Aberdeen

(read after my other story, Gobby Blank)

Aberdeen the majestic grazed in a field of Reed Canary grass. A couple of miles away were buildings, once lanky and salient against the sky, now broken and prostrate in the sand, defeated, being trifled by the ocean tide. The gods of earth were hostile toward humans for not honoring each other or the planet. The oceans consumed the land; people were sparse and lesser, both physically and mentally. All of nature was askew. Aberdeen's grazing was interrupted by the sounds of a weak cry in the distance. "A rickety animal," he thought, "possibly sick." He strolled in the direction of the screams. On the dock by the river, he found a drawer from a dresser with a human baby lying inside. "Fresh from the womb, this one, only a day or two at the most," Aberdeen thought and sniffed the baby. He heard the prayer rising from the child. The breeze gently caressed them both, and the cries subsided. Aberdeen looked up and summoned Simiana, the monkey from the woods. He snorted a greeting to her. Simiana scooped the tiny human from the drawer and latched it to her breast. When the baby finished eating, Simiana returned the child to the drawer, gave an agreeing nod to Aberdeen, and walked back into the woods.

The baby slept, the sun lit up the world, the clouds brought shade for a time, then relented. Aberdeen held court by the river, in the tall grass. Perl the python, Gress the tiger, Cay the alligator, and Dae the boar sat before their lord, Aberdeen. They listened intently to his enlightenments'. After a time, the baby started to cry. Simiana returned and put the baby to her breast. Cay, the alligator, decided to take the drawer down to the river to clean out all the feces and urine. When it was clean, he pulled it back onto the dock to dry in the sun. Dae, the boar, licked the drawer clean of any remaining poop. The red sun started to descend. The river set a melodic soundtrack to their assembly, which lasted for a spell. Then, as twilight commenced, they heard a boat full of humans in the distance. Simiana placed the sleeping baby back in the drawer. The animals nodded farewell to each other and scattered.

The boat approached. Aberdeen stood just inside the tree line and observed meager men exit the vessel and gawk at the baby in a drawer. He could tell they had expectations upon their arrival but not this. The men conversed, the sky grew darker.

"We’re not safe here after dark. It gets really dark in the country, like real dark.” One could be heard saying as four of them stood a few feet from the drawer. The chatter continued. It elevated to an argument about if they were taking the baby, when, where, and why. The group leader tried effortlessly to shush the participants, one of the men didn’t like that, so he punched the leader, and they started fighting. The fight managed to move onto the bank, away from the dock. One man hit another guy in the head and ran. The injured man screamed, “What the fuck?” and ran after the assailant. Suddenly they couldn’t see to fight. It was dark. There was a flashlight on the boat, but the vessel was gone when they tried to go and get it. The boat captain heard them fighting in the darkness and took off.

“God damn it!” Exclaimed the leader. ”You assholes! Now we’re stuck here! Where’s that baby? Try not to step on it. I can’t see shit! Anyone else?” He could hear the others milling around, cursing, some still fighting with each other. His foot hit the drawer, “I found it!” He yelled. All of the men were now close together. He reached down into the drawer, and it was empty. “Who's got the baby?” he asked, but they all said they hadn’t touched it. They were perplexed that the drawer was empty. He threw up his hands in disgust and said, “Well, that’s just great!” He plopped down on the bank.

The others followed suit. He proclaimed, “I’m staying right here in case the moon comes out and the boat returns. Y'all can do whatever you want. All the stories you heard about this place are true, so watch yourself. God! I can’t believe this shit! I swear, I knew better than to come on this mission. I had a bad feeling about this girl they were looking for. No girl is worth this bull shit. And a random baby.” He started to ponder out loud, “Maybe the captain got out and took her, but how could he do that without us seeing him? Maybe he did it as soon as it got dark.” Another man said, “Maybe an alligator drug it off.” The leader didn’t acknowledge his comment but continued, “Man, this is freaking me out. Why was there a baby on the dock in the first place?” He said to no one. He laid back on the slope of the hill. One other guy stayed with him. The rest went and sat on the top of the hill. He could still hear them arguing.

The men were recruits to the Divvy, a colony-sanctioned human trafficking organization that came to Proll and other places to find males and females for sex, boy babies for infertile couples, and fertile females to be concubines for the powerful families living on the Mars Colony. This was their first shopping trip to Proll, and they had a particular assignment to find a feral fifteen-year-old girl who lived near the river, a girl that one of the most powerful men on the colony had been coming to Proll to rape.

