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.
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The Body
by Stephanie Daich
