"The hideous gigantic thing, on which countless parasites had made themselves at home,
threw itself over the defenceless and defiled her. The valleys of her fertility, the pastures of her most tender as well as ripened benefices.
With iron strength and an irrepressible hunger for more, the monster grew and the helpless virgin had no chance, nothing to oppose this enormous overpowering of her body and treasure!
It ate at her and feasted and she, weeping, bleeding, sickened with wounds, could do absolutely nothing about it! Not only did it smoke from the monster's chimney, but her pores also sent up nasty smoke, poisonous and corrosive."
Kruzmaka has hardly finished his voluptious speaking performance when his young listener shouts:
"What a ghastly spectacle! Ugh!"
"Isn't it?", Kruzmaka replies. Instantly changing from the performing actor into the inter-viewer. "Does this remind you of anything in particular?"
Irritated by the question, yet already forgetting his rage, the young man asks: "What do you mean? In films perhaps, in books?"
"Why not? More like in documentaries about the beautiful earth, let's say."
"How so?"
"Think! What did you like to watch with your mum as a child?"
The younger one changes his position on the stone he is sitting on. They have met on the shore and stopped for a rest after their walk.
"I was only allowed to watch little. Mostly animal or nature films. What are you getting at?"
"And, did your mother nod and mumble in affirmation when it came to the inevitable? The epilogue or the interlude in all nature documentaries? This mostly real thing about reality TV?" Kruzmaka sounds somewhat ironic.
"Which are?" In order not to show that he doesn't like Kruzmaka at the moment because he acts as the know-it-all, he answers quite defensively.
"Do I have to spell it out for you or do you remember it on your own?"
No undertone of irony here.
"I don't know what you mean." The young man feels uneasy.
"Yes, you do! Remember the words of the presenter. Whenever the tones of violins are also simultaneously played, the classical frequencies of human compassion with all living things. What did the moderator say?" Kruzmaka imitates a violin player, closing his eyes, as if in pain.
The younger one thinks. Then he knows: "I am reminded of the destructibility of nature. They say that if we go on like this, we'll doom animals and plants to extinction."
He watches two seagulls fighting for a fish.
"Yes, doesn't it, doesn't it? And, how did you feel when the speaker ruined the beautiful images in a heavily anticipatory way? What impulse arose in you when you heard that man is an 'exploiter and killer', when you saw gigantic trees being cut down and majestic creatures of the sea being deprived of their habitats?"
The young man looks sad. "I feel guilt. I want us to stop."
One of the birds finally snatches the fish from the other one and escapes into the wind while gulping its catch down its throat.
"Oh yes, my young friend. Oh yes. And, when you are shown vast rubbish dumps and impoverished lands insult your eyes, what do you feel?"
"I don't know! Stop it!"
"Answer me! What do you see in man?"
For some reason, the young man likes to be talked to in this demanding, yet earnest way.
"All right! I hate us for this!"
"'Us'? Who is this us?"
"Well, all of us!"
"You talk about self-hatred? Who exactly do you hate at the moment when you are overwhelmed with pity and sensationalism?"
"Are you trying to get me to tell you that I hate myself for it?"
"No, you tell me! Do you hate yourself because you are a person who takes and destroys?"
"In a way... yes."
"Ahh... bad, too bad! Tell me, my friend, what happens to you when you get caught up in this self-hatred?"
"I want to blame someone!"
"Alright! Now we are onto it! So, do you see the consequences of man blaming himself for being alive?"
Kruzmaka fires a shot of intensity on his young listener and continues: "Do you see the metaphorisation of Mother Earth - you could also call her the Virgin Earth - in these expressions of doing violence? Where man is seen as the brutal monster, causing Gaia pain and sorrow? Where you felt just a minute ago the urgent need to rush to the poor maiden's aid?"
"Ah, that is why you told me the story? Because you think that we humans treat our earth monstrously?"
"Is that what I think? I say that this is deeply rooted in the human being. The feeling that this planet is a living being and that this species is harming it. There is, of course, another way of looking at it. No virginity lasts forever, and losing it is law. Don't make Gaia a victim, is what I am saying!"
