Their Call, Calico: The Series
Part Three
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Based on Original Published Work by Author
☯ Legend on reading Calico’s Life:
☴ Indicator for dialogue: “ ”
☶ Indicator for thought, and lyrics: Italic Font
☱ Indicator for action: Bold Font or wording with quotations.
☳ Poems and Songs [ are indicated ]
☷ Names : Bold Italics
☵ Setting set inside: Brackets: {SETTING}/{BOLD}
Calico gets on the back of Jul and they ride {into the forest over through evergreens, and some clear water streams. There are several Buddha statues, and some red and very intricately decorated buildings with wooden statues. There are some vehicles outside of the homes, but they are covered in dust and vines.} They continue into the night stopping for urination breaks, or to eat bamboo.
I wonder if this is what it’s like, to have a real family.
Calico:
“I never got to know my parents, either. All I seem to be aware of was that one section in the zoo, and the two cages on either side of mine.”
Jul:
“It’s quite excruciating how much they let you know, and then how much they think you know, and then, when you should know better. They’re on a drive to never-endingly convert objects, animals, even nature, into all things humanly-controlled.”
Calico:
“I feel so odd right now, Jul-I can’t-”
Jul:
“Doesn’t feel like there’s a beginning or an end to it all in life? And at that moment, too, like you may be, I felt that my life was really just beginning out here in Korea.”
Calico:
“Korea?”
Jul:
“That is what the men said on the tanker before I was driven up in their moving caravan to wherever Korea begins.”
Calico:
“Korea.”
Jul:
“Korea. Maybe it’s the last free land for the Kinds.”
Aub:
“Knack, Pzark!”
Jul:
“Okay, Aub, we’ll get a move on.”
The journey continues. {Over the top of the summit of three mountains, where Jul pointed and told Calico about the moon, yet she said that she could not teach pure kind the ways of the world as they were to be taught it only through their own kind.
It is pitch dark by the time Aub, Jul and Calico come into the herd through a large grassland valley reflecting the full Moon and the sprawling star line across the dimly lit verdant mountain range}. The light begins to steadily enhance in brightness as the gathering approaches the herd at the small lake reflecting the full lunar display. Suddenly, from the large herd comes a young elephant in wobbly form.
Hig:
“Maffa! Aubo!”
Jul:
“Calico this our grubby, Hig.”
Calico:
“Your grubby?”
Jul:
“Well, theoretically he came out of my vagina.”
Aub:
“Knack, Knuck, knuck! Pzark!”
Jul:
“Oh Aub.”
Aub:
“Jul.”
Hig:
“Maffa, maffa, what is a pure kind doing here?”
Jul:
“Aub, knick knick, pzark.”
Aub:
“He is my grubby too.”
Hig:
“Maffa! What is a PURE KIND doing here!?”
Jul, Aub, and the rest of the herd are suddenly silenced at Hig’s remark.
Jul walks in front of Hig, and draws a glance at the two larger herd members approaching her, Aub, Calico and Hig.
It’s her father (well, adopted), Triam and her maffa (also, adopted), Cleb. Triam is almost all dark gray with a thick coat of black fur, and has one back leg shorter than his other leg. He carries it off the ground when walking. Cleb is slightly furry yet has a more light gray coat.
Triam:
“Jul, my dear…mmm Aub…Hig has knack pzark knack mmmpzarkkaknack?”
Cleb:
“Why did you bring a pure kind, Jul, answer your Triambo!”
Jul:
“Maffa, he is from the gorilla whore world.”
The Herd:
“Jul brought an outsider who is a pure kind of the gorilla whore world!”
Triam:
“This is the worst night in the future, and present day of the Tusk and Pzark Pzark! Jul, do you not know the punishment for your actions is a visit by Antwon?!”
Cleb:
“Knack you, Knack you all! I told you, Triam, once a whore for nature animals, once a gorilla whore property-stays a whore either way you look at it.”
Jul:
“Knack, Knaffa, Pzark!”
Hig:
“Maffa Grama, Pzark ‘whore’?
Cleb:
“Your maffa is a whore for life.”
Triam:
“Pzark, knack, knuck… uh knuck, knuck.”
Triam takes a deep breath, goes to the side a bit, and begins to defecate. Hig also agrees with Triam and runs to his Gram Triambo to join in.
