A Cat At the End of the World, page 18
Arion was silent for a long time, long enough for Kalia to be breathing normally again. Finally, Arion said, “You know what I’m going to do to the polis? I will suggest to the polis to become the owner of the forest. They will like that, they’ll vote for it. And in this way I will protect the forest because the polis is so stupid that they protect only that which is their property. How did I not think of this before?”
“Why are you talking about the forest?”
“Someone cut down the oak next to the leaning rock. I saw it yesterday.”
“Our oak?” asked Kalia. He wanted to talk about Mikro, but this distracted him.
“Yes,” Arion said. “Our oak, Miu and El’s… But it wasn’t ours. It was no one’s, you understand? That’s the problem.”
“But the oak is no one’s. It’s… the oak’s,” Kalia said, staring at Arion and thinking, Why is he so stupid?
“Kalia, the law doesn’t accept this, the law says it’s wild. Then it is better if it is someone’s.”
“An oak is not a slave,” Kalia said. “Why does it have to have an owner?”
“Human law is like that, that’s what I’m talking about.”
“I’m against the law,” Kalia said.
“That’s good, but it isn’t smart,” Arion said. “Whatever is outside of the law, it is outside property, and then it is wild and can be killed. If you’re against the law then you’re wild. You’re not human.”
“I’m not interested in being human,” Kalia said. “I can’t bear to see Mikro’s sores.”
Arion thought, Should Kalia grow up, become a man? He still believed he was better off as he was and it wouldn’t work this way. He’d be punished, and lose everything. He wouldn’t have any rights, he’d be a slave, an animal.
Arion said, “It’s like this with or without you. Mikro won’t be better off anywhere else. You feel bad for having brought him, but it’s not your fault.”
“Who cares if it’s my fault,” Kalia said. “The main thing is to run away.”
“Hey, you silly fool, you have rights here.”
“I have also been a slave and I escaped.”
“Why are you repeating this, you idiot? I’ll pretend I haven’t heard it.”
“Because. You don’t know. Mikro took me in. When I escaped with Miu.”
“You escaped with Miu?”
“Yes, and Mikro took us in.”
“You owe Mikro?” Arion looked at Kalia with respect, as if the boy had grown up.
“I owe him, yes,” Kalia said. He wanted to add: but it’s not just that, he is also my friend. He paused. He saw that Arion was thinking.
“You owe the donkey? And that’s why you want to escape with him?”
“I’m doing it tonight. You keep an eye on Miu, please.”
Arion sighed as if catching air from up above and said, “You’re really already a man, Kalia. But do you know one day you have to go to Diomedes and…”
“I’m not a man,” Kalia said.
“No?” Arion laughed unwittingly.
“Mikro and I have to run,” Kalia said, standing to leave.
“Stop!” Arion shouted. He knew how to give orders and it worked. “I won’t feed Miu and the kittens. I’ll kill them all!”
Kalia took a few steps back and muttered, “I shouldn’t have said anything to you.”
“You shouldn’t have,” Arion said. “Sit down and shut up, you idiot.”
Kalia sat down. So what if I am an idiot? he thought. Does that change things?
Arion said, “Someone will steal the donkey from you. And then you’ll both be slaves. I’d rather kill you both myself.”
Kalia thought that maybe Arion was right, and there was nowhere to run to. It would be hard to hide on the island.
“I’ll kill Miu and her kittens, and then I’ll set everything on fire,” said Arion. Then he narrowed his eyes and added, “You know, Kalia, only living things can burn. Or those that had been alive, like wood. Stone doesn’t burn. Only living things, connected to the sun. And if I think about it, I was always keen on a large fire!”
“You’re not like that,” Kalia said.
“I am and I’m not,” Arion said. “True, I haven’t killed many animals, except fish. I am not good, Kalia. But your debt to Mikro makes me a better person.”
Kalia didn’t really know what to do with this. He felt like everything was closed to him; he had no options. Back in Syracuse, he’d managed to escape, with Miu. Perhaps that had been a great exception.
“I will give you an ointment for the sores,” Arion said. “Put it on his back until we come up with something, otherwise I’ll kill you all right now.”
Kalia didn’t actually trust him, but he thought maybe it was better to do so.
Scatterwind
I THINK THAT people, because they domesticated animals that served them, thought the whole of the Earth could be their servant, and even found among their own species those whom they could own. As far as I recall, that hadn’t happened while they just had dogs. I later heard about those people who in ancient times populated America and Australia: they went there in the times when humans only had dogs and carried on living in the old way. They never domesticated animals for service. They looked at nature—at everything—differently. Everything I heard about them was familiar to me from old times. I wasn’t surprised they weren’t able to be slaves; when they were enslaved, they died quickly. They were the remains of the old human kind.
