"The Lorax: O'Hare's Epilogue"
Dizzy and soaked in his own blood, O'Hare lies, his eyes unable to focus on his surroundings. His contact lens in his left eye has come out and he is in searing pain. His breathing is laboured, and he tastes blood. In his blurry field of vision, he sees a woman with short, frizzy orange hair, over-long arms, and lilac clothes standing before him.
'Na...Nadja...?' he thinks. His eyes slip shut.
Aloysius O'Hare awakes to find himself standing, clad in a white robe, in an uncertain place. Thick, dark trees surround him. He bites his lower lip.
'Am...am I in the Aokigahara?' he thinks, casting about at the gnarled, twisted branches. 'No, the trees there don't look like this. Where am I?'
"Aloysius-kun?" He hears a familiar voice behind him and turns fast to see a beautiful, young Japanese woman with smooth, shiny, waist-length black hair clad in a pastel green kimono standing behind him. A warm smile stretches across both of their faces.
"Okasan! Mama!" O'Hare runs to this woman and she lowers herself to hug her dwarf-son. After a few moments, O'Hare pushes his mother away. "Mom, am I dead?" Yukiko O'Hare smiles and shakes her head.
"Aloysius-kun, are you still familiar with "The Divine Comedy"?" O'Hare nods and his mother smirks. "Hello, Dante. I am Virgil."
"So, this is...?"
"It's your coma-dream, akachan." she roughs his hair up. She kneels down so that she is eye-level with her adult son. "Aloysius-kun, you know I love you very, very much and always have, but you were a very bad man sometimes. This coma-dream is not going to be so much of a punishment as it will be your chance for redemption, just as going through the Inferno was for Dante."
"So this is all a dream? I'm not really dead?"
"No." She looks him over. "Are you ready, musuko?" Aloysius stares into the long dark of the twisted forest ahead.
"Yes, mom. I'm ready." the two of them join hands and begin their walk through Aloysius's personal hell.
Inside of a private hospital room, a man with fading orange hair and a dagger ear ring sits at his diminutive son's hospital bed. The small former businessman's body is completely enshrouded in a full-body cast. Tubes run in and out of his body, and machines beep. The tall, thin Irishman cries softly at his adult son's bedside.
"Aloysius, please...if you're in there, don't leave me. Don't give up. I'm here. Nadja's here. You were hurt so bad son-they had to take your kidneys but Nadja gave you one of hers. Turns out, you're a match." He wipes away tears. "I always knew you two were a perfect match." He strokes his son's smooth, shiny hair. "Please, Al. Don't leave me. Please...I can't...First Ulysses, then your mother...don't leave me alone. I can't do it alone, Aloysius." He cries softly, lying his head on his son's chest-his heart-beat silent through the thick plaster cast. "You know how nuts your uncle went when Genevive died, and he still had Cael and Nanette and everyone. O'Hares don't handle loss well-you know this. Please, Al. Come back to me. Please son...please..." A short, plump nurse enters the room.
"I'm sorry, Mr. O'Hare. The visiting hours are over. You can come back tomorrow and sit with your son if you want." Murray looks up, tears in his emerald eyes. He stands, unsteadily, and walks to the nurse.
"I don't care how mad you all are at him, don't let anything happen to my son. Please. He's all I have."
"I'll make sure he's okay, sir." Murray nods, still crying, and leaves the hospital room.
Murray slips into a small bar in lower Thneedville and sits. He looks up at the young, brown-haired bartender.
"I'd like some whiskey, please." he says, his voice shaky.
"Alright. What br-"
"Any'll do." The bartender pours some whiskey into a shot glass and sits it down. "Leave the bottle."
"Yes, sir." Murray slowly nurses the shot and pours a bit more into the glass. He lets his mind drift.