Aub:
“Uh knack-knack, knack-knuck!
Then, Aub joins his grubby in their evening defecation in the stars.
Cleb:
“Whore!”
Jul:
“Maffa, Pzark!, Knuck, knuck.”
Cleb:
“Jul is a whore, gorilla whore, nature whore, whore, whore! Knuck, knuck, knuck!”
Jul:
“Oh, Maffa!”
Cleb:
“But- you’re our grubby.”
Suddenly Jul and Cleb embrace their extended noses, and lick their cheeks. Calico is trying to figure out how all that abusive arguing turned into such a happy connection with that same warm feeling he felt earlier.
With a loud fart by Triam, he, Hig, and Aub join the odd embracement creating a carousel of the warm feeling. Calico feels that he wants to join in, but holds back in case they suddenly burst into another yelling battle, or someone gets killed.
Triam:
“Jul, dear, as your Triambo, and chief of the herd, I do not want you to die, and neither does your pompous maffa.”
Cleb:
“Knuck, Pzark.”
Aub:
“(laughing) Knuck, Pzark.”
Triam:
“Hmmm, but as chief I was brought up that any of the regular herd who took in a pure kind had to be executed. But you, my Jul, are not a regular one.
Hmmm, my great mentor still lives with the herd, Jul, he may know to the best of us.”
Jul:
“Who is he, Triambo, and why haven’t you brought him up?”
Triam:
“Komiak!”
Jul:
“The old blind elder was your mentor, Triambo?”
Triam:
“He sees more than many of us can.”
The Herd searching for the elder, suddenly separates completely eying a smaller sized pachyderm which has gray streaks of fur over his black coat.
Komiak’s eyes are completely white except for the faded remains of a blue pupil. Like Triam, he has a back leg that has a size imbalance. Komiak, regardless of his age takes great strides through the grassy field and approaches the Chieftain family.
Komiak:
“Triamtut, Clebtutta, Aubi and Juli, and aw, the pure kind on your back Juli.”
Hig:
“Don’t forget me, Komiak.”
Komiak:
“What-who said that?”
Jul:
“Hig, come out from hiding behind Komiak’s tail.”
Komiak:
“And the grubby, Higlet.”
Calico:
“You see me, Komiak?”
Komiak:
“We all see you; you’re the elephant in the room.”
Triam:
“What does that mean?”
Cleb:
“That’s bizarre; what is an elephant?”
Jul:
“(laughing) This is why it is good I had experience in the outer world.”
Triam:
“Jul dear, do not laugh at my mentor, this situation may cost you your life.”
Komiak:
“Calico, right? Hmmm, it has been forty-five years since my visit-uh-“
Komiak passes obnoxious loud gas a few times, and Jul is trying not to laugh. Calico is covering his mouth and rolling on Jul’s back.
Komiak:
“Aw, that is good, that is good. That is sweet, that is sweet. KNUCK PZARK!”
Triam, Aub & Hig:
“KNUCK PZARK!”
Komiak:
“KNUCK PZARK!”
Triam, Aub & Hig:
“KNUCK PZARK!”
Komiak:
“And they tusked and sang…”
[ Song. “ Knuck Pzark”
Komiak:
What once was a Knucka Knucka-goes:
Triam, Hig & Aub* (*THA):
Knuck Pzark, Knuck Pzark
Komiak:
There’s a tusk in the stream, and it looks so heavy-
Says he’s out of steam.
But behold in the night, shaking to and fro,
Over here, over there, and away we go.
What once was a Knucka Knucka-goes:
THA:
Knuck Pzark, Knuck Pzark
Komiak:
I say, what once went Knucka-goes:
THA:
Knuck Pzark, Knuck Pzark
Komiak:
Oh, what once went Knucka…
THA & Komiak:
Goes Knuck Pzark, Knuck Pzark
Calico:
“And what did that all mean?”
Komiak:
“Aw pure kind, in simple terms, the times are changing. In the song it states that once the sound we use for ‘Knuck Pzark’ originated from ‘Knucka’. And once change happens, the oldness has to be let go to then adapt to new situations.”
Calico:
Knuck Pzz-ark.
Komiak:
“Yes, pure kind.”
