I decided to sleep a little late after the events that went on last night. I was still trying to process that there are humans with hybrid DNA of other species, or is it animals whose DNA was partially mutated to human? But either way, it still perplexed me of how this came to be.
When I was a kid, there were cartoons animals that had human-like qualities and thoughts, but I never would have imagined that those actually existed in real-life...until last night.
So I woke up at around seven or seven fifteen this morning, I just took a hot shower to try to use the running water to calm my nerves. At one point, I raised the temperature a little bit to try to wake myself up. Even when part of me still debated whether it was some kind of hallucination or something but I remember how Jasiri's paws and fur felt and it was too real to be a hallucination or prosthetic makeup.
After I put on some clothes, I decided to try to distract myself with a little music. So I went to my bedroom closet and I took out the large black plastic case that contained my double bass. When I carried the case, I suddenly remembered how heavy it was. It gave me memories back to when I was in high school and how I used to lug this thing to orchestra class and I used to get a lot of looks when I brought it to and from school on the Red Line. But to an extent, I guess I can understand them...you try not looking at a high school student sitting next to a large case while they try to finish their AP Bio homework on the train.
Anyway, I took out the instrument against the wall while I took out an old standee and some old sheet music, After placing the sheet music on the standee, I grabbed the bass, placed it in front of me and I grabbed my bow as I began to play the instrument.
I began to play the bass continuously, playing piece after piece in the sheet music. I haven't really got this intense with my bass since I was in high school or college. I played as if there was nobody around, just a lone geneticist playing the bass alone...until I heard a knock on the door.
I heard the knock about two hours after I started playing, so when I heard it, I placed my bow down, and walked towards the door.
"Who is it?" I asked.
"This is Charles, Charles Pariseau." The voice said. I began to become a little nervous considering that Mr. Pariseau is also my landlord.
I opened the door to see that Mr. Pariseau was standing in front of me. He looked pretty much the same as I saw him last time, with noticeable balding, while most of the remaining hair in the back of his head was grey with a few beige and tan strands, but that's normal for a guy in his mid-sixties. He was wearing a green short-sleeve shirt with a collar, black pants and brown shoes. He was also wearing a small pair of glasses with gold rims.
"Hello, Mr. Pariseau, how's life?" I said trying to make small talk.
"Well, my kids haven't spoken to me in five years, my wife left me for some hot-shot doctor and I'm stuck running this damn apartment building seven days a week, so nothing new." He said in an irritable tone.
"Okaay… What brings you here? Did something happen with my rent check?" I asked.
"No this has nothing to do with the check. I'm here because Ms. Abel from downstairs complained about music from your apartment because it's driving her dogs crazy. So can you please quiet down the music so that I don't have to report you for a noise complaint. Got it?" Mr. Pariseau asked quite irritatedly.
"Okay, sure no problem." I replied, while backing off a little bit.
"Good, just don't do anything that would cause me to come to your apartment again. So now excuse me, just let me watch my TV shows without any intrusions." Mr. Pariseau then said while walking towards the stairwell.
"Okaay..See you later. I guess." I said while I closed the door.
"Man, what an asshole." I whispered to myself. I get that Mr. Pariseau can be fastidious, but sometimes he takes it a little far. I then looked at the time on my phone and it is 10:30, so I thought that a jog could also be a good distraction from my thoughts.
I just changed into my black fitness shirt and some grey shorts on, placed my phone, keys, wallet and Ventra card in my pocket. I tied my hair into a ponytail as I usually do in a jog, and I just left, shutting the door behind me.
I decided that instead of taking the Blue Line to a jogging destination downtown, I'm just going to jog all the way there. So I left my apartment building, jogged down Milwaukee Avenue until I turned left on Fullerton. I jogged along Fullerton, crossing the bridge over the Chicago River and after jogging for fifteen minutes, I ended up near the North Pond in Lincoln Park. At some point, I just sat at the nearest park bench available, because I was insanely tired after jogging four miles.
I decided to check my phone for any e-mails and stuff. Other than the usually advertisement stuff and then I noticed that I have 10 unread text messages so I decided to check those out.
Okay, so I see that the first three are from my mother, let me see what said:
-Hi sweetie, how's it going? How's work at the museum going?
-My day has been great, I've met a new friend at the farmer's market and we have just talked for hours and hours.
-I also talked with your cousin Margaretta, she and her family got this new golden retriever, I believed that she named them Gek, I'm not sure why but Margaretta has always been a bit eccentric.
As I read the texts, I just laughed and sighed a little. My mom always seems to want to talk about everything that goes on in her day whenever she texts me. It's actually nice because compared to my other family members, I communicate with her a lot. I decided to reply back to her message:
-Hi Mom, everything is fine, I'm just going for a jog. Work is going great! It's nice to hear about your new friend and yeah Margaretta has always been the creative one! But she did end up to Julliard for undergrad on a full scholarship, so I guess it counted for something
I then went to look at some of the other texts. I saw that one is from my friend Kendall, with whom I went to high school with.
