hkaplan.com

hkaplan.com - Résumé - Fiction - Poetry - Painting/Collage - Photography - Sounds - Video

Warning: This site contains obscene material and is not meant for consumption by children, animals, or sensitive adults.

 

Fiction - Short Stories - Alive and Well on The Road To Self-Destruction

The Pool

Howard N. Kaplan

THE POOL IS PARADISE. It is the wet, everlasting life at the vast space of timelessness before Time. Clearblue, buoyant water sparkles under the never-setting sun while the people play around the pool. Surrounding the pool is a square of bushes. Encircling the bushes is the mud from which the people are created. Beyond the mud, the vast Nothingness from which Paradise was created by the venerated breath of the great FishGod.

            The great FishGod keeps the sun shining and the pool clean. It is the love of the great FishGod that keeps fruit growing in the bushes. The expression of the people’s love—the irregular sacrifices so eagerly performed—is reciprocated in the gift of Paradise from the FishGod. The FishGod provides for all.

* * *

            King Walter I was a paunchy man with small wrinkles around his eyes and mouth from a smile constantly on his face. He wore a robe of purple and crimson that he would remove when he dove into the pool. Standing naked and proud, he would speak in a calm voice to the people around the pool. As a direct descendant of the great FishGod he was particularly sensitive to the subtle, mystical energy that blew in the air from the God’s pure essence.

            Lester was the bald magician-aid-lover to the King. Whereas the King had wrinkles from smiling, Lester’s face was usually drawn down in thought. He stood taller than the King, and could make colorful patterns appear on his head. He would perform magic for the King and the people as part of the entertainment around the pool. His most important trick was creating people from mud. His long, purple robe draped over this narrow shoulders and his voice was as light as the loving kiss of the great FishGod.

            Together the King and the magician watched over the inhabitants of Paradise. The King directed the sacrifices to the great FishGod while Lester molded people from mud and magically whispered the essence of the FishGod into them. The world was perfect.

            Everyone was happy. The people ran around the pool and laughed and played games. A crowd gathered at the edge of the pool to watch Albert drown. Some jumped into the pool to help push Albert under the surface of the water. He struggled wonderfully. He flapped his arms and spat water when he broke the surface, and he had a wonderful scream. The people pulled him over to the cold water pipe at the far end of the pool and kept his head under the freezing water. Everyone laughed at the game. Girls giggled, men guffawed, and everyone took turns keeping Albert’s head underwater. Albert gasped and twisted around as the blood in his head began to move more slowly. After one final burst of energy he finally went limp. Everyone cheered. “Hooray!” they shouted. There was a sudden rush to leave the pool before the FishGod came to take Albert’s body away. He floated, face down, in the deep end of the pool by the diving board. At this end, at the head of the pool, sat King Walter I on his royal throne. He was surrounded by his twenty-two concubines, who attended to him constantly. The people lined up around the pool in a hushed silence. Lester stood to the King’s right with his arms folded. Albert’s hair bobbed up and down in the soft waves rippling on the surface of the water. Walter motioned for the concubine beside him to stop fondling his royal penis. He stood and bellowed, with his arms raised high, “Let the great FishGod, and the essence of his being, come and accept our sacrifice in return for His never-ending Love!”

            Everyone held their breath. Nothing happened. The King glanced to the magician and gave a subtle expression of concern. Lester returned the expression, so Walter turned to the people and said smiling, “The great FishGod is satisfied for now. Remove the sacrificial carcass!”

            “Hooray!” everyone shouted as each jumped into the pool. They dragged out Albert’s body. The Necrophiles immediately laid claim to the corpse and Belinda, a self-proclaimed (and toothless) necro-nymphomaniac was the first to fondle the dead body. The Necrophiles took the corpse behind the bushes and played with it.

            People went off to their separate groups to play. The sado-masochists stood in front of his Royal Fishness and performed short torture skits for him. They used whips and rope made from human hair to beat and bind their friends. Some screamed, some laughed, and all had fun. His Royal Fishness was happy. His concubines surrounded him, each licking and stroking his body. Two young girls playfully vied to suck his royal penis. While the beating from the S&M club intensified, the royal entourage built up into a sexual frenzy. The King perceived a crackle in the air. He ordered, “Everyone into the pool!”

            “Hooray!” everyone cheered. The King stood and disrobed. He stood on the diving board and plunged into the darkening blue headfirst. Each of his concubines followed quickly. Soon everyone was in the pool: the sado-masochists, the Necrophiles, the self-gratifiers, the Celebate Orthodox (who were secretly Voyeurs), and Lester the Magician. People grabbed and kicked and kissed and had fun. The King lifted his head high and shouted, “Let our Great FishGod come to witness His Loyal followers frolicking for His glorious being!”

