But For A Penis…. Welby Thomas Cox, Jr.

slashing his way with the help of the pole. Whoop! Whoop! Richard answered with his grass harp. There was no other sound. The sea was at her lowest ebb and wouldn’t come in before noon. The two boys were moving as fast as possible toward the tidal pools where the shrimp and octopus hid.

      Richard noticed among the crop in front of him there lay a heap of lava stone. He climbed to the top in order to see the green sweep of the fields, and far behind him now, lost in the jumble of trees and thickets, the shipwrecked house with its odd sky-colored roof and the “Sea Captains” little shanty; and farther still, Seamen’s chimney and the high red mountains going straight up toward the sky. Richard spun around at the summit of the stone pyramid he had mounted and he could see the whole countryside from his perch: smoke funneled from the chimney where crops were being refined, the river meandering through the trees, the hills, and at last, the dark, glittering sea which had receded from the other side of the reefs.

      This was what Richard loved. There was so much freedom and air to breath unlike that which captured all the foulness of a closed castle. He believed he could stay at the top of the heap for hours, even days, doing nothing but looking, feeling, breathing and he and Eleanor held each other like chimps, cuddling for the warmth from a sibling.

      Whoop! Whoop! Wilmore was calling from the other end of the field. He, too, was standing at the pinnacle of a pyramid of black stones. A castaway on an islet in the middle of the sea. Wilmore was so far away Richard could barely see him, but Eleanor had eyes like an eagle and she saw him down to his bare black feet with the white soles. But Richard could only see his long, insect like silhouette at the top of the pile. Richard cupped his hands and called in response: Whoop! Whoop! They both climbed down the stone and once more began the journey to the sea.

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      The next morning, in the dream, the sea was black and unfathomable due to the lava dust, strange as it may seem if one went North or South, the sea became clear again. From the shelter of the reefs, Wilmore fished for octopus in the lagoon. Richard watched him as, pole in hand, he waded farther in the water on his long, stiltlike legs. He was not afraid of the sea urchins or scorpion fish. He shuffled through the dark pools of sea water, his shadow always behind him. As Wilmore waded farther away from the bank he disturbed the flights of laffes, cormorants and corbijous. Richard watched him while standing with bare feet in the cold water. Richard had asked to go with him, but Wilmore always said no, “Your grace is too fragile,” he would say. “You are too small…and your soul is in my care!” Wilmore often stated that Richard’s father, the Duke had entrusted Ricard and Eleanor’s well-being and education to him. Richard knew this wasn’t true since his father was deceased. But Richard liked the way he said it... with such sincerity and good will. “Your soul is in my hand!” And, Richard knew he and Eleanor were the only people Wilmore permitted to go with him to the riverbank. Richard’s own cousin, Loche wasn’t even permitted to go along, even though he was older than Richard, and Eleanor wasn’t either, in the beginning… because she was a girl!

      But Wilmore relented when Eleanor nearly outran him through the crops. Wilmore laughingly stated, ‘the woman is half Cheetah’. And Richard remembered her saying in return…”do not forget who does the hunting, it isn’t the male lion who lies licking his nuts, but the females in the pride.”

      Richard liked Wilmore a lot; he was a friend. His cousin Loche had said he could not be a friend with a black man but Richard cared less about the color of his skin. He thought his cousin had made the comment because he was jealous, he wished he could walk through the fields with him on the way to the sea and share his wisdom, gained from doing and being a part of nature.

      When the tide was very low, as it was early in the morning, the black rocks became visible. There were great dark pools, too, and others so clear you could almost believe that light came from them…it was an oxymoron. At the bottom the sea urchins were violet spheres, anemones opened their blood-red corollas, and jelly-fish slowly waved their long, hairy arms at Wilmore, as to say…’beware’. Richard stared into the depths of the pools while in the distance Wilmore prodded near the rocks for octopus with the point of his stick.

      Here, the sound of the sea was like beautiful music. Waves blown up by the wind, broke on the coral reefs far away; Richard could feel the vibration in the rocks and the current which flows up to the sky. It was as if there were a wall on the horizon which the sea was trying to break down. Sometimes a burst of spray rose up, only to fall back onto the reefs in the next instant. The tide had started to come in and this was the moment when Wilmore could spear the octopuses, for they felt the renewal of the water from the open sea in their tentacles and came out of their hiding places. The pools were flooded one-by-one and the Jelly-fish waved their arms in the current, clouds of small fish rose to the surface in the swells, and Richard saw a coffer fish swim past, looking hurried and scared. Richard had been coming here for a long time, since he was adopted (informally) by the Duke. He knew every pool, every rock, every nook; he crawled, and where the eels and octopuses hid. He would stand very still and silent, so the fish would forget he was there. How calm and beautiful the sea was at that moment. When the sun was high above the water became light, pale blue, the color of the sky. The waves thundered onto the reefs with all their might. Dazzled by the light, Richard squinted to try to see Wilmore. The sea had come through the inlet and was driving slow waves across the rocks.

      When Richard got to the shore, to the estuary of the two rivers, he saw Wilmore sitting high up onto the beach, in the shade of a tree. Ten or more octopuses hung like scalps at the end of his long pole. Wilmore waited there for Richard without moving, he was tired and glad for the moment to lurk between contentment and sleep. The penetrating sun burned Richard’s skin and hair. He quickly stripped off his clothes and dived naked into the water, at the point where two rivers met the sea which Richard had been told by Wilmore that two rivers meeting is one thing but when those bodies of water display distinguishing colors from one without mixing, the color swatch can be amazing, like a painter’s palette…rich in the mixture.

      Richard felt relief from the heat as he swam against the current of the soft water until he could feel the sharp little pebbles on his stomach and knees. When he was totally immersed in the river he grabbed hold of a large stone and let the fresh water run over him to wash away the sting of the sun and the salty sea. That was all there was…only what he felt and saw; the very blue sky, the noise of the sea breaking on the reefs, the cold water running over his skin, and the undertow playing with his balls, causing his member to salute.

      He got out of the water shivering despite the heat, going from blistering to shivering. He dressed without drying. The sand gritted in his shirt and trousers and it scratched his feet in the bottom of his shoes. His long curly hair was still sticky with salt and it frizzed like the Wild Man in him. Wilmore had been watching Richard without moving, his smooth dark face indecipherable. Seated in the shade of the tree he remained immobile, both hands resting on the pole from which the octopuses hung like tatters.

      Wilmore never swam in the sea, Richard had wondered if Wilmore could even swim? Wilmore was the product of a loving grandfather who taught him to bathe as the last act of the day and to do so far from his home where he was taught to wash with certain plants in the gorge. His grandfather had taught him to do so that he would grow strong and the plants juices would help him have a man’s penis… thick and long. Richard thought this was interesting but an old wives tale since it had not helped him.

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      Richard liked and admired Wilmore because Wilmore took the time to explain nature and the manner in which it reacts to the needs of the body like the functioning of the eye with all its tiny veins sending orders to the gut for nutrient channeling…like a message to send zinc to the prostate. He knew so many things about trees, water and the sea and the role man played in this laboratory from which he sprung. Wilmore strongly believed man came from the sea over millions of years as a single cell washing into a warm pool and over a million years losing his long tail but gaining a hunters instinct for food beyond vegetation… becoming an expert at killing to survive. Wilmore learned everything he knew from his grandfather, and also from his grandmother, and old black woman who was native to Cases Noyales. Wilmore knew the names of all the fish and insects and all edible plants in the forest, all the wild