Guy--Part Forty-Two

A Chapter by Wayne Vargas

Splog # 177

Forty-Two

While concentrating on Bugs' recitation, Guy had noticed that he was walking past an area on his right that had come to resemble a garden as it would be cultivated up in the open air. There were mounded rows stretching away from him and each had stalks of different sizes lazily waving where they poked up out of the sand. He saw a small sign at the end of one row and bent over to read it as he passed by.

"Within this tower abides a rutabaga..." Guy's body and mouth both stopped in mid-motion. Still standing half stooped, Guy and Bugs both tried to speak at the same time.

"Waimswairrywaigs..."

Both stopped speaking and Guy stood up straight.

"Excuse me, Bugs," Guy hesitantly began.

"What happened? Where did that rutabaga come from?"
Guy pointed to the small sign by his feet. As Guy looked at the rows stretching into the distance, Bugs said,

"We're at Hel's and Eden's, it won't be long now."

"Where?"

"Hel's garden and Eden's orchard. It's where all the fruits and vegetables are grown that go to the Island Beneath."

"You can grow fruits and vegetables underwater?"

"Well, no. I can't. But Hel and Eden manage very nicely. If they're around you can meet them."

They continued walking and Bugs began to read the signs that appeared regularly as they walked along, vegetables on the right and fruit on the left.

"Rutabagas (snuck into my poem) - oranges - yellow corn - melons - asparagus - prickly pears - carrots - lemons - potatoes - persimmons - peppers - apricots - ginger - nectarines - tomatoes - black-eyed peas - beans - apples - groundnuts - bananas...I don't even know what some of these are."

All at once the Ling Lings all jetted off to one spot a short distance ahead of them. When they reached the place, Guy found a tall pole that seemed to go right up to the surface of the water. Scattered around the pole were short projections that could have been perches for birds. The Ling Lings were hooking their tails on to the perches and twirling themselves around on them.

"Honey," Bugs said. "They'll stay for a moment but if we keep walking they'll join us soon enough."

"Honey?" Guy echoed.

"They can't get enough of it."

"But they're just swinging around. Where's the honey?"

"It's on the roosts."
"What are the roOh look. There's Hel."

Guy tried to see what Bugs was looking at. In the distance to their right a large dark shape was moving towards them. It was floating just over the mounds of vegetables. Guy's mouth dropped open when he realized it was an octopus coming in their direction. Its arms swirled around as it approached and its head hung to the side like a half-filled balloon. Just before it reached them one arm grasped something and pulled it from the sand and held it out to Guy.

Guy gingerly took the runner of beans from the tentacle in front of him and said, "Thank you, Mr. Hel."

The head rolled a little to one side and then the creature moved off in the direction from which Guy had just come. He watched it disappear in the distance with a look of joyful astonishment etched on his features.

"Shall we?" Bugs suggested and they walked forwards as the Ling Lings grouped around them. Guy moved as one in a dream and every once in a while his head turned in the direction the octopus had taken.