Moho (Part One: Rise of a Symbol)
Read Moho (Part One: Rise of a Symbol) Online
Authors: Persadia
Copyright © 2014 by Benjamin Todt
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
For Us.
The Selection
Dear Child,
This is the second time that I first see the light of day and let me tell you something: you might think that life is tough and everything after death will be a piece of cake, but your creation in The Spring will be rough - trust me, I know it, because it's happening to me right now.
The first sensation I experience during my creation is warmth. I don't yet have limbs, ears, eyes, a mouth, or even a nose. All I am is a lump of skin with a tiny brain. I feel how I bump into other people, or maybe even some animals, while I'm spinning around in the bubbly water of The Spring. My shoulders begin to itch and one arm grows out of them on each side. I'm about to panic because I don't feel any hands but then palms and fingers sprout out of my arm stumps.
I press my new hands into the ground to push myself out of the crowded water, but
the sand squeezes through my fingers immediately and my hands simply sink into the squishy ground. The skin above my chin cracks and sugary-sweet seawater streams into my mouth. I close my new mouth to prevent diabetes, obesity, caries, cardiovascular disease — and especially — drowning. But as soon as my lips touch, my nostrils pop open and I breathe the sweet water. I feel it burning in my nose, scratching my throat and then spreading in my lungs like tiny twigs. Ugh… that was really unpleasant. Luckily, a strong hand grabs my right arm and pulls me out of the water. I try to cough and breathe at the same time and roll over onto my stomach. There is a short moment of silent relief before I grow ears and a flood of sounds hits my eardrums: the unsettling cry of a baby, the vibrating roar of a lion, the unnerving hissing of a snake, the piercing twitter of a bird, and the tempered groaning of an old woman; it's dizzying.
Next, the skin left and right of my nose swells up into two big pimples. First
, I think it's a serious case of acne and that I've entered puberty before I've even made my first step, but then the skin cracks open and I see. Literally, as I've grown a pair of eyes. Unfortunately, my vision is blurry and I can't see much. What I do see is that I lie on wet sand and that there are puddles of water all around me. It looks like a seabed when the tide is out. Oddly enough, all kinds of animals are crawling, walking, jumping, and flying past me. I can see them when they are close but then they quickly disappear into the golden-white light that is all around me. The ground is flat and so I have no sense of where I am. I could be lying close to the beach or in the middle of the ocean.
I push myself up once more and I'm successful this time. But when I try to get on my feet, I realize that I have neither feet nor legs. I turn around to look at my half-finished body. It simply ends at my waist… Is any of this even real? With one hand still pressed into the ground, I check my neck, chest, and stomach for realness. Feels real. My forefinger lingers on my bellybutton. Funny that I have one… I didn't feel an umbilical cord when I was in the water.
"Don't worry, my friend. Your legs will be done shortly. It's a busy morning," a deep voice assures me from behind. I turn around and see the outline of a tall, brawny man disappearing into the golden-white glow that is all around me.
I sit at the edge of the deep puddle
that I was pulled out of earlier and wait for my legs to grow out of my body. Suddenly, I hear a scream and see a woman who is struggling to keep her head above water. The man runs back and pulls her on land. She must be a non-swimmer because she already has a pair of legs.
I look around. My steadily improving eyesight allows for a clearer view of my surroundings. There is every possibly imaginable animal species coming out of the water. Some seem to be as confused as I am while others get up quickly and leave. The scene is bewildering but
it is also of a surreal beauty; the golden-white light reflects in the wet sand and light fog is hovering over the ground. The air is warm and surrounds my body. I can hardly feel where I end and everything but me begins.
Then the outline of a woman approaches. I don't know her name or why I know her but I'm somehow convinced that I've seen her before. She walks straight to the tall man. They seem to know each other.
“Victor, my dear, please bring Moho to your home and take care of the issue," the woman says. She is about to turn around and leave when she adds, "And I want to see the two of you at the selection."
"Aleeya?" Victor says. "Do I have to come as well? Are you sure?"
