THE LAST MOON DANCE
Excerpt
I DID NOT KNOW
who I was or where I came from. The
earliest memories I had were of the farm.
It looked like just another farm in the gently rolling land of what I
was told was
The Brothers of the
religious order raised me from what they told me was 16-years-old until I was
nearly 18-years-old. I did hard,
physical work on the farm during the day and I was locked in my windowless room
at night.
I was an unusual looking
person. I had very white skin and short,
black hair. The hair on my head never
grew past a short, dense covering. I was
about six feet tall and weighed about 190 pounds. I was inhumanly strong and could have
overpowered the Brothers and run free.
But then run to where? Since I
had no idea where I was and no place to go, I had no real choice but to remain
on the farm as a prisoner of the Brothers.
One day each week the
Brothers required me to go to school.
What the Brothers taught me in the school made little or no sense. My schooling consisted mostly of memorization
of material. The material that I had to
memorize was strange and was in some language I had never heard and that no one
else on the farm ever used. I was also
taught to speak English, although just enough to be able to talk to the
Brothers. Well, I was also taught some
English words and phrases that I was told would be useful in my travels.
Sometimes I knew things
that I had not learned on the farm and that the Brothers had not told me. I had no idea where the knowledge came from,
unless it was knowledge that I had learned before I came to the farm. However, since I had no idea where I had been
before I came to the farm, it was hard for me to trust the knowledge.
I asked the Brothers who
I was, where I had come from and where I was going. The Brothers, at least the low level Brothers
that I mainly dealt with would never tell me anything. The higher level brothers did eventually tell
me that I was to be a traveller who would do some work for the
Brotherhood. This last was strange, as I
was already doing work for the Brotherhood, hard labour on the farm. If I were to travel, I would not be able to
do the farm work that was all I knew. Then
again, perhaps I would eventually be taught what I needed for the new work.
At night, I would
sometimes ponder my situation. How was I
to do other work for the Brotherhood if I knew nothing of the Brotherhood and
almost nothing of anything else? If I was
to travel, where would I travel? For
that matter, how would I travel? I could
find no answers to my problems.
Due to my lack of
knowledge of my situation, I became angry and rebellious. However, the Brothers carried staffs of
punishment. The staffs inflicted pain
that did not damage, but the pain could render even my giant strength
useless. I would try to avoid trouble
with the Brothers. However, I often felt
rage in me and I wanted to kill a Brother who was tormenting me. I probably could have killed at least one
Brother and gained his staff of punishment, but then what would become of
me? I probably could not defeat several
of the Brothers at one time and, even if I could, what then? I would have been a prisoner of my own
ignorance, since my world consisted of just the farm.
The gnawing question of
who I was and where I had come from was a major area of concern to me. If I knew where I had come from, I could
perhaps understand who I was and how I came to be at the farm. I might also determine where I could go,
assuming I could ever leave the farm. If
I had family somewhere, perhaps they would take me in, if I could find them.
I did not really
resemble any of the Brothers who ran the farm.
The Brothers were some sort of minor sect and came from many different
countries and racial backgrounds, although most of them were of something
called European origin. Apparently
Europe was a place not too unlike
My strength made it
dangerous for the Brothers to deal with me and some of them would try to be
kind to me. Unfortunately, the kindness
never extended as far as providing me with useful information. I also suspected that the kindness some of
the Brothers showed me was mainly due to their fear of me.
As I have said, I was
inhumanly strong. I could also move and
run much faster than any of the Brothers and I could jump incredibly well. I could jump and grab a tree limb some 15
feet above the ground, pull myself up onto the tree limb in one quick, smooth
motion and then climb to the top of the tree with ease.
I realized that I must
learn who I am and only then could I begin to live my life for me instead of
working as a slave for the Brothers.
However, the means by which I could discover who and what I am continued
to elude me.
With no other real
choice, I continued to work on the farm.
The work was hard,
although my strength made things
bearable. With the exception of the once
a week classes, I was never told more than what I needed to get my work
done. I wondered why the Brothers did
not want me to know things.
One day I was summoned
by the Abbot who ran the farm and was the leader of the Brothers. The Abbot told me that my destiny was in the
Amazon region of a place called
However the Abbot had
tickets for me, traveller clothes for me to wear, a little money and a book
with some rather mysterious and sketchy directions and instructions to guide me
on my travels.
Suddenly, I realized I
was free! I could leave the farm that
had been my prison. But I was free in a
world I knew nothing about. I assumed
that I was as much stronger than the people I would meet than I was stronger
than the Brothers. However, how was I to
use my strength to advantage in the world?
If I did use my strength, what would be the result?
The Abbot told me that
the people in the world beyond the farm did not have staffs of punishment, but
they did have guns. Guns used some noisy
means to propel a small piece of lead at very high speeds. If the lead struck even such as me, it would
cause great damage or even death. The
Abbot said I needed to be very careful about guns.
I sensed that the Abbot
told me the truth as far as the dangers of guns went. I would need to be careful if the people
outside the farm had the guns the Abbot mentioned. In any case, I would need to be careful, as I
knew nothing of the world outside the farm.