After storytelling we went and sat down for dinner, We get fed twice. The servers came out, no she wasn't in crowd but thank God Glean came back. "What we having?" he got his napkin ready.
"Nigga where did you get a napkin?" questioned Rank. "Actually it's a piece of cloth from the nightstands." he smooths it down. "They finna beat you." said Dexter.
I uncover my food. We are having fish with mustard, cornbread, and dirty rice. I can't help but smile. But Glean has tomatoes, pig snout, and chitlins.
"What the fuck they give you?" seethes Dexter. "You go to somebody birthday party."
"I am a good boy!" he yells. "Just because I ate multiple times today. Doesn't mean anything, now shut up and eat pussy." he puts a whole snout in his mouth. "It's honey glazed."
"What the fuck." Dexter curls his lip. "Hey, we got dirty rice and cornbread."
"So I should be thankful--" the bell rings. "NO!" Rank screams. "Did somebody say, Thankful!" Ms. Simpson comes dancing. "Dexter!"
"Lord!" Dexter cries. "Dexter! What are you thankful for?"
What the fuck?
"Dexter, what are you thankful for?" She rounds the table. "Ms. Simpson, I'm thankful for bread!" yells a little girl. "Shut up Annie." scorns Ms. Simpson. "Dexter…" she looks at him with her big blues. Dexter's breathing is shallow, "God gave me a second chance."
"How did you earn it?" She is so ugly. She's so close, I bet Dexter can smell her. "I… came… here. I met all these people… because I got saved."
She nods, "That's right. I think your ready for your bath."
His bath? "Tomorrow."
She walks away and Africans start dancing in celebration.
After dinner, we head to bed. I lay in my hammock which breaks with my weight. "Oh shit." says Glean. "Bruh, you want mine?"
"what the hell?" I struggle to get up. "Yeah they gon fix it while we in the play area. Mine reinforced."
I've been here too damn long. "Where you finna sleep?"
"On the floor…"
Nah
I looked at my hammock and saw where the strings came loose near the head. I smack my pillow on the floor and get my blanket. I'm in jail. They say it's a plantation but I really believe I'm in jail.
.
.
.
I forgot the damn day. When we go into the play area, I sit down to watch Abner. "Magna!" Gleans yells. "Chill…"
"What… Rank!"
"Let him go!"
[Abner and friends theme song] He's yellow! A sinner before the lord! But he's got a heart a gold and knows what for! He's a yellow cow and the holiest thing of all! It's Abner, the Golden Cow and his friends. Lora the Sister, and she's reads the bible.
[Lora] Always know your verses!
And Prophet Asher with his Tablet
[Asher] I carry the laws!
And we can't forget the biggest one of all,
[Tekoah] Chickens are much smarter than they look!
It's Abner and Friends!
They didn't talk about all the friends. Lora wears a gown and no slippers. She's wearing a white hijab and always holding a book to her chest. Asher might be homeless as he wears a tunic, Tekoah is a chicken. The funnest thing, They put a real chicken in the firwst second minutes before showing the guy in a costume. Then a girl with freckles is holding abner's hoof and I don't know who that is.
The shows opens after the theme song of a farm drawn with crayon. The girl that was in the opening walks into the stable and starts talking to a pig, which is a fucking muppet. "Lucia! Lucia!" the pig runs up to her. "There's something in the barn!"
"What's wrong, junior?" asks Lucia. "Come see, come see!" he rushes her to the back of the barn. "I haven't been able to sleep! It's growling and making all kinds of noise. I even told Janna, the donkey, but he's always depressed!"
"I'll take a look for you Junior." Lucia looks in the hay bales, she looks in the water bowl and then moves a stack of hay. "WAOH!" says a voice. Lucia hops back, "A vampire!"
"Hey!" the vampire reveals himself. It's a whole nigga. "Did you wake me up?" asks the vampire. "Get away from it Lucia! Your gonna get bit!"
"Now that's racist." the vampire puts his hands on his sides. "I'm a vampire, but just because I'm a vamp doesn't mean I'm going to hurt you."
"What's racist?" asks Lucia. "Well, Racism is painful. I'm a vampire and I'm not like the rest. Racism follows really hurtful stereotypes. Like, we all drink blood."
"Well don't yo, Mr. Vampire!" shouts Junior. Is this show telling me that a pig and cow are related? "I don't drink blood," says the vampire. "In fact, I eat my own."
