Story II

There is this story I wrote earlier which I posted in August 2016, then in Hebrew. - Now there is the story here, - in English this time.

You might notice both have a thing in common, - which I didn’t think of while writing. It is not very important, and I think you’d miss the connection had I not mentioned it, - but anyway it happened to be this way.

Never mind, - each story in itself, and here it is: -

- - - Wisdom and Sensitivity - - -

In an average swamp there were several pigs living. Pigpig, Swiny, - Puge, and Pagu. - Plus a few others. Humans were foreign to them. They were not accustomed with those. - One day a human appeared.

- Pigpig politely asked him (or her) in. Though the new acquaintant did not seem anxious to deep in the mud. - Pigpig and Swiny were quite puzzled. “Oh, please, it’s free, - you can come in, no problem”. But the foreigner just walked away, - how funny, - unexplained.

- “Hmm”, - went Pigpig, - but no more than that. Their day just went on.

- But a few days later they again spotted the impolite person. They could not have understood as well why he had himself covered with pieces of fabric all over his body. “Clothes”, - as we humans call them.

Puge and Pagu too lifted their heads off the mud to see. So did some others. It was a holyday for them, - Puguga, - celebrating the peak of the rainy season.

- “I have never seen one of these”, - said Puge to Pagu. - “What the fuck”, Pagu went back to sleep. - “No, he is strange”, said Puge. “Or she is, what the fuck”, responded the other again in hope not to be disturbed again.

- Puge went nearer Pigpig and Swiny. - “How strange”, - they all evaluated the newcomer. - “Could we be of any assistance to you?” - Pigpig was concealing his annoyance with the previous encounter. - “Oh, but you are pigs”, responded this person. - “We are what?” - asked Pigpig. - “Pigs, swine”, - responded the person again. “What are swine”, asked Pigpig, - somewhat annoyed with the troublesome issue of vocabulary. “You are”, said the nameless stranger again. - “Yes, you said that”. - “I know”. - “I don’t think we are getting anywhere”, remarked Swiny. “No, we aren’t”, stated Pigpig positively. After a short pause of silence Puge interfered: - “Well?”. No answer came. “You just be quiet”, silenced him Pigpig, “I don’t know what this shit is”.

Puge turned around to go back to where Pagu was trying to get some sleep. - But doing so he was not so careful, - his tail had a bit of mud flown off and hit the guest. He was most unreasonably annoyed. - “You’re getting this mud on me”, - his peacefulness was clearly disturbed. - “What?”, - responded Pigpig spontaneously. - “Ah?”, - Swiny was no less bewildered. Pagu too was raising his head, losing his interest in sleep, - at the weird happening. “Oh, but you are getting me dirty”, - said the man. (Or the woman) The four of them (Pigpig, Swiny, Puge and Pagu) were quite unsure whether they should get angry or be unclear about the unfamiliar phenomenon. Thus they just remained silent for a while. The unfamiliar one was beginning to walk away, slowly.

Before too long Pigpig still asked - “What is it about that?”.

“But you are pigs”, said this guy in response.

“You said that”, - “Plus it is not what I asked about”, - emphasised Pigpig.

Now the other clearly did not seem interested in the conversation. - “Oh, hmm, well, - I mean...”, - “Yes?”, - responded Pigpig. - "Oh, I mean, I know you live in this swamp...”. - “Yes?”. - But nothing comprehensible seemed to follow.

Swiny and Puge joined in where Pigpig was not, apparently, - coming to any results: - “Have you ever experienced any mental illness or disturbance?”, - they somewhat thoughtlessly expressed their apparent wondering. - Pigpig got a bit angry at that, - “You’re not very polite, are you?”, and to the moving away guest hoping to avoid the conversation, - “Sorry about that, but you do understand them, - don’t you?”. - “I’m afraid I do”, remarked the nameless in response, quite thoughtlessly too, - and then added - “Oh, sorry, - I mean, - I didn’t mean that”. “What did you mean?”, Pigpig was now asking, - thinking there was a limit to how polite he ought to be in every situation.