'Al...' he thinks, 'All your life, I've worried about you. From the moment you were born-they had to test you for Kawasaki's because of you being half-Japanese...that's when they found it...your dwarfism. I knew something was up when you were born. You were to term, but you were so small. Fully developed baby boy, perfectly healthy, completely to term, but so small. So much smaller than Lee was when he was born. When Dr. Alvarez told us you have a genetic form of proportionate dwarfism, I was so worried. Alvarez was a good guy; recommended us to Dr. Kenneth Strings. Strings was a great guy, too. Little Person, just like you. Proportionate Dwarfism like you, but he was a little bigger than you-just shy of four feet. You always worried about Genevive going to the doctor, but you were in her same boat. I don't know if you ever realized how dangerous your condition could be. I always had them check you, inside and out. I remember about that little guy from "Fantasy Island"-how his insides grew too big for him and he killed himself. I was so scared that that would happen to you. "I don't like that Barium stuff, Otosan. It's icky." I always took you out for a milkshake after that; get the "icky taste" out of your mouth. You always used Japanese so much more than Lee. Otosan. Daddy. You were a good boy, Aloysius. So sweet, but damn, when your voice changed, it changed. So sweet. So kind. So gentle. Always wanted to make friends; flittered like a butterfly. That's what you were. My little butterfly-boy. My "Little Wing". Like you were desperate for someone to look past your dwarfism and see you for the sweet little boy you were...what happened to you, Al? You became so greedy, so self-interested. You used to be so altruistic. Even when you first started your company; you wanted everyone to have fresh air, but the money got to you. Over time, I saw my sweet little Al vanish and this new man take his place. I loved you still-I didn't stop loving you, but you were a lot harder to love when you changed. You were my baby, my last child. Nothing you could have done could have made me stop loving you, but you disappointed me when you changed like that, Al. I felt like I lost my baby. Please, Al, if-no, when you come back, come back as Al. Please don't come back as O'Hare.' Murray finishes the bottle and wanders back home.
Yukiko and Aloysius stand, observing a small boy playing happily with a Digimon toy of some sort.
"That me?" O'Hare asks.
"Yes, musuko. Watch." The child continues playing with the toy-a plastic Angemon figure and slowly, the toy morphs into Devimon. The boy changes, the sweet innocence leaves his dark eyes, replaced by burning fury. The child erupts into screaming, rage in his voice, though his words are a mixture of Japanese and English. Flames surround the boy as he changes into a man.
"What is this, mom? I thought you said this would be like "The Inferno". How is this like "The Inferno"?"
"It is your coma dream. It has the form of "The Inferno", but contains your sins. Wrath-which we are watching now, Greed, Pride, Lust, Sloth, Gluttony, and Envy."
"The Seven."
"Hai. You never had a problem with carnal Lust, and for that I am proud of you. You only were with one woman-the German girl, but you felt other Lust." O'Hare blushes.
"Mom..."
"This is your coma dream, son. I know what you know. What your heart knows, even if it doesn't want to know, so I know you only were with one woman." The two of them watch as O'Hare's rage burns, the flames surrounding his cousin Genevive, cutting her off from his former employee and their children. Genevive begins to burn, her screams filling the air.
"Why her?"
"Your anger separated you. Genevive couldn't handle conflict and fighting; couldn't stand arguing. The hatred you felt towards Melvin Cromwell; the anger you felt that he married Genevive further worked to divide the two of you; to cause a rift." Genevive burns to cinders and the flames turn on his parents, charring both of them. "Your anger made your father and I afraid to talk to you; afraid of your temper." Finally, the flames engulf Nadja.
"NO! Nadja! Mom! Make the fire stop! Please, don't make me watch her burn!" Yukiko puts her hands on her son's shoulders.
"I cannot, Aloysius-kun. You have to watch. You took your frustrations out on her. The two of you would fight, your frustration towards her jealousy flaring your temper. You would scream at her as she would scream at you. In the end, your anger; your Wrath burned her, too." The flames die down, leaving a blanket of ash and O'Hare sobbing on his knees, his hands planted in the dark ash, dirtying his slightly yellow skin.
"Nadja...koibito...my beloved...my love..." He feels his mother rub his back.
"Musuko, we have to move on. Six more of your sins you must witness-"
"But I'm sorry! I'll go back, I'll be good! I don't want to see any more!" Yukiko shakes her head.
"Gomen, Aloysius-kun, but that is not how this works. You are not ready to wake up, physically and mentally. Your body is severely damaged right now, and you still have many lessons you must learn."
"I swear, no more temper. Please! Let me wake up, okasan! Please! Kudasai!" Tears roll down his cheeks.
"I am sorry, Aloysius-kun. We have to move on to Pride." The ash disappears, replaced by golden streets. O'Hare looks up to see Thneedville very different. Tall pagodas replace the architecture of Thneedville, made of the finest building materials. Shrines to "O'Hare Air" dot the town and golden statues of him, posed as if he were Buddha rest in the shrines. O'Hare sees himself as he is-as a grown man descending a long stair-case dressed in the regalia of an Edo-period Emperor, Nadja beside him dressed as an Edo-period Empress. All the residents of Thneedville are dressed in Edo-period clothing and bow low before him, kowtowing. They avert their eyes from his visage as if he were a god; as if looking upon his countenance would burn their eyes-like looking at the sun itself.