"Really?" Lucia gasps. "What happens when you do that?"
"I feel stronger!" he flexes. I made the wrong decision today. "But it makes me sick and I haven't eaten in a while."
"That's sad…" says Lucia. "How long has it been since you've eaten?"
"Well, it's been a while. You know, since we got kidnapped." I raise a brow. "Hush… the cameras are on."
"Ain't you a child?"
"I'm ten this year…" says Lucia.
What?
"Where's Joel?" ask the vampire.
"Let's get this over with. It's the last episodes." she whispers. The vampire looks at the camera. The pig's voice deepens. "Don't you do it, Eho!"
"Shut up!" the vampire, Eho kicks the puppet. "Sinner!" bellows the pig. "How dare you!"
"Run!" Eho carries Lucia away. The puppet starts to tear, I see an eye move, A pig's hoof emerges from the tear. The pig stands up while the doll flattens. THey walk on wooden legs and have a body of a bear. He chases after the two and behind him is a being with a doll's head, chicken body, and lions tail.
Behind that one is a Pitbull's head attached to human's torso and monkey legs. Behind that one is a headless body with wings hovering over the ground. "They're escaping."
The camera tilts over and a voodoo doll looks into the camera, it has human teeth and eyes. "Get Gabriel…" it mouths.
"Such a good episode." compliments the watcher next to me. These niggas stank. I mean, it smell like pee over here.
I've had enough TV for once day. THe screen is black but I hear something. BOW…
No…
Someone will betray me…
Betray you…
Betray us…
BOW!
Judas…
BOW!
Someone will betray you…
At this table…
Someone will betray you…
At this table…
Destin…
.
.
.
My body feels sluggish. My chest is tight. I keep moving my shoulder. We sit down for breakfast. The servers come out. Can't believe these zombies used to be vamps. I get my plate, I uncover it. Bacon, jelly, and chicken feet.
Who the fuck is cooking?
I get up (I just want to know). But the servers come out. I get my plate, uncover my food. I have cereal without milk and lemon parfait. Glean starts laughing hysterically. I got a pile of cereal and lemon cream. I pick the mug of parfait. I take a spoon and move the parfait so I can see everything in it. We have a graham cracker base at the bottom, a layer of lemon cream, under gram crackers with whipcream on top. "Put the cereal on the parfait." tells Rank. Even the watchers eat the parfait.
Ms. Simpson approaches the table. "Everybody eatin? She says with a big smile. "Yes, Ms. Simpson."
"What else y'all got?" I inquire.
"We do have left over chitterlings."
"Can I have that?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I said so." she eyes me. "Now," she claps her hands together. "Today we are getting on the bus. OOOOOOOOO!"
What
The fuck
"Come on! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she pumps her fist in the air. "1… 2… 3… OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The table yells, OOOOOOOOO. "We finna pick some goddamn apples!"
Nooooooooo.
.
.
.
Dexter had his christening. So I'm jealous.
In the evening we had busses parked in front of the house. "GET READY!" Ms. Simpson cheers. Somebody slap her. "On the count of 3! 1… 2… 3… OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Apple picking!"
My head hurts.
I sit next to an unknown watcher, Glean's next to me and Rank is behind him sitting towards the window. "We're going into Locucts?" I ask. "We already in Locucts so we headed towards the ouskirts. And ain't no road. Heaven is broke so the you might see the stairway." says Glean.
"Stairway?"
"Oh, fuck Aleigha…" rank says to the window.
"Do you like Abner?" asks the watcher. "Yeah…"
"I love Abner. HE told me what to eat." they bite my sleeve. I smack them.
"Put on your seat belts, we got the ones with the belts. So everybody get safe!" I see Glean strap in. I feel for my belt and the watcher snatches it. "Ok…"
.
.
.
I didn't pay attention to signs. When the road ran out, it was bumpy. We drove on grass which I guess had a road. "This is where the stairway used to be!" yells Ms. Simpson. "sometimes heaven yells in this area. That's why it has geysers!"
I look at Glean's window. It's just ruined patches of grass, some higher than the rest. I see a geyser come up, it's blood red. It's always dark here. We pass a stairway, with three steps. "Ms. Simpson, what if heaven yells today?"
"We'll die."
"Gabriel's from heaven…" says the watcher next to me. "ok…"
"He's on Abner…"
"How many episodes are there of Abner?"
