Words:
Salmon
Dachshund
Toenail
Intravenous
Waterfall
Witch
Doctor
“My life is in danger,” I said to the small man
seated cross-legged on the other side of the fire. The colorful paint on his face glimmered in
the light of the fire, the piercings that covered his body causing strange
shadows to dance on the thick trees behind him.
I had hiked for several days through the tropical forest to find this
man, the witch doctor of the Eastern Woods, a man known to hold powers that no
other man could hold. He was the cure to
the fear that had taken over my life over the last two weeks. It was all I could think about, and my very
life depended on this man.
I had arrived at the witch
doctor’s small hut four days ago, explaining to him my dire situation. I am a man of the people, serving on the highest
council in country’s capital city. There
were nine of us serving together as advisors to the prime minister. There were
nine. Now there is one. The other eight were murdered in their homes,
or on walks with their children, or while riding in a limousine on the way to a
meeting. One by one their bodies were discovered,
no signs of death or even a struggle, no life remaining. I didn’t know who killed them or for what
purpose, but I knew I was next. I had to
do something drastic. Believing my bodyguards
and trusty sidearm would be insufficient defense, I sought the man that now
sits before me, hoping he could provide some additional protection against the
oncoming foe.
“There is a potion,” he had said
two days ago in a deep and slowly rolling voice, after I sat down and explained
my unfortunate situation. “The potion
will protect you from your enemies in supernatural ways. You must do exactly what I tell you. Do not stray from even a single instruction,
or things will not go well.”
I didn’t want to believe what I
was doing. In a world of cars flying
through the sky and robots doing much of the physical labor, here I am, sitting
around a campfire in a forest, listening to a witch doctor talk about magical
potions. I started to regret my
decision, and yet, his reputation proceeded him. This man had done many inexplicable things,
and he was paid well for it. He had only
started talking to me when I set the bag of gold on the ground, which was
quickly carried away by one of his many similarly dressed servants. It all seemed too strange for me, but I made
myself feel better by remembering that I’m only using his services for
protection, and that the potion he is creating is not one of his infamous
poisons.
On the first day, he told me to do
nothing but sit by the fire and think about the people who may be trying to
kill me. He told me to envision them and
their purposes. I didn’t know who they
were, so I mainly thought about the upcoming football games.
On the second day, he told me to
venture out into the forest. “Travel
west three miles, to a large tree long split in two by fire from the sky,” he
said. “You must then turn north, travel
two miles, until your ears perceive the noise of rushing water. Follow the noise to the base of a great
waterfall, and there you will find many living things in the water. You must bring back a specimen from the base
of the falls, and only from the base.
There will be fish of many different kinds, rainbowfish and angelfish
and leaf fish, but you must stand in the water and wait, and soon enough you
will find a silver fish with blue markings.
You must reach in with your hands and catch this fish and bring it back,
alive.”
I did exactly what he said. I stood there in the water for two hours
before the silver fish came swimming by.
It looked like a salmon. After
several attempts, I pulled it from the water and placed it in a small water
basin I had brought with me. When I
returned to the witch doctor, he was still sitting by the fire, but there was
now a black pot sitting over the flames.
I sat the basin beside him. He
reached into it and pulled out the fish and proceeded to break it in half,
which I hadn’t thought possible to do to a slippery fish. A thick blue liquid poured from its insides
into the pot.
On the third day, he told me to
follow a path. “Travel the road to the
east four miles,” he said, “until you come to a small village with dwellings
built from the forest. In the middle
there is a well of stone. You must sit
down and wait. People will walk by, but
you must not speak to them. A young
maiden will approach, with a silver dress and blue flowers in her hair, and she
will fill her bucket from the well. You
must then offer her this.” He held out
his hand, showing a violet berry. “You
must take what she gives you.”
I did exactly what he said. I sat for two hours before the young woman
with a silver dress and blue flowers in her hair approached, filling her bucket
from the well. I then offered her the
berry. She took it, ate it, and then did
one somewhat normal thing, followed by several very abnormal things. She took a cloth from a pocket in her simple
dress and laid it on the well. Reaching
back into the pocket, she took a knife and cut off several long brown hairs
from her head, placing them on the cloth.
She then cut off several of her eyelashes and a piece of a toenail,
placing them each on the cloth. Finally,
she folded up the cloth and bound it together with twine from her pocket. She then took her bucket of water and left.
Sitting back in front of the witch
doctor, really starting to think this may have been a bad idea, I watched as he
took the girl’s hair, eyelashes, and toenail, and dropped them into the pot,
mixing it with the blue liquid from the fish.
On the fourth day, he told me to
once again venture out into the forest.
“Travel west three miles, to a large tree long split in two by fire from
the sky,” he said. “There you will find
many living things in the branches. You
must climb the tree and bring back a specimen from the largest of the branches,
and only from the largest. There will be
birds of many different kinds, macaws and trogons and lorikeets, but you must sit
on the branch and wait, and soon enough you will find a silver bird with blue
markings. You must reach out with your
hands and catch this bird and bring it back, alive.”
I did exactly what he said. As I sat on that branch waiting, I wondered
why I didn’t stop by this tree two days earlier, but I decided not to question the
witch doctor. I waited for two hours
before the silver bird with blue markings flew to the large branch I was
sitting on. The bird allowed me to catch
it easily and place it within a small metal cage I had brought with me.
Sitting back in front of the witch
doctor, I watched as he took the bird and used tweezers made from two small
bones to extract something small and black from the bird’s mouth. He dropped it into the pot, mixing it with
the blue liquid from the fish and the girl’s hair, eyelashes, and toenail.
It is now the fifth day, early in
the morning. I half expect him to send
me to a dog park, instructing me to wait until a silver dachshund with a blue collar
approaches. Instead, I find myself
laying on my back on a mat near the fire.
The witch doctor sits, stirring the pot, as it generates blue
bubbles. He then takes a very modern
looking syringe and sticks it into the pot, filling it with the potion. He comes over and, without saying anything,
sticks the needle in my arm, filling me with an intravenous injection of
magical potion. For a moment, I feel
nothing. And then I feel terrible.
The witch doctor stands over me,
and then smiles, and then grins a terrible grin. “It will be quick, worry not.”
I try to ask him why I feel so
terrible, but I can’t form any words. I
can’t move.
“Your ambition has granted me a
much simpler task than I had with the others, your fellow councilors, coming to assemble your own
concoction.”
What?
“All ends lead to new beginnings.”
My vision starts to fade, and
then…
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