Author: Alexander Fawn

She had pottered around the garden for so long that her cat was complaining.

It was passed its dinnertime and the meows were growing louder by the minute. It was careering into her ankles every chance it got. This could be painful. Its owner considered just how hard the cat’s skull had to be to inflict the buffeting she was receiving. This was just another example that made her regret giving it the name Angelica. It just didn’t fit. She was clearing things away and avoiding contact with it wherever possible. Finally she was at the back door and about to go in when she, the cat, tried to rush passed her. The woman lost her balance momentarily and trying to save her fall kicked the door frame, hard. She screamed out in pain and it made her eyes water.

The cat, now inside, didn’t react in any way. Just sat next to its bowl waiting to be fed. Its owner stood in the doorway for a moment, looking down at her shoe. She was holding it off the floor to avoid putting pressure on it. It felt as though something was broken. She hobbled in and made it to a chair. The cat meowed.

“You’ll just have to wait,” she said, slowly removing her shoe. Wincing, she pulled off her sock. The cat meowed again. There were already signs of discolouration around three of her toes, but she could just about move them.

The cat howled even louder.

The woman slumped. “You don’t seem to realise,” she said, almost in tears now, “I could have broken bones, or something worse… a lot worse!”

The cat looked at the bowl and back again. After a moment of just staring, it lifted its chin and meowed.

The woman closed her eyes and mumbled, “You couldn’t care less, could you? I feed you and take care of you and what do I get… apathy!”

The cat lowered its head into the empty bowl, sniffed at it, looked up and meowed.

He sat thinking about their last conversation.

The truth of it was, he just hadn’t listened. Her food preferences had once been the subject of angst. For that reason he avoided it altogether. She said she had explained her innermost feelings, but he hadn’t listened. She said she had laid herself bare the way she had never done with anyone else. Her view was that taking him into her full confidence proved fruitless because he had never responded in a way that showed that he understood, or had attempted to understand. He thought about all of the deep and meaningful things she had said, in defence of her leaving, while she packed up her things. He remembered the fiery look in her eyes just before slamming the door behind her. How could he forget?

He had to be honest with himself. Was it a case of selective deafness or was it a case of not wanting to be around someone who stank of garlic?

Probably the latter.

Being cruel to animals had always come quite naturally to the boy.

Today he found great sport on this open patch among the trees. He had been chasing the creature for several minutes. He had no idea what it was. At first he thought it was some kind of rat, but it had no tail and its head was too round. It was definitely ugly. The pointy stick he held would certainly finish it off if he managed to catch it. But, of course, that was the sport in it.

Something huge crouched in the thicket at the edge of the clearing. It looked on with pride as its son scampered straight up the trunk of one of the tallest trees.

It too could move very fast.

The nature of its discrete existence meant that it rarely had the opportunity to dine on man. No physical trace of the boy would ever be found. No DNA test would ever be applied to any droppings in the forest. It was a clean erasure. A blot removed. One less genetic aberration allowed to pollute their pool. It had a surprisingly thorough understanding of the evolutionary trajectory of genetic pollution.

After a belch that no one would ever hear, it smiled at the irony of doing the human race a favour.

He jolted awake from the most bizarre dream.

He raised his head from the open book he’d been reading. He closed his eyes, sat still, seeing the images again. There is a young girl, she is walking quietly through a large garden. She seems to be coming towards him. There are mythical creatures throughout the place, under bushes, in trees, burrowed underground, none of them readily visible. This fact causes him to ask himself how he could possibly know that they are there. Suddenly, they each hear a rustle and turn to see a large snake winding through a leafy bough. Beneath, stands a lamb, its innocence somehow clashing with the evil above. A small flock of doves rise up and a sense of peace settles once more over the place.

The youngster draws closer, he can see now that she carries a basket. He is not sure whether she is smiling or grinning. She lifts the cloth and takes out a small jar, then puts the basket down between them. She is quite obviously grinning now, as she unscrews the lid. Dipping her fingers in, she scoops out a large portion of dark brown paste. Jamming her fingers into her mouth she begins eating the unidentifiable goo with a great deal of relish. He simply stands and watches as this is repeated several times. Finally, she drops the jar and raises her hand to show that it’s covered with the stuff. She moves closer and without warning slaps his face!

He sits blinking for a while. What a peculiar dream! He now realises that it must have been the unexpected slap that woke him. Looking back down at his book, he wonders whether it was this that brought such a strange reverie about. Although he could hardly imagine this could create such peculiar images. The book itself being a fairly dry read; basically a reference work on the psychological analysis on the categorisation of logic. He smiles at his attempt to blame the book. He felt it was high time that he returned to reality. He got up. In the bathroom, he ran some cold water. He was wetting his hands in order to rinse his face when he noticed marks across his cheek. He peered closely, but could not make out what it was.