Triam:
“Komiak, what is the best decision for the herd?
Shouldn’t we kill our grubby, as our ancestors did- or Knuck Pzark?”
Jul:
“Triambo.”
Aub:
“Yes, Triambo-Knuck Pzark, Pzark knack knick!”
Komiak:
“I would agree with Higlet’s Aubo. And, one more time, you can sing with us, Calico, as male kind, and pure kind- unless you do not feel the need to sing.”
Komiak:
What once was a Knucka Knucka goes:
THA + Calico* (*THAC):
Knuck Pzark, Knuck Pzark
Komiak:
There’s a tusk in the stream, and it looks so heavy-
Says he’s out of steam.
But behold in the night, shaking to and fro,
Over here, over there, and away we go.
What once was a Knucka Knucka goes:
THAC:
Knuck Pzark, Knuck Pzark
Komiak:
I say, what once went Knucka-goes:
THAC:
Knuck Pzark, Knuck Pzark
Komiak:
Oh what once went Knucka…
THAC:
Goes Knuck Pzark, Knuck Pzark
Komiak:
And what happens tonight, our choice-
Spells it out, and little by little we voice-
It out, oh-oh-oh!
THAC & Komiak:
Knuck Pzark, Knuck Pzark
Song. end ]
Komiak:
“It is time, the only time- if night has all night, as stars do, sun!”
Triam:
“Komiak.”
Komiak:
“Triamtut, I need to take Calico to the forbidden Pure Kind Temple. I am the only one of the herd who knows the way.”
Jul:
“How?-”
Cleb:
“Jul, knack, knack, knuck, knack!”
Komiak:
“The journey can only be done tonight, as we may have many onlookers already who saw Calico traveling with Jul; of which, who will do anything to kill you, Jul and Aub, and you too, Hig.”
Hig:
“I feel noticed.”
Komiak:
“The rule has been broken, and we must move on or be killed. I must take Calico, now!”
Calico:
“Will I ever come back to the herd?”
Komiak:
“Truthfully…no.”
Jul:
“Then it is farewell, Calico, and welcome to a great world of beginnings.”
Aub:
“-and watch out for tricksters, and the gorilla whore!”
Jul:
“You never gave me such caution, knack, knick knack!”
Aub:
“Knuck Knuck, Knuck Pzark, Knuck Pzark! (Aub laughs).”
Jul:
“(laughs, too) Goodbye, Calico.”
Triam:
“So long, pure kind. It was the greatest respect felt by your presence.
We shall bow, as you leave our existence into purity.”
Triam, who has to balance himself lowers himself as the entire herd approaches and follows his ritualistic postration bending his ears forward and raising his trunk to the zeniths.
Jul looks at Calico confused-who is also confused.
Hig runs over, to mimic the bows of the herd. Komiak walks by Jul, and Calico, startled by all this, is ushered by Komiak to climb atop his back.
Cleb eyes Jul viciously. Jul eyes Calico one last time, and passes a glance to Aub as they quickly join the others in kneeling.
Calico senses the warm feeling again now stronger and stronger, boiling up in an immense overwhelming state. Tears suddenly begin to pour from his eyes.
Komiak departs the herd into the darkness using his trunk to push the stems out of the way, but takes the best path, his life path : shared.
Triam:
“Farewell, Komiak.”
{ The journey winds through thin trails barely passable by the blind Komiak as his brittle nailed toes barely rim over the cliffsides.
They pass through vine covered caverns, full with moths aglow. They emerge from the darkness, and fly directly into Calico’s mouth. He chokes on them, but accidentally swallows them whole.
Komiak seems like he has endless energy as he keeps going under and over each mountain steadily, and with continual posture. His continuous nature, however, is driven by a personal conflictive battle of balance and control as his trunk jostles each branch and barely visible insects.
They decide to take a break in one of the lowest levels of the valley land near a bamboo forest, and a seemingly peaceful waterfall.}
Calico goes and urinates, as Komiak does the same.
Komiak:
“I was like you, Calico, yet my situation was of a dire state. I did not originally come from America, Calico, like you or Jul. I came from the greatest continent of what they call, Africa.
I had grown up in the Savanna, but the gorilla whore came. I don’t want to dive into the long range of details, but my family was butchered and their bones traded for ivory.