"What's this?"
"Your sin of Pride. In your eyes you were a god. Very prideful." Charles Wiggins hangs by his neck, his body full of arrows, left for crows to peck. Ted stands, a katana drawn, and the boy is shot down before he can reach "Emperor O'Hare". O'Hare nods to Morty and McGuirk, dressed as samurai, and the two of them drag Helen Wiggins out from the crowd and throw her at his feet. She begs for her life, for forgiveness for her husband's actions and her son's attempt at his life. Emperor O'Hare only smirks and Morty and McGuirk run her through, her blood spilling on the golden streets as she sputters for a few moments, dying.
"Why did I do that? Why did I have them kill Helen, too?"
"She had to pay for her son's actions. None can stand against the great god-emperor Aloysius Iori O'Hare." He turns to his mother, confusion on his face.
"I was never like that! I never saw myself as a god..."
"Didn't you? Musuko, I told you, I see what your heart sees, even if it does not want to." The old Japanese version of Thneedville slips away.
"What now, Virgil?" O'Hare asks his mother. The scene shifts to a school-to Greenville Elementary. A young Aloysius O'Hare walks, alone, through the white-washed halls. Around him, other children laugh and play. The small boy grits his teeth.
"...Envy..." O'Hare says. He watches his younger-self look back at the other children, hiding his tears. "They always left me out...all I wanted was to be part of them..." His young self hears the other children giggle and sees them try not to look at him. A young Mrs. Wiggins-Helen Cohen, approaches him. She tries to get him to go outside, to the playground with the rest of the kids and he shoves her away, slapping her hand. She draws her hand back and leaves with the other children. The scene shifts and he sees himself, sitting alone on a swing-set while the other children are crowded around another boy with brown hair. They all laugh and play a game of tag with him, then dodge-ball, no one approaching young Aloysius.
'I don't need them. What's so great about Kyle Hardwick? He thinks he's so cool. They all do. What's so great about him? That he plays guitar? Big deal. My mom's better. I don't need them. Why do I care, though…?' young Al thinks.
"I remember this day...I don't remember shoving Helen Cohen away, but I remember this day." He turns to his mother. "Why can I hear my younger self's thoughts?"
'One day, they will all beg for my attention. I swear. They will wish they could be my friends. They'll be sorry. I'll show them for snubbing me, for treating me like a freak.' he wipes away tears.
"You envied the attention and affection the other children showed to Kyle, Aloysius-kun. You envied him so much that you pushed everyone else away-except Nadja. Your Envy is what planted the seed so early in you-the seed that would grow into your Pride. Even now, your Envy towards him fuels your desire to be loved by the people in Thneedville."
"That was so long ago, mom. I had completely forgotten about Kyle Hardwick and his stupid guitar...well, maybe not so much."
"See? You have to let go of your envy. People will accept you if you accept them."
"They treated me like a freak, mom!"
"I know, akachan, I know. Shikata ga nai. I know that there is only so much rejection and ostracization a person can take before they shut everyone out...but that you allowed in other people; Genevive, Naiko, Nadja, and, eventually Dr. Logan Pennington-you can let people in. You should let people in, Aloysius-kun." He nods.
"I see, mom. I'll try to let people in and give up my envy."
"Are you ready for the next, Aloysius-kun?"
"Yes, mom. I'm ready." he says, trying to be brave. Again, the scene shifts to Thneedville. This time, the town is mostly in ruin. People wander in rags, the sick and starving die in the streets. Atop it all sits Aloysius O'Hare in a gold palanquin, carried by Morty and McGuirk. They carry him to an opulent, old-world castle and inside is more money than is imaginable. Those who are still able to walk dump the last of their money into a basin to take a breath from a small mask. "Greed." He says.
"Correct."
"My greed would have bled the town dry. They don't even need to buy my air, but I still sold it to them and look for new ways to get as much of their money as possible. I mean, seriously? "Diet" Air? What the hell is that? What the hell was the matter with me?"
"It seems you recognize this sin in yourself well, musuko." She pats him on the back. "Your Greed also served as Gluttony-for you, it was no food, but wealth for which you hungered."
