LIZZY

   Lizzy waved at the rocks as she flowed downstream. The tall cedar family swayed simultaneously as the roaring wind touched their clapping hands. Lizzy could hear Pinocchio the Pine, and his siblings whistle their beautiful tunes.

     "Hey Lizzy, you will destroy my shelled foetuses

 If you flow too near the bank."

Jasper complained and jumped on the rocks. He opened his wide mouth attracting flies.

Silly Nota led her family into scavenging the food in the food rich town.

Jasper shut his mouth and trapped all them; only the swiftest escaped, narrowly. “If you keep

Feeding on the little creatures, I will blow Lizzy over the reeds so that you also feel the pain of losing" Monsoon shouted.

Jasper dived into Lizzy and swam across but kept a hawk eye over the nest.

        Next to the town, the children were swimming happily in Lizzy’s groin. Lizzy enjoyed how they sang and raced in her. The young ones bathed near the shore, others built castles and cottages. The ones who were able to swim deeper sang while imitating rowing a boat.

  “Row, row, row your boat,

     Gently down the stream

    Merrily, merrily, merrily,

    Life is but a dream.”

 Paper boats are flowing. A few metres ahead, some men were laying traps to get the fish. She heard their joy when they got customers for their catch.

           Some women were washing clothes and utensils while praising Lizzy. Others are gossiping .

          Lizzy’s neck is wider and has plenty water. She vomits herself into her relaxing home, the Oceania through the bird’s foot.

          “Hi Lizzy. I saw you going downstream yesterday. I hope you have some updates for me!” Glauca called when Lizzy was passing through the Susana’s rocky valley. Her bubbly and splashy sound could be heard any time she moved down each step.

           “Hey, Lizzy, you are smashing me when you slide against me so fast,” Susana complained

             “You are too steep, I can’t help it, but I am forced to jump over the steep stairs. The strong and deep anchors of Cedars are protecting you against my swift movement.

         “Glauca, the women washing clothes, were celebrating,” Lizzy said

            “Yes Lizzy?” Glauca stopped clapping against the strong wind, paid attention to Lizzy.

  Everyone knew Glauca loved listening to little gossip. Mountain Chickadees and Mountain Blue birds often brought information which they got from other migrating birds like the Red-eyed Vireo, Worm- eating Warbler and the sparrows to him. He sheltered them in his sturdy hands and held their nests next to the heaven. 

“They said that the parliament had passed a bill which would allow the Homo sapiens to inhabit the mountains and use the resources for their economic well-being. As soon as the president signs it, the bill will be turned into a law.” Lizzy announced

     The wind moaned,

     The tiger howled,

     The pines whistled

      The hippopotamus grunted,

      The birds chirped,

       Lizzy flowed nonchalantly.

 The mood became sombre since the day Lizzy punched the information to Glauca. They waited fearfully for their new neighbour. With the current political period and the scarcity of land, the president would have no option but to please his people, or face their wrath. This would help his government to make settlement areas for the landless people alias squatters, then after his second and final term his legacy would be: Settling the landless.

 The wrath?

 To be axed,

And be thrown,

To the darkness,

Out of the throne

By the vote.

Since he was seeking a second and final term in office; a term that would make him receive millions of the tax payers cash in pension, asset and other special privileges, he signed the bill.

    The first intelligent being to arrive at the mountain was the logger, he had a power driven saw which he used to fell the aged pines, then moved to the oak. The wood became as silent as a grave. Then, the sparrow sang a dirge:

         Intelligent being,

         You upright being,

         You deserve to live,

          We deserve to live,

          Use the forest,

           Protect the forest

          Save the forest

          For the good of all.

          Today you destroy,

       The home of sparrows,

         Lizzy’s root,

         The bears cradle,

         The Oxygen cycle

         The water cycle

        Before you destroy,

       Consider tomorrow.

The man listened to the lyrics, considered his plan then decided to carry on with it. He smiled when he thought of the amount of money, he would get after felling the trees.

     “What has the future got to do with me?” He thought

       “Be quick! We need to get as much timber as possible.”

Several trees were felled. The logs were transported in twenty-wheeled trucks to unknown destination. The canopy reduced and some lights could be seen in once dark place.

      The miners came after the logger. He made horizontal shaft on shaft on Susana and took her bones. Sometimes he used explosives to break her spinal cord where valuable stone and minerals are.

