The Land of Make Believe

by Michael Arnold

  “We will talk about it later. Home is where the heart is, not blackberries. I love you, Amose!” Kalite repeated.

  They got through one patch of fog then another and another. Before them, inside a darkened, gray cloud was debris being slung out of a whirlwind. “We just got a little ways to go. Once we get to the trees we will be somewhat out of danger, but we have to hurry!”

  Kalite grinned. Now this is the Amose that I am talking about, she thought as she watched her husband hop on his makeshift crutches. The more detailed Amose saw of his house the more he hopped. At times he would use of the makeshift crutches to knock out the smaller debris out of their path. “Get behind me, Kalite. I can’t protect you if you are beside me or in front of me!” Amose yelled.

  Swatting just a little too late, Amose missed a piece of stone that hit him on the top of his head. He caught his balance and managed to stay up on the crutches. But when Kalite dodged a flying rock, she mistakenly bumped into Amose and he fell down into a muddy puddle.

  Kalite tried to stop his fall by reaching out for his hand to pull him back up. She had nowhere near the strength it would have taken to grab his arm and pull him up. He was too big for that. So, instead, his momentum along with his already heavy body dragged Kalite right in the muddy hole with him.

  She stayed down when she saw an unrecognized item coming at her. She yelled: “It’s a war zone out here!” while helping her husband to his feet, he doing most of the work to get to an upright position. Then it occurred to Amose and Kalite that coming at them was the longest, biggest, widest piece of tree trunk that the two of them had ever seen.

  She looked at him, he looked at her and with a scream they closed their eyes, and embraced each other. Amose hoped that the tree would take them out as quickly as possible so they wouldn’t feel any pain. But it didn’t take either of them out; instead the tree trunk kept sailing with the gust of wind. Then, suddenly, they were lifted off the ground.

  With his eyes closed and still embracing his wife, Amose thought the worst for a brief moment until he and Kalite heard, “Mom and Dad!”

  Amose’s eyes slammed open first and Kalite’s were soon to follow. She pulled away from Amose’s body to see that she and her husband had been caught and flown out of harm’s way by Gilma.

  “Honey, is that you?” Kalite asked in surprise.

  “Of course it’s her, Kalite, who else would it be? We are so glad to see you. And thanks!”

  “Don’t thank me thank Gilma,” Whisk-pey told her dad. “She was the one who spotted you two a mile away.”

  Amose hesitated. He had his problems with Gilma in the past. He thought she was a distraction for Whisk-pey when it came to learning the fundamentals of reading, counting, walking, and most of all protecting herself at a very young age.

  “Don’t be in such a rush to say your salutations to me, Mr. Amose, I’m not going anywhere,” Gilma said. Whisk-pey and her mother smiled.

  “Thank you so much, Gilma, I appreciate you getting us out of danger.”

  “You are quite welcome, Kalite.” A brief moment later, they cleared the fog and pretty much all of the rain and debris, and they all gave Amose a grim stare.

  “Alright, I know what these looks are about! Thank you, Gilma, I had no idea that you would come to our rescue! Now, there you have it. Is that better?”

  “Very well said, Mr. Amose. Home we go!” Their house was much farther than what Amose had anticipated or maybe it was as close as he thought, and Gilma had taken the long route instead. Either way they were at the porch of their house.

  “It’s good to see you again, Whisk-pey. With the storm and us not knowing your exact whereabouts, your father and I were worried about you. But I am so glad you’re alright, Whisk-pey!” Kalite hugged her daughter.

  “I was worried too,” her dad said, “but because you are a survivor I knew you would have made it home in the storm.” Amose hugged her too. His hug was much stronger and tighter than her mother’s hug. That’s what she expected, though. She had been getting those types of hugs from her father ever since she was a small girl.

  After he hugged her Amose grunted and limped to the front door of their tree house.

  “Dad, are you okay?” Before he could answer, and get his two hands off his legs and back to his side to attempt an answer, Kalite saved him a breath.

  “Your father got hurt out there but he is going to be alright.”

