EXOTICA

“Tsk tsk tsk tsk!”

The soft sounds were coming from an opening enclosed with shrubs and it was the sound of a baby orangutan. Now, the sounds of her child’s distress reached the mother’s ears and she hurried to wean him. At 2, he still suckled, so she quickly transformed back into her animal form so she could feed him. It was a secret really, fairly new to even her. This ability she had discovered, to transform from animal to woman and then back again. The process had been gradual, starting with individual parts of her body suddenly changing from thickly hairy to silky smooth without any conscious intent by her. It seemed to Magenta that the phenomenon was triggered by labor pains when she birthed her son. It had scared her out of her mind at first, not the labor pains but her changing body parts, then it became frequent, more than one part of the body at once and then the whole body.

She kept her scary, strange secret very close to heart and explored her curiosity and fascination of it privately. Even moments ago as she practiced the on and off of her transformation, she had hidden from her son’s gaze and from the gazes of all unbid observers.

How well she had adapted to the human-invaded forest that she and many other animals held on to as home would come as a shock to many animals, humans even. She was certain she could survive in the human world, she knew she could predict the thinking and actions of humans in certain situations, maybe in most situations. She knew of their emotions, that it led to many of their actions and could she sense them; desperation, fear, pain, greed, power, hunger etc. That knowledge would be handy for the animal council’s ultimate plan.

“I could be gay”.

“What?”, Peter was flabbergasted, “why would you think that?.”

He was talking to his drama-prone friend, Josh, who was absolutely certain he was homosexual.

Peter asked again, “Why do you say you are gay? Do you even know what it means and what it entails? Do you have a full understanding of the concept of homosexuality? Do you understand that society will frown at you? How did you determine this or do you assume it is as simple as the latest trend in men’s wear? Do you?

“Fine! Okay! maybe I’m not gay but how do you explain my dildo’s flaccidity when Sheila, the hottest girl in school practically rubbed her ass against me while we were on queue in the lunch room.”

“I hate to cut into your conversation like this but Josh, maybe your taste in girls does not run in the circle of blond bombshells or perhaps her paper-thin ass did just not do it for you”, a tiny voice came from behind them, his huge big brown eye balls were beautifully pronounced on a soft black skin, straight nose and the cutest round mouth anyone had ever seen. His lips were so pink it was embarrassing to him because he was regularly teased about not being manly enough by the two duck heads in front of him, so it gave him endless pleasure to butt -in on their secret ‘man-talks’.

In his tiny voice he continued, nodding sagely, “you should probably settle for a nice, quiet, mousy brunette, they always work out”. The mousy and mouthy little guy had a name, Toby.

“Look, I beg you to ease off the blondies and embrace the brunettes, or just man up and test other waters, the good Lord knows there are many different fishes I the waters of sexually-excited teenage girls”, this coming from Toby finally set fire on their nerves. They made a grab for him but he saw it coming and they ended up chasing him all over the staff quarters allotted to their parents by the Government of Kagwala. Breathless and angry, they watched him with murder in their eyes. Poor Toby while fervently praying they would forgive and forget made another statement with bravado,

”You should have just told me you needed some exercising for your school basketball team tryouts, see ya!” And with those words ringing in their ears they watched his scuttling little black buttocks disappear. It was safe to imagine their consolation lay in the fanatical ways they would both dismantle his body bit by bit until he had died slowly and with agony.

The boys were the same age and gangly in their stature. Josh rocked an ash blond hair while peter rocked a pepper blond hair and they were best friends for ever even though they would never admit it in quite those terms.

The houses where each lived with their parents was located at a Government Reserved Area set up to accommodate visiting allies from other countries on business or political matters. Their parents fell in that category and were paid awesome amounts of money to work for the Government on, based on the need of the country for their professionalism. These afforded them the best living conditions on the Island apart from the Kagwala Government Residency. The Kagwala Island itself was located at the far end of Asia. Working at such a remote and disconnected part of the world was worth every dollar they were paid.

The Kagwala rainforest reservation which was thousands of miles in size and had been mismanaged for decades by the various succeeding Governments, each deluded in their desperation to unearth a mine of riches.

