The Adventures of Tex & Blae-Lok – 1

This Prologue tells the absolute truth. What comes after is, well, not so much “truth,” as it is … um, what could come, perhaps. There IS hope that this “Secret” could lead to some happy truth. But Truth, of course, is what we make it.

———————————————————————————-

Prologue

I, or my family, could be ridiculed for revealing this. I have a wife and daughter, so I’m not going to mention our names. Just call me, “Tex.” Yeah, that’ll do. ‘til I think of a better one.

I told my daughter a shortened, modified version of the secret when she was just in grade school, because at the time, I didn’t really believe it myself. It did not seem possible, or important, and I thought it was kind of funny, so I told it to her because I knew it would make her laugh. But she took the secret to school, and she told her entire class on “show and tell day.” They all laughed at her! They pointed at her and called her names. Her teacher telephoned us and told my wife to come pick her up because she was so distraught. When she came through the door, she was steaming mad at me.

“You lied to me!” she screamed. “You lied, and e …everyb…body laughed and called me names!” Tears streamed down her delicate cheeks. Then she turned on her heel, ran to her room, and slammed the door.

I didn’t know what to think. Our daughter was a bright, sweet child, liked by everyone who ever met her. She had never been angry with me before, or her mother — and I learned she had screamed those same epithets at her, too. “Lor…nella,” my wife, walked in slowly, crestfallen and ashen. She looked at me, so sad! and big, fat tears rolled down her face.

“What the hell happened?” I asked quietly. I was pale, shaking with fear.

“ ’Zep…po’ said the teacher told her she had lied to all the children,” she said quietly.

“WHAT!?” I said, jumping to my feet. “I don’t believe it! She would never do that!”

“I know, R … uh, Tex. But I think she did it, too.” Her hands clutched each other in a death grip. “Sit down, You’re not going to like this.”

I slowly sank into my dark blue leather recliner. “Oh, my god, Lor .., uh. ‘Lor…inda,’ what did I do? What did I say to her? What lie did I tell her that would make her entire class ridicule her?”

So she told me.

———————————————————————————-

I have to go back to the beginning so you understand. It’s so important that you understand. Otherwise this will all be for naught, you will laugh at me, too, then tell others — like it’s all one damn big joke, and they will tell someone, and over and over it goes and we will all be in such danger! I am afraid it may be too late already. I saw a young man about Z…argon’s” age yesterday and I think he recognized me, maybe one of her childhood friends before she, you know, and I saw him whisper to his girlfriend and they both looked at me and chuckled. Maybe I should have worn pants, but that’s beside the point.

Anyway, we used to live on a big farm in the country, and ,,, okay, it was a double-wide, but it was a BIG one, and we had a pretty big yard, a damn BIG yard, and nobody lived too close to us, so we had a lot of privacy. One night, about thirty years ago, I was taking the trash out to the big dumpster out by the barn, okay, curb, and it was just a big, everyday green trashcan, all right?! ERRG!! Then I saw something fly by my head real fast, BZZZZZZZZZROUUUM!

Damn … er, darn! (kids might read this). “What the furry hell was that?!” I looked around, but saw nothing. BUZZZZZMMMM! It whizzed by again, then I saw it, softly landing under the big oak tree down by the stable! I tiptoed over as silently as I could, not too close! Then got on my hands and knees, creeping quietly. I was simply curious. Something was crawling slowly in our very expensive Bermuda grass, the acre I had imported all the way from, uh, Bermuda, of course. Yes, something was there … NO! There were two of them! They  crawled slowly forward, then spread their tiny, frail-looking wings and flapped them at each other. But as I watched, my eyes grew wide as dinner plates. “Son of a bi…ig… gonia! I had studied semaphore when I was in the Navy, yeah, and THAT looked like they were trading signals! Yes! That was a pattern …YES! It was definitely a pattern of some kind and I thought, Daa…naarn, that looks like they’re kinda talking to each other! I almost laughed but stifled it with a quick hand over my mouth. “Shhh, I don’t want you to hear me!” I whispered in my head. Suddenly, they shook their antennae at each other, bowed, and started to fly away — but as they did, one of them saw me, lurched to the left, and ran smack dang into the oak, WHAM! And fell to the ground!

“Oh, no!” I cried. I crawled over to the poor critter and picked it up gently. The other one buzzed madly around my hand and I could hear it chirping, bug like, and I worried for a moment if it was going to sting me or fly into my eye! I looked at it, concerned, and in a soft voice said to it, “Don’t worry, little fellow — or lady — I only want to help, I won’t hurt him — or her.” I ran at a trot back to the house, opened the door and went inside — and the other one stayed right with me, buzzing in circles around my head. Lo … Lor…py heard me charge in and did the same from the kitchen to see what all the commotion was about. We nearly collided in the breakfast nook.

“What the fff…rench is going on? What ar…eeek! There’s a huge bug of some kind trying to sting you!” and she swiped at it with her broom! She really hated bugs, and she almost always carried a broom. It seemed very natural.