  “I’m going to stay out here for a while before dinner and talk to Gilma. I will be coming in, in a few minutes, Mom,” Whisk-pey said.

  “Okay, I’m going to see to your father’s injured leg before I finish dinner.”

  “Okay, Mom!”

  “Don’t stay out too long I wouldn’t want your supper to get cold!” Kalite said.

  “Okay, I won’t, Mom.”

  Oh yeah, by the way,” Whisk-pey said, when she saw that Amose was all the way in the house. “What is that on the back of Dad’s dungarees?”

  Kalite snickered. “I believe you know exactly what it is, but if you don’t know, well then I will explain it to you later. okay?”

  Gilma came off the top of their tree house and planted herself on one of the thickest pieces of tree limb that extended out from their tree house. “I think we better talk on the ground to be on the safe side. That will be a load off Ento’s mind to know that we are on solid ground once he wakes up.”

  “I think it will be better for all of us if he stays asleep for a long while, Whisk-pey!” They both chuckled.

  “So, what is it that you want to talk to me about, Gilma? I think we can chat now.”

  Chapter 4

  Out of the orange passageway inside the city’s secured walls, and across the pink stones that still contained the residue of Whisk-pey’s engraved footprints, was the dead zone. It was the forbidden place (which was off limits to Whisk-pey at least), the place where Bodolf and Fenris had captured the Canine girl before releasing her unexpectedly.

  At this entryway there wasn’t an orange passageway, or a city inside protective walls, tree houses of all sorts that complimented the city’s beauty, or even a shrubbery of some kind, filled with flowers. But the image of that entryway was one of tall, half broken, red trees. At the bottom of the trees just under the high grass were the tree’s barks and limbs’ shedding.

  Deep within the red trees, past the high grass, past the tree’s shedding was an expanse of black ground. Out of the black ground came obscure grass, grass that was the same color as the pine needles that protruded out of the ends of the tree’s leaves, grass of the same color as that of the facial hair that grew wild upon Bodolf’s face.

  This was the dwelling of not just the distastefulness of the Dark Forest this was the Dark Forest in which Bodolf and his partner Fenris and all the Wolf-people lived. There were caves, more like huts built from the trees and the soil of the Dark Forest. Instead of a city, this place in which they lived, this Dark Forest was more like an ‘empty community’ of people, people that were under the leadership of Bodolf.

  “I think you need to be harder on the people, boss!”

  “Why should I be harder on our people? They haven’t done anything wrong. They are not our enemy.”

  “Yes, but, boss, there is a sinister way about leadership that could really put a handle on those people that are running freely in our city, they need to feel your power and authority. You are the boss and they need to know that.” Fenris said, as they walked throughout their camp, giving out bottles of water to the ones who stood outside their dirt-made dens.

  “Thank you, Bodolf,” He heard most of the Wolf-people say as they took the metal containers of water. Other drank the water right where they stood or if it were a child where he or she sat.

  Fenris cut his slanted brown eyes first at the people then at Bodolf. “If you don’t mind me asking, boss, if you chose not to be this boss of what I am calling strength, then what will you be to these people?” he asked.

  They stopped once
they exited the Dark Forest.

  “I am who I am; I am who I was created to be Fenris!” Bodolf’s voice changed from one of tolerant to a chilling whisper.

  Fenris realized that he pushed the wrong button and backed away.

  “And these people, my people, you and they will be ruled the way I see them to be ruled, Fenris!” Bodolf pulled him close to him by the rim of his collar sleeveless shirt. “But I think there is a better way, a way that we all can profit from, boss.” Bodolf’s grip loosened a bit for a moment. He caught himself when he realized that he was siding with Fenris’s suggestion.

  “We have work to do. The people are hungry and they need to eat for the next few weeks, so I suggest that you do your duty, Fenris. We will speak of this at a later date, if you have an objection to my role as leader here.”

  Fenris shook his head and walked to the stone and dirt-made facility at the back of the exit.

  When Fenris walked in, he immediately slipped on an egg yolk.

