Rising Son: The Forest Delran

A father-and-son take a Thoreau adventure into the forest but must confront the rascal named Leatherface for a lesson about distances.

One more return-vignette, and this isn't a heist story or a terrorist-tale but rather a father-son fable inspired by my love of The Last of the Mohicans. Enjoy (and God bless!),

----

====

In a deep and dark forest in Virginia (USA) called Delran, a college professor named Amlan and his son Damian were camping in a cabin and reading Thoreau. Amlan, an Asian-Indian was married to a beautiful Native-American woman named Penelope and Damian was their son. He wanted his son to appreciate the splendor of nature and naturalism as espoused by his mother's Native religion and philosophies among the Shawnee tribe. Amlan and Damian spent time in the cabin that one summer reading Thoreau and wearing Native feathers and appreciating the spiritual magic of Mother Earth and the planet's forest.

AMLAN: I'm not Native-American or Shawnee, but Damian is half-Shawnee, and I want him to think I praise Shawnee myths.

DAMIAN: Dad tries to dress up like a Shawnee, but he looks really funny, but I'm in some more authentic Shawnee stuff!

Amlan took Damian wandering around that forest in Virginia and used their toy rifle to make blank-shots at passing deer, and the passing deer looked amazed that the gunshots were blanks and they continued running on their merry way! Amlan told Damian that in the days of Old America, fathers and sons would wander around the forests using real guns to commune with the sacred art of hunting for food for their families, among the Natives of America such as the early Shawnee. Damian became really fond of his toy rifle his dad gave him to use in that forest.

AMLAN: God makes this forest for us to appreciate the magic of Shawnee myths.

DAMIAN: Dad, you're a Catholic, yet you're preaching to me about Shawnee magic?

AMLAN: The magic of life on Earth and in America is the splendor of myths from all peoples!

DAMIAN: Well, this forest does indeed remind me of the natural magic of human divinity.

AMLAN: Yes, and such magic is shown in not only the Christian Bible but also in Shawnee oral traditions.

Amlan and Damian considered their wandering and reading and synthetic non-hunting experience with their toy rifle an excellent experiment in the living magic of life in the forest in Virginia, in America, on Earth. It was a very colorful summer, and Amlan hoped his son would gain some natural admiration for colleges celebrating the educational heritage of Native cultures, such as Dartmouth College, where Amlan was once a student. The forest was perfect for this educational adventure!

However, Amlan and Damian came across a rather creepy looking cabin in that forest one sunset while wandering around in that forest. They heard a loud buzzing sound coming from inside the cabin. They walked closer towards it and then a masked maniac came bursting out, wielding an electric chainsaw! Amlan screamed, "Leatherface!" and his son Damian echoed and yelled, "Fire!" The maniac started chasing father-and-son with a certain mad fury and evil glare.

AMLAN: Keep running!

DAMIAN: Yeah dad!

AMLAN: Don't look back, Damian.

DAMIAN: I ain't lookin' back, man.

The adventurous father-and-son ran and ran and ran, and Leatherface was hot on their bad trail. They came across a big ditch in the forest, and Amlan signaled to Damian to hop on one side of the ditch while he himself stood on the other side. When Leatherface came across them, Amlan dared the masked maniac and told him, "You have to choose one of us to leap towards, you monster, but you can't leap towards us both!" When the proud monster sought to leap towards both of them simultaneously, he unwittingly fell into the big ditch between them and his own buzzing chainsaw landed on his leg, gashing it terribly.

Amlan and Damian got away from Leatherface and then led forest rangers to the cabin of the monster where they tied up the man-dragon and hauled him off to a lunatic asylum. They read in the papers years later that 'Leatherface' was still receiving deep psychiatric treatment at D.C.'s Arkham Asylum. Amlan was so proud of his son that he purchased him an authentic ancient Shawnee wolf-wood sculpture from Dartmouth.

DAMIAN: Dad, I got a magazine offer from the National Rifle Association.

AMLAN: For your youthful use and love of your toy-rifle we used that summer in the forest?

DAMIAN: Yeah!
AMLAN: What'd you want to do, son?

DAMIAN: I dunno if I want to become politically involved, daddy.

AMLAN: That's ok, son; we'll politely be asked to be excused from political dances.

Amlan knew his 'rising son' would grow to become a happy Shawnee-American, proud of his heritage and proud of the forest-adventure they had that summer in Virginia, when they outwitted the man-dragon Leatherface and learned of the invaluable lesson of human directions.

====

"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)