They’d all heard about the wild, toothless people of Proll and stories from travelers about the enchanted woodlands’ and demonic animals. When they arrived, they found dilapidated trailer park communes on land ravaged by fires, floods, sinkholes, hurricanes, deforestation, and earthquakes. There were pieces of buildings strewn everywhere, garbage heaps, collapsed roads and bridges, and only a few wooded areas; one was by the river.

The traffickers eventually fell asleep while waiting for the moon that never showed its face. They each had the same dream. In the darkness of their minds, they encountered Aberdeen and the other animals. Perl the python twisted around their bodies, Gress the tiger crouched in nearby grass waiting to pounce, Cay the alligator rolled them to the bottom of the river, and Dae, the boar, charged at them, ready to gorge them with his tusks. To each of them, their shared nightmare played on for what seemed like an eternity. They saw the animals repeatedly coming at them. Aberdeen, six feet four inches tall and four thousand pounds, lowered his mammoth body to squash them while they slept. They awoke in unison, sweaty and fearful, and looked at each other, knowing they’d shared a nightmare.

The sun was rising, and at last, they could see the boat coming down the river. They ran to the dock, and waiting for them was the drawer with the sleeping baby inside. The boat was so close now. The leader turned to the men and said, “We’re not taking that baby. I’m not getting my ass chewed for bringing a female baby back, especially since we didn’t even find the teenage girl we were sent here to find and bring back!” He pointed at the baby and continued, “That thing disappeared during the night. You all know that drawer was empty, so someone took care of it cuz it looks fine now. This place is fucking creepy!” He looked down at the baby sleeping peacefully and wondered if it was a demon.

The captain pulled the boat to the dock, and the men jumped on as fast as possible. A sudden wind blew their hair back and made them squint. “More freaky shit!” The leader thought. He was the last one on the boat. He looked behind him, and on the hill was the bull from his nightmare, Aberdeen. The baby started to cry. Out of the woods came Simiana. They all watched as the monkey picked up the crying infant and placed it on her breast. Perl the python, Gress the tiger, Cay the alligator, and Dae the boar gathered around Aberdeen and looked at the men. The men looked back at the animals, aghast. They didn’t move or speak, just stared.

The sound of a gunshot broke the trance. The shot came from the boat captain, Athwart Freeman was his name. The bullet burst through the leader's chest, and he fell out of the boat into the water. More shots rang out. The rest of the traffickers were now dead as well. Athwart holstered his gun and threw the dead men on the dock. He wasn’t a boat captain; he’d been sent to find the same girl, not by the Divvy, but by the wife of the powerful man who’d gotten the girl pregnant. Athwart’s instructions were to bring the girl back. But now he was surrounded by dead traffickers, watching a monkey breastfeed a baby, seeing a snake, a boar, a tiger, and an alligator chilling on a hill beside a monstrous bull, and the bull was currently drilling a hole through Athwart with his eyes. Confused by everything he was seeing and experiencing, he said out loud, “What is happening?” The monkey Simiana was in front of him, handing him the baby. He looked at Aberdeen and started to draw his gun. His mind was racing; he again said his thoughts out loud, “I’m not here for a baby, I’m here for the girl, and crazy animal shit is standing in my way.” Aberdeen never took his eyes off of him and read his mind. Athwart couldn’t raise his gun. The bull somehow made it clear that shooting him would not be in Athwart’s best interest. “I get it. I understand. You win, ok, you win.” He said to Aberdeen and all the animals staring at him from the hilltop. He looked down at the baby in his arms and gave a deep sigh. The animals watched as he put the baby back in the drawer, put it on the boat, and drove off down the river.

Simiana walked back into the woods. Perl the python, Gress the tiger, Cay the alligator, and Dae the boar all feasted on the bodies of the traffickers. Aberdeen walked over to one trafficker and ripped his penis off. He didn’t drop it or eat it. He carried it over the hill, through the woods, past the broken buildings, and across an open plain to a deer stand where the feral child that everyone was looking for lived. Aberdeen dropped the penis on the ground and snorted up at the stand. Gobby stuck her head out and said, “Yo! What’d you bring me?” She climbed down and saw the penis on the ground. She reached up and rubbed the mane on Aberdeen’s neck, which made his dark, greyish blue coat look like waves on a midnight ocean. She leaned her head against his side, and she could feel him breathing. It felt like gentle thunder. Her head rising and falling with each inhale and exhale. It comforted her.

Finally, she looked up at him and said, “Thanks, King." Then she picked up the penis and climbed back into her deer stand. Aberdeen the majestic went back to grazing in the pasture of Reed Canary grass.