This as I walked on Sunday morning, in Foxboro, MA. USA. Past rocks and springs, and green grass, past houses of wood on foundations of stone, ready for the frozen ground to come, but shining in the light summer air that day. I had a short conversation that morning.
“hello” – said the american woman, as I came by her house.
“Hi”, – I said, the Aussie wondering..
“How are you ?”, the woman answered, digging out a tree in her garden
“I’m well” I said, the stranger walking by, “looks like a fair bit of work for you”…
“Yes”, “The kids are away …”
“OK well It’s good that it is not raining then” as I continued on past..
Sunday can be like that, far from home, a whole day can be spent with just occasional short conversations.. which take on a significance due to the lack of other conversational noise of the day to day. As I continued walking I thought I might write something of Corpus Christi, what is it all about etc..
Corpus Christi Carol, I really like the tune, the way Jeff Beck plays it, the way Hayley Westenra sings it, the way Benjamin Britten wrote the music, the way somebody wrote the ancient lyrics some 500 years ago. I feel there is scope to extend the lyrics a few more stanzas…I guess these stanzas look at the continuation of presence by faith and power in the Eucharist, something relevant to the feast of Corpus Christi.
It was getting late in the afternoon at the caravan park. Tents flung all over the place, with spaces of grass and sand between them. The beach not far away, flocks of seagulls tearing bits of food apart and squabbling as usual. For most of the people there too, it was getting time to eat.
Alice was sitting on a rock, overlooking the ocean, and the waves. Sunburnt a bit, she was munching on an apple, a nice red one and considering her palm, a mystery, but she had been told about love lines, marriage lines, heart lines. It was mystery to her. It was cooling down and so she got up and walked back to the tent on the beach, and met up with Ferodo, that infuriating guy boyfriend, whatever.
Alice and Ferodo took off up the track together. Alice offered Ferodo a bite of her apple, and he took one, but was still thinking of fish and chips after all. He thought of holding hands perhaps. Who would go first, the woman or the man in the equation ? They often thought about crossing the line, that marks the balance point in a relationship. When tension increased, the strength and straightness of the line as well. It appeared impassable sometimes, but other times it relaxed into a kind of curvature not starting or ending, but eminently crossable. Still, her hand was all sticky with apple. Perhaps he would just kiss her instead.
“Ferodo !. Quick, look, what IS that ? ”
“Can’t see a thing mate !”,… “where ?” he asked..
“Just there, you idiot !” “Look, It’s a snake!” she said.
“Na, theres no snakes around here !, it’s the beach, don’t worry” he said.
“OK OK I see it !” he added.
There on the path in the darkening, was a curved black line in the sand, the line was fixed in the sand but the front extended and the back contracted so that the line seemed to move forward in perfect formation. It was a Taipan by the way, one of Australia’s most deadly snakes, a bit off track, and who knows where it had come from or why, but too dark to make it out clearly….
Alice screamed, “It is headed for that tent over there”. “quick kill it ! Or something !”
Ferodo, didn’t know too much about snakes. He figured it was dangerous, and that he should take care, but as the light was fading was pretty sure he didn’t want to jump on it.
“Keep your eye on it, and don’t get too close !. I’ll be back ” he said.
He quickly ran back to his own tent and looked around for a weapon. There on the bed, where he had left it, was a hammer, perhaps that would do. He snatched up the hammer and ran back to where Alice was following the snake up the path slowly but surely without deviation advancing on the lighted tent further on.
Ok, so with hammer in hand Ferodo looked at the snake saw that even though the snake was curved and snaking it’s way up the path, and even though he was kind of shaking all over, vibrating with adrenalin, and not knowing really if this was ok, he got the hammer in his hand. His right hand. Should he use his left ? Wasn’t real sure, his mind started to optimise the situation, but then he realized he just had to go for broke, forget the optimization. If he had had a chance to pre-meditate killing the Taipan he certainly would not have chosen a hammer.
His right hand swung out, with the hammer at the smallish head moving in a dead straight line at constant velocity forward, slightly raised off the ground, and with the little minute tongue flicking the air occasionally.
Whack ! Smash, and then a violent eruption in the sand, of fury of the headless snake, whose head had clean come off all mashed on the end of the hammer. The snake was thrashing around, and it was not clear it was dead, even though it’s head seemed to have come off. Ferodo relived the last 200ms of it’s life to assure himself, that that was all he had to do. He was shaking all over, possibly more than the snake itself. He felt sick, like , way too much excitement that was unplanned and not part of expectations for this holiday.
Alice was standing there… ” what on earth !” she said, you could have got bitten ” what if you had missed the thing, you can hardly see it even now in this light”
Ferodo got his breath back, and said ” ok, ok but well, it’s dead now and at least it’s not going to get into the other people’s tent, whoever they are. ”
Alice and Ferodo looked at each other with a kind of new understanding. The line had shifted in the sand between them. Alice stepped forward to meet Ferodo, and stood with her foot clear on the still thrashing body of the snake. She was standing there like it didn’t count anymore, with a half eaten apple, and that there in front of her was another mystery to fathom.
After a while, the stars were coming out, as they turned, with apple and hammer in hand and walked off to get fish and chips.
But darling said Ferodo, I can’t get home before the end of the world. I am on a beach stuck out here and I cannot get a flight back. I can’t even get out of the lobby door here.
Never mind about the end of the world, it can’t happen said Helen. Did you know that elephants are evolving to have no tusks ? she asked.
No, but you don’t understand, this wasn’t mean to be a beach ! OK seahorse hotel, but last time I was here, there wasn’t any beach, and no waves. I have sand filling up the corridor to the main hotel doors , and I can’t get out..its all wet. There WAS an earthquake, didn’t you see that.. it was on the news.
“No here it has been raining, and I haven’t seen any news about that” she said. You are not meant to be coming home for another week.
There is no other week he said, this is it, last day, last hour. Last hour got it. and I can’t even get out of the lobby to the street.
There had been something serious happen to the whole hotel. The walls had dissappeared and he could straight through the sides and the whole lobby corridor had tilted down toward the street. He’d been in the bar and must’ve fallen asleep over a few beers. Harpoon it has to be said is a nice beer Ferodo. The street had disappeared and he could see blue bright strong sunshine coming in at the sides. His favourite hotel, the Seahorse hotel was basically evaporating in his mind was a total surrealisation of the world and his world view felt zoomy and jetlagged. At midnight the night before the news had been all about the rapture, some kind of Thessalonik event, and life had suddenly got real complex and quiet. The phone’s still worked, he was on one.. but his wife down in the southern hemisphere seemed to have absolutely no clue.
“Whats up ?”, “What are you thinking ?” she asked again..
There was a noise, it was related to the wind, and wide waves were coming in, and laying sand all over the place. He had managed to scramble up to a dry place to make the call.. he felt sure that with no walls, and when the sun went down in the west, it would get cold and windy, and what about the ocean, and what about the walls ?
He guessed his wife had a right to be concerned that elephants were evolving without tusks, and natural selection had meant elephants with tusks got killed off for their tusks. Any luck they would just develop tusks later in life and they would be shorter, so no one would kill them.
He didn’t know and couldn’t answer. He said “bye darling – God bless” and put the phone down.
Things settled a bit, but he had noticed that it had started to smell, a lot like Kerala in India, like elephants, and the walls and roof of the hotel lobby had turned into an elephant. The whole fabric of the hotel became like elephants legs with no tusks. The waves rushing up from time to time between them, and he felt at peace, almost as if nature and man and his abode were evolving in a wave of change, so rapid and strong and secure it felt like rapture, down there at the Seahorse Hotel.
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