"eighty…" they smile. The bus tilts hard. "Don't worry, we just hit a rock!" yells Ms. Simpson. "We're almost there."
"What if heaven screams?" I ask.
"We will all die!" stop answering like it's not a worry. The bus rocks back and forth. Lord please don't let my last life be because of a bus crash.
Finally making it to the forest. "This is Sharuman Woods! So, when we get off the bus I'm going back in the bus's storage to give everyone a basket!"
Stop screaming.
Once we get off the bus. Ms. Simpson come to the side and pulls up the black strap to show the baskets. She tells us to grab two baskets and I'm thinking to myself.
I'm about to pick apples.
We go into the woods where two echoes are ushering us into the woods. "What do the trees look like?"
"You read the bible?" asks Rank.
"No?"
"Forget it." he says.
"Just a slimmer version." says Glean. "But like it's fucked up tho. But if we collect a lot of apples. And make good pies. We might get a fucking piece of pie."
That sounds dark. "If the tree doesn't burn you first." adds Rank. What is the Ghytto?
We get to a army of trees with a thin lake running through it. You can jump over it and the water is bloody. Lord.
I remember being a stiupid kid and I asked mama I said, can drink from the lake? And she said, no baby that's mermaid blood. And for years, I asked myself what the hell is in the water? How many mermaids are dead and how, I even asked why.
"Fill your baskets with apples. You need two full baskets and then you'll go to the bus and get two more baskets and fill those up. If you get tired, sleep on the fucking dirt."
Nigga…
We start plucking apples, I'm a good height. July's bout… I don't know. 6'8? So, I'm 6'7. The branches are pretty low like leaves on a willow tree. I pluck off five and throw them in my basket. "I know Dexter isn't here… which is fuckin' terrifying. I just want you to know…"
"He's ok…"
"No, he's fucking dead."
"Glean!"
"I'm sorry. But also, you need to check for evil. You get the shiney red apples and not the shriveled black ones. We call them Snow White." he says.
"Don't pluck Snow White?"
"Get it?"
I look in my basket and grab one of the black apples. It's soft and some of the skin on the apple is peeling. I tear off a piece of skin and I look at the meat of the apple. It's actually meat. I give it a squeeze and black juice leaks out of it. I can't help but wonder what the rest looks like. I peel off the skin completely. It's a heart shape black rotten apple. I throw it on the ground. I wipe the juice on my pants leg. "Now the damn fairies are coming." Glean huffs while picking.
"Fairies?"
"The Miaibu." he gives me the side eye. "They like to poke at wounds."
"Why you mad?"
Glean turns to me, "One, we was picking apples right? And it was hot so I took my shirt off and one of the watcher threw a black apple at me and the juice was all on me so I called the nigga a bitch and then a fucking fairy comes out the fucking tree and licks my nipple!"
"What's so bad about that?"
"Then it stabbed me!"
Rank is rolling in the fallen red leaves. "Nigga I ain't ever seen you cry!"
"A FUCKING FAIRY STABBED ME IN MY NIPPLE AND YOU PISSING JOY!"
He can't breathe and I have to brace myself against the tree. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
"I'm not sorry…" Rank wheezes.
After busting a lung, I go back to picking the big red apples. I have about a good 19 apples in the basket. I look over at Rank and Glean and Rank throws his apples in Glean's basket. Ranks baskets are stacked away from Ms. Simpson's view. "Imma go get the other baskets." says Rank. "Take the full ones."
He picks those up and heads to the bus. As he walks by a vamp, she burst into flames. I snap my view to incident. She's screaming, "I didn't do anything!"
I run to her and drag her to the small lake. I push her in the blood and splash it on her face. She's still screaming, the fire dies and I wash her hair in the blood. "Your ok! Your ok!"
"I'm dying!" she's kicking and screaming. "Magna, leave her alone!" Rank pulls me away from her. "I'm dying! I'm dying!" the vamp thrashes in the lake. "Goddamn it, who set the trees off?" warns Ms. Simpson. "You know the trees will bust into flames."
"But why the fuck are we getting apples from shit that can kill us!"
"That's not my problem. Read the bible." she turns towards the bus. "What the fuck does the tree do?" I hiss.
"The tree of good and evil isn't talk about much. Much like how God told Adam and Eve do not eat from these trees. Then eve did and god punished them for it."
"But what do these tree do?"
"We don't know!" Gleans frets. "Jesus, I'm trying to stay alive everyday."
This is ugly.
I'm not happy.