Gold Fame Citrus

by Claire Vaye Watkins

  “But there is life here. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. There is so much life.”

  If she went she would leave with another book.

  NEO-FAUNA

  of the

  AMARGOSA DUNE SEA:

  a primer

  By Levi Zabriskie

  BLUE CHUPACABRA

  This hairless relative of the coyote is characterized by its bluish-gray skin. Pups are born covered in vibrant turquoise fuzz, which they quickly shed at weaning. Adults gather in a troubling to hunt.

  Family: Canidae.

  BURROWING DWARF OWL

  The only known species of social owl, Burrowing Dwarf Owls live in parliaments of four to six. Diurnal rather than nocturnal, they spend twenty-two hours per day in micro-hibernation below ground. Classified as a micro-owl, the largest Burrowing Dwarf specimen to date measured 9 cm, about the size of an adult’s palm. Family: Strigidae.

  CARNIVOROUS PLANTS (Appendix A)

  The lack of conventional nutrients in the soil at the dune sea has forced several plant species to become carnivorous. Methods of capture include pitcher structure with highly acidic pools, jaw structures, strangling tentacles and poison webbery. Prey include gnats, moths, Scorpion Bees, micro-owls, and Albino Hummingbirds.

  See also: Wandering Joshua.

  COLOSSUS VINEGAROON

  Very similar to the Heirloom Vinegaroon (Thelyphonus doriae hosei), relative of the scorpion, whose venom will cause its victim to taste only vinegar. Principle difference is the Colossus Vinegaroon can grow as large as a dachshund.

  Family: Thelyphonidae.

  DUMBO JACKRABBIT

  Easily identifiable by its enormous ears, which grow four to five times larger than the rabbit’s body and serve as a cooling system in the extreme heat of the dune sea. Unlike its herbivore relatives, the Dumbo Jackrabbit is an insectivore.

  Family: Leporidae.

  GRAVEDIGGER ANT

  The predation strategy of this ant species is its burrow, a steep-sided funnel constructed in the troughs of dunes. The burrow is dug at an angle that causes prey—Land Eels, Colossus Vinegaroons, Jelly Scorpions and Woolly Chuckwallas—to perceive it as a safe trough until they are inside. The ant uses its front pincers to “fluff” the sand on the sides of its burrow, so that efforts to dig out result in collapse, entombing the prey and preserving it for the ant’s return.

  Family: Myrmeleontidae.

  GREATEST ROADRUNNER

  Descended from the greater roadrunner, the Greatest Roadrunner can reach speeds of up to 70 miles per hour for sustained distances, making it the fastest creature on land. Its tremendous speed is likely a result not of predation—as in the ostrich—but of the enormous distances it travels between its feeding grounds at sand reefs.

  Family: Cuculidae.

  HUMMINGBIRD, ALBINO

  A symbiote of the Blue Chupacabra, the Albino Hummingbird harvests the gnats that gather in the chupacabra’s mucus glands—eyes, ears, nostrils and sphincter. As was the case in the Arctic, albinism is an evolutionary advantage on the Amargosa Dune Sea, for purposes of camouflage.

  Family: Trochilidae.

  INCANDESCENT BAT

  This keystone species nests in decomposing yuccas. Their bioluminescent abdomen is thought to be a communication system, perhaps to aid in finding mates at long distances.

  Family: Lampyridae.

  JELLY SCORPION

  Hermaphroditic and translucent, this arthropod likely dissolved its exoskeleton over time, the gummy body being better able to survive sandalanches.

  Family: Thelyphonidae.

  LAND EEL

  This augmented asp is completely covered in spines, which both protect it and serve as camouflage from predators—Stiltwalker Tortoise, Blue Chupacabra—which often mistake the asp for ocotillo. Chief territory is the leeward face (formerly northern Arizona) where ocotillo once flourished.

  Family: Atractaspididae, possibly Loxocemidae.

  LILLIPUTIAN RATTLER

  Long mistaken for a common earthworm, this is the rattlesnake cousin of the blind threadsnake. Growing to a maximum length of only two inches, its rattle is the size of a shelled sunflower seed.

  Family: Unknown.