Our existence to them is and has always been a trade. The trade of lives is a gain for their will, and what they do by the will of others who have bought their own: eh, that is the most painful of all trades.
I was fortunate to come across a few animal field agents, I believe that is what it they were called. They brought me to Britain for a zoological garden.
When I was twelve years, as the humans call it, the New York Zoo in the borough of the Bronx bought me. And everyday… (Komiak stops to reflect and catch is breath…tears up… and then balances yet again)
I would be whipped, and beaten by the gorilla whore who didn’t want us to escape. To live is to not need a reason to escape.
Then, one day, the cuff that held my back leg came loose and unbolted from the ground.
That night, the gorilla whore-”
Komiak takes a deep breath, tries not to cry, but more tears break through. Calico walks right next to Komiak, and places his paw on Komiak’s trunk.
Komiak:
“He took out a tool saw- with the pain of a thousand wasps… and he tied me down. He even placed a cuff around my trunk, and there were chains-oh the chains!
He placed it on me, my leg, and rubbed the cold object down until it reached my knee. And I didn’t, no, I didn’t, (he reaffirms himself) deserve it.
He jammed it in, and he had attached hooks on my eyelids so I couldn’t close my eyes. And every bit that he drove the saw in, I became blinder from the pain. PZARK!
But, it was on my account that the police- the protector gorilla whore, came and heard my screaming by a fellow zoo janitor who used to give me peanuts at night.
They came around, and broke open the bolt as we were in some sort of storage area as they call it; and the blood, my blood, was everywhere, and the gorilla whore who did it to me was laughing and licking the saw.
And that was the closest to death that no Kind- not even the gorilla whore to say the least, should ever go through by another kind.”
Calico:
“Why aren’t you a pure kind? I have suffered only minor injuries compared to your scars.”
Komiak:
“The pure kind…also a ‘panda’ who I had taken to the same location some years ago, asked me the same question.
As, I had just entered Korea and did not know my way around, he showed me where to go with the ways of the mountains and where the grasslands were. Though he, also, had an injured leg from being attacked by a panther. He said I could not help him into the location and it had to remain a solid secret.
He was also a novice as you are to what a pure kind is, and what a kind isn’t.
In life Calico, there are always forms and kinds that you will want to be. A certain happiness of such, perhaps, that belongs to another kind, or a gorilla whore, that you haven’t achieved will draw in your lustful thirst.
Whether you attempt to take the long steps of effort and pain one way to get it, get to it, or instead take a different path, you will find out that the only kind you’ll ever be is you-who you are born to be.
It sounds odd, and something that in your upper head region through those eyes sounds fun and changeable like finding the tastiest piece in a single pineapple-but whatever it takes…you end up with… you.
Maybe an improved and experienced you, but all in all, you live life in your senses.
I remember the last time I saw a winter in the New York Zoo, the colorful coats the younger gorilla whores wore, and the snow lining up in thin bars between existing bars of the cages- it was what humans say over and over:
Beautiful.
But to the other elephants, they just wanted to go back and be cramped in a warm closeted pen.
Anyway, the sun is rising. We need to hurry, Calico.”
Komiak goes over towards the waterfall and splashes his trunk in the soaring foam pouring endless delight, and laughs a bit. Calico is overwhelmed from his story as his eyes start to pour and drift on his stained fur lines.
Komiak kneels down towards Calico, and Calico climbs on board. Komiak climbs over two more mountains almost seamlessly thinking of that one striking moment of a winter’s reflection. Calico still looks on in amazement at Komiak’s effort. Komiak slows down near {a vast bamboo forest in the afternoon sunset}.
Komiak:
“Calico, how many are there?”
Calico:
“How many are there-where? What?”
Komiak:
“Don’t you hear them? They’re coming within distance! Coming faster, and faster.”
Calico:
“Who?”
Komiak:
“Calico, listen! Go down the path ahead of you, and keep going until you get to the gold- a color of the brightest sun-Buddha statue. Crawl along the thinnest path, from the back of the statue and you will get to the main red dragon gate, as they have called it.”
Calico:
“I don’t understand.”
Komiak:
“Do as you are told, in this moment, it is the only thing you can do now or you will meet death.”
