DIVIDED THEY FALL
Mirumdoo might have beautified her otherwise ugly Neanderthal self by the application of clean water and fragrant scents made from flowers, but she was in a far from beautiful mood.
“You never told me,†she rasped at Owongoo, her patient and long-suffering better half, “you never told me that my beautiful dress would melt the moment it started to rain! And look at me now! I'm covered with soggy cobweb, and I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't start stinking like an old hog as soon as it starts drying! You should have said something. You should have warned me.â€
“How could I if I didn't know,†replied Owongoo mildly. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought that if a cobweb can hang around in the open through wind and rain for month after month the least it would do is survive on your gorgeous body for a week or two, until I found something more permanent.â€
“And that kilt I made you, the one that I worked my fingers to the bone weaving with my bare hands, that's melted too,†she admonished him. “If I'd have known I'd never have gone to all that trouble, and you were never properly grateful!â€
“That I was, then!†he almost snapped back, his patience evaporating so suddenly it even made him jump with surprise, “I was ever so grateful! I was getting tired of you staring at my willy as if there was something wrong with it, and when you made my gorgeous kilt I felt whole again!â€
“I never stared at that silly little thing!†she said in a stinging riposte. “I've never so much as glanced at it! Why should a woman with as much going for her as I have be bothered to even glance at its tiny shadow!â€
“That hurts!†he howled. “If you feel that way I'm surprised you even stay with me! Since we crossed the mighty seas on our little raft there's been a whole lot of world for you to see, and I don't see why you can't wander off on your own and leave me in peace if you find me so objectionable!â€
“I will then!†she almost shrieked, and without further argument she strode off in a direction quite at odds with the one they'd been walking together. Owongoo watched her go, a look of surprise on his face, then after a shrug or two of his shoulders and a few moments of waiting to see if she was going to see sense and return, he continued on his way, going in the original direction. He didn't like being on his own. It didn't seem natural somehow, a man having no woman to attend to his more precious needs, like food and drink and wiping his bottom. But the last thing he was going to do was chase after her. A real man would never chase after his woman. It simply wasn't done, not in Neanderthal circles.
Mirumdoo stomped on for what seemed ages, though it was probably little more than what would, in the fullness of time, get to be called half an hour. Not long, it might seem, but a woman walking one way, determined and angry, combined with a man stalking off another way, can swiftly put quite a considerable distance between themselves. And that's precisely what this two did. Within half an hour (in terminology of the future) they were looking upon quite different landscapes.
Owongoo had found himself by the shores of a lake. He knew it was a lake because he could see, in the distance, its far shore, and he had experience of lakes and knew what one was. Mirumdoo, on the other hand, was half way up a craggy mountain with aching limbs and the desire to rest. And both of them, the man by the lake and the woman up a mountain were naked but for the weathered strands of giant cobweb that were slowly peeling off the two of them and falling to the ground as they walked.
The silly bitch, he thought, calling my precious willy little! It wasn't little when she first met me, no it wasn't! She spent a great deal of her time admiring it when she thought I wasn't looking!
Mirumdoo had complementary thoughts. The arrogance of the man! But I wish I hadn't been quite so personal because I didn't really mean it... she thought.
Meanwhile, Owongoo set out to walk round the side of the lake that seemed to lead in a direction that would be called, as time passed, northerly. He reasoned that if he made his way to a point he could make out quite clearly at what ought to be the far end of the lake then he might be able to continue in his original direction and hopefully find the green and pleasant lands he had dreamed of before the two of them had set out.
So off he went, oblivious of the huge and treacherous eyes staring balefully at him from the head of a gigantic water creature drifting menacingly not so far from the shore.
Mirumdoo, on the other hand, wasn't quite sure what to do. She was half way up a wretched mountain on a rough track that seemed to want to go ever higher and higher, and suddenly, out of the blue, she came face to face with a large and frowning and ever-so scary gorilla, and all she really, really wanted was an Owongoo to hide behind.
But she was all on her own, and terrified in an exhausted kind of way.
© Peter Rogerson 23.06.12
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If this confuses you, please check earlier positings in the series, starting withThe Tree Moved.
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