A Beautiful Truth

by Colin McAdam

  Living rooms.

  Hedge trimmers.

  Bras.

  The catalogue was removed at next cleaning.

  Two hundred feet away on the Reproductive Wing they were reminiscing about what everyone called the first wild birth. In the field station, a chimp named Mama had given birth, without help, to a girl.

  twenty-eight

  This place. This cup of sound.

  Mr. Ghoul used to sit with Podo and watch the World’s leaves and muscles enliven. Birds and insects and electric piccolos heeming in summer heat.

  Fifi complaining to Magda about Bootie’s constant noise.

  Jonathan whimpering and manoeuvring for Fifi’s generous squeeze.

  Thunder, and they all worked together after a storm to make a ladder of fallen branches. They rested the ladder against the electric tree and they could reach those leaves they never reached before, and they celebrated all as one.

  When Rosie disappeared, Mr. Ghoul sat with Podo, quiet, and the vitreous layer of sadness in Podo’s eyes went soft again over time.

  Sit with him.

  Most of the good sounds have gone.

  Dave is in that building, but he doesn’t come close anymore.

  Mr. Ghoul used to crack nuts for Podo and felt Dave saying good job.

  Dave and Podo are watching.

  They should sit with him.

  When the children pester and the women don’t notice me.

  Sit here.

  I’ll look into your mouth for you.

  I want to show you something.

  Podo was the World.

  He was a rich population of virtue and mistakes, and neighbours kind and cruel.

  There is open space where there used to be thousands of him.

  A weak blue sky and yellow dust.

  They watch Mr. Ghoul sit through days. He lies by the greybald tree and tries to feel Podo from the ground.

  My friend.

  Jonathan gets hard and spits triumph and confusion into Magda’s anaesthesis. He flicks grass at her when he’s finished.

  What do you do when you get what you want.

  Jonathan steps testily out each day and tries to make the others aware of his enormity, and what looks like power feels like fear. He looks over his shoulder and thinks Podo might be waiting in the grove. He circumscribes his movements and pulls back others who wander.

  Burke tastes lapsy-dulchy pictures of Podo’s demise, black fermented berries in the mouth.

  He backhands Bootie.

  Mr. Ghoul walks straight from his bedroom to the greybald tree, limping. He picks away grass like he is plucking the ground of its youth and his own black hair falls out over days. He moves in slow circles before he sits and he sleeps and drools on the piebald ground, and ticks make a home of him.

  There is no unity. No one touches except Mama and the new one.

  Mr. Ghoul lies on his back and sleeps. He dreams of plastic trees and windows. Podo wears a ponytail and tells Mr. Ghoul to put it in a sentence.

  Jonathan sees Fifi moving towards the shady grove and he goes to her and pushes her away from it. She does not understand.

  Burke sees that Jonathan is afraid of the shady grove. He walks towards it and Jonathan gets restless, and Burke sits still and thinks. They sit near each other, and with hair half-raised Jonathan invites him closer. Burke grooms Jonathan.

  He moves around in front of Jonathan, who is looking away and trying to be majestic. He begins to trust Burke.

  Jonathan doesn’t like the way Mr. Ghoul limps in circles. It reminds him of Podo. Jonathan moves away and turns his back. Burke stands up and moves to Mama and the new one, and scares them.

  When he turns he sees that Jonathan too is bloning and gigantic and Burke makes himself large again and they square off. Both are standing on two legs and Jonathan, the taller, rushes at Burke, brings his arm above Burke’s goon and bluffs over him.

  Burke is chastened. He makes noises of apology and wounded pride, touches Jonathan’s mouth, and they groom.

  They groom for an unusually long time. Jonathan is proud and anxious and tries to see pictures of what might happen. He wants Burke’s respect. Each is busy with the other’s schemes.

  Mama, Fifi and the new one sit at a distance from the men. They wonder what scenes are being woven by those hands. Fifi goes to Magda feeling that if anyone can join the men for comfort it is Magda. They greet and Magda understands Fifi’s curiosity. They slowly approach Burke and Jonathan.

  Burke does not want women around. As if by prearrangement he and Jonathan swell and bark simultaneously. They fling their arms and chase the women away and renew their strengthening contract.