  “There was laughter from the chickens who sat in this facility and laid eggs. “Ha-ha-aha! We got you again, you sucka,” one of the chickens yelled out. Fenris got off the floor wiping egg yolk off his body.

  “I am so tired of you, stupid chickens. Who is running this place today?” Fenris asked.

  “Me!” The response came from the corner of the building.

  “Can’t you at least keep this place clean since you’re not going to do any work?” Fenris yelled.

  The woman who had the brown, slender face with the golden facial hair and short wide ear walked from her seat and to where Fenris was standing. In her hand was a gold nylon sack and in her other hand was an egg.

  “I asked you a question can’t you give me an answer?” Fenris shouted as he tip-toed slowly forward so he wouldn’t slip on any other possible spills.

  “If you would hold on a second till I get to you, then I can tell you why I haven’t cleaned up,” the Wolf lady replied in an even voice.

  “Well, make it fast. I have deliveries to make and I don’t have time to wait on you,” Fenris replied harshly.

  She gave him the huge bag, and then with one harsh swing, she smashed the egg she held in her other hand in Fenris’s face. The egg cracked and the yolk ran down his narrow face and down his sleeveless shirt until all of it ran onto the floor. “You want to know why I didn’t clean up? Because I don’t feel like it. You’re not my boss. Now, if you don’t want me to make you clean it up with your face I suggest you take that bag of deliveries and get out of here before I have a change of heart, Fenris!”

  The only word that best described Fenris beside mad, was embarrassed. The chickens got a humongous laughed out of it and so did the young Wolf-woman who was attending the chicken house.

  “Something has got to change. This is no way to treat a second in charge,” Fenris yelled, almost slipping on his way back to his compound. “If Bodolf doesn’t do something about this, then I will make sure something gets done about the mess that we have here,” Fenris said, walking to the site of the compound.

  “Remember what we talked about earlier on our way here, Whisk-pey?” Gilma asked. “Of course I do. How could I forget?”

  “Thought I would ask there isn’t anything wrong with asking right?” Whisk-pey didn’t respond, whatever Gilma wanted to talk about she wanted her to hurry up and get to it. All that she had been through that day was enough for her to skip dinner, put on her night clothes and go to sleep, but she wanted to know of her father’s fate and her mother’s enduring journey with her father in the storm.

  “As you and I spoke about earlier, Whisk-pey, what you experienced in the Dark Forest has to stay in the Dark Forest. The reason being now with your father being injured, and revealing that you were there and the people there know not only you but know your family, will blow over. Please, be encouraged, Whisk-pey, and don’t give into what you think is right but give into what is actually right. Do not burden your father with what you discovered. Don’t worry; your heart will guide you!”

  “Thank you, Gilma. I will remember that!”

  “Good. Now go in there and get some dinner. You and that awful little character in your satchel need feeding,” Gilma said, as she flew away out of the city.

  All Whisk-pey could think of were flashbacks of her being the temporary prisoner of Bodolf and the dork but seemingly cunning Fenris.

  “This doesn’t make sense to me now. I’m curious. I want to know. I want to know everything,” she muttered under her breath.

  “Hi, honey, I think the storm is long gone. I believe it is heading south but I could be wrong. I’m just glad that it is out of here though,” Kalite said, her small lips stretching into a smile.

  “I think it has passed, too, Mom. How is Dad?”

  “I think he has a sprained ankle. We will take him to the spring tomorrow. He will be fine tonight. Why don’t you go see him and wash up for dinner?”

  “Okay, Mom,” Whisk-pey replied, hopping away in the direction of the bathroom. When she went into the bedroom to see her father, the bottom half of his leg all the way down to his ankle was wrapped up.

  I thought Mom said that it was his ankle that was hurt. Dad wouldn’t be Dad if he didn’t over exaggerated things, Whisk-pey thought and giggled to herself.

  Once in the bathroom, she peered in the mirror and saw what she has always saw for the last fourteen years: a beautiful Canine-girl that didn’t want to be like anyone else in her city. She wanted to be unique.

  “It has to be more than this. I love it here in the Land of Make Believe, but all we ever hear is that the Dark Forest is bad and the Wolf-people who live there are bad too,” Whisk-pey whispered.

