Beckham's Tale, Part II!

This morning I was happily surprised when I checked my e-mail! Desiree and David had sent me Beckham's Tale, Part II, from the Trail's End Guest House! It is great! Enjoy!

Nancy,
Sorry it has taken so long to pass on the next part of Beckham's tale. Been a long two weeks. He is growing as Hogs are prone to do. He is a great part of the B&B and the guests are spending lots of vacation cash at HEB buying him treats. You and Super T. come see us when you can.
D&D

Beckham’s Tale, Part II

Beckham had paused after telling the distant past part of his story. He was not tired, just needing a long deep drink of cool well water and some food. To say Beckham needed food is never a fully correct statement. He needs to eat twice per day. He wants to eat if he spies anyone coming within a quarter mile of his pen. He requested a few (meaning as large a bag as one could carry, if possible) sliced tomatoes and none of those fresh ones, please.

“Some of those limp slices that came off guests breakfast plates, if I may.” He grunted. “and don’t forget to NOT scrape off the pesto. How I do love a good pesto,” he squealed.
We went into our private personal larder, retrieved “his” tomato bag out of our personal fridge, poured ourselves a glass of Rustico and went back to his pen. After he had savored the tomatoes quickly he lay down on his side under his water misters, belched pleasurably and invited us to sit back down. While it is strange to be waiting to be invited to sit in a pig pen always in a permanent state of disarray, it is even stranger to see a Hog cover his snout with his trotters when he belches. He usually giggles a bit also. Comfortable again he began:

After the bad time on the salt marshes and the narrow escape the sad times began. Hogs were dying of unknown sickness daily. The Wise Ones only understood fresh food and water. They knew nothing of medicine. This went on forever. Even if new litters were born few made it to life, most never breathed in the air that made them want to suckle. The Wise Ones themselves began dying. Each day they rushed and fretted trying as hard as they could to pass on what they knew to every Hog. They knew their time was short and they had no way of knowing who would live long enough to be a Wise One so they passed it on to all.

The days, no matter how bright and sunny, were dark. Since they could not find how to move to where there were Uprights to call them with treats, the Wise Ones felt they had disrupted the natural order and The Deep was punishing them. What puzzled them even more was that it was the smooth skinned brown Uprights that had push them away. It was those same Uprights that cruelly destroyed the hairy faced Uprights. Why, they wondered, did The Deep punish them for something the smooth skinned brown Uprights did? These were mysteries that they did not understand but they, being animals, stayed true to the Pure Faith and carried on as best they knew how.

Finally after many trips of the night lights and many, many more of the bright light and moon light the bad times were over. The band was now only five but all were Wise Ones. Unlike Uprights who never function well when there are more Wise Ones than Hogs, this band began to grow and flourish. They shared food that was found and kept each other warm when the sky turned purple and sheets of water like ice pelted their coarse hairy coats. They chose not to see themselves as only Wise Ones but as Hogs that had to survive to keep the Pure Faith and share it with their young.

Many years passed. During these passing decades hogs were born, lived wild and with Uprights. The Wise Ones in these generations often discussed among themselves how they lived better than the Uprights. They, the Hogs were free to roam the forests, always finding something good to eat and a warm place to sleep no matter how bad it became in the harsh season of purple sky and iron winds. The Uprights would huddle in crowded caves made of closed-in stacked trees breathing smoky air that made them cough and die. During these times the Wise Ones would caution all the Hogs to stay far away from the Uprights. Though they didn’t understand, the Wise Ones knew it was unwise for any animal or Upright to foul the area around where they slept, yet many Uprights did just that. It was just the hairy faced Uprights that lived this way.

The dark smooth skinned Uprights lived differently. They tended to live like the Hogs. Picking cool places during the times when the sun seemed to shine day and night and send horrific heat but moving to warmer lands when the walls of wind and cold came. The Hogs often wondered at this. There was often laughter among the smooth skins but not as much as in the lands occupied by the hairy faced Uprights. On several occasions the hairy faced would go away and after a time the Hogs would go into the caves of stacked trees. Sometimes they found, while pushing things around, small round objects filled with spicy water. Though it tasted bad at first, it soon tasted better than anything they had ever drank. Wild times would happen after this. Hogs would squeal and dance the secret forest dances until they fell and slept. Where they fell is where they slept.

The next day all would be in horrible moods. Even the finest mast would be unenjoyable. It usually took several weeks for all the bites they gave each other to heal. The Wise Ones never forbade any Hog to drink this spice because they knew they could not stop drinking it themselves. They just stayed out of the way of the young stronger Hogs when the time of dizzy came upon them.

At this point Beckham stopped his tale and asked us of another tale among Uprights that spoke of Hogs drinking this spicy water. At first we couldn’t understand as he became very excited and his grunts were very fast with only tiny little pauses between them. He slowly calmed down and spoke in a clearer manner. When he said the tale was about Hogs taking possession of and living in an Upright’s fancy wooden cave, then we knew. We assured him there was such a tale among Uprights, but it was always believed to be just a story given as an allegory addressing other Upright matters. He gave a displeased grunt and patiently explained to us that while it might have been used among Uprights for political purposes, he assured us the story was based in fact.

As a Hog, he explained, he didn’t mind Uprights using Hog experiences as teaching examples to our young, but he did object to Hogs, once again, being used as a valuable resource for Uprights while getting little if any credit and further being used in such a negative example fashion. He was mostly offended the Hogs as a group did not receive proper credit. He told us he was tired and that he would tell us more tomorrow after his evening feeding. He abruptly turned his hindquarters in our direction, wandered back to his favorite wallow spot under the water misters and within one minute was fast asleep. A single well timed Hog noise fired at where we sat in stunned silence was his final parting salvo to the arrogance of Uprights.

We will send more as he shares the story.