  MOJAVE GHOST CRAB

  Like the Jelly Scorpion, the Mojave Ghost Crab has rebuffed its hard carapace—which does not regrow after first molt—with the exception of its superclaws (chelipeds, propodus, semisoft carpus), which less resemble typical crab claws with pinching chelipeds than a trough like that of a backhoe, which it uses to dig down to ephemeral aquifers (the subterranean counterpart to ephemeral rivers) and to the egg caches of Stiltwalker Tortoises and Land Eels, on which they feed.

  Family: Blepharipodidae.

  OLYMPIAN KANGAROO RAT

  Another superlative creature of the Amargosa, the Olympian Kangaroo Rat can jump up to fifty feet. A subterranean burrow snatcher, Olympians squat in vacant or abandoned warrens of Burrowing Dwarf Owls and Gravedigger Ants.

  Family: Heteromyidae.

  OUROBOROS RATTLER

  Nearly indistinguishable from the Mojave sidewinder, except by its form of locomotion. Rather than sidewinding with its characteristic “J” track, the Ouroboros Rattler inserts its own tail into its mouth and locomotes via axial revolution.

  Family: Elapidae.

  PARASITES (Appendix B)

  The parasitic population of the Amargosa Dune Sea is among the most resilient in nature. One example is the Common Bowel Worm, which, rather than attaching to intestine or stomach at a single fasten point, replaces the entire digestive tract, beginning at the esophagus and including rumen, omasum, abomasum, cecum, small intestine, large intestine, colon, rectum and anus. The Common Bowel Worm is just one of at least three dozen intestinal parasites of the dune sea that are capable of thriving within mammal, bird, reptile, rodent, insect or human.

  RAINBOW CHUCKWALLA

  A vegetarian relative of the Komodo dragon, this ectothermic basker is chromatophoric. Colors observed include black, pink, olive, yellow, turquoise, red and white. Notably, the Rainbow Chuckwalla’s color camouflage depends not on the environment but on its predators. For example, when encountering a troubling of Blue Chupacabras, the Rainbow Chuckwalla will turn golden yellow, a color the chupacabras cannot distinguish from the white of the dune sea.

  Family: Iguanidae.

  SAND CORAL

  Composed primarily of zoanthids, polyps and feathery pinnules, Sand Coral feeds on microorganisms that consume saline and silica, though some larger formations do emit palytoxins, which they use to paralyze and decompose Sand Krill and Jelly Scorpions. Like sea coral, Sand Coral reproduce primarily through asexual gonads and secrete saline silicate underskeletons, which form reefs at particularly salty deposits, such as the Amargosa’s north-facing stoss slope, which is exposed to a megaconcentration of saline and fertilizer from California’s Central Valley. Vastly delicate, these sand reefs constitute the most diverse ecosystem in a dune and, after ephemeral rivers, sustain the most life.

  Class: Anthozoa.

  SAND KRILL

  These shrimp-like creatures are actually members of the worm family. Found in large numbers on Sand Coral reefs, this keystone species not only feeds birds, lizards and rodents at the dune sea, but, most crucially, consumes sand that, upon excretion, provides sustenance for microorganisms.

  Family: Lumbricidae.

  SCORPION BEE

  A stinging apiforme, likely crossed from Africanized honeybees and tarantula wasps; its most notable adaptation is its ability to regenerate its stinger after an attack. Extremely aggressive, and known to be fatal.

  Family: Pompilidae.

  STILTWALKER TORTOISE

  The Stiltwalker Tortoise (also called the Dalí Tortoise) is named for its extremely long legs and neck, which grow six to ten times longer than those of a desert tortoise. These all
ow it to walk long distances without the dune baking its torso. The Stiltwalker’s adaptive behaviors are astounding. Due to the lack of conventional vegetation at the dune sea, it has become the only known species of tortoise that is a facultative carnivore. Because the Stiltwalker has yet to develop teeth conducive to the shredding of meat, it tucks carrion in its shell until decomposition renders it soft enough to eat. Stiltwalkers have been known to transport carrion for up to thirty days and hundreds of miles, depositing the bones and claws of their prey well beyond those species’ known range, a behavior that long baffled this researcher.

  Family: Testudinidae.

  TINE SHREW

  A cousin of the pocket mouse, the Tine Shrew makes its home in the tines of cacti, where it suckles its large litters on tine glue.