-Hey Edwin, it's been a while! How have you been? Did you receive the email of our ten year reunion? I can't wait to see you there! Details are in the email on location and times.
I decided to reply back with:
-Hi Kendall, I received the email and I can't wait to see you too!
I decided to check my emails after that and I actually did receive the high school reunion email, I just wanted to put the date and time on my phone as a reminder. I opened the email from two days ago, which said:
Hello Fellow Alum,
I would like to announce that in one month, the Hemingway College Prep High School Alumni Association is organizing the 10 year reunion of the Class of 2009. Press on the link below to RSVP. The reunion will be on August 10 from 4:00 PM to 10:00 PM, you can drop by anytime at the ballroom of Oak Trail Hotel at the corner of Clark and Menomonee. See you there!
Clara Moy, Class of 2009,
President of HCPHS Alumni Association
I copied and pasted the date time and location to a page in the Reminders App in my phone.I then decided to look at some of the remaining 6 unread texts. They are all from the gang from the museum; they are probably wondering about last night.
-Hey Edwin, it's Makini, I'm just hoping that you are alright. I know our origins may seem difficult to believe but trust me it is all true.
-I hope your weekend is going well and I also want to let you know that I do not hold anything against you for your reaction last night, Pete reacted in a similar way when he first found out. Anyway, have a good weekend! (smiley face emoji)
I just simply replied with, "Hi Makini, I'm alright, thank you. I'm still trying to process it a little bit but I'm starting to understand it."
After replying to Makini, I looked to see who else texted me:
-Hey Edwin, this is Beshte, just wondering how you are doing? I hope you are doing alright, we should definitely find a time to talk about any questions you may still have about the whole hybrid thing.
It was nice to see that many of my friends at the museum are not judging me for my behavior last night. Though I am not sure exactly how to approach the subject in later conversations. I just simply replied,
-Hey Beshte! I'm fine, I'm just out for a jog, how about you? I definitely think we should talk more often. So what have you been up to recently?
After sending that text, I went to see the other three messages that are still left to read. I saw that there were two from Bupu and one from Jasiri. Since his came earlier, I decided to read Bupu's first.
-Hello Edwin, I hope everything is going well for you. Sorry that we didn't tell you about us being hybrids and all that. Also, did you left a white pocket square at the gala last night? Because I found it on the floor when I left.
-Never mind, found a label, it's Pete's, I'll return it to him Monday.
I think that I'm just going to reply to that later and just move on to Jasiri's text.
-Hi Edwin, How's it going? I know that it's a little hard to believe our story at first, but I am more than willing to answer questions that you might still have about what we told you last night. I hope that everything is going alright with you this weekend. Just curious, are you up for a jog next weekend?
I was delighted to hear from her again, let's just hope things won't be awkward with us either in or outside of work. Sure, I'm afraid of things getting awkward with my friends and colleagues at the museum, but the last thing I want is for thing between Jasiri and I to get awkward. I'm not sure why but since we first met, I can't stop thinking about her in one way or another. Sure, she is attractive even in her hyena state, but I don't really know a lot about her and her life in these Outlands and Pride Lands they mentioned. Perhaps a jog would be a good opportunity to get to know each other more. So I looked at my phone and began to type
-Hey Jasiri, I'm doing well. I would love to do a jog with you next weekend. Want to go south bound by Millennium Park or Museum Campus, or do you want to go northbound towards Montrose Beach? I'm fine with either and I also want to bring some refreshments along because I seriously owe you for the ride last night.
After sending the text, I continued to jog towards through the park towards the lake. I soon arrived at one of those smaller beaches right next to North Avenue Beach. My feet were developing blisters from jogging, so I decided to take my shoes and socks off to cool my feet in the water. It felt pretty refreshing to get a chance to cool down, but to be honest I've always liked being near the lake, ever since I was a kid, so it's nothing new to me, but still, it feels nice.
I've waded my feet in the water for like ten minutes until I decided to get out and put my socks and sneakers back on. I began to walk back towards the park. While walking through the park, I seem to be approaching a couple on a bench seeming to be talking to each other and they actually looked kind of familiar.…
Oh wait a minute...I met them at the gala last night. The woman is Kiara, the museum president's daughter who's in the General Council and the guy with her is Kovu, her husband from the artifact conservation lab...who was also the brown lion I saw in the bathroom at that time. Also based on Makini's story from last night, they allegedly helped united two prides and they were next in line to be king and queen of the Pride Lands.