The town shifts again, this time, everyone in town wears a mixture of blue, white, and grey. All houses are coloured in this mixture, too. Every man, woman, and child wears a pin bearing the insignia of "O'Hare Air". Several people, clad predominately in grey with white arm-bands with the symbol in blue in the center patrol the streets. Everyone breathes nothing but pure O'Hare Air through breath-masks.
"What's this?"
"Lust."
"But I thought lust meant-"
"There are other forms of lust, son. Your lust was not of flesh, but of power. Of absolute power, control, and unquestioned rule." A person, Ted, tries to remove his mask and is shot down by the grey-clad, fascist men while a monotone voice repeats on loop that they will buy only O'Hare Air, that to fail to do so is to die. Führer O'Hare appears before them, clad in a slightly modified version of his own suit, standing from the deck of his blimp, his image projected onto the holo-panel on the side.
"All will obey. All will submit." All at once, the people of Thneedville respond:
"Yes, sir!" The small, fascist-dictator variant of O'Hare smirks and returns to his blimp, Ted's body left in the street to rot, as all who question him.
Finally, the town shifts again, but this time, is exactly as it is. O'Hare sits at his desk while an obscured person tries to tell him of a more permanent solution to the air pollution problem in Thneedville. He stares at the ceiling, ignoring this person.
"I'll bet this is Sloth. Only one left. Has to be."
"Hai, musuko. Your sin of Sloth lied in the fact that, regardless of the fact that you knew how to permanently fix the problem-even in a way that would benefit your company, you did nothing. It was a sloth of the mind-complacency."
"I understand. When I awake, I will aid in the effort to fix the ecology. My air-company was a Band-Aid. I see that now, and I see how my greed held me prisoner. Wrath, Pride, Envy, Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth. That's all Seven. Can I wake up, now, mom?"
"I'm afraid not. We are still in your inferno, Aloysius-kun. You recall how Virgil and Dante escaped the Inferno, don't you?"
For the final time, Thneedville shifts. Melted plastic fills the town, the sky filled with smog. Clockwork gears turn in the distance, their clanking barely audible. The air is foul-burns the nose and throat and the hardened melted plastic beneath Aloysius and Yukiko cracks as they walk. The Thneedville sign flickers for a moment, replaced by "COCYTUS".
"Well, that's subtle." O'Hare scoffs. He looks over at Once-ler, standing in the center of the melted plastic up to his knees but standing over 1000 feet tall and dressed in his "Greed-ler" apparel. He is still and silent as stone; his eyes staring forward behind his sunglasses. "And that's Satan, right?"
"Yes, son."
"Well," O'Hare sighs, "Let's climb our way out of Hell, mom." The two of them begin their ascent, and just as in "The Divine Comedy", find themselves upside down as they pass the middle of Once-ler's body. Finally, they drop off the top of his top-hat onto a new surface.
"So...Purgatory, now? Like in the book? How's part two of "The Divine Comedy" going to be butchered by my unconscious?" Yukiko shakes her head.
"Iie. No. There is no Purgatory part, ichiban." she rubs his head. "I am afraid that this is where I must leave you, though." O'Hare pouts.
"Aw! Is it because the next part would be "Paradiso" and you can't enter the Christian Heaven because you were a Buddhist? That's bull-crap, mom."
"Remember, Aloysius-kun, this is your coma-dream. I can't go with you to the next phase of your redemption because you know that Virgil couldn't follow Dante on the last part of his journey." O'Hare bites his lip.
"Mom...okasan...could I...could I give you one last hug? Please?" She slips towards him, lowering herself and taking her tiny son in her arms. He tightens his grip on her as much as his short, stubby arms will allow and shuts his eyes tight, a few tears escaping. "...mom...okasan...I...I miss you..." His mother slips away and O'Hare opens his eyes to find himself not in any classical depiction of paradise, but in a void. Blackness surrounds him and in the distance, he can see only a tiny red light. He sighs and begins walking, alone, to his small, crimson beacon in that grand abyss.
As he walks, he feels cold; his breath hanging in front of his face until he finally reaches the origin of the red light. Aloysius stands there a moment, his mouth agape. A red lava lamp. A red fucking lava lamp. It was almost too stupid for him to believe.
"Oh, for Pete's sake! Unconscious! What the hell? Quit butchering the fucking classics!" A moment later, he is able to see an ugly, worn, orange-upholstered chair sitting next to the lava lamp. His eyes brighten as he sees the thin person lounging, awkwardly, in the chair. "Genevive!" he cries out.