  “So you think the people are good or something,” Ento said popping out through the opening of Whisk-pey’s satchel. “I hope not. Remember how they had you and I captured like we were prisoners or something?”

  “Ento, you scared me!” Whisk-pey replied softly.

  “And what have I told you about that loud talking?”

  “I’m sorry; I didn’t know I was talking that loud!”

  “Your voice carries, Ento. I been telling you this since I was like three years old. How could you forget that?”

  Ento put on a sad face, his lips turned down and his all-encompassing eyes began to blink fast as if he was trying to stop the possibilities of any tears coming out of them.

  When he realized that Whisk-pey was angry, Ento gathered up his feeling and went back inside Whisk-pey’s jacket. “Awh, come on, Ento, you don’t have to act like that. Besides don’t you want some of Mom’s cooking?”

  There was a brief silence before Ento jumped out of the jacket.

  “Well, then again, you’re right, I wouldn’t miss none of mama Kalite’s food for nothing. Take me to it!” Ento replied.

  At the dinner table everything was the same. The food was placed on the wooden table, everyone got in their favorite seat, while Ento was made to sit and feast on the floor beside Whisk-pey. Amose said a prayer to their God of provision. What was different? It wasn’t the storm tearing up the city except the houses, it wasn’t the food, or Amose being hurt; it was all the same but what was apparently different was the way Amose ate his food then looked up at Whisk-pey.

  “Are you okay, Amose?” Kalite asked.

  “Yes, dear, I’m fine, how are you, my beautiful warrior of a daughter?”

  Whisk-pey looked at her dad awkwardly then placed a piece of her dinner roll on Ento’s plate before she answered. “I’m fine, Dad. If you think the storm may have harmed me in some way, it didn’t. I feel perfectly okay.”

  “I thought you were somewhere in the city but when I went to look for you, no one knew where you were. Did you venture off somewhere out of the city with Ento?”

  “Dad, I understand that you had some kind of leg injury when you were out there in that storm. How are you feeling? Does it still hurt?” Whisk-pey asked.

  “No, Whisk-pey, it doesn’t hurt. I think the medicine
that your mother gave me, Red Flower Liquid, has me feeling a okay,” Amose replied.

  “That’s good. I am happy to hear that,” Whisk-pey said.

  “He got around okay out there, Whisk-pey,” Kalite said. “You should have seen your dad. He even cut out a small piece of the tree so we could have shelter until the storm had past.”

  “Well, I tried and my efforts paid off. I will try to do anything for this family to protect them even if sometimes they want to venture out of the arms of protection. But if it calls for drastic measures then I will exercise drastic measures to get my family out of harm’s way. All they have to do is tell me if they are in harm’s way and I will….”

  “Alright, Amose, what in the world are you trying to say?”

  He’s trying to say in so many words, Whisk-pey, where on Land of Make Believe were you? Come on Kalite read between the lines! Ento thought.

  “I’m not trying to say anything specific, but the food does taste really, really good, Kalite. You out did yourself on this one.”

  “If it wasn’t for Gilma, I don’t know if I would have lived to outdo myself,” Kalite remarked.

  “Oh, don’t say that. You would have survived, I’m sure.”

  “Honey, is everything okay?” Kalite asked Whisk-pey.

  “Mom, things are just fine,” she replied, taking another spoon-full of rice.

  “You don’t seem like yourself, Whisk-pey. I mean you’re not talking like you use to and well, I was just wondering if everything is okay?”

  “Yes, Mom, everything is okay, we just had a storm. I was in the storm. It could have done something bad to me and to the both of you, but we are here now. There is no more storm, so can we like cut out the crap about if I am alright?”

  “Whisk-pey, that is no way to talk to your folks. Your mother just asked you a question and you gave us the answer.”

  “Amose!” Kalite said.

  “Well honey I’m just trying to be a father that’s all,” Amose replied.

  Whisk-pey was doing all she could do to hold her tongue, but the more her father beat around the bush, the more she felt the need to tell him about her day.