  Stay here lest I hate you.

  There is more space without Podo, and more space can feel like more confinement.

  Jonathan and Burke see Mr. Ghoul in the company of Mama and the young girl.

  Fifi and Bootie join the others and play with the new one. As they move they feel they must look towards Jonathan and Burke.

  The men see the group gathering as they groom.

  Burke begins to display. Jonathan stands and the two of them grow and Burke begins to blacken a path away from Jonathan but connected to him. Burke picks up a fallen branch and pounds the ground with it. Jonathan sways and runs to a tree and drums its trunk with his feet.

  This is the new order. They are not displaying to intimidate each other.

  Fifi hugs Mama.

  Jonathan is older and knows what to look for when someone tries to take whatever is his. He watches Mama and Fifi, everyone trying to settle after the noise. He does not trust Mr. Ghoul. He wants him away from Mama and away from the greybald tree and memories of Podo. He looks over his shoulder where he thinks Podo might still be. He feels the fingers of Burke and gains confidence.

  He stands again, twice his normal size, and he makes a run at Mr. Ghoul. He runs over him.

  Mr. Ghoul did not expect to be hit and he rolls on the ground feeling weak.

  He sits alone by a different tree and his mouth tastes like a penny.

  Melons and bundles are thrown from the roof and they land among fists and teeth. All of them grab and scratch and look over their shoulders and there is guilt and confusion in taking.

  Normally they would gather around the heavy bundles and savour their leaves in groups. Burke drags a bundle and drowns it near the blue wall. Mama and Fifi scream and so does Jonathan. They go to the pokol-fear and stare at the soaking sticks and Jonathan runs at Burke.

  He cowers at Jonathan’s approach and remembers later that Fifi and Mama screamed at him. He grooms Jonathan and he attacks the women when Jonathan isn’t looking.

  Jonathan pins Fifi and the afternoon widens like an artificial smile.

  Mr. Ghoul shakes in his legs and shoulders when he walks and doesn’t know where to sit. Jonathan hates the way the women go to him, and the way he is walking like Podo. He runs at him and Mr. Ghoul is scared.

  The new one goes to Mr. Ghoul and sits with him. She grooms him with a taste for play and her sweet bright face brings colour to his sight. He tickles her sides and she laughs. She wriggles on her back and he prevails above her, avuncular, a storied old tree in an otherwise empty field.

  On the periphery Burke is bluffing and clearing a path towards them, sweeping stones and twigs away with a long swinging arm as he puts his weight on the other. Mr. Ghoul tries to keep a playful face and not be intimidated, but when he sees Burke’s approach he shows his teeth in fear and the new one sees Burke fly above her, an airplane into a tower.

  Burke bites Mr. Ghoul’s neck and holds him to the ground face down. He jumps up and down on Mr. Ghoul’s back and Fifi and Mama hug and cry as they see their old friend screaming.

  Jonathan and Burke focus on Mr. Ghoul to avoid fighting with each other. They don’t let him rest or think. They corner him and beat him, they set him up as a common enemy and are stronger and closer for it.

  Mr. Ghoul is better than this. His memories ar
e bigger than these days.

  Burke waits near the hole, and when Mr. Ghoul comes out of the tunnels in the morning Burke runs at him from the side. Every morning, before he steps out to the World, he has to think of Burke.

  Bootie and the new one play like Burke. The new one goes into the hole to the tunnels and jumps back out, and Bootie runs at her. He bluffs and stomps and tries to be scary and the new one wants to try but Bootie doesn’t let her. Bootie is Burke.

  They rumble. It’s funny. Bootie hurts her.

  Fifi and Mama watch them with concern and Magda is nowhere to be found.

  Burke sees Fifi, Mama and the young ones gathered and he runs at them.

  Mama tries to bite him, and he grabs her by the wrist.

  He wants to pull off Mama’s arm and beat her with it.

  He swings her by the wrist and throws her.

  No one can find a scream that makes a difference.

  From above they note that Ghoul walks with a limp as if his right foot has been injured.

  He remembers Podo and walks like Podo in the view of Jonathan, and Jonathan cannot stand it. Mr. Ghoul limps to Fifi and Jonathan runs at him.