- “You got my suite dirty”. - “Oh, now we are getting somewhere”, - thought Pigpig to himself, while continuing - “We don’t know what a suite is”. “This”, replied his companion in a clear and direct answer. “How nice”, Pigpig almost thought to himself, - “I see”, - “But what is the use of it?”. At the evident speechlessness subsequently appearing in response he quickly altered his route: - “Never mind, never mind, - please don’t go away”, - “But what does it mean to get dirty?”. - “Get dirty?!”, - “How did I get into that?” added the weird newcomer spontaneously to himself. Now Pigpig intuitively figured out he was getting to the heart of the matter. - “We don’t know what ‘dirty’ means”.

- While very obviously yielding to rush away the unstable being referred: “unclean”. The despair on Pigpig’s face was shared by the other one after he then stated “We don’t know this word either”. The other sat down, in some exhaustance, - “But you speak very good English”, - he attempted to say something more pleasing. - “ So?”, - was Pigpig driving things back to course, somewhat relieved that he no longer needed to keep this unknown person from going away. - “Hmm”, - went the other in response, - “I never dreamed I would have to explain to pigs what dirt is”. - “Please, sir, could you clarify?”. But he was clearly at loss. He just sat there and looked confused and unhappy.

- Pigpig was joint by the others, - Swiny and Puge who were just behind him and Pagu who was a bit further. - “Is is all because of this bit of mud Pagu unintentionally had brought upon your... ah, hmm, - suite”, - ... “right?”, asked Pigpig. - “Ah, - you know what a suite is”, - was the first happy spontaneous response. Next was an affirmation: - “Well, of course, - what might it be?”.

“So?”, - questioned the pig in continuance. - “Why have you found this so annoying?”. “It is dirty” replied the human.

- “In other words?”, was Pigpig trying to come to some sense. - “Other words?”, “other words?”, - “you don’t know what dirt is, you don’t know what clean is, for Christ’s sake, - this is crazy”. - “Still”, - now Puge was attempting to bring something about. “Oh, I don’t know, - I mean I can’t even figure out how come you can speak English”.

The four of them were all covered with mud. “You don’t like our swamp?” asked Pagu this time. “Which swamp did you come from?” asked someone of the others from behind. - “Oh, your swamp is very fine”, said the new companion in an obvious insincerity. - “We cannot understand”, - concluded Swiny. - “I mean we’ve got this all over us”, - Puge reasonably clarified the situation, - “are you allergic to foreign substances?”.

- “No, - I mean...”, thoughtlessly replied the uncomprehended visitor. - They waited in vain a bit for him to continue. - Pigpig was now changing a bit his attitude. - “You know”, he said, - “I think if you got half as much mud as we do on this thing, your, ... ah, - suite, - you would have reasonably got a heart attack”.

“A heart attack?”.

There was still another pause, - a silence which lasted a bit.

Pigpig considered before speaking, - “I am sorry to refer to the possibility”, - he somewhat paused again, - but perhaps Swiny and Puge (he pointed at them since the other was somewhat bewildered not knowing their names) had some reason, - “Have you ever experienced any mental disturbances?”.

“We only mean your good”, he naturally added.
- It was easily evident that the other had very little appreciation for the concern shown. - He was looking at the other four at the verge of amazement. - “This is really getting ridiculous”, he uttered”. Got up intending to leave. “He is truly sick” whispered Swiny in Puge’s ear. “We must do something about it”, “can’t leave him like this”, he continued.

The four of them came to the inevitable conclusion they could not just stand aside and not offer any help.

- Though they were wise enough to tell their assistance would not be necessarily welcomed. “I’ll call a doctor”, Pagu quietly said in a low voice considering the situation.

“He could be away in a minute”, they all thought to themselves. - “Please, don’t be distressed” Pigpig said. “Don’t be so troubled”. - “Try to settle down a bit”.

