Thonk pulled at his animal skin breechcloth. It had slipped again, and had worn through, where he had brushed up against the tree trunk, with it, in order to soften the rough patch of skin that he had on his shoulder. It had begun to attract buzzing insects around his head, which, in turn, had begun to make him angry.
"I need a thing", said Thonk to Gorf, who was chewing on a piece of bark. The sap was pleasantly sweet, it was summer, and the sap didn't run out of the hole he had made in the side of the tree, like when the leaves first appeared on it. But it still tasted good, and made him feel happy.
"Why?" said Gorf, chewing.
"Because this" - Thonk pointed to a bumpy part on the animal skin covering his chest, where he had thrown it, because he was still a little cold "keeps sticking here and hurting me. And I'm cold." He pointed to his shoulder. "I think it needs to be flatter, so my arm doesn't feel weird."
The shoulder, restricted by the tangled animal skin and imprisoning his arm, was throbbing, and his arm had begun to hang limply at his side, preventing him from grabbing anything, pulling apart branches, or feeding himself.
"Oh", said Gorf.
"What else are you going to do with it?", said God, suddenly, within, around and above Thonk and Gorf. .
"What?", said Thonk. He stared at Gorf. "Was that you?" he said to Gorf. He addressed Gorf directly, as if Gorf had spoken aloud to him. " I don't know; I haven't thought about it. I thought it would make this flat."
"What?", said Gorf. He had been staring at the leftover piece of bark he had in his hand. He handed it to Thonk.
"Try that", said God, pointing to a rock. There was nothing actually pointing to the rock, as far as Thonk knew, but his eyes were drawn to it, suddenly, as being part of a solution, and the strange sense of the two things being related in answer to the question he had thought, but not voiced aloud, moved him towards the rock as a tool. He grabbed the piece of bark out of Gorf's outstretched hand on his way to the rock, watching how happy Gorf looked. "But be careful", said God.
"Do you want me to help you?", said Gorf. He was staring at Thonk's arm. He was feeling too happy to get mad that Thonk had grabbed the piece of bark without speaking to him, and was now kneeling in front of a rock, silently.
"Maybe you should move this before you try to make it flat", said Gorf to Thonk, pointing to the animal skin tangling up his arm.
Thonk had retrieved the rock and had begun to bash it against the lump in the animal skin that had given him warmth - and, by default, himself. He had not heard Gorf's suggestion clearly, and had ignored it, as a result, intent on achieving the result he wanted with his new tool. The pain shot into his arm, and was suddenly far worse than the previous discomfort caused by the minor bumps and surface imperfections on the dried skin which had rubbed against his own, bare skin, had become entangled in his other hand, and hung on him, weirdly - an adornment intended for Comfort and Warmth, covering his nakedness, which had now disabled his other arm and had begun to restrict his circulation to the point of numbness. It kept slipping off. When it did, Thonk felt cold again.He stared at the Rock, suspiciously. This had not worked in quite the way had had intended.
"Here", said Gorf. "Let me help you." Thonk had begun to chew on the piece of bark he had grabbed from Gorf. Gorf moved the animal skin, pulled Thonk's throbbing arm out of the entangled piece of it, and blood suddenly began coursing through his limp and numbed arm again. Thonk stood there, chewing, and staring at Gorf.
"Move it over Here", said God, to Gorf. "And be careful with that. I already told Him." Gorf stared at the rock in Thonk's hand, grabbed it out of hand, pointed to the piece of bark in Thonk's other hand, and pointed to Thonk's mouth. Thonk continued to chew, and stare at Gorf. He drew in his breath, exhaled, wiggled his previously restricted arm up and down, and continued to watch Gorf.
"Make it flatter, he said," said God, out loud, to Gorf. "That's what he said he wanted. Also, that will help in this instance, if you're worried." Gorf began bashing the rock against the animal skin on the flat ground.
"I'm not worried" he said, stopping suddenly and staring at Thonk. "I'm making this flat."
"What?", said Thonk.
"This is taking longer than I expected", said God. "But, there is peripheral fruitfulness of a different kind, within the tangled skeins of interwoven, shared corporeal Being which is Pleasing to me, however unintentional. Well done."
Gorf, having carefully pounded the skin flat, and free, of abrasive bumps and scratchy surfaces, laid it kindly over the shoulder of Thonk, grabbed the two long pieces of it hanging at the side of Thonk's hip, and wove one piece over the other, securing it crudely so that it did not fall off of Thonk.
He smiled at Thonk. Thonk grabbed Gorf's hand and opened it, looking for another piece of bark. He frowned. Gorf stayed where he was, breathing and chewing on his bark, making it last.
Thonk walked over to the rock, picked it up, and looked at the side of Gorf's face, before he tried to reach into Gorf's mouth and steal his piece of bark.
"Be careful with that", said God, exasperated. "Why did you do that?", he said to Thonk, sternly.
"What?", said Thonk, to Gorf. Gorf was holding his mouth where Thonk had picked up the rock and hit him with it.
"I didn't say anything", said Gorf. "I thought you understood what I was doing. I also thought we were Friends. I'm not sure I'm going to help you anymore." He looked sad, now.
"Well Done", said God, sarcastically. "I take it that was not my area of impetus and inspiration, and you took the first part of what I Said Literally, instead of as helpful response and Affirmation."
"That's what I do", said another Voice. "You said that that was my Area." It sounded sulky.
"You could do Better", said God. "You did once upon a Time, before we got to This."
Thonk and Gorf were staring at each other, perplexed. Gorf looked worried...but still not afraid. He had never been Hit before. He wasn't sure how he felt about it, yet.
"Now I have to fix this, too" said God. "And we were supposed to be Here by now."
"I know", said the other