  Mr. Ghoul crouches and tries to protect himself and hopes the hitting will stop.

  Later, when Burke is asleep, Mr. Ghoul walks low to Jonathan and offers a salaam. If Jonathan would meet his gaze he would see pictures of the past.

  These trees were smaller once.

  Was Mr. Ghoul not one of the first to see all this.

  He will not bow to impudent Burke.

  He doesn’t leave his bedroom for three mornings. There is no longer food inside.

  Burke runs him down when he emerges. He stands over Mr. Ghoul and chases him and the older man stumbles and the ground insults his face.

  He is hungry but can’t eat and he sucks on his cheek and drinks the red salt.

  He sits on his own. Jonathan will not let him sit with the women.

  A sociogram is prepared after six months. It is clear from the graphic that Mr. Ghoul is completely isolated—the only association with others of more than ten percent is with the juveniles.

  Two researchers study the sociogram and conversation drifts to family and how much it can mean sometimes just to get a phone call.

  The new one ranges far from Mama now. She is broader and thinks more and more about what is beyond the wall. She goes away with Bootie to the shady grove. She wants to sit with Mr. Ghoul but Burke chases her away.

  After all those years of nursing, Mama is pink again.

  Jonathan watches her closely.

  The World is surprised by her Apriling body, how a pale honeyed light can warm this air so sad. She quickly yearns for touch and a space beyond her daughter and no one knows what race or desolation exists on the other side of the blue.

  They have all had glimpses of others in the Hard, and heard sounds from distant corridors at night. From trees they have looked over the wall and seen different fields and people.

  Mama feels no choice but to turn to Jonathan. Who else can offer safety.

  New flowers bloom among dry husks and the seasons mock each other.

  Burke swings a heavy stick in front of Jonathan’s face and Jonathan moves backwards. He grooms Burke and it seems that Burke is in the ascendant but Jonathan later runs and bluffs over him. They sit together and groom.

  Mama and Fifi watch and wonder which of these pretenders will offer oa.

  Where is stability.

  When can we all play again.

  Jonathan pins Magda, and Burke is disgusted. Bedoulerek fistpips and vulnerable noises.

  Jonathan sees Mr. Ghoul trying to move towards Mama and Fifi. Burke doesn’t notice. Jonathan grunts at Burke and nods towards the angling Mr. Ghoul. Burke seals the coalition with Jonathan again. He mounts him, and then walks to Mr. Ghoul. He carries a stone behind his back.

  Mr. Ghoul turns in time and feels the stone come down in front of his face. His lips feel numb as he runs and now that the World no longer has mirrors he is the only one who doesn’t know that his face has changed forever.

  He runs to anyone, Bootie, for comfort, and Burke now chases Bootie. Mama and Fifi scream and run at Burke for bullying the younger one, and Burke is frightened for a moment. But instead of running, instead of going to Jonathan, he turns and attacks the women.

  He is not as big as Jonathan but he is younger and quicker and fists will seldom catch him. Mama and Fifi scatter.

  They tremble later as they bow to Burke and the past is silenced and supplanted by the present. They feel closer to Jonathan, but are frightened into paying equal respect to Burke.

  As the new one walks, something stirs in Jonathan. He looks at the other women and rises above the World.

  Jonathan gathers Fifi by the hips and finds oblivion. Magda is also pink and he goes to her soon after. Magda eats lettuce while Jonathan troubles her rear end.

  There is sugar on the wind. Jonathan can’t get enough. He pins rare Mama and his vision is sweetly blurred.

  He no longer thinks of Podo. He sleeps and wakes and pins someone else and subsides into the ground like it’s a cake. When he walks he is weak.

  He keeps an eye out for trouble, for movements and suspicious connections, and when he sees them he sends out Burke. He is able to notice manoeuvres more keenly and quickly than Burke, and Burke is the better to stop them. They rule together.

  They gather much of the food to themselves and the others grow beholden.

  Mr. Ghoul eats leaves through the day. No one can touch his breakfast in his bedroom, but he doesn’t feel like eating it.

  Mr. Ghoul whispers salaams to Jonathan’s back as Jonathan regularly walks away.