The young man becomes more confident nevertheless, already losing the last sentences of Kruzmakas response. "Right. But I think it's proper to be aware of the fact that we hurt our own habitat."
That is the ground he knows and grew up with. He was taught since childhood, that man is a destroyer.
"Proper? Sure? Now, how can you not hurt your habitat? What if I told you that the moment you yourself became carbon neutral, you'd be dead flesh?"
"Huh? How so? I don't have to die in order to protect the environment, do I?"
"Yes, you do! You must be a dead creature in order to become carbon neutral. You must stop eating, drinking, sexing, shedding and breathing. You have to stop moving. Otherwise you are in no way 'neutral'. There is no neutrality! There is life and death. Destruction and creation!"
"But it's not meant that way! Carbon neutrality is just an expression of consuming and destroying less. I fully agree on it.", the young man becomes even more self assuring. "Are you saying that we shall go on just so?"
"I am not suggesting anything about what "We" shall do. I am having a nice chat with you. Now, what about the other view? Is it not also said that nature itself destroys without mercy? Think of hurricanes or earthquakes, volcanic eruptions!" Kruzmaka growls and - oddly enough - does not sound ridiculous.
"Yes, but those things may also happen due to mans impact on earth." Flashes of pictures of mans dominance flare through the busy mind of the youngster.
"Nice try in wanting to fool yourself! Still caught in the virginity raping scene?",
Kruzmaka laughes out loud. "Well then, when I am in town next year. Will you have reduced yourself to the absolute minimum of a lifestyle? Will you be able to not talk to anyone about your new form of living your life? Will you be able to keep quiet about it?"
"Why would and should I be quiet about it?", the young man insists to know.
But Kruzmaka puts on a mysterious face.
"Keep trying not to utter anything about your fine environmentality. Take it as a self-experiment. Go as far as you can bear with it. But don't be a bloody fool and a busybody about it!"
The moment the young man realizes that Kruzmaka is about to leave, he becomes aware of the seriousness of the matter.
"Damn!", he thinks to himself. What has started as an entertaining chat, ended somewhat in a ..., yes, in what? He was being tricked! Kruzmaka lured him into making a promise without him actually wanting to make one! How did this happen?
Mischievously, Kruzmaka watches his friend's discomfort. He sees his mental struggle. "Good!" he smiles inwardly and outwardly. "He deserves a lesson and to be tried."
"Now don't go!" the other one tries to keep hold of Kruzmaka. "Tell me more about the second notion!"
"Nah. Don't have time. You know, I am a busy chap. There are things awaiting my effort and time. We will see each other next year, about the same time, my friend", he smiles. And adds: "We'll see if you will develop the art of sticky hands more talented."
"But, you can't leave me like that!"
The young man is gripped by panic. He knows Kruzmaka is not going to let him off the hook. He is so different from all other older males he ever got to make acquaintance with that he forgot that being with Kruzmaka most likely was followed by some form of strange consequences.
"Oh, I can and I will!" Sincerely, Kruzmaka steps towards the young man and embraces him. For a moment he holds him tightly, then lets him go. With one last loving look into the other's eyes, Kruzmaka turns and walks away.
"It'll be interesting, coming back in a year", he thinks to himself and put his hands in his pockets.
Ip Man and Bruce Lee practising "双黐手", meaning "double sticky hands".
By Unknown author - 搜房网电影人生, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27804442
This is positively stunning! The words you choose to bring us into this story are almost as startling as the calm way Kruzmaka presents them. By showing the young man how all of these things dwell inside him, he has possibly given him even more than a year of things to think over! Thank you for sharing your story with us, and for your engagement with other members of the community.
Thank you:)
Yes, the young man, whose inexperience and worldview are mainly shaped by the media, still has a lot to learn. The short-sighted nature that youth often carry around with them (which is peculiar to them) has become uncomfortably apparent to the young man in conversation. Kruzmaka, who takes him seriously and at the same time does not, is his mentor or master (if you will) and has taken on the task of taking aim at the rash hypocrisy of youthful existence. Without condemning him, however, because he knows the boy has to find out for himself that his view may be naïve.