“Yes, my dear, I'm certain,” Aleeya confirms and leaves.
Victor watches her disappear into the light and there is a moment when I can see his discontent with Aleeya's request. But then he walks over to me and puts a smile on his face.
“Look at those shiny new legs. Well worth the wait, wasn’t it?” he asks and pulls me out of the water completely. And indeed, I do have legs now. I feel ready to test them and stand up but I can't find my balance and fall back onto the sand, face first.
“Wow, my friend. Take it easy. Let me do the walking,” he says and laughs. Kneeling next to me, he slips his arms under my back and my knees. I want to protest but my voice doesn't work yet and I'm extremely tired. I can barely keep my eyes open and before I have the opportunity to protest one last time, I fall asleep.
A comforting, warm feeling in my stomach wakes me.
“Koko! Let Moho … you know … tiring it … took you … longer to recover,” Victor lectures someone from afar. I've already learned that he can speak in whole sentences, so it must be my exhaustion that limits my understanding. It's dark but some light from the left reveals half of Victor’s tall silhouette. He's actually very close to me, on my right side, and rests the palms of his rough hands on my naked stomach. Suddenly, I feel a pain around my bellybutton that makes me moan. Victor covers my eyes with his left hand when he hears that I'm awake and I fall asleep once more.
After what feels like a very, very long time, I open my eyes again. I turn my head to the left and look straight into the golden-white light again. This time it is less intense and much further away, merely a spot on the horizon. Hundreds of people and just as many animals walk out of the light and towards the shore.
I remember the protective warmth of the light, and yet now that I'm looking at it from afar, the whole scene appears much less sheltered, almost cold. But I’m not cold. I’m lying on a slightly wobbly surface. It seems to radiate heat and there is a weak glow coming
from its core. I lift my head a few inches to look around but all energy leaves my body quickly and my head drops back onto the bed. My whole body feels stiff and sore. All I can do is lie on the flat, comfortable surface and stare into the light on the horizon. What is it? And what exactly happened to me in there?
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” the deep and now familiar voice of Victor asks from the other side of the room.
“Scary, it was,” I reply and turn my head back towards the light.
“Scary?” Victor repeats and starts laughing. His laughter is very unusual… very loud, uncontrolled
, and somehow rhythmically off. “It’s the most beautiful place of Persadia.” He pauses for a moment before he adds, "The Spring is my home."
We stare at his home for a moment until the sound of my empty stomach ends the silence.
“Excuse me. You must be starving,” he says and disappears as abruptly as he had appeared.
Persadia. That sounds familiar but I can’t remember where I've heard it before. So many puzzling impressions... I’m still tired and relax my eyes for a minute.
Suddenly, I hear something breathing heavily and unsettlingly close to my face. Hot, foul breath pushes against my right cheek. When I open my eyes, a pair of steel-gray eyes stare right back at me. The eyes carefully inspect my face, then squint and disappear out of sight. I tilt my head slightly and see with shock that an ape, the size of a small child, jumps onto my bed. I try to push it away with my arms and legs but I’m still powerless. The ape is jumping up and down, sometimes only barely missing my body. It is very happy, though. As it dances on my bed, its short grey fur sparkles in the light. However, right when I start to like the ape, it steps on my right hand.
"Ah!" I shout and the ape immediately stops jumping. It looks at me and tilts its head. I could swear it feels empathy.
"Koko, it's fine. Get off my bed you crazy nut," Victor says in a very relaxed manner. “Sorry, she was probably confused that it wasn’t me in my bed,” he explains and throws a big coconut on the floor near the end of my bed. Koko inspects the nut for a moment before she starts beating it with her fists.
Victor pulls out a smaller, glossy white fruit and puts it next to my right hand. I make an attempt at grabbing it but Victor grabs my hand before it grabs the fruit.
