAKE ME UP WHEN IT’S OVER!!!”
Calico panicked and began scratching the bottom of the cage,
And Hilly Dallia kept on and on.
Calico thought the same, too.
CHAPTER THREE
A line of reporters wait:
Jenny Chu from CNN
Kerry Wae from ABC
Lee Woo from BBC
The Hanjin moving truck arrives in paradise: on-scheduled delivery.
The truck opens and Charlie takes out a cattle prod and tranquilizer dart gun while Rick takes out both cages one at a time. Dallia tries to give Calico the heads up with the indication as to what Charlie is taking out, but Calico, curious Calico is eying the general public through cameras to record this-this grand and only entrance, before an unknown departure from “this” world.
“Good afternoon this is Jenny Chu reporting live from Woraksan National Park in South Korea. We are just minutes away from San Francisco Zoo’s Calico being released into the wild. Here it comes, the opening of the cage, well that’s one small achievement for animal activists to bring back the endangered Korean panda into its original habitat.
Aw, he is sure a cute one.
Now, back to today’s weather with…”
The reporters quickly wandered away before Calico could be petted or observed. Though, he was in great observation himself: green trees, tall trees, bamboo beyond numbers; and uncontrolled leaking pipes streaming endlessly. Dr. Bettings always complained about the leaking pipes in the restroom near his one-time-home.
Calico took his first breath of this brave new world, to him.
Rick then took out Hilly Dallia as the last news van left. And she tilted her jittering neck towards Calico, cute Calico and stated, “Before we die, Calico, why was it that you were sent back to the, the uh… what do they call us, uh nature animals. Why were you brought out here to the nature animals?”
“Nature animals?”
“Just, just tell me that, so I can die with happy hump.”
“They said. They said I was unsociable,” Calico said.
“Ha, how amusing. Quite amusing.”
“Why, what is amusing? What is making you laugh?”
“Clueless, completely clueless. You’re every single thing the gorilla whores want you to be.
Now, for they to judge a nature animal as unsociable in their grounds is like saying you can’t run out in the world without having their cage with you at all times. And look there’s one right by you: freak of nature animals, freak of the gorilla whore.”
“Well, I can’t wait to die, if that’s how you put it,” mentioned Calico.
“There, spoken like a true naïve gorilla whore nature animal. Calico, even if you some how live today, you’ll die tomorrow.”
“Well, if you want it so much, why don’t you see if they have some ice cream on them,” chirped Calico.
“You know why camel is here Charlie?” informed Rick.
“The zoo no take her cause she old and sick,” Charlie chucked.
“What do we do with it? Extra cargo?”
“Well, Rick, do we have panda food?” Charlie glistened.
“You think what I think?” said Rick.
Charlie Yu loosened his belt on his tight-fitting jeans, and burped. He took out the cattle prod, and tested it in mid-air to watch the sparks sift in melody. “You see the way panda growls at camel. I bet panda will eat camel, bet half you salary.”
“Okay Rick, okay, you go lose some money.”
Charlie pulled Hilly Dallia’s rope that noosed her nostrils in the direction pulled. Charlie smiled back at Rick.
He quickly jousted the prod on Dallia’s neck, and she screamed. Calico didn’t know how to react, but he wanted it to stop.
“The bear says it’s not weak enough,” triggered Rick.
Charlie quickly took the initiative and shocked the camel four more times. Calico roared for the first time in his life, and became extremely quiet, and moved back a bit.
Charlie backed away, as confused Calico came up to Dallia who was lying on her side with charred marks on her legs and bleeding hump. He sniffed her body, and tried to lick the charred imprints but burned his tongue, and whimpered.
“Calico, I was wrong. Calico, long live, Calico. I am sorry for my negative-uh the pain…”
exhaled Hilly Dallia.
“No you were right, you were right. In the morning when we are both ice cream-“
“Calico, the ice cream was a lie. All this, the zoo, the air, the world around us, the people, disappear-go bye-bye, and our bodies stay here-that is death.”
“I’m glad you told me,” said Calico who started to whimper.
“I am glad young Calico, I could set a pure-a pure-“
Immediately, Dallia was fired on by Rick’s own gun. Rick indicated that the money would be whether he ate her or not, otherwise he’d kill them both.
Dallia barely breathing told Calico to place his jaws on her neck even if he refuses. Calico refused to. In another quick moment, Charlie came and prodded Calico- and Calico felt for the first time, unnecessary pain and whimpered more. Then, Charlie pushed Calico onto Dallia.
“You have no choice Calico, place your jaws on my neck.”
“Kill her bear, finish her meat,” Charlie sprayed at Calico’s back.
Calico, then heard the mechanical thing that shot Dallia make a grinding sound, so he walked up to Dallia’s neck, and put his mouth barely on it and looked up.
“Bite you stupid panda, what you wait for!” yelled Charlie.
“Do it,” sifted Dallia.
Calico closed his eyes and bit as hard as he could and felt her warm blood coming out, dripping onto his whiskers down to his chest.
Charlie applauded and walked away. Rick was a little shocked and just sighed.
The Hanjin truck drove off.
“Dallia,” whimpered Calico, crying Calico. “Dallia?”
And in that moment, the real stage of life began
For a panda named Calico.
END OF PART ONE
Including Content from the original story published in the author’s work
The Trails To Attrition © 2007, Wasteland Press, Inc.
ISBN-13: 9781600471520© 2024, Their Call, Calico: the Series
Wasteland PressAdam Mullin (a.k.a. Good Day, Adam)
