Once upon a time, long, long ago in prehistoric times, somewhere in an equatorial rainforest, there lived an incredulous hog, named Louie, together with his family.
Louie was a happy hog. He loved to play with his cubs, pet his lady, and provide them with nourishment.
Everyday, near noon, he went to chase smaller animals to eat and pick fruits and nuts from the trees together with his family, though he always took the initiative for it.
In the afternoon, when it got to be too hot, they all played around in the refreshing water of the river and made squeaky noises to proclaim their joy.
In the evening they all kept cosy and layed themselves down in the hognest underneath a huge mahogany, very close to eachother. By then his lady had the habit of asking him: ” Did you have a good day ?” And what he responded always sounded so honest, warm and serene that usually she held him thight in an instant of a moment and exclamated to him, with all of her heart: ” Oh Louie, how I love you !”, which gave him such a flame of passion and energy that it very often amounted in intense courting and love-making…
But, as the years passed by, their love started to wear out… They got older and severely started to experience a loss of care and interest. The courting and love-making decreased that much that Louie became depressed… His lady didn’t say that she loved him anymore and their cubs had left the hognest as they had grown up to be self-sufficient parents.
It was at this time, after they’d just had ANOTHER row after a thousand rows in a row, he got so tired of his life that he left the hognest to go on a real long walkabout… ” I’m off for a while !”, he said. And he left and they would never see eachother again… ” I’ll be back.” He said.
Thus, he chose the fastest way out of the forest.
For days and days he traveled, through valleys, alongside rivers, he climbed hills and even small mountains, picking fruits and nuts and sometimes he caught a fish or ate a small rodent. And at a certain moment… it was there: The fronteer of the forest, he thought…
From upon a hill he overviewed a massive plain out of which smoke arose everywhere… The trees had all been burned down ! As he was afraid of fire he seriously considered going back into the forest, but, no, he thought, I must conquer my fear and carry on straight ahead. After a couple of hours of slowly walking through the smoke-filled ashes of the burned plain, he became thirsty and hungry. But there was not a single edible creature present… What have I done, what am I doing, he thought, I’m thirsty and hungry, how will I survive ? But as he kept on moving and moving on he came upon a tiny little creek where little water ran through. Immediately he drank from it untill his thirst was quenched. Then, he carried on.But his stomach made squeaky noises of hunger…
What in Gods’Name was he going to eat ?? He climbed a hill to get an overview of the ash-filled plain and suddenly his eye fell upon a corpse, lying in some grassy field. It was the corpse of another hog but a different species. As he was dying of hunger he ran to it to taste some, still fresh, hogsmeat. It doesn’t taste too bad, he thought.
In an instant of a moment, the sky opened up… A huge, winged head-scarfed woman came out of it and landed right in front of Louie on the grassy ground…
” Thou shan’t eat hogsmeat !” She said, pointing her finger straight at his beak. ” It is strictly forbidden by the law of the great prophet Cannaydo to eat hogsmeat !”
Louie was astonished. He had never seen such a strange creature that spoke his language, was VERY weird.. and even forbade him to eat while he was desperately in need of food ! Thus, he ran away very quickly not daring to look behind. He must have run for many miles before he checked whether she had followed him. Phu ! She hadn’t. What a relief. Happily he had eaten quite enough so he was able to carry on for a while. At night he slept very deep and suffered from severe nightmares of his encounter with the flying head-scarfed woman…
The next day he came upon a grassy field with huge plants in it and met a monkey. The monkey was lazily lying in the grass chewing on the leaves of one of the plants. He looked very happy and benumbed. ” Hi. I’m Louie”, Louie said. ” What are you chewing on ?”.” It’s tobacco from a tobaccoplant” the monkey said.” It’s very good. Want to try some ?” ” Why not ?”, Louie said, being glad he’d met somebody else he could talk to. Thus, the monkey picked some leaves, gave them to Louie who started chewing on them. After a short while Louie layed himself down in the grass next to the monkey experiencing a funny and pleasurable feeling…
Though it didn’t take long before… the sky opened up again and out of it suddenly… the flying head-scarfed woman appeared… again. Again she landed straight in front of Louie with a harsh and severe look in her eyes. She pointed her finger at him and said: ” It is STRICTLY forbidden by the law of the prophet Cannaydo to chew on the leaves of benumbing or stupefying plants !” As Louie was lying on his back, enjoying himself he completely blanched and jumped back on his paws in a second. He made a disapproving and loud, groaning noise and ran off. Again, he ran for miles being afraid she would follow him. But, again, she hadn’t.