  Family: Soricidae.

  VAMPIRE GRACKLE

  It was initially believed that the Vampire Grackle’s sharp, proboscis-like beak was adapted to extricate the fruit of cacti. However, the bird—glossy red-black with a white bow tie—has been observed to use its beak, which can measure up to twice the length of its body, to extract the blood of mammals, chiefly the Dumbo Jackrabbit and the common coyote.

  Family: Icteridae.

  WANDERING JOSHUA

  The myth of the wandering tree dates back to the Chemehuevi Indians and likely before. Botanists have widely dismissed the wandering tree as cultural legend. The “wandering” is made possible by the Joshua’s unique root system—a horizontal blazing star structure equipped with a double-thick taproot and a meristematic zone capable of sensing moisture. The taproot grows in the direction of water, while allowing roots growing in the opposite direction to atrophy, essentially dragging the plant toward water. Some wanderers can travel up to one hundred yards a day.

  Family: Asparagaceae.

  Luz carried this bestiary everywhere she went, showing no one but Ig. It felt secret, sacred, and she needed to be close to it. Ig was mad for the book, asked for more and more and more—drawn to and focused on Levi’s drawings as Luz had never seen her. Together they read and reread the primer in different places—alone in the Blue Bird, in Levi’s geodesic dome, in the Holiday Rambler while the girls were working, in secret at bonfire. Luz needed to meet the beasts in different lights, and with different people swirling about, to be sure that they were real.

  Though she’d been warned by pretty much everyone against straying from the colony alone, she left Ig with Dallas and walked as far into the Amargosa as she ever had, clutching the primer to her. She walked until all she could see of the colony was the red bustier flapping from the antenna of the Holiday Rambler and then she stood, listening. On the wind she heard the dune she’d once thought barren flourish and thrive and teem, heard creatures great and small blazing new paths to abundance. The primer turned a world once shriveled into a locus of succor. One day, as she was leaving the colony, Luz watched a crackled blue tarp escape on a gust and soar off into the Amargosa. She watched idly until it disappeared, annoying Camille and Dot, the sisters whose shade was wriggling out of sight. By then the dune sea was inarguably alive. The tarp could be going anywhere. It could settle upon a tomb dug by a devious ant. It could be a queer surface rolled over by a forever snake. It could shade a parliament of miniature owls. The world was that expansive. Now there were tortoises out of Dalí and Technicolor lizards and wandering trees for Ig. Suddenly this was a land of could. Flamboyant, vibrant, polychrome and iridescent, there was turquoise, pink, olive, yellow and red. Glossy red-black with a white bow tie. The taste of blood and vinegar. Acid pools and poison webbery, egg-suckers and salt munchers, mucus slurpers and vampires, so many inspired ways to eat and be eaten. And what was vibrancy but being very, very alive? She and Ig were an example in her mind. It was soon very obvious that the world was made of unseen wonders, which we might call miracles.

  —

  And if she did not yet believe in miracles, one morning Levi returned from dowsing early and sent Nico to bed. Instead of going to bed himself he took Luz and Ig out for an expedition. As Luz climbed atop the buzzing solar dune buggy, Levi paused to wrap Ig’s bare head with the cloth from his. Do not wear a man’s hat unless you intend to keep him, Luz recalled.

  They did not ascend into the dune but rode away from it, through the land of could to a patch of sky pasted on a sandblasted billboard. As they neared, the billboard went from sky to water, water with a wiggly veinery of white light.

  Here, they turned onto a gravel road. Eventually a bubble rose from the earth, clay gray, snub-ended. Ig said, “What is?”

  It took Luz a moment to find the word. “A . . . building.”

  Its doors were waffled fiberglass, green, chained closed but curled up from the bottom by some vandal’s effort—Levi’s, Luz soon realized. He crawled through this space, then reached for Ig. She clung to Luz at first, but went with some urging. Luz crawled in after.

  Inside, she had some trouble breathing. The air was viscous, resistant to inhale. Gas, was her morbid thought, an oven. She looked for Ig. But the cement beneath her was relatively cool. Moisture, she remembered. Humidity.

  “What do you think?”