Maybe donkeys had been the catalyst; they weren’t kept for milk and meat, they were the true first laborers. When the peasants domesticated them down deep by the Nile, in the Nubia, the first pharaohs soon appeared. The donkeys later built the pyramids, together with the slaves. Sheep, goats, and cows had been domesticated before donkeys, but none of them were just workers. Was it donkeys that first gave the idea of a slave? No, not them, but the straw broke their backs, so to speak, and thus man got his idea of a worker. I saw people, those who worked the most, who knew donkeys were their brothers. But slavery, that comes from above. It is the organization from above.
Sometimes it seemed to me that ants had prisoners, slaves or something similar, I wasn’t sure, but I saw that people and insects have similarities in how they organize. Ants, bees, spiders, all of it, I saw, in some way made its reappearance in humans. I didn’t at first see what the difference was between free men and slaves, which confused me. Was it a matter of luck? Kalia and Pigras looked almost the same, because they had the same father, but Greek slaves and masters looked the same in any case. I saw later how people, whenever they could, wanted to take slaves whose skin was a different color, to better mask their own evil, which was even more repulsive. In those times the Greeks didn’t even have skin color to believe in, but they still believed in difference. Do you find it perhaps strange that I kept them on the side a bit and spent my time with cats and donkeys? That’s what I do to this day.
Aristotle said: “Again, thus it is between man and animals: domesticated animals are better in their nature to wild ones, and it is better for all of the tame ones to be ruled by man, for in this way they are kept safe. Still the same applies to the natures of men and women: the one is better, the other worse; the one the ruler, the other the subject. And the same pattern is necessarily the case for the whole of mankind too, for in the same way as the soul differs from the body, thus men differ from animals (and this is the way for those who are given to use their bodies for work, and who are at their best this way), they are slaves by nature, and it is best for them to be ruled by this principle, just as was the case with the things we mentioned. For a slave is someone who by nature is subject to someone else (and because of this he is the property of another), and who takes part in logos such that he can perceive it but not possess it.”
I read this on the beach once. I was peeking over the shoulder of some bearded student. The book was called Politics. It was quite clear to me that Politics was from the polis, and not from the air, forest, and water. You could see it later in the air too, in the forest, and in the waters. I tried to whisper to the student—imagine politics from the air, forest, and water—but he didn’t hear me.
I had expected more from Aristotle. But I have to give it to him, he lined it out neatly. First it was the animals, and then the idea of slavery was developed. All the way to the difference between body and soul. As a spirit, I felt a little uncomfortable because of it. But I could see that Aristotle was really an influencer.
I watched it all, unfortunately, a little from the sides. I had a spirit, but not a body. I was sometimes sorry about that. But if I’d had a body, they would have probably told me I didn’t have a soul.
Escape With Mikro
ARION HAD MADE a big catch and was grilling fish. Even Teogen and Oikistes were there, along with some Liburnians whom Arion introduced as Turus and Volsuna, because the Liburnians, as opposed to the Greeks who left their wives at home, came as couples. And not only that, Turus and Volsuna brought their children along too, three daughters and two sons. Miu and El hung around also; their kittens had already found a new home, which was not hard for Issa’s first litter. Kalia brought Mikro because it was a holiday.
When they had eaten well, Arion took Kalia aside and said, “You can now save Mikro.”
Kalia’s eyes shone for a moment and then he frowned. “How?”
“Give him to Turus and Volsuna.”
“But we can’t give him away,” Kalia said. “I already checked.”
Arion put his hand on Kalia’s shoulder and said, “You were ready to run away with Mikro and lose all your rights. Am I correct?”
Kalia nodded.
“We will give Mikro to Turus and Volsuna as their dowry. I’ve thought it through. No one in the polis is allowed to stop an engagement. That is the first rule of the apoikia: we must multiply. And in every colony the Greeks have married the people who were native. There are few Greek women here and if we don’t marry the Liburnians, there will be no apoikia. You understand?”
“No,” Kalia said.
“With the Liburnians, it’s the man who brings the dowry. It is their custom. You will give Mikro as your dowry.”
“What’s dowry?”
“What you give when you like a girl. That’s how it goes with Liburnians. Go on, take a look at their three daughters. Maybe you’ll like one of them?”
It was a strange question, but Kalia had found the one with the black curly hair nice, although he wasn’t intending to admit it. Earlier, she’d come up to stroke Mikro. Then Kalia told her the Liburnian words he knew and she laughed because he must have had funny pronunciation, or perhaps the Liburnians on Issa found Menda’s way of speaking funny. But she had understood him, so she told him the Greek words she’d heard. Then Kalia laughed because her Greek was funny.
“We could announce it today, or another time,” Arion said. “We will announce the engagement and give them Mikro. Teogen and Oikistes won’t have anything to say, they’ll have to drink to it, and that’s it. I’ve already spoken to Turus and Volsuna. They respect their daughters’ will. If none of them likes you, they’ll give the donkey back. That’s what the Liburnians are like, their women have rights. So, now it’s up to you. I mean, think of Mikro.”
Kalia was flabbergasted. “Am I getting married?”