Who the bloody hell was this woman ??, he asked himself over and over as he speeded up and finally jumped into a larger creek. He wasn’t panicking yet, but he was seriously concerned about this agonizing situation…
As the evening was getting closer that day he came upon a small village of humans of some local tribe. I mustn’t come too close, he thought. But, as he smelled cooked food, he became curious and decided to try to steal some. Suddenly he was surrounded by humans who threw a large net on him and captured him… They put him in a large space surrounded by a big metal fence together with many other hogs. Now he had reason to panic and be afraid ! He put himself in the corner and quietly started crying: ” Oh how I miss my wife and my family, I should never have left them ! What are they going to do to me now, these humans ! How I wish I’d never taken this crazy adventurous trip !!”
A beautiful female hog had noticed him and approached him. ” Don’t be sad…” She said. ” What are they going to do to us ?” Louie responded. ” Well, I’ve heard some stories of humans cutting off our paws to use for the preparing of potions that contain healing power…”, she mumbled. ” What ?”, Louie said, ” they will cut off our paws ??” ” Yes” she cried ” and then they will drop us off somewhere to die, because we won’t be able to walk anymore !” ” That’s terrible !! Louie shouted with aversion. And as they both cried out in tears, Louie suddenly gently whispered: ” What’s your name ?” ” I’m Ineka” she answered. ” Oh Ineka, I’m Louie, hug me before we will both die a terrible death…” , Louie mumbled. It didn’t take long before they started courting and intensely love-making… The other hogs disapproved of it, but accepted it because they were aware of the terrible destiny that awaited them all…
It didn’t take long before the clouds split apart and the flying head-scarfed woman, véry angry this time, came down out of the sky and landed before the love-making couple, brutally interrupting their passionate but desperate act of love… Pointing her judging finger at poor Louie, she shouted at him: ” It is STRICTLY forbidden to make love in the company of others with a female that is in no point your own married wife by the holy law of the great prophet Cannaydo !! Misfortune will come over thee !!
At this point in time – and we all experience this only once in our short and harsh lifetimes – Louie had had ENOUGH… And, with a very loud voice he cried out for pretty much the whole of the gigantic forest: ” Help me ! Save me ! I want to go back to my family ! I miss my wife, my children and my hognest where I was happy, safe and well for the most of my life !!!” And as he cried, the tears ran off his beak like the Iguazu Falls…
In response the head-scarfed woman suddenly turned completely silent… And, yes, she indeed even showed signs of empathy and compassion… ” Sorry…”, she said, ” I didn’t know that”…
Thus… she came up with a proposal: ” I’ll fly you to her”, she said. ” Would…would… can you do that ??”, Louie asked. ” Of course. When I put my legs around your body and you hold thight on to my legs, I’ll fly you to her.” As such, she flew Louie back to the forest.
It wasn’t very comfortable, but they managed. As Louie had a great sense of smell and they were flying very close to the trees they found his nest pretty easily. Though, as they landed near the nest and Louie started to call his wife, she didn’t answer… They both entered the nest… and in an instant of a moment Louie encountered an apalling discovery. His wife was… dead.
All alone she was lying there with a large spear through her, that had pierced her heart… Again, Louie started to cry: ” What have I done ??”, ” Why had I’d left her ??”, ” How could I have been so careless and stupid ??” It was a sad, sad situation…
Still, life must go on. ” How am I going to find my way out of the forest, Louie ?”, Fatalla, the head-scarfed woman asked. ” Climb on my back and I’ll lead you out of it”, Louie said, whilst supressing his tears.
So she climbed on his back and he started to run through the forest with her. When they reached the fronteer, Fatalla said: ” That was fantastic… I want to do that again !” And Louie had to admit that flying with Fatalla was indeed also very exciting and pleasant. Louie was relieved from all duties and restrictions from then on.
They parted, but often, when they meet eachother now and then, Fatalla takes Louie for a flight through the skies everfurther and Louie takes Fatalla for a run through the forest everfurther regularly…
And, thus, they added up to their feeling of liberty and freedom and, although they were different, offered a good example of living in peaceful co-existence.
THE END.
Short Stories
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