The Kagwala tropical Island itself, surrounded by the Indian Ocean is 79% water and 21% land. A beauty, dominated by a beautiful rainforest and dots of human settlements. It is not as advanced as the rest of the world but they made do with what was available to them. There was a large segregation between the rich and the poor of Kagwala Island which meant the ease technology had brought to the world was not reachable for the average Kagwalan citizen.

The Minister for Forest Reserves Colonel Kudim, whom everyone agreed was an anomaly in the Kagwalan Government because of some odd actions he had taken since being appointed minister, actions that were suspiciously aimed at preserving the forest rather than harnessing its resources for personal gain and sharing those resources and gains with high ranking officials in the same social circle, at the detriment of the masses. One of those actions though unknown to the Government was to bring in professionals that were relatively at the top of their games in the U.S.A to the Kagwalan Island to lend their knowledge and encourage his own optimism for a better management and conscientious harnessing of the resources of the Kagwalan Forest reserves. He had managed to wrangle the GRA from the tight, greedy hold of the Government in order to provide haven and sanity for Scientists he had brought in for purposes not entirely known to those scientists. The agreement between the Kagwalan Authorities and each professional had been a thorough appraisal over a period of 6months at which point, more permanent contracts may be drawn. He hoped they would work with him to salvage what was left of the forest resources in Kagwala. He was counting on their professional and candid advice to further prevent the relentless ravaging of the forest lands and to implement the practice of replanting trees among other positive, impactful policies he wanted to put in place.

Magenta, the young mother Orangutan rocked her baby with long, strong arms. It was obvious to her that the Forest she called home would soon seize to be home, the government was relentless in its destructive efforts…………. Evidence of humans encroaching was seen far and deep into the forest and it was only a matter of time before the animals were forced out of this place of their refuge. What would happen then? Animals were created to be wild and free, what if they attacked human settlements? What if all the animals died from moving too close to human habitations since humans did not like to be threatened in any way and if they felt threatened by the animals getting too close to their habitation they might start killing them with lesser inhibition.

Yet they thought nothing of their own activities in the forest, where would all the animals go? The actions of humans would leave the animals destitute, homeless, hungry and for the most part dead, most would not adapt and survive, and some would. While she weaned her baby, Magenta’s aunt sherry swaggered in on all fours.

She grunted, “my dear, how have you been? How’s the baby?”. Aunt sherry had been a substitute mother for Magenta since a few years back when her own mother had died from sickness. A sickness that raged through her body like fever.

“Aunty, what do we do about these humans? What happens to our children? How do we protect them and us?”

“Those are good questions but according to our history, nature has always sustained us. In fact that is all we know- nature. However something that is not natural has been happening and it is well known within certain circles that you are experiencing certain.. ah.. unnatural phenomenon. Magenta was alarmed, she stammered, “wh…a..at? how?” . “Aunt sherry said simply, ”the elders know of your infection with the human blood disease, we do not understand it, we do not know if it is a good thing or a bad thing but Perhaps we might have a fighting chance if this weapon of sorts- this knowledge that we have- your ability, were used in exactly the right way. The unfortunate circumstances of capture and imprisonment that our kind endured at the hands of humans some 3 to 4 decades ago most likely led to this abomination. However we must try to turn this situation to favor us, we might yet use this infection to save our race from extinction. Now, you must keep out of sight of both humans and animals during your transformations for your own safety and to ensure that this potential weapon is kept secret, note everything you can about the process, and dear child? Be safe and be vigilant.”

Magenta was too shocked to say anything, she just watched dumbfounded as aunt sherry left and took with her any illusions of Magenta’s ‘well kept secret’, she held her little one closer and her thoughts soon turned fast and furious as she wondered about his safety and hers, as she wondered how soon it would be when other animals would see her as an outcast.

Behind the tree lay the assortment of fruits aunt sherry had come bearing along with her shocking revelations.

Johnny had read through his grandmother’s journals time and again.

His grandma Sarah had been part of a scientific expedition that aimed to explore the possibility of mixing the genes of a human being with that of animals. The experimentation had gotten convoluted and terrible, with horrifying results. Prior to the commencement of the experiments, the recruited Scientists had been duly brainwashed that would be involved in something that would potentially change the world as it was known. The project had been abandoned and the Scientists that had prior to their voyage signed a non-disclosure agreement, came home dejected and depressed.