“We can say today that it can be any one of the daughters. As if Oikistes and Teogen will remember who is who. We announce the engagement, Mikro goes as dowry, and the polis can’t touch him. You understand?”
“You really want me to get married?” Kalia asked.
“I don’t, but Mikro does,” Arion said. “And it’s not a wedding yet.… Just a thing.”
Kalia blushed, dumbstruck.
“Do you want to save Mikro or not?”
Kalia was silent.
“Miu brought you here. Mikro will find you a wife.”
Kalia’s eyes darted and he said, “I’m off.”
“Where to?”
“I’m off.”
“Think it over,” said Arion, “but please don’t run away now.”
Kalia went to the shore, sat on the beach. Miu followed him. Kalia looked at her as if to say, “Miu, can you believe this?” Miu blinked for a moment and looked at him again, as if to say, “Carry on.”
“It’s better if we run away,” Kalia said.
Miu looked up at him.
“What is this, Miu? I wanted to free Mikro but now I have to get married. I am not grown up yet,” he said and thought a little because he had been holding himself as if he were grown up for a while now. He wouldn’t have admitted this to anyone but Miu.
Miu sat by his thigh and watched the sea.
“Miu, is this freedom?”
Miu looked at him as if to say, “Don’t be a pain,” and rested her head on her front paws and continued to watch the sea.
Kalia was thinking about Mikro again. Could Mikro hold on a little longer? Then he wondered if Menda would have liked Arion’s words.
“And you, Miu? You also started early.”
Miu blinked as if in approval.
Then Arion appeared. He trampled the beach as if charging uphill. “We don’t have to make the decision today, Kalia. I thought you were in a rush, because of Mikro. But there is time. And, as I said, they can give the donkey back.”
Kalia sat up and said, “You know, Arion, your gait is bad.”
“It’s my age.”
“Like you’re some sort of an army.”
“Ah yes, that stays inbuilt.”
“Never mind,” Kalia said, “but please keep an eye on Miu.”
Arion frowned. “You’re really still thinking of escaping?”
Kalia nudged Miu and she rose sulkily. “Watch the way Miu walks.”
Kalia got up and started walking on the small pebbles. He said to Arion, “Does it look like I’m walking on water?”
Miu walked behind him, a step away from the sea, watching Kalia with interest. He walked softly, carefully, like someone with a mask who acted effortlessly.
Arion laughed and shook his head. “You want to teach me to walk at my age, is that it?”
Kalia was also laughing. “I’m getting married for Mikro and you’re going to complain about walking?”
Then Arion started behind him, acting like an armless cat. He chortled. Since he didn’t often laugh, it came out a little horsey.
Teogen had come to see where Kalia had gone off to and he watched them from a distance. And then the girl who had pet Mikro turned up beside him.
Teogen said to her, “You see, this is unbearable!”
As if she had and had not heard him, she began mimicking Arion from a few steps behind.
Teogen watched them and wondered again, Why are they doing this and what for? He sat on the beach and thought about going to Athens again, to bring his son back. But he’d resist him, for sure.
When they got back to the party, Kalia was afraid to look in the direction of Turus and Volsuna. He was also afraid to look at Avita, who sat beside them, the one who had walked behind them on the beach, and then ran off. Finally, he looked at her. She glanced back at him as if to jokingly say he was a fool. She was lanky and skinny, with black, curly hair.
Kalia thought of Menda in Syracuse, saw her sitting in the yard looking over the walls. I will learn Liburnian well, he thought as he spoke to Menda’s image in his mind. They will learn Greek from me. All for Mikro. You know how you said you had no use from being loved by an animal, but that you were happy anyway? Now you might say there was some use.
He went up to Mikro, resting in the shade. He didn’t have the cover on his back, the sores were healing. He stroked Mikro’s head and neck. He put his head on the donkey’s, pressed his ear against the animal’s. When he turned around, she was there, the daughter of Turus and Volsuna, and she was watching them.
“Why are you crying?” she asked.
He understood. “Me?”
She stroked Mikro’s neck.
Kalia said, “Even if I do sometimes cry, I am not spoiled.” Then he added, not knowing where it came from, because it sounded a little silly, “I’m actually very strong.”
“Avita,” she said. She touched her chest with her fingers. “Avita.”
He made the same movement and said, “Kalia.”
“You would look after Mikro?” he asked.
She stroked Mikro’s neck and confirmed with her eyes. “There’s no one to look after him?” she asked.
“No,” he said.
Arion came up to them later, gave them a handful of dry figs.
“I’ll give mine to Mikro,” Kalia said.
“There are some for Mikro, but you have to eat some, and Avita too, because these are figs I brought back from my hometown, Taranto, from Simon’s garden. One day I’ll tell you about Simon. Come on, try and see if they’re any good still, I’ve brought them from far away.”
The figs were very dry, but they were still good.
“You know, figs are all made out of seeds,” Arion said. “Now be careful where you shit tomorrow. Choose the most beautiful spots.”