This is a splendid piece of writing and this
is something I wish more people would think about before bandying around their 'net zero' nonsense.
Exactly! Because, nonsense, it is.
Thank you for commenting and complementing the story.
I stopped to think over the different aspects of what was being said here at several points. Kruzmaka has an impressive way of making dramatic statements without being sensational; what an awe-inspiring talent! This was a truly masterful story, which I greatly enjoyed reading! Thank you for sharing it 😁
Thank you so much. I have fallen in love with Kruzmaka. I invented him some months ago and he has been my companion figure ever since. It is also quite a pleasure for me to imagine him as a real person, although of course he is not of this world :) I have already used the character in two other short stories. If you like, you can read them here:
https://hive.blog/fiction/@erh.germany/kruzmaka-ink-well-contest-entry-they-are-here
https://hive.blog/inkwell/@erh.germany/kruzmaka-meeting-an-artist-ink-well-contest-entry
A very interesting story. It is true that this monster personified by a man. Truly man is a predator of the earth and the environment. . Happy evening
Thank you.
Only, I don't think so. ;)
Goodness. This is epic.
Yes. And it's so clever how one character forces the other to see it.
Thank you.
I wish some older ones would have spoken to me in that way when I was young :) - but the past is the past. I learned my lessons.
Would we have listened really???
I would not rule that out. In fact, this often happens with a time lag. I was already a bit older and ran a topic-specific blog, full of conviction that I was doing the right thing, full of drive to actively advance something I believed in.
My blog generated some readers and there was one in particular who confronted me with hard arguments and criticised me on the head for my naivety and know-it-all attitude and the many conjunctives I used. I didn't like him at all and I vehemently disagreed with his arguments. But they stuck and much of what he said to me then or how he challenged me strikes me as very valuable in today's light. A stranger took issue with me on my platform and seemed to have a genuine interest in exposing my errors. Fortunately, the fact that he made me deeply uncomfortable did not make me go so far as to ban him from my comments section. I learned most from my adversaries and less from the confirmers.
I would not rule that out. In fact, this often happens with a time lag. I was already a bit older and ran a topic-specific blog, full of conviction that I was doing the right thing, full of drive to actively advance something I believed in.
My blog generated some readers and there was one in particular who confronted me with hard arguments and criticised me on the head for my naivety and know-it-all attitude and the many conjunctives I used. I didn't like him at all and I vehemently disagreed with his arguments. But they stuck and much of what he said to me then or how he challenged me strikes me as very valuable in today's light. A stranger took issue with me on my platform and seemed to have a genuine interest in exposing my errors. Fortunately, the fact that he made me deeply uncomfortable did not make me go so far as to ban him from my comments section. I learned most from my adversaries and less from the confirmers.
I would not rule that out. In fact, this often happens with a time lag. I was already a bit older and ran a topic-specific blog, full of conviction that I was doing the right thing, full of drive to actively advance something I believed in.
My blog generated some readers and there was one in particular who confronted me with hard arguments and criticised me on the head for my naivety and know-it-all attitude and the many conjunctives I used. I didn't like him at all and I vehemently disagreed with his arguments. But they stuck and much of what he said to me then or how he challenged me strikes me as very valuable in today's light. A stranger took issue with me on my platform and seemed to have a genuine interest in exposing my errors. Fortunately, the fact that he made me deeply uncomfortable did not make me go so far as to ban him from my comments section. I learned most from my adversaries and less from the confirmers.
I would not rule that out. In fact, this often happens with a time lag. I was already a bit older and ran a topic-specific blog, full of conviction to do the right thing, full of drive to actively advance something I believed in.
My blog generated some readers and there was one in particular who confronted me with hard arguments and criticised me on the head for my naivety and know-it-all attitude and the many conjunctives I used. I didn't like him at all and I vehemently disagreed with his arguments. But they stuck and much of what he said to me then or how he challenged me strikes me as very valuable in today's light. A stranger took issue with me on my platform and seemed to have a genuine interest in exposing my errors.