Bear Bob's Story as told to Edward Summer

Chapter Three
Demons
 

We huddled close, all of us, waiting. The men, the big men, surrounded us so that we could not run. But who would run? Who would run into the darkness?

     We were hungry, but there was no food. So we sat on the ground and our stomachs grumbled.

     We knew at home that our families had cooking fires. Somewhere, far away, the sparks from the fires rose into the sky and spread across the heavens. Slowly, the stars came out. We watched them bright against the night. There was no moon. No moon. No moon.

     In the distance we heard strange sounds. Chittering and chattering. Shadows flashed across the sky. The stars disappeared behind them, then returned again. What were the shadows? What were they? But we all knew. We knew. They were the demons. The demons that came in the night. The demons that lived in the tree. The demons of darkness that carried away anyone foolish who was left alone.

     We boys were glad we were together. We were glad the tree was so far away. We huddled together. I wondered what the men thought. I closed my eyes so I would not see the darkness and the stars and the shadows. And then I slept. Slept.  Until the dawn came again.

     The first thing I knew when my eyes opened on the sunrise was that my stomach was empty.

     We were on a large flat plain. The sky touched the ground all around us. There were no animals except us. The ground was dry and dusty. Little scrub bushes popped up out of the earth here and there. I looked around at my friends. Some were awake and staring, others were still half in sleep. The men were at a distance, watching us. Watching us.

     There was a loud cry! Up! Up high above us, a brown bird flew past. It looked down upon us from near the clouds and cried out again.

     One boy picked up a rock from the dry dust and stood up. His arm went back to throw it at the bird.

     "Stop!" I called out.

     The boy turned his head, distracted, but he did not stop.  He threw hard and the rock traveled far. But the bird heard my cry and turned and flew a different way, and the rock traveled past her.  I saw the yellow beak as it turned. I saw the brown wings beating faster. The bird sailed away past the reach of the rock. Perhaps the head turned, the eyes looking down at me. Perhaps I imagined a smile on the yellow beak.

     The bird was gone.

     The boy looked at me and frowned. He was not happy. He was not happy.

     Now the men beat upon the drum and everyone awoke and stood. We were all hungry.

     The men walked us toward the tree, the baobab. Us with our empty stomachs, them with the drum beating.

     It looked so small with its roots sticking up into the air. It grew though. It grew. Taller and taller as we drew closer and closer until it was huge up above us. Taller than our huts. Taller than any tree that we had ever seen. Taller than the mountains. Taller than the sky. The branches - or were they the roots? - stuck up into where the clouds would be if there had been clouds that day. The ground was so dry that I thought the clouds must give the tree water. When there were clouds.

     "This is a special day," said the tall man when we stopped. We were not too close to the tree.

     "This is a special day for you. This is a special day for the tree we call baobab."

     We smiled, but we were scared.

     "Today you will change, and today, the tree gives fruit. Look at the tree." He pointed. "It changes. It changes. It has grown like this from the beginning of all time, from the beginning of all life. It has grown like this since the day separated from the night. It links the earth and the heavens. It links the people and the gods."

     We stared at the baobab.

     "Only at a special time does it have the fruit. First it is naked. It looks dead. Then for a while it has leaves. We do not know from where they come, but one day, they are there. Then there are flowers. The flowers are white. They too come from nowhere and vanish again. But when the flowers vanish they leave the fruit. It is like fingers growing on a hand. Fat fingers that puff and grow from the arms of the tree. See them? Look!" he said.

     We looked and there, high in the tree, far, far, far above the ground hung the fruit. It looked small and black and high, very high, in the air.

     "Look down," he said. "Look next to you. What do you see?"

     We saw each other. We were puzzled.

     "Yes," said the tall man. "I speak of you. And you. And you." He pointed to each of us.

     "One day, there is nothing. The next day, you are here. You are here from the blackness, you grow like the tree from darkness into light. You grow from the milk you are fed. You grow bigger and bigger. You stand on the dusty ground, and when the rain comes, it soaks into you and the ground. You drink and grow and grow."

     He held up his hand. "When you are babies, your fingers wiggle at the skies. They grasp nothing. Then the hands grow and the fingers grow. They learn to hold onto things. They learn to feed your mouths, so you can run and be active.  And suddenly, one day, you are big enough. Big enough to walk to the tree which the Gods have planted here at the edge of earth and sky, of night and day, of life and death.

     "It is alive, this tree! Alive in ways you cannot guess! Alive with creatures you do not know. But what creatures are they? Where do they come from? Are they good or evil? What powers do they have?"

     The tall man stopped. He looked into our eyes. Deep into our eyes. "Will they only watch you when you go to them? Watch you like I watch you now? "

     When you go to them? I thought. What does he mean by that?

     The tall man knew what we were thinking. He knew.

     "Yes. Yes. Yes. Tonight you will go to them.  Tonight, when it is dark, you must climb the tree and bring back a pod. But today you will sit and wait and think. Think about what you will do. Think about what they will do. Think about whether they will watch you like they watch you now or if they will they kill you."

This page 01/24/99