He dried his hands and gently wiped some off with his fingertips. He licked them.

Vegemite!

For generations his people had appeased the mountain devil.

The fact was, they had worshipped it. They prayed to it, offered gifts, made a point of always being nice to it. It seemed to work most of the time, but not so lately. Crops were failing, hardly any rain, and the locusts were particularly bad. This was the state of play before the pending confrontation; before the challenge was taken to the mountain spirit.

It was seen that all this was about to change. The defiance would come from a fit young man, fearless and obviously destined to become a leader. He had already proven himself to be a worthy community member in the eyes of the village elders. So much so, that they sanctioned his bold plan to put an end to the never-ending tyranny from the evil deity that resided in the mountain’s caves.

No more humble compliance. No more doing the fiend’s bidding. He would enter the mountain with demands that the spirit would no longer rule. A new order would be set and those that lived in the fields and valleys below would gain a freedom that they had never known before. When the appointed day came, over a hundred villagers gathered at the foot of the mountain. Almost every member of the community had come to show their respect for what he was about to do and to raise a hearty cheer as he began to climb.

The steep and often stony path was winding and treacherous in parts. Several hours of exhausting effort eventually put him at the gaping mouth of the cave’s entrance. Very few had ever come this far before. With a resolute demeanour he entered. This would not be easy, but his courage and determination would win the day. Those people back in the village had given him the support he needed, and this would enable him to deliver better lives for everyone after today. This would be a great turning point in the life of his village.

When he had gone so deep into the mountain that very little light was still visible behind him, he made his stand. He raised his voice without a quaver. Into the evil blackness he made his demands, loud and strong. For several minutes he made it clear that the mountain devil would no longer ruin the lives of those below.

With his final words he turned to leave.

On his way out, somewhere in the gloom of the cavern he heard sniggering.

It is a truly gigantic tree.

The full proportions of it are not known. It is believed to have been in existence for all time. It seems that the specific nature of it has never been fully understood. Its origin and purpose are shrouded in mystery. The true nature of it has always been of great interest to the few and of little real interest to the many. All the way up from the unseen roots to a sturdy trunk, it breaks off into a myriad of branches, that themselves split away into countless small pieces, and then into Immeasurable tinier pieces still, finishing somewhere with a minuscule, forked twig. At this, a most singular fork, a divergence of two paths come about.

One direction, leads to a newborn lying on straw or cloth in a hut built with strips of wood and poles, with pieces of tin as cover. It is in a settlement, in a slum. The slum is in one of the poorest and hungriest countries in the world that is densely populated and has a history of genocide and ongoing civil wars. Within this environment of political violence and conflict, women and children, being the most vulnerable section of the population, so often need to flee from the violence. Natural disasters such as torrential rains, strong winds and floods are also known to cause its inhabitants to be displaced.

The other direction leads to a newborn snuggled in an expensive crib in a modern, air-conditioned home in a leafy suburb in one of the world’s wealthiest countries. It is considered to be one of the safest countries in the world. It’s a place without wars or ongoing political violence. Compared with many other countries, it has a lower rate of homicides, violent crimes, physical assaults and muggings. Its people are friendly and sociable, living within a laid-back culture. It is a stable society that offers a high quality of life. It has a strong economy with a good social security system. There is free health care and education with many good universities. It has safe, clean public transport. It also has an enjoyable outdoor lifestyle. It is generally pollution free, with good air quality and a temperate climate. It is a place where life expectancy is above average.

The nature of that which determines the direction taken from the fork would seem to be completely unknowable.

It was a lovely evening.

This man, this prince among men, had swept her off her feet from the time she had entered the dance hall. He was so charming and a wonderful dancer. The evening went on and on. The dancing went on and on, only stopping briefly for a glass or two of wine between dances. Had she come with someone? She couldn’t remember. How awful was that? she thought. All evening they soared and swung and glided around to the music. She was so caught up in it all that she was hardly aware of the fact that she wasn’t getting at all tired. The evening could go on and on.

After the final dance he led her back to her chair. Once seated, he bowed graciously and whispered softly into her ear, “Time to wake up, I think.”

The bedroom curtains were being drawn back, letting light into the room.

The first thing she noticed was her wheelchair…

It was a bad accident, with the driver dying and his injured passenger ending up in hospital.