            The crowd screeched happily as the water began to bubble. Then a white foam gathered at the edges of the pool. The sky became dark, and a cold wind blew across the people’s heads. The water in the pool became colder. The foam spread over the surface of the water while people dived and grabbed at each other. The sky went black. Then suddenly, from beneath the pool at the far end, water began to rush out. The people at that end of the pool were dragged into the mouth of the great FishGod. In an instant it was over. The water stopped rushing out of the pool. The wind stopped abruptly. The sky became a sparkling clear blue.

            The King and his concubines drifted to the side of the pool. The King lifted himself up and walked back to this royal throne. Attendants stood ready with his robe. He spread his arms and said, “The Great FishGod has been satisfied! On with the celebration!”

            Applause rang out. Some people left the pool to play while others stayed to swim. The Necrophiles had traded one of their group to the Sado-Masochists for torture. When the Sado-Masochists finished torturing the member, he was given back to the Necrophiles for play.

            The sacrifices continued irregularly. Either as a group, or with one person singled out at random for the love of the Great FishGod, the pool would foam over, and the God would take His gift.

            At one point Lester went up to the King and spoke gently, “Your most Royal Fishness, may I have a word with you?” he asked.

            “Of course, my dear friend and lover. What is troubling you?”

            “May I speak with you privately?”

            The King, in answer, stood and motioned his concubines aside. He walked towards Lester and put his arm over the Magician’s shoulder. “What is it?” he whispered.

            “My Lord and Love,” Lester began, “I sense something wrong in our world.”

            “You do?” the King asked. “Of what sort?”

            “I sense a…” Lester hesitated, “I sense a dryness coming.”

            The King held his breath. He, too, had sensed something unusual in the air.

            Lester noticed the King’s extended silence and said quietly, “This dryness I sense will mean the end of the world.”

            “In what way do you perceive this… dryness?” Walter asked.

            “The last person I created from the mud was Jerry, over there,” Lester pointed to the young man who was tied up against a flat, round disk in the Sado-Masochists’ area. Several girls and a few older women were dancing around, exciting him sexually, but never bringing him to a climax. It was a run game. “See how pale he is?” Lester continued, “the mud behind the bushes is not as moist as before. And it has been getting worse, my Lord and Lover.” Lester paused. He stood facing the King and sighed, “I fear that it is the end of the world.”

            Walter looked deeply into Lester’s face. “Nonsense,” he said with a mocking tone. “The FishGod will keep us alive. He loves us.”

            “I know, my Lord and Lover.”

            “In the name of our Great FishGod I bless your noble essence,” Walter announced ceremoniously. He bent his head and kissed Lester full and passionately on the lips. “We will simply have a royal sacrifice to appease our God,” he said softly.

            “If the mud continues to go dry I will be unable to create people to sacrifice, my love,” Lester sighed. “We will all be sacrificed as the end comes nearer.”

            “I said we will have a royal sacrifice,” Walter was calm as he smiled.

            Lester understood. He smiled sadly.

            The King turned to face the pool. He walked back to his throne and began to speak, “Loyal followers of our Great FishGod!” he began. “As your Lord and Savior I bid you farewell, as I must now return to our God to preserve our world in this beautiful state of perfection. Farewell…” and with that the King ran up to the diving board, jumped high into the air, and plunged headfirst into the pool. He was given a standing ovation.

            King Walter I pulled himself deeper and deeper with each stroke cleaving the water. He held his breath tight as the water became darker and thicker. His heart beat at a pace that made the pressure in his head almost pleasurable. In his mind he prayed, “Oh, Great Fish, take my life as a sacrifice to your ultimate being to keep my people alive in your forever wet world!” His mind drifted and he stopped swimming as the foamy whirlpool appeared below him.

            Lester was standing, awestruck, on the royal throne. The sky seemed to crack open, and the world began to shake. He felt energy surging beneath his skin and an undeniable tide of Love swept over him. He stood at the edge of the diving board and shouted, “Oh, followers of the Great Fish! Follow me, for the Love of our Lord, into the essence of the Great FishGod! We are the lovers of this world, so let us all bring ourselves back to the source of our love! Everyone into the pool!” he screamed as he plunged into the water. The royal concubines followed, as did every person around the pool. The sky darkened and the cold wind blew and everyone was laughing and screaming while the white foam reached above their heads and the sucking whirlpool dragged them forever downward. The sky split open and rain fell on the earth expanding out of the pool Water rushed out and spread over this new earth and the ocean was created. Within the darkness of the FishGod’s essence the people floated like fish in the sea. Their bodies disassembled and spread throughout the ocean. The particles re-arranged themselves and the very first creatures of the new world were born.

hkaplan.com - Résumé - Fiction - Poetry - Painting/Collage - Photography - Sounds - Video

Warning: This site contains adult material and is not meant for consumption by children, animals, or sensitive adults.