  “OUCH!” Susana screamed. He left gaping wounds on Susana. Lizzy’s sweat dripping from the  heavens more often filled these holes. Lucifer, his siblings and his cousins slithered into Susana’s conspicuous scars and made them their homes. From here, they would hide from the vicinity and attack their intruders using their fangs. They would use these fangs to send strong missiles into the eyes of their enemies before shooting the culprit. Some of them would curl round their prey, suffocate them using their double-tailed fingers, oil them and swallow them whole.

 Susana felt powerless and weak. Her broken bones rolled to her spreading feet and crushed some homes. Her bones rattled under feet and the pain made her tremble. The intelligent beings who had constructed their homestead at her feet often felt the effect of her pain. Their houses bounced making everything in it to do the same. The weak earthen huts collapsed cutting short the dwellers’ breaths.

           Some miners went as far as scooping Lizzy’s intestines. They used basins to get the villi which were shiny golden brown. The deep ulcers left in Lizzy’s ileum proved dangerous to even the other intelligent beings. On more than one occasion, excited children accidently got stuck in this awful pits.     

               Lizzy was flowing silently as she pondered on what to do, the heavens flowed with a great thunderstorm .Tears from the mountain rejuvenated Lizzy. Lizzy was filled with vigour. She rushed downstream only to find Miderma, the beautiful widow’s son, and his horrible friends, filling their baskets with drowsy fish.

“How dare you use that filthy substance in my body?”

“How dare you try my patience?”

“How dare you interfere with my purity?”

“How dare you fill me with your demonic chemicals?”  

Lizzy roared. Her hue turned scarlet with fury. The boys except Miderma were able to escape Lizzy’s wrath on time. Miderma screamed once and sunk into Lizzy. He reappeared about one hundred metres from where he was before being carried away by floodwaters, then disappeared.

     The semi-nude boys ran back to the village screaming hysterically throwing the entire place in confusion.

   “She has taken him!”

     “He has gone!”

       “God forgive us!”

       The frenzy shocked the village.

“Who has taken who?”

 “Who has gone?”

    “What has happened?”

           The elderly villagers tried to calm the traumatized boys and get the information from them in vain. Just then Moses, the village herdsman came pushing the animals into the homestead too fast increasing the already present anxiety.

  “What‘s wrong Moses?” The village elder enquired.

        “I had taken the animals to replenish their souls and quench their thirst from Lizzy, then grazed them along and feed them on the juicy grass along her banks. Lizzy suddenly expanded and roared. She got furious with the boys and swore to devour them, the other boys escaped but Miderma was swept and carried downstream in the floodwaters. The village gave a sigh of agony and defeat. Reality dawned on them. There were cries of anguish. The women wailed and screamed. Miderma’s mother ran towards the river. Some strong and fast men ran after her and carried her shoulder high back to the homestead where she was comforted and kept under watch as preparations of retrieving the corpse from Lizzy were made.

 The search proved futile as Lizzy adamantly refused to surrender the dead. The service of a famous diviner was sought.

    “You must appease Lizzy, the River god from whom Lizzy got her name.

      You must ensure that Lizzy is not contaminated from any source

       You must clean the river bank, collect all the plastic materials

       You must stop making Lizzy your dumpsite and your place of sewage disposal.”

 Cleaning the river took almost a fortnight. On the thirteenth dawn, Miderma’s corpse was found sprawled on a rock at the bank. The villagers maintained the river’s purity for a while. Then being the forgetful goldfish, the first cousin of the warthog resumed their normal “I DON’T CARE “attitude. The Seven Demons as taught by the Rabbi gained momentum and things took the worst turn. Factories disposed their waste into Lizzy. Her resting place, Oceania, was often contaminated with oil spills ,metals, chemicals and other toxic material. The aquatic lives were adversely affected. However, due to some supernatural forces some fish mutated and became tolerant to lethal pollutants.

   If you think this is funny, take note that, the delicious, fish that you are served with may contain quantities of mercury. You would appreciate being nourished with MERCURY CURRY, wouldn’t you?

              Lizzy and her relatives, Susana and her friends the Cedars, the monsoon winds and the other Supreme Beings’ creations, watched silently at the atrocities against them by the Homos sapien sapiens. These Adamic offsprings bragged that they were the custodians of all the creations, that they were authorized to guard and exploit the resources by the Supreme Being Himself.

       “The wounds these people have inflicted me with are paining. They ooze a lot of pus and my

   Flesh can’t stop falling off my hot skin,” Susana complained one winter morning. There was snow on the mountain, some of the pits left by the excavators had water which had turned into ice.