Grandma Sarah had been of the few remaining Scientists when the Institute sponsoring their exploration had finally agreed to go a ‘different’ and more ‘palatable’ direction in the way of mixing the genes of animals in the same family as humans that is mixing human genes with those of monkeys, chimpanzees, orangutans etc. The results had been less alarming and temporary at best, or so it seemed at the time.

Now several years later, after unearthing more of his Grandma’s journals, Johnny found entries dated several years after Grandma Sarah must have submitted her final report to ‘the institute’, it was exciting really, because he had discovered something that the entire scientific community was not aware of, or at least something that might be known or suspected but was not publicly acknowledged.

Grandma Sarah had written in her journal that she did not believe the effects of their experimentation was temporary. She had suggested to their group leader, Dr Anthony, a Geneticist that the engineered genes might manifest more significantly in subsequent generations of the animals subjected to the experimentation, due to mutation, but he had dismissed her hypothesis as female hot-headed nonsense. In her journal, the final entry read: “Now I succumb to my mortality, I am sure that in ourquest for knowledge and glory we have unleashed a great unnatural evil upon the world, may you the great hero crush Dr Anthony’s sexist mouth with your sword, were I right and he wrong and he acted upon the dictates of his overbearing ego instead of doing what was right.”

Johnny boy could only attribute that last entry into the journal as a meaningless tirade to God or death, an evidence of Grandma Sarah being senile before her death, but the previous entries had value and truth, right? Of course they did. It had been his destiny to discover that truth and bring it to the light. Johnny boy was unaware that his escape from boredom was more of a motivator than his idealism of saving the world

Most people believed Grandma Sarah to have been off her grind. A young woman in the 1970’s who sought knowledge rather than sought the cradle for her unborn children, of whom she finally bore a child when her career path became unfruitful. More so, in her old age when she sought restitution for having created talking animals that spoke to her in her dreams. That belief and the lack of professional credibility, more than the cancer had eaten her up till death.

Johnny wanted to quickly fly over to Asia and see for himself, but he realized that the animals research institute that had given his grandma’s expedition group the grant that sponsored their expedition to the bitter end had her official report and he had to lay hands on it for a fuller, more precise report of what actually happened all those years ago and how it might relate to the present and how he might unleash a hidden secret on the world.

He now had something to live for, hopefully they would not as yet have realized that it was folly to have dismissed his Grandma Sarah’s theories. As to how he would accomplish that well…he wasn’t the most charming creature neither did he have the looks to distract anyone, he also had no legal right whatsoever. He would have to break in to the facility, a prospect that was both daunting and unimaginable, and exciting.

The earlier the better. Johnny set out for the private owned Science Research Institute for Animal Studies that had funded Nana Sarah’s expedition group even though the address was old he had optimism and the force of the universe on his side, knowing the universe had wanted him to find those secrets in the first place. He wore his Sunday best shirt and pants, his long frame of 6ft5 was carefully folded into his mother’s tiny vehicle. He checked his hair in the rearview mirror and he wondered for the millionth time why his own natural blond hair was sandy and dirty while others had shiny, bright blond hair that gave them a free pass to being accepted by people. The idea of using hair enhancing products never occurred to him neither did he think to cut his overly long hair. His plan was to case the institute that day, he sped out of his mother’s garage, she too was dead. Longer than Nana Sarah had been.

Dinner was a family affair at the Alexandra Smith home. They were all seated around the dinner table with half parts of decorum and chaos. Mrs Alexandra Smith, vehement in her denial of the few strands of grey in her hair which were now expertly dyed, was seated at her husband’s right side. At the age 38 she was entitled to her episodes of insecurity about getting old, unlike her husband who was already in mix of things being past the 40-year mark and midlife crisis plus, his stomach wasn’t protruding because he tried very hard to keep that particular balance.

Johnny boy, as his father fondly called him in his fantasies of their father-son banters was parked a few meters away from the address his grandma wrote in her journal as the location of the Science Research Institute for Animal Studies though right then, standing very close to the building there was only a vague indication that toilet paper might be manufactured there. Given the fact that he lacked any other information on whether or not his current location still functioned as SRIAS he went into stealth mode and decided to watch the building.