  Mama and Fifi have wanted to sit with Mr. Ghoul but they are always prevented. They can no longer bear the trouble. Fifi grooms Burke. Mama and Magda bow to him in fear.

  Mr. Ghoul tries to find company with the children. Mama worries that the new one will be hurt by Burke. She is happier seeing her daughter running away with Bootie than playing near lonely Mr. Ghoul.

  Burke can’t stand this village of weak mothers. He turns his back whenever Jonathan pins a woman. When Fifi walks away from Jonathan, Burke chases her sometimes. He hits Magda on the back. Jonathan beats Burke for doing so.

  Burke sits coiled and ready to pounce. Loathsome scarlet drops drip lightly down the legs of moody women. Jonathan sleeps and drools and sits unabashedly erect. There is nowhere for Burke to turn but to the pleasures of pounding the vulnerable and weak.

  Jonathan keeps trouble in view, and the trouble is coming increasingly from Burke.

  They are all sore for different reasons and the World rests trapped beneath that sky.

  A season passes and Jonathan awakes in the itchy bed of an estrus garden.

  Everyone is turning inwards. The women sit with Jonathan but each is lost in her own pictures. They are torpid in the afternoon heat. They lazily allow themselves to be taken by Jonathan whose klopsiks seem to heave a relentless flood. The more he has the more he wants. He looks in and looks out and sees nothing but pink and he rises and swoons above the slopes of delectation.

  As if by edict they have followed his example and think only of themselves. They are united but only in solitude. They sit and dream together but their private pictures tell them they are not in the right place.

  The only thing that breaks the torpor, and reminds them all that there is no oa, is the temper of Burke. His shadow is over their shoulders. He has run at the women so often that when Jonathan calls on them to support him in fights with Burke, they are too afraid to do so.

  Jonathan is no longer strong enough to fight Burke on his own. He needs the help of the women or Mr. Ghoul. Or he must somehow keep Burke close.

  There is an outbreak of chlamydia in the colony. It is a recurring phenomenon. It may have originated from the females in the breeding program.

  Four of the apes are treated with tetracycline.

  A widespread respiratory inf
ection also requires antibiotics.

  One researcher says to another that it started with a bad summer cold. My husband has it.

  Another says it’s not really summer. It’s more like late spring.

  For a while a heaviness lifts. Strange tastes in the mouth disappear and everyone breathes better. Jonathan’s cock no longer oozes and there are no more sneezes and sniffles.

  Jonathan and Burke have naps on warm dirt and relax together when they wake.

  Mama and Fifi sit quietly with the new one and Magda eats a peach.

  The new one wanders.

  Mr. Ghoul sits with the children. Bootie is half his size but his hugs feel good nonetheless.

  twenty-nine

  Not long before Looee was moved from Congo, two adolescents escaped. They were housed together in one of the cages across from Looee. A labtech came to put one of them in a transfer box and the other kicked it away on its wheels and they both sprang out.

  A high-powered hose was used to contain them in the corner and one of the labtechs fired tranquilizers at them. The entire wing was flooded by the hose and the day’s waste was soaked and sprayed all over the room. The wing had to be aired and cleaned, and for the first time in over a year a door at the end was opened. Congo was on the third floor of Girdish and the door was to a fire escape. A new light blew in with the breeze and smells of tarmac and oranges. Many of them pressed their faces to the front of their cages and a hoot arose in Looee which several of them echoed.

  The water sprayed the nameplate on his cage and the chalk now read:

  CH 447

  Lonee.

  Other names were washed away and there was administrative confusion for a while. A new vet redrew Lonee’s chart and for the sake of economy he omitted most of Looee’s personal history.

  They prepared him for transfer to the Chimpanzee Infectious Diseases Wing. CH 447. LONEE. He carried no known diseases.

  The CID Wing is separate from the Girdish main building and sits on higher land. It’s a Biosafety Level 2 isolation facility, equipped with an air filtration system to control airborne viruses. Lonee was squeezed into a transfer box and anaesthetized. He was left for hours near the door while staff were distracted by the death of a chimp named Fred. Lonee was taken out of Congo, conscious, and wheeled to an elevator. Two labtechs talked about the Toyotas they both owned and the lift went silent when another man entered. Looee had a view through vertical bars if he twisted his head and looked to the side.