        “Your pain cannot compare to mine,” Cedrus said. All that is left of my family are skeletal remains. Remains with no life. Not able to clean the air and cool the temperature. The water cycle and oxygen cycle where we are the major shareholders and stakeholders have been interfered with. I only hope that we are not faced with extinction.  My back hurts. The herbalists keep slashing it to use the bark for healing. He doesn’t realize that by peeling me with his sharp dagger continuously will in the long –run kill me. I wonder what he will use for his trade once I die. He doesn’t understand that his sustainability depends on me. Look, at them they are now holding conferences on climate change while still destroying my family. They pretend to pass bills that protect the Ecosystem yet their leaders engage in charcoal trade and export Rosewood logs to overseas countries. They have replaced the free oxygen that we give them with air conditioners.” He started sobbing.

      “Don’t cry.” Red-eyed Vireo pleaded with Cedrus. “We are all disillusioned we are weaker than the mountain lions save for our ability to fly , these kings of the jungles are endangered species. I fear we might all be wiped out by the current situation. I observe every day the animal-human conflicts due to the destruction of the animal habitat by human interference. Look Susana, I can see some men dropping from a plane. I can see cables dropping.”

    “Oh my, now they want to fill me with radioactive, Susana complained

 “You need not moan, the mountain may not be affected with this radioactive to a larger extent than the humans. The humans suffer from terminal illnesses, sterility and loss of senses,” Lizzy hypothesized.      

 Jasper who had been listening to this conversation waded towards the river bank. He opened his mouth exposing his conical teeth. One of the boys who was contesting on who would throw a bottle or sand-filled plastic bags deepest into the water spotted him.

     ”Croc …….!” His scream filled the air. All the women who were washing linen and utensils, the men who were panning Lizzy’s villi, ran for safety.

      “Cowards!” Jasper hissed. They entangle my home with their murderous plastic, then escape for dear lives. They choke my unborn babies without an iota of pity.

Who wants them dead?

 Is it not them that destroy the water?

, The water that holds their lives

They fill it will pollutants,

And destroy the levels.

They promote drought

And complain in floods

Who? tell me,

Who wants them dead?

Sparrows perched on Cedrus and announced: More of the intelligent beings are coming to reside on Susana. They have bigger power-driven saws. Before they start clearing the few remaining trees here, we will sing a song to educate them.

  “Really?” Nimrod the mountain Gorilla asked “Do you think they’ll even pay attention to the lyrics? Will they even get the intended lesson in your song bearing in mind the universal presupposition that only they are naturally intelligent?”

     “Well, my friend, we share the same Creator and live in the same environment, don’t we?” the sparrows answered.

        The intelligent being came to fell the trees, then the musician feathered creatures sang this song. The tune was too sweet to be ignored:

             Trees are beautiful,

               Trees are wonderful,

               Let us all plant trees.

          They give us shades,

           They give us fruits,

            They give us timber,

             Let us all plant trees.

               Birds perch their nests

               Animals find shelter

                 They control erosion

             Let us all plant trees

Cut trees to invite hunger

Cut trees to lack oxygen,

 Cut trees, you are dead

       Avoid afforestation,

     Embrace afforestation

      Prevent desertification

     Let us all plant trees.

The man dropped his saw at the feet of Cedrus, took out his smart phone and filmed the musical birds. He posted it to social media sites and other websites. He was awarded for this rare piece.

    Today, the Homo sapien sapiens are trying to mend the ecosystem by embracing afforestation.

 “I believe we should give the devil his due, who deserves credit for this change of attitude? Is it the filmmaker or the sparrows? Lizzy asked

      They argued for sometime

 “Give your brain some time to think, then we will vote to determine the winner, but, do not ask for any bribe .Receiving bribes for such crucial matter is suicidal.” Lizzy concluded then started singing as she flowed downhill. All the others joined

          Dave the hippopotamus, sang in bass,

The sparrows could yodel and use any of the voices found on keyboard as the situation demanded.

The Cedar and the oak sang in tenor while stripped zebra gave a wonderful alto,

 Perhaps, the pines’ soprano reached the entire region.

The mountain bears voice could not be found on the keyboard but it did not matter ,did it?

Susana hummed together with the gently blowing wind.

 “Trees are wonderful,

     Trees are beautiful

 Let us all plant trees”

.