  The ceiling glowed yellow, and there was movement on it. She looked for its source and saw a shimmering square of jade: fluid, liquid light ribboning. So much color it stung, soft turquoise streaked with evergreen algae and, above, gold. Grassy water plants grew at the cracks of the pool, and a pump burbled somewhere. Impossible.

  “Solar,” said Levi, pointing to coils of black tubing. A towel hung petrified on the back of a plastic chair. Mounted opposite them was a long rod with a hook at the end. A sign beside a Styrofoam life preserver said, NO LIFEGUARD ON DUTY. A municipal oasis, mineral water once drawn from a spring and now just circulating, was Levi’s theory. Indeed, a rime of salt had dried on the tiles ringing the edge: 3', 5', 9', 12', NO DIVING. A ring of buoys strung across the pool’s midpoint, the rope rotted black. Luz could not adjust to the languid green of it all. The parts of her eyes for processing green had perhaps atrophied. Another fragment from Ray’s notebook, something about chintzy rods & cones.

  Luz closed her eyes. Being in the bubble was like being in an angel’s inner ear, echoes of their voices and also its own hum. A seashell sound.

  “How did you find this?” she asked eventually.

  “Something like this is an earbug for me.”

  “Like a song?”

  “A song the way the deaf hear it. Like music you feel.”

  “How does it work? Your . . . dowsing.”

  He laughed. “Have you ever felt the tension between a couple arguing in front of you? Or walked into a building and gotten a bad feeling? Met someone and known, instantly, that they could not be trusted?”

  “Of course.”

  “Voices are loudest when they’re negative, but there are others too. Think about the feeling of someone watching you. A lover admiring you from across a party. Or thinking of someone and at that moment they call. Or déjà vu. These energies are all around us, all the time. I happen to have an ear for the organic. But anyone can do it.”

  “Jimmer says it’s a kind of listening.”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “I’ve never been a very good listener.”

  Levi shook his head. “That sounds like someone else’s idea of you.”

  Ig squirmed and whinnied. “She loves the water,” Luz said.

  “I know she does.” Levi pulled his shroud over his head, folded it once and laid it on a chair. “Let’s take her in.”

  He waded in, naked, his trunk refracted at the water line. “So nice,” he said, then went under. Ig squealed. “It’s okay,” Luz said. “He’s swimming. You want to try?” She undressed Ig and passed her to Levi. At first she was still, then she began to cry, her face going red and warped. She grasped Levi savagely, her feet wanting bottom. She shrieked for Luz—Mama! she was all but say
ing. So Luz immediately pulled her own shroud off and slid in. The gentle mineral water held her—what it must have been like in the womb. Luz wondered, involuntarily, whether the same thought had occurred to her mother as she allowed herself pulled under. Death by drowning was warm, supposedly, but the Pacific had been cold every time Luz plunged in, cold and rough and loud. Luz took Ig from Levi and soothed her. Filth washed from them and floated away in shimmering floes. Ig settled and loosened her grip on Luz’s hair, which was disintegrating from clumps to strands again. In the water, they weighed less. Luz was not at all afraid, though she had always feared water.

  “Come on,” said Levi, treading toward the rope.

  “I can’t,” she said. “I can’t swim.”

  He pulled her deeper.

  “Don’t,” she laughed.

  Ig let Luz lay her prone, but ignored her and Levi when they said together, “Kick, kick, kick!” Her pale rump bobbed placid above the surface. The bottom of the pool was slime-slick, and when Luz tripped she took Ig under too. Luz came up with Levi’s arms around her waist, with Ig in her arms, laughing. Luz was startled for a moment but laughed too, at Ig’s clucking.

  When Ig wore herself out laughing, Luz wrapped her in Levi’s robe and laid her on one of the plastic loungers with the fossilized straps. Luz retrieved Ig’s nini and Levi materialized a thin pad of brute root—“For you,” he clarified when she looked confused. Luz took the root and Ig took the nini and soon the child lay content and drowsy, the grown-ups moving soundlessly around the shallow end.

  Levi’s erection was frank and elegant. With the child subtracted from the threesome Luz watched him unabashedly, and he her. “Is she asleep?” he whispered after some time.

  She was, and as answer Luz backed onto the pool steps, reclined against them and opened her legs, slightly, the water like cool cotton against her. Levi approached, unhurried, and when he finally reached her he hooked one thick arm around her waist and lifted her from the water.