Are what you eat
The story behind the story …
I was feeling burned out on my flagship series, The Secret of Secrets—a highly layered metafictional sci-fi kina dealie, and I was also playing a lot of retro video games, like the 8-bit inspired ones. The result of that union birthed Gaucho, a simple surrealist fantasy story about a dude named William who wakes up with much of his memory gone and a talking cat named Pem who is his companion. Together, they explore a gentle (but not altogether safe) fantasy world. William is trying to remember, but Pem is content to simply eat …
Today’s episode, 1-4: “Are what you eat”
“Aw, Pem, I don’t know how I’m going to carry all these pages without dropping them.”
Pem looks at me, blinks, then runs over to a tree that has some loose bark. “Help me peel this off.”
“What good will that do?”
“You can put the pages between two pieces of bark, then use some of that vine-y stuff there to bind it up.”
“I won’t be able to read it.”
Pem’s eyes slim down. “You can’t read it anyhow, William. Remember?”
“Oh yeah.”
“And this way, the pages will be together and sort of protected. Right?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“So help.”
I do. We peel off the bark and break it up into two pieces that the pages go between. It’s jagged and the lines aren’t good, so some edges of paper are sticking out in places, but it’s better.
Pem opens her mouth and bats at some of the dangling vine.
I pet her, and she stops.
“Hey, the vine’s a little sticky,” I say.
Pem stares at me, tail wiggling just a bit at the end.
I tear off a piece of it, then bind the bark book with it.
“Well done,” Pem says. “Now let’s get some food. I’m hungry.”
I look back down the path we came. I can’t see the hill anymore, but the thought of going back up it to the Station is making me tired.
“I don’t feel like going back yet, Pem.”
“No, silly. Not at the Station. Out here.”
I look around the woods and feel a rush of fear. “I don’t know where we are Pem.”
Pem blinks. “We’re in the Forest, William.”
“Yeah, but I’m not sure how to find food out here.”
Pem walks over to my leg, rubs against it, then stands up on back feet and nibs at my left hand.
I look down at it, and my ringer finger starts to itch. It points.
“That way,” Pem says.
“And we really do this? We follow around my finger?”
Pem starts off in that direction. “Every day.”
I follow her, and we come to a lake.
She starts chasing around bugs and little fish.
I see there’s a bunch of grapes growing along the side of lake, so I go there.
I eat one. The skin is sweet but the inside is bitter and seedy.
“Careful with those,” Pem says.
“Why?”
“Last time you ate too many and went to sleep.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you shouldn’t eat so many. Look for something else to eat.”
I let go of the grapes and find some mushrooms growing near a tree. “How about these?”
Pem catches a cricket and eats it.
I try a bit of the mushroom. A leafy branch swings down from the tree and waves in my face. I can see all its venation, and it’s beautiful.
My finger itches, and pulls me forward, up the tree.
Wanna start from the beginning?
Gaucho 1-4 (1st section post on Substack)