Dark glasses to shield his eyes and his cap pulled down low, he fancied himself as being a spy, though he had genuine desires to explore his grandmother’s work and perhaps discover concrete evidence of a fact that would bring the world to its knees. At that particular moment, being a James Bond wannabe trumped many of the good feelings he had ever had in his life. Let the snotty girls and boys that were his former classmates take that, in fact social media had better be braced for the storm that would be unleashed following his discovery. He would wager that they would all make fast friends with him then, when the number of his followers toppled Taylor Swift’s.

Standing at the side of the building, the eerie silence gave him the creeps, it was not normal for any place of business to be as silent as this. What if something sinister was going on? It seemed that it was, with the zero traffic of people. It was not right, unable to check hi curiosity, he approached the building. The heavy set men at the gate handed him a tally.

At the reception, a snotty-looking, black-haired woman asked if he had an appointment, and as he stood there looking dumb a plan began to form in his mind. He gave the receptionist an empty smile and left, she rolled her eyes and ignored him. The real security team on ground had however observed the whole process on strategically placed cameras from his foolish cap, down to the absent smile, and when they ran his photograph with all the past and present workers in the institute’s database, they had a hit and took the data to their superior.

Not that Johnny boy was particularly bright but he could think just as well as the next person and he had seen his fair share of action clips, enough to form what he thought was a workable plan.

Kerr, short for Carolina drew another layer of eyeliner on her already thickly lined lashes, she was going all out on the dumb kids who went to school in the dumbest place on earth. They had no idea what went on in the real world and she was going to show them what was cool and who was boss. Back in the USA, her mother who was a single parent had suddenly come home from work panting with excitement, she had then told her about their impending move from New York to some remote part of the earth and effectively turned her life upside down. Kerr wasn’t sure she could ever forgive her mother whose only song since then was in the tune of increased allowances on everything. Now, she had to go be the new kid at some school on K-a-gwa-la effing Island, her friends would have rolled their eyes to the highest heavens if she had told them the whole truth so she had told them she was going to Hawaii for a while, except for Linda, her best friend on whose shoulder she had shed some tears in a rare show of weakness. Linda would never betray her true location to those other girls.

Helen Cook took one look at her daughter’s ghoulish outfit and knew she was being dared to comment, her dear daughter looked like a vampire princess, only thing missing was the delicious trickle of blood from her lips. Wisely she said,” nice outfit darling, how did you manage to pull that off?”. Kerr was shocked,” really? Mum? At least there’s cereal on this forgotten Island”, she said, referring to the rice crispies her mother had put out on the kitchen table.

“Seriously dear, a little enthusiasm from you would make this transition easier on me”, Helen said. Wearing a pained expression Kerr replied, “Mum I know all about the exotic plants and flowers you will be studying and I am dizzy with excitement about you discovering unknown species in the forests of Kagwala, really I am but what about me? What about everything I had to give up- my friends, years of carefully building my reputation as a badass? You don’t care about me! Tears threatening to spoil her cool vampire make up and that was not permissible so she stormed out leaving her mother in the kitchen, staring after her, totally shocked.

Minutes later when mother and daughter had calmed down in their angry corners they drove out of their corner of the government reserved quarters, which had been developed especially for foreigners because it boasted of provisions for all the possible needs of Westerners who may be living there permanently or temporarily, from pre-school education to middle school education to high school education on par with the world standard in curriculum and delivery, of course. There was also a huge supermarket being run by the wife of a top Government official. Those provisions were reassuring.

Having parked the car, in a quiet voice that told her daughter that she was hurt by her earlier outburst she said, ”I want you to know that you are the first consideration in every decision I take and I love you more than words can express, okay? Now give me a kiss and have a nice first day at school. Kerr complied and dashed out of the car with some spirit. Helen watched her daughter’s disappearing form, the ghoulish attire would either be a hit or a miss. Life had thrown her many curve balls, at first it had been a womanizer husband and after she filed for divorce he had become an irresponsible father and when the bills had kept piling up, this opportunity in Kagwala with its generous pay, bonuses and allowances had been God’s answer to her prayers. It was for her the perfect solution, maybe not so for Kerr but children are resilient thank God.