The following day, a nurse woke him to say he would be having a visit from the police. Shortly after, a policeman arrived at his bedside. He explained that he needed to gather more about the accident; details that he couldn’t get from the passenger the night before. He told him that he would eventually need to make a written statement. The patient explained that he had known the driver for many years. He said he knew how belligerent his friend could be on occasion. He said the trouble had started in the night club. Apparently he had met this woman who was telling his friend that she was a psychic and how she wanted to warn him about his future. The man in the bed explained that he had come into the conversation late and at that point his mate was giving the woman a hard time and ridiculing her.

This woman was saying that he would die as a result of coming face to face with himself. Of course, he just laughed at her, saying that her prediction made no sense. He asked her to explain, but she wouldn’t elaborate. She said that this could happen soon, depending on how well he could control his physical reactions. It was at this point he had threatened to have the manager throw her out. He was truly drunk at this stage. Anyway, the woman just laughed at him, telling him what a fool he was.

“That’s when I intervened,” the man in the bed explained. “I managed to get him out of there and into the carpark. We found the car and he was swaying around as he stood taking in fresh air for a while. He said it was clearing his head and he’d be OK to drive. I wasn’t happy about that, but he started to get angry with me, so I shut up.”

The policeman looked up from his notes. “Why do you suppose that he insisted on driving when he was obviously so drunk?”

The patient was getting tired, but made an effort to think about the question. “OK,” he said, “to be honest, knowing him, I think he just wanted to prove the woman wrong.”

The policeman sat reading through his notes for several long moments before saying, “Let me just clarify a couple of things, sir.”

The man in the bed settled back and made himself more comfortable, he thought the questioning was about to end and was looking forward to going back to sleep.

“Sure,” he whispered.

“You say that this woman he met in the bar said, let me see, yes here we are, she said that her prediction about his death could happen soon, depending on how well he could control his physical reactions, is that right?

“Yes. Right.”

“And you also said she told him that he would die as a result of coming face to face with himself. Is that right?”

Very sleepy now, the other said, “That’s correct.”

The policeman sat shaking his head for a while before saying, “I’ve been told that because he wasn’t wearing a seat belt when you hit the tree, he was thrown up out of his seat and the impact to his face when it hit the rear vision mirror caused sufficient fracturing of the skull that it resulted in his instant death.”

The man in the bed was almost asleep now. He mumbled, “She was right then,” and began to snore.

He’d been brought in for questioning.

Of course, he was known to the police. He couldn’t deny that as burglars go, he was prolific. However, much to the frustration of the law keepers, he’d always got away with it. It was simple really. Whenever he was on a job he made absolutely sure that he left no evidence. Each time, with a great deal of care, he would check and double check that no trace of him being there would be found. All he had to do was come up with a completely plausible alibi for the time of the robbery. He sat looking at the familiar face of the investigating officer. Although he felt that something wasn’t quite normal about his expression.

“I’m afraid your days of thieving are over,” the detective began.

“You don’t say

“Ah! I do say. We have you nailed this time.” He pushed a black and white photo across the table. “The mayor’s home has a lot of security, as I’m sure you are aware. But you obviously didn’t know that a cleverly concealed camera, only recently added, took this picture just as you were climbing back out of the window. Please note the time stamp. Any alibi you come up with just won’t wash this time.”

He looked down at the photo. It was only a black and white print out, but it was clearly him, looking up in the direction of the hidden camera. He looked up, saying, “But I wasn’t there!”

The policeman chuckled. “You’re going down for this one.” He sat back and leered. “It’s really satisfying to know that the few articles taken would hardly pay for a good meal.”

“But I wasn’t there,” he whispered. He picked it up and studied the time. He couldn’t believe it, knowing full well that at the time shown he was in another town successfully robbing a jewellry store of several highly valued items.

He sat weighing it up.

As time passed, the snow outside eased off.

The man could see outside more clearly now. Recent events had shaken him badly. He felt he just needed time. As it was, he had no idea where he was or how he got there. People were walking past. Most of them carried bags. Some had parcels. They all looked happy. He detected an air of excitement out there. Something special was happening, he was sure of that. There was a muted stream of music coming from somewhere.

He was aware of the fact that his powers of introspection were limited, but he had enough to contemplate his present situation. He realised that he was standing still, in some way unable to move. This may well be the result of the earlier disturbance. It had certainly shaken him up. He wondered whether he should try to move around a bit, but it could be too soon for that. Too soon after the… the what? He couldn’t say.

Then, it began to happen again.

The girl in the shop was excited about Christmas. Her mother called for her to hurry up. She looked in and smiled at the tiny snowman, shook the snow globe again and put it back on the shelf.