“Slowly, my friend,” he says calmly and helps me in an upright sitting position. I make another attempt at picking up the fruit but Victor takes it, breaks off a small piece and puts it into my mouth. And wow! The taste! An explosion of the most delicious flavors coats my tongue. I chew the gooey piece and it dissolves into mouth-watering syrup that tastes like dozens of different fruit at the same time. It's like a smoothie but one where every single fruit is still distinguishable. I look at Victor in excitement; in turn, he nods at me with paternal understanding.
“Wait until you swallow it,” he responds with a smile. So I do
, and he is right. As the syrup makes its way down my throat, my whole body awakens. Energy spreads from my stomach to my toes and all the way back to my brain.
“Wow!” I exclaim and exhale loudly. I feel strong, energized. And I need more! Without asking I pull the fruit out of Victor's hand and bite off a big chunk. The second bite is even better. And after a few more bites that are way too big to swallow, the fruit is gone. “I want more!” I say impatiently.
“We all do," he laughs. "But there is no more.”
In the meantime
, Koko had cracked her nut open and is now trying to eat it but the pieces are scattered all over the floor. It's a mess, just like her.
“It’s time to go down to the plaza. The selection will begin shortly,” Victor explains.
Bursting at the seams with energy after the snack, I jump out of my bed, ready to go. “Don’t you want to get dressed first?” Victor chuckles.
And it is not until that very moment that I notice that I had been completely naked the entire time. I awkwardly twist my body and use my hands to shield as much of
myself as possible, but there is too much to cover. How embarrassing. I cringe.
“You don’t have to get dressed for your Springhelper. It’s a little bit late for that, don’t you agree?” he asks with a grin. I don't and I’m very appreciative when he hands me some clothes.
Covered in more than bare excitement this time, we step outside where we find ourselves near the top of a rapidly sloping hill. The ocean and The Spring lie behind us and a village, carved into the hill, lies in front of us. We follow a narrow path that leads us to a crowded plaza at the foot of the hill. All the newly created people and animals coming from The Spring walk around the hill and disappear into the thick fog that is hovering above the ground behind the plaza. Strangely enough, none of the people in the village pay attention to the hundreds of animals passing their home. It all looks very surreal. The atmosphere is tense and the sky is gray, with only a few rays of cold sunshine cutting through the clouds. A cool breeze finds its way from the ocean, around the hill and onto the plaza.
Victor and even Koko are known and loved among the villagers. They greet every single person we meet along the way and Victor has a few
kind words for each and every one of them. No one is bothered by the fact that an ape walks among them and some people even pat Koko on the head.
We squeeze ourselves through the crowd on our way to Aleeya and I hear snippets of conversations left and right.
“He is my best bet. I think Cosmo was tempted last— ," a girl says.
“
— a sad old man. Time to give up and focus on achievable— ,” another one argues.
“They are both quite talented. But Cosmo won't select both. I’d be
— ,” an old man estimates.
Aleeya is talking to a small group of people but when she notices us, she excuses herself and sends a warm smile our way. She completely ignores Victor and walks directly towards me.
"Moho, my dear, how are you feeling?" she asks and hugs me tightly without waiting for an answer. I would give her an answer but she is suffocating me.
"Have you eaten?" she asks next and lets go off me.
"An entire Whitefruit," Victor responds for me.
"That's my Moho!" she praises me with pride and fondles my cheeks.
I’m not sure how to react to this assault of care and affection. We have never met before. I have no clue where her parental feelings for me stem from. Her actions feel too extreme but they come from a good place. As I'm gazing into her loving eyes, I get the feeling that being close to her will be good for me. She gives me a sense of being understood, of being taken care of — a sense of home.
Our moment is interrupted when the chatter of the crowd stops abruptly. Some people point towards the sky and exhale in astonishment because three giant birds descend in circles and land on the top of the hill. Next, what resembles a blue shooting star
crosses the cloudy sky. When it flies over the plaza, it changes course and heads right our way. It looks like a meteor decided to crash right into the crowd. A rush of adrenaline shoots through my body. But, before I can make any attempt at escaping the rapidly approaching catastrophe, the bright light lands on the plaza and a man appears from the light. The crowd goes insane.