The Boy Who Understood
by Biff Spork
Chapter 11
Tiny Hugs and A Big Decision
The dark of night lingered when David rode away from his home on Saturday morning, and he was thankful for the strong headlight on his e-bike. Glimmerings of dawn silhouetted the mountain when he turned onto the logging road. As he rounded the last hairpin turn before the park boundary, he felt a sound in his head like rushing wind and knew Zhiv was nearby.
The sun inched over the mountain's rim and bathed David and the road ahead with light. Hundreds of starlings surrounded him and flew alongside. He recognized the bird nearest himself. Lilili flew closer and landed on David's shoulder. The rest of the flock raced forward. Then they cavorted overhead, a vast swarm that changed shape like an amoeba. A chorus of voices in David's mind sang, "Vizh, Vizh, Vizh!"
Zhiv was waiting in the woods. David secured his bike to a tree, and Zhiv helped him remove his clothing. They embraced. David trembled while Zhiv's arms held him close.
Zhiv said, "You're cold?"
"No," said David. "I'm not cold; I'm just excited."
"Me too," said Zhiv. He kissed David's cheek and then the tip of his nose. "I'd like to hold you like this for an hour or two, but we have a long climb to make, and everybody's waiting for us up in the meadow."
They separated and gathered David's clothes. Zhiv knelt and examined each of David's feet. "Your feet are still soft and tender," he said, "so I carry the pack."
They walked through the woods, for the most part without speaking. Zhiv slowed and held up his hand as they neared a deep, rumbling buzz. "A bunch of little people want to say hello." The buzzing noise increased, and honeybees surrounded them. At first there were only a few, then hundreds, then thousands. "Don't be afraid," Zhiv said. "Just be careful. They're small and delicate, and we're big and clumsy."
Bees began to land on the boys. Within a minute, a humming mat of the little creatures coated each boy. David looked down. The bees were warming, vibrating, and covering him, so there was scarcely an inch of skin visible. It was like a thousand tiny hugs. The vibrations of their wing beats penetrated deep within his body, so he felt he was a part of the hum.
David looked over at Zhiv, who was similarly bee-clothed. "This is weirdly nice," he said.
"Close your eyes and think them," said Zhiv.
David found that when he was able to lock onto the bees' hum, he understood them, as if they were a single animal. It was a wordless understanding, a shared happiness of being together.
"They're wonderful," said Zhiv, "but we have a meeting to attend." He raised his arm and pointed to a nearby tree. The bees lifted off the boys and swarmed onto the tree.
"The night before last, I had a beautiful dream," said David, as they resumed their trek. "I dreamed I was swimming with the trout, and you were there. We flew up into the sky together, surrounded by starlings. Then we kinda melted together. It was the most beautiful feeling that kept bursting and flowing between us. I couldn't stand it, but I wanted it to go on forever."
"It wasn't a dream," said Zhiv. "It was you and me, together, in the mara. For me, too, it was just like you said. I had that wonderful feeling, too — the best feeling ever! And now I know your name, your inside name, and all the animals know it too."
Zhiv stopped and turned. When David came up to him they wrapped their arms around each other. "Vizh," said Zhiv, into David's ear.
"That's me? I heard it that night and from the starlings this morning too."
"Mmm. Vizh. That's you. The trout heard it first and shared it with everyone else. The trout think you're a trout, just like the starlings think I'm a starling. Everyone in the mara knows your name now. They really want to meet you. Let's go!"
When Doreen rose from bed Saturday morning, she loaded the coffeemaker and turned it on. David had left a note beside it because he knew it was the first place she would go when she got up. Then she made the rounds of the house, collecting laundry. She planned to put the first load in and then relax with a cup of fresh-brewed coffee before breakfast.
David's bathroom yielded some towels, and she emptied the dirty clothes hamper in his room. When she took the sheets from his bed, she noticed a stain on the bottom sheet. She felt it between her thumb and forefinger. The sheet was stiff where it was stained, about where David's groin would be when he was asleep. She sighed and smiled.
Doreen loved having a boy-child, but the stain signaled the beginning of a new stage in his life. Though she accepted it as part of the natural order, it saddened her to see a sign his childhood was passing.
When the laundry was in the washing machine, she joined Pete at the kitchen table for coffee. They discussed what to have for breakfast. Pete was still adjusting to vegan meals. They settled on a tofu scramble and some vegan sausages.
"David here?" asked Pete.
"No, he's long gone. He left a note; said he was going up the mountain again, but he'd be back for supper."