"Hey, lil' Al. How's it hangin'?" she laughs, the same dopey laugh he always remembered.
"What is all this? This is nothing like the final part of "The Divine Comedy"." She takes a hit off a bong.
"Dante part's over, lil' cus."
"Then what is this?" She squirms to where she is sitting up a bit.
"This is where you have to make your choice. You've been out longer than you think. You're about to wake back up out of your coma. It's real fun. They treat you real cool when you wake up from those." She changes her tone. "But you have to make a decision about exactly as whom you will return." Two figures are illuminated by Genevive's sides. One is himself as a grown man, wearing his suit, his same, smug demeanor. The other is himself younger, clad in his janitor's jumpsuit, the braces and glasses still present. "You gonna go back as douche-bag business guy or the sweet little Al that I remember, that I know is still in there?"
"Go back as me." His CEO self says. "As me, you had power, money, and fame. You had it all and no one could touch you."
"But you lost that. The company is dead." His janitor self replies. "Return as me. Remember, we were happy. It didn't matter that we had no money, we were happy."
"We can always go to a new town and sell the retards there something they think they need. An idiot is born every second: you know this."
"Remember all that mom showed you. Remember it. Do you really want to go back on the promises you made? Do you really want to come out of this coma-dream learning nothing? Do you really want to throw away this chance for redemption?"
"Money."
"Your soul."
"Power."
"Nadja." O'Hare sees something under the table upon which the lava lamp rests. It is naked, human, and covered in cuts and bruises, blood staining its slightly yellow skin.
"What's that?" Aloysius asks Genevive.
"That's your third option. The longer you take to decide between the two of them, the stronger he gets." Slowly, the battered form under the table raises to its feet. O'Hare recognizes this figure as himself and blushes at the visage of his own nudity. Its right eye is blackened and swollen shut, the nose broken, the lips split and bleeding.
"We don't have to go back at all, Aloysius..." it says, its voice in a half-sob.
"Don't listen to him!" both the innocent and corrupt O'Hare say at once.
"Life hurts so much. All our lives, we've been mistreated. We've been left out. We've been beaten. We've been raped. We've been left for dead. Do you really want to go back to that pain? It is so much easier to go with me." Broken-O'Hare extends his right hand, many of the fingers broken.
"Better make your choice, lil cousin." Genevive says, taking another hit. O'Hare stands for a moment, watching his dead cousin do what she loved most in life.
"Genevive...what does it feel like...?"
"What's what feel like?"
"...dying..." She snorts and sits her bong next to her lava lamp.
"This is your show, remember? All in your head? I'll only answer what you think dying is like: you know that. Make your choice." O'Hare studies his three forms, bites his lip, and goes to his innocent self.
"I choose to go back as him. I want redemption. I want my soul back...and most of all, I want Nadja back." The broken version falls to the ground, dissolving into a pool of blood while the corrupt version swears and kicks the ground, cursing himself for "choosing wrong". A white light surrounds both O'Hare and the version of himself he had chosen.
"Aloysius...Al...Please, wake up. Please, mien leibhaber. I am here with you. I forgive you. I take you back. Please, come back to me..." Nadja says, stroking his hair. Slowly, O'Hare opens his dark eyes.
"Nadja...?" he asks, tears rolling down the sides of his face. Nadja's dark blue eyes brighten behind her glasses.
"You're awake! Leibhaber, I'll accept all of the cha-"
"Nadja...you don't have to change for me. You never should have in the first place. I give up my company. I don't care what happens, all I want is you. I love you, Nadja Weiss." A few more tears come. "I just hope you...I hope you still love me..."
"I do! I never stopped loving you!"
"Nadja..." he smiles up at her and the two of them kiss, tenderly, softly.
"I managed to save your money before the account was drained." she says to him.
"Good. Let's leave Thneedville; go somewhere nice. I'm thinking Okinawa."
"Okinawa sounds great to me, Aloysius."
"First, Nadja Weiss, will you marry me? I'm sorry I can't move yet or I'd ask you properly."
"Yes. I always would have." She says, peppering him with kisses.
"Let's get married as soon as I'm out of this cast, then off to Okinawa."
"For our honeymoon?"
"For the rest of our lives." He says. "There's nothing for either of us in Thneedville anymore. I'll bring my father and you can bring yours. Let's sever our ties to this place and start fresh and new in Okinawa." The two of them kiss again, deeply.