Calico:
“Thank you Komiak, and tell the others: ‘thank you’.”
Calico slowly walks away from Komiak who is also slowly re-walking the steps that he used to bring Calico to this long maze of bamboo stems.
However, Calico stops next to several shorter brushes as he hears the pattering of paws on the ground. Calico urinates silently and watches Komiak. Suddenly, Komiak stops moving, and Calico wants to go towards him as if to protect him from whatever is coming his way, but he decides to listen to Komiak.
Calico waits to see what may happen.
Twelve Korean Tigers (younger than Gengall) bring the severed heads of the pachyderms-Jul, Aub and Hig.
They approach Komiak. Komiak doesn’t say a word, but his breath stops. Death’s scent carries the unfortunate truth. Komiak realizes what has happened, and what will become.
Komiak:
“This is as menacing an attack as if by the hands of the gorilla whores.
Why did you kill them?!”
Pengall (the lead tiger):
“It is obvious Komiak, they were bound to the rules of our leader. There are only few pure kind left in the world to be demoralized and corrupted by the outsiders, and furthermore, transportation of a pure kind with a regular kind requires death.
Fortunately, Antwon will be quick today for your pleasure.”
Komiak:
“I am ready, Pengall, strike at me.”
Pengall:
“Kill the three-legged blind freak!”
Komiak:
“So ends a life completed.”
Calico watches the tigers pounce all over Komiak and toss him to the ground. Dirt drenches Komiak’s opened eyes. They immediately rip underneath his skin above his rib cage and start viciously digging.
Komiak’s final movement is with his trunk as he reaches up and pulls an evergreen leaf. He holds it to the sunlight, as life below his stem is mowed and mawed apart.
Komiak:
“And now I see the…”
Komiak’s trunk drifts down like the endlessly flowing waterfall and slams down against the peaceful fall’s beating rocks, blanketing the gravitational pull.
Calico waits until the execution is complete, and the tigers have left with Komiak’s head… and Antwon has corroded the insides of Komiak.
He walks out of the bamboo forest and sits next to the drying blood covered bones of Komiak, and the fallen evergreen leaf and cries.
As the forest’s nature solidifies its sorrow on his heart, Calico stops draining in his grief because he, now, seems stronger and removed from his lonesome, worrisome self. Komiak’s balance is his to carry.
He glances over and eyes several banana trees in the midst of this great loss.
Calico remembered when Bettings used to carry things on trays and in bags, so he quickly runs and climbs onto the banana trees and gnaws out the large dew dripping banana leaves.
He nestles together one banana leaf at a time, without the fear that he might die. With an automatic response without sympathy or antipathy, Calico disassembles the remaining skeleton pieces of Komiak. In subtle amounts, Calico brings together the bone pieces on each individual banana leaf, and organizes them next to a smaller waterfall only a short walk away.
At nightfall, after he brings the entire hoard of Komiak’s remaining skeleton, he lifts each leaf into the waterfall. Calico watches what seems like a piece of him go as each bone set splashes about, spills, and for the most part travels endlessly away into the waters.
He then places the last set of skeleton pieces and watches them scatter away down the stream towards the bamboo’s unknown.
Thank you, Komiak.
Thank you for teaching me the lessons of life, and to never give up, and to be “you” through it all.
May you go to where your death goes, best.
Thank you Hig.
Thank you for teaching me the importance of family and care and attention.
May you go with Jul and Aub where your death goes, best.
Thank you, Jul & Aub.
Thank you for teaching me to help those in need even if they don’t ask for it, for helping them get on with their life even when everyone disagrees, and to settle things by direct communication.
May you both go with your grubby Hig where your death goes best, and may Triam and Cleb be at rest, too.
And, oh yes, how to spot a trickster, and be wary of your surroundings, thank you.
Thank you, Gengall. Thank you for teaching me to help, and do what you think is right no matter what any Kind thinks of your kind.
May you go to where your death goes best.
Thank you Hilly Dallia.
Thank you for being the one to open me up to this new world of understanding and taking me from the shell that kept me unsociable, and teaching me about the gorilla whore and death, and that the world is cruel; and most importantly to protect those you can.
May you go to where your death goes best.
Thank you all.
END OF PART THREE
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)