Pagu was quietly moving away. They didn’t mind the most idiotic talk just to keep him from going. - But they didn’t know what they might talk about. Obviously any reference could stir his feelings. In the utmost insincerity and the most dishonest manner possible they did their best to keep the conversation going. - Quite unexpectedly they managed. They had not the least concern where the conversation was going, - as long as it wouldn’t influence the one they were talking to in an undesirable way.

- Though still they have never seemed to manage to practically capture his interest. Nothing they said seemed to excite him or touch his heart, though they were manoeuvring ingeniously through great creativity in various directions for this purpose. - But the conversation went on, - with the pigs showing interest in every word said in a manner which might have displayed them as considerably foolish in every reasonable eye.

- But this came to an end. - It was about 20 minutes when the doctor was within sight accompanied by Pagu and several other assistances walking behind him.

- “Oh, no!”, cried the doctor spontaneously, - “not one of these!”. - “They are incurable”, he then turned and explained to the ones expecting him. “All we can do is keep them hospitalized”, - “and a great burden it is”. - “One always has to watch out so they don’t die of starvation”, - “they refuse to eat almost anything”.

- “All we can do is hospitalize them for life”. “Nothing beyond”.

The assistances came somewhat nearer at this point. The concern on the face of the foreigner was obvious. - He just figured out why these three mates were continually engaging in this awkward conversation in somewhat of an unexplained way. - There was only one way out.

- In a spark of genius he viewed the only possible escape. He sprang at once and immediately made his way like an Olympic runner for the shortest distances into the swamp. - The aforementioned assistances having escorted the doctor were somewhat alarmed at first, - but when they saw he was not running away but directed toward the mud, - they did not seize him but merely maintained caution observing the continuing occurrences. - He ran as quickly as he could and jumped head on into the mud, practically flying about in the air in his way therein. - Then he was displaying sheer joy - or you might say rather desperately attempting to, - being covered with mud covering his hair and face as well as the rest of his body. Subsequently he took off his cloths.

The doctor looked in amazement. - “He is cured”.

- The four other ones having summoned him looked at him a bit strangely.

- “He is cured”, he repeated. - “There has never been such a case since antiquity”. - The man came out of the swamp. “It’s a wonderful feeling”.

“It’s a miracle, a true miracle”, the doctor’s enthusiasm was not relieved. - The human visitor was now slowly moving away. - “I am so thankful”. - He made his way about 20 meters away. But then, suddenly, - the doctor was struck by something. The stranger knew he had to get away as quick as he could since at any moment his hosts could alter their ideas. But now it was something else: - “Oh, I could get a Nobel Prize for that”, “you must see the experts”, - “you can’t just go away like this”. - “There has never been such a case”. “I’ll get the greatest fame, you can’t go away”.

- Our friend knew any suspicious behaviour could deny the miracle. He could not run away. - “For the sake of science, you must stay”, continued the doctor. - He also added to his assistances - “See that he won’t go, we’ll have a court approve it later, now just take care”. - So he was still there. He also thought if he appears at home all naked and covered with mud and tries to tell of being held up by pigs who speak English he might end up with a very similar fate there too.

“Oh, you need not worry”, - the concerned doctor understood his concern, - “we won’t keep you for life, - it’s just two or three weeks, - two months at most, and you’ll be free to leave”.

“You must see Dr. Pagugaya and Prof. Schunvatzero”. “Also we need the witnesses who saw you in your previous condition, otherwise no one will believe this”.

And so they went on. Pigpig, Swiny, Puge and Pagu were not in the habit of recalling ongoing events very meticulously. - They were just living from day to day. - So tomorrow the Sun was to shine, to come up, - and a new day was to take its place as days always do. - No special particular recognition was expected. Though now they were to come and testify when called. But nothing beyond.

- The swamp went back to its usual peacefulness. - Though strange looking foreigners were not to be invited in when passing by, - as it seemed. The peculiar passer by was at the same time invited to dine elsewhere being offered a variety of rotting fruits and vegetables, - where he knew his disapproval might put him at great risk. But time is said to be a cure for all. So far.