I didn't want to risk getting into an awkward conversation with them, so I decided to slowly walk past around their bench in a way so that they won't notice. So far it seems to be going well, they seem to be busy snuggling with each other to notice,but then ...Da-Dun
The text tone went off on my phone, I guess I forgot to put my phone on vibrate.
"Damn!" I whispered to myself. I then took out my phone to see who it is. It's from Jasiri.
-I think that we should go near Montrose Beach, I like the nature scenery of the area and I think it has some more privacy for us to talk when we get tired. Does 10 AM on Saturday sound okay for you?
I then tried to reply as fast as I could:
-That sounds great! I'll see you then!
I began to continue to walk- until I heard:
"Hey...wait? Aren't you that new guy from the genetics lab at the museum?" a female voice said. I turned around to see that Kiara and Kovu were both looking towards me...busted!
"Thanks a lot Jasiri" I sarcastically thought to myself, then turning my head back towards them. "Hi there, and yeah, I am from the genetics lab." I replied, trying to be as nonchalant as possible.
"Oh yeah, I remember you! I'm sorry to hear about the tranquilizer gun when you saw our transformation to our native species states. I guess it must have shocked you seeing a bunch of lions and other animals in the and your research on lichen DNA and environmental conditions seemed pretty interesting." Kovu then said.
"It's okay, Jasiri, Ma Tembo and a few others explained your situation to me about the Pride Lands, Outlands, Tree of Life and what not. I'm sorry about that drought around twenty years ago." I said.
"It's alright, sometimes it can be a little painful to recall but it was over twenty years ago and we have adjusted to the human world, even with the transition between human and two-legged lions everyday and night." Kiara said.
"Okay, that's nice to hear. But I do have two questions for you, A. Do you know why Rafiki has a tranquilizer gun? And B.) Has he always been...unique?" I asked them. These questions seemed to have provoked some light laughter from them.
"Sure, the tranquilizer gun I think he said he got it from Amazon for when his tea can't calm people down since people kept getting hurt by hitting them with his cane like he did in the Pride Lands. For the second question, if you meant 'has he always been crazy', then yes...he has always been like that, even in the Pride Lands." Kiara said while gently shaking her head as if she recalled something.
"It's true, in one of the first times Kiara and I hung out, he made himself present by sticking his finger in my nose, then swung on some vines and force-fed us this "love fruit" called Upendi." Kovu replied. After that, I laughed while I tried to imagine the events he just told me
"Damn! He really did sound crazy. I once had an uncle who believed that wearing mismatched socks everyday would increase his chances of a high Christmas bonus, but Rafiki certainly would have uncle Lewis have a run for his money. Also, is this 'upendi fruit', what was so special about it, did it have some kind of hallucinogen or is it like weed and just releases a pleasure sensation by interacting with dopamine neuroreceptors?" I asked. Which just lead them to stare at each other with awkward looks for some reason.
"Oh, well you see, you can say that in the Pride Lands, the upendi fruit is somewhat symbolic because in Swahili, the word upendi means love and it is commonly shared between two lovers." Kiara said.
"Also, I didn't think it had any hallucinogens in it, but I do remember seeing stuff when I first had it. So, it was not exactly like weed, but I definitely remember feeling a pleasure sensation from upendi." Kovu said.
"Oh okay, I guess I can understand that. Also, sorry if I'm changing the subject but at the gala, but the ballroom was actually not the first transformation I saw that night. I was in the men's room and I was about to go wash my hands when Kovu, I think I saw you in your lion form that night. But since you were the only transformation I saw at that time, I initially thought I was just seeing things from working all week." I said.
"Oh, that creaking was from your stall door? I thought it was from when I turned the sink knob." Kovu said in a casual tone.
"Well, it's been nice meeting up with you again but I have a bus to catch to go back to my place. See you later." I said while looking back towards my the main pathway.
"See you later Edwin! Perhaps we might bump into each other on Monday, a few of the conservation labs are close to the genetics lab and I assist in a couple of the labs on that floor in certain projects." Kovu replied.
The couple headed back towards the bench they were sitting while I headed to a bus stop somewhere in the park.
It was nice to see that many of the people from the museum that I have encountered so far, do not hold anything against me for my reaction last night of finding out about their hybrid states...but on the other hand, it seems a little too convenient as if there is more to the story. Even when I have not been told the specifics of their situation, sometimes I feel as if they are either hiding something from me or if their experiences in the drought or coup were so traumatic that they don't want to talk about it with anyone.
When the bus arrived, I got on, swiped my Ventra Card on the little placard and I just sat down wondering what exactly will come next because I am curious of some certain aspects of their lives before they became hybrids, but I don't want to ask in a way that will offend them or accidentally trigger a traumatic memory for them. Perhaps I can start with general questions about differences between their lives in the Pride Lands compared to life among humans, but whether they were a hyena, lion, hippo or what not, it would not really change what I think of them, even when I might get skeptical at times.