“No!” I cried. “Stop! It’s a friend!” I yelled. I didn’t know that, but it seemed like the right thing to say at the time  because my wife stopped in her tracks, her mouth agape, and was unable to reply. Her face hole just opened and closed soundlessly several times like a trapdoor spider’s hatch stuck on constant repeat when only a breeze is there.

I raced up the stairs to the swell swanky suite where my workshop waited, not even stopping to admire my impressive alliteration. Lor…ka was right behind, clutching her pearls in one claw, the omnipresent broom in the other. I entered the workshop and placed the poor little injured whatsit on the ornate wooden top, carved for me by a native Kenyan King and…and ..well, I laid the thing down gently while its companion buzzed around it, then landed next to the thing and gently caressed the injured one’s head with a long antenna. I could hear it whispering in a soft voice that was clearly music! I swear I heard it say, “There, there. There there, sweet baby.”

Lo …Lor…inza peeked in. “What is it, Tex?” she whispered. “Does it bite?” She wrung her hands, concerned.

“I don’t think so.” I replied. “Hand me my big magnifying glass will you? It’s just there, hanging on a peg next to my imported Russian ruler.” She lugged it over. Her brow was furrowed with concern.

“You be careful honey. Don’t let it bite you! or, or sting you!” The whatchamacallit turned it’s tiny head toward her and made a sound like a raspberry.

I cocked one eyebrow toward wifey and said, “I think it’s going to be alright.” The other thingamabob started singing again, softly. I clearly heard it sing the first verse to “Mabey, I’m Amazed.” A good song for something with “Wings,” huh? Huh? haha! Oh, never mind!

I turned on the bank of lights over my workbench and slowly lowered my magnifying glass over the tiny creature. It focused clearly and I gasped.

“What’s wrong?” Squealed Lorrrrrrena.” Her hands flew to her face. She had failed to release her broom and it smacked her in the head. Neither were damaged, but the broom was now forever crooked.

“Oh, wow,” I whispered. “It looks like a, a June Bug!” And the uninjured one turned to me and nodded. “I’ll be damned. I think it understood me!” And I heard it in a tiny voice, buzz, “yeeess.”

I jumped at that and said a bad word I don’t want to repeat here in case some child reads this or someone who just hates the word, “shit.” *

Then I raised my glass again and looked a little closer. “Hmmmmm,” I said.

“You speak my language?” Said the uninjured creature.

I jumped again, this time a good bit higher. “Uh, no, no. That’s just a, uh, a sound we make sometimes when we are confused or …uh, …… it’s just a sound we make sometimes, uh …”

“I seeeee. You may call me “Blae-Lok”

“And you may call me R … er, ‘Tex!’ Say, Isn’t ‘Blae-Lok’ the name of some famous doctor?”

“Some thing like that. So,” and he waved a hand or foot or whatever at the other June Bug, “how is wife?”

“You’re married?” I said in surprise. “Really?”

“Aren’t you?” He had me there.

“Uh, yeah”

Then my wife butted in. “Are you really talking to that thing, Tex? All I can hear is a bunch of buzzing.and clicks.”

“I must ‘tune’ my voice”it said slowly, “to the hearing mecha, no, mem brain of each thing to… which — I wish to speak.” Blae-Lok said. I was impressed; it’s language skills were as good as mine! “It is… a chore I do not like.” He wasn’t telling the complete truth, but I would learn more about that later. He glanced at Lor…illa. “Some things do not know how to listen. But — my wife, please. How is she?”

“Oh, sorry, “ I said. I raised the glass again and peered for several long seconds at the injured Bug. They seemed to deserve capitalization by now. “I think I can see it, er, her breathing. Her chest is moving up and down a little.”

“That just means she is urinating on your table,” Blae-Lok said.

I started, quite naturally, I think. “Oh! Well, she’s so small, I don’t think it will hurt anything,” I smiled.

“It will burn a hole in your table. Maybe in your floor, too. It depends on how much fooch she has had. If she has drunk much the hole could eat this entire table.” He seemed to giggle a little, but it could have been indigestion for all I know.

“What’s ‘fooch?’” I said.

“You don’t want to know.

“Oh. Okay.”

Then my wife butted in again. “Tex, what the hell is going on? You’re NOT talking to that damned ugly bug! ARE you? That’s just crazy!” she screeched.

Blae-Lok suddenly rose up and took a position right between my wife’s beautifully bloodshot eyes. “Listen, lady,” shut up or I’ll squirt you right in the eye! And you won’t like it!” It was much louder than I would have expected. To Lor…alee, it must have sounded like a jet screaming over the house.

Lor…ki screamed, turned, and ran from the room; her bare feet thundered down the stairs like a machine gun turned up to maximum deadly.

I guffawed as quietly as one can possible guffaw. “Wow.” I grinned and raised my eyebrows. “Can you teach me how to do that?”

“Sorry, it’s a bug thing.”

End Chapter One