"He's getting to be a real outdoors kid. We should plan a camping trip later in the summer; go to Yellowstone or someplace like that."
"That'd be great," agreed Doreen. Then she said, "Pete?"
"Yeah?"
"You know I change the sheets on our beds every Saturday?"
"I have noticed that."
"Well, there's a stain on David's sheet today."
"Really?"
"Yep."
"Okay, I'll have a talk with him. No more food in bed. No more eating cherries under the covers. It's hard work for your mom to get those stains out."
"Pete! You know what I mean. It's not a food stain."
"Oh, I guess he's growing up. It's hard to believe. He still seems like a young boy to me."
"Yeah, me too, but it's time for The Talk."
"I thought modern kids got all that stuff off the internet or in school. Do you think it's necessary?"
"Yes, I do. And it's something that should come from you. He probably gets a lot off the internet and at school, but we don't know what he knows. There's a lot of information floating around, but there's lots of misinformation, too."
"Okay. I'll talk to him."
"And do it soon. That stain means we're already a bit late. Okay?"
"Okay. I'll just have to figure out what I'm gonna say. So, sometime in the next week or so. You got any ideas?"
"Well, I don't know exactly what boys do, though I've got a pretty good idea. I don't want him to feel guilty or dirty about puberty or playing with himself. There's still too much of that around."
Doreen moved over beside Pete and wiggled under his arm. He hugged her, and she said, "Pete, I love raising David so much. It makes me sad it's going so fast. Right now, he's a happy kid, and I want him to keep growing up feeling that way and not get bogged down worrying about sex."
"You know, he may have some questions about girls, about how their parts work. If he asks me, I might just send him to you, so don't be surprised if you have to give some girl input into The Talk."
River woke up first. He felt good until he realized how close he and Jude were. While asleep, they had entwined their arms and legs, and their faces were barely an inch apart. It felt good, but it was way too gay. Fuck! It was GAY! Screaming Fairy Gay! If anyone came into the room, he would die. He rolled away to the far side of the bed and stared at the wall until he dozed off again.
They had fried chicken and pop-tarts for breakfast. River thought it was great. Jude's family had a whole separate fridge for soft drinks and beer. When the boys were full, they retired once again to Jude's room. They planned to play video games until it was time to leave for Jana Mountain.
"We'll go right after lunch," said Jude. "That way we'll get there early so we can meet little David McFairy when he comes down from the mountain."
The long ride tired Melissa, but she was happy when she arrived at Stacy's Animal Sanctuary and gave them the chicken she had rescued. Stacy, the owner-operator of the sanctuary, brought her a cool drink and insisted on hearing the details of the rescue. Melissa was still full of sorrow from what she had seen. It was a great relief to describe her experience in the chicken barn to a sympathetic listener. They watched Melissa's rescued hen take her first tentative steps out into the sunlight.
"It'll be a few days before she realizes that she's free now," said Stacy. "If you come back in a week or so, you'll be amazed at the change. Have you given her a name?"
"No."
"All the animals here have names. It helps us to remember that they're individuals, like we are. Let's call her Melissa. I'm sure she'll be happy and proud to share your name."
"That would be nice," sniffed Melissa, and began to cry. "When I see her like this, it makes me feel good, but it also makes me remember the thousands I left to suffer."
David and Zhiv topped the caldera's rim overlooking the high mountain plateau. They saw a multitude of animals in the meadow that surrounded the grove of aspens where the lake nestled. Goats and sheep shared the grass with their wild relatives — deer, bighorn sheep, elk, and mountain goats. Four horses raced up the incline to greet the boys, whinnying as they came, a black, a bay, a gray, and a pinto. Brown sparrows and red-headed house finches fluttered around the boys and landed on their shoulders. Rufous hummingbirds flashed green and vermilion and filled the air with their deep thrumming buzz.
A stream of affectionate greetings filled David's mind. He was deeply moved by the overflowing welcome he and Zhiv were receiving. A crowd of creatures capered around them as they walked toward the grove. Erg and Berky paced alongside. Belnit, the stag, a doe, and two fawns joined them. Skunks, snakes, coyotes, marmots, and foxes moved nearby. A crowd of voles flowed over the grass like a small carpet. Eagles, hawks, mallards, woodpeckers, and owls swooped overhead. David felt his face aching from smiling so much, but he couldn't help it. The joy was overwhelming.
In the aspens, a cloud of butterflies danced around them as they walked. When they came out of the trees to the shore of the lake, Zhiv sat down cross-legged. David bent to sit beside him.
"No, no," said Zhiv. "You should go greet your family." He pointed to the lake.
David looked, and beneath the surface of the water he could see many trout waiting. In his mind he heard, "Vizh!" and felt himself drawn into the water. He lay down, and the fish surrounded him so closely he didn't have to swim. He surrendered to their kisses and caresses, and they carried him into deeper water. David dived and played with them until he was tired. They brought him to the shore, and he crawled out onto the rock and flopped beside Zhiv.
"Can you hear the mara," asked Zhiv.
David focused on what he was seeing and feeling inside. It was such a deluge of images and sensations that he couldn't make sense of it. "It's too much for me," he said.
"Don't worry," said Zhiv. "I'll tell you later."
"Good," said David. "I'm hungry. Can we eat now?"
"Mmm," murmured Zhiv, but David could tell that he had immersed himself in the mara and its thousands of voices like an orchestra tuning up. He dug food out of his pack and ate. He fed Zhiv, who accepted whatever David pushed between his lips. He chewed and swallowed it without seeming to notice the oddity of it. It was like feeding a baby. David took care to prepare tasty mouthfuls. He tore sandwiches into pieces and bit chunks from apples. Orange segments were easier, but the simplest were grapes. He popped them, one by one, into Zhiv's mouth.
For a few hours after eating, David sat beside Zhiv. Many small creatures approached them. David took care to greet each with a look and a caress. He tried to see them in his mind as well as with his eyes, but when he opened his mind completely to experience the mara, the voices were too many. It was like trying to listen to a single violin in the midst of a hundred symphonies.
In the afternoon as they hiked back toward David's bike, David asked what the mara had discussed.
"It's not like a human meeting. In the mara, everyone talks at once or whenever they feel like it. They don't say much but they say it over and over. Then, after a while, there are groups that are saying the same thing. It's not a thousand voices all singing different songs, then. It's like they come together in two or three songs and then in one song. When that song becomes very strong, the meeting is over."
"What was today's final song?"
"It makes me sad. I understand it. I understand why, but it's sad," said Zhiv.
"What is it?"
"War."
Jude and River cycled along the highway until they came to to the Jana Mountain logging road. River rode an old bike of Jude's. They pedaled up the logging road for ten minutes, then stopped by the grassy, overgrown side road that led to the gravel pit.
"This is great," said Jude. "We'll just wait here, and when he comes down the mountain, we'll take him into the gravel pit for a little talk."
"We might have to wait for hours," said River. "And we don't even know for sure that he's up there."
"You said he goes up there every weekend," said Jude. "And what goes up must come down."
River began to wish he had not told Jude about David's trips up the mountain. He felt uncomfortable to be lying in ambush. "Yeah, well, I don't know for sure what he does. Let's just wait a little, and if he doesn't come, we can forget about it and go back and shoot some hoops or something at your place."
"Your brother saw him around this time?"
"It was a little bit later."
"Okay, so we wait for a while."
"War?" said David.
"Mmmmh," Zhiv said. "War. The animals feel they have been patient too long. Time is running out. They hoped humans would change, but conditions are getting worse every day. Humans have no respect for the earth or other animals. Although even little bugs can see that the world is out of balance, humans are too stupid.
"The mara doesn't come up with detailed plans, because that's not the way animal brains work. That's a human thing, but the mara can arrive at a big idea, a big simple idea, and that's what they did today. In the past, every kind of animal only took care of itself. Most of the time, every animal only defended itself. The animals realized that was one of the reasons humans were dominant. They could pick on one kind of animal at a time. They could set one animal family against another, one animal against another.
"The big idea from today's mara is that all animals should stand together. All animals should defend each other against humans and attack humans whenever they can. It's a big change. They're excited by the idea. It's already spreading in all directions.
"They're determined. They see that many will die fighting, but if they don't try to overcome humans, they'll die anyway."
"They're going to defend each other?" said David.
"Yeah, If a human beats a horse or shoots a squirrel, scorpions will sting him, and dogs will bite him. If a human attacks one animal, he attacks every animal, and they'll all fight back."
"Wow," said David. "But they're not gonna attack us, are they?"
Zhiv stopped and turned to David. "No. No. You and me, we're in the middle of this," he said. "When humans are ready to listen to other creatures, then we can tell them what the mara wants. When humans want to speak to the animals, they can speak to us, and we can translate to the mara."
Zhiv paused, rested his arms on David's shoulders, and then said, "I can't do this alone. I need your help. We need to use our human brains, so when humans are ready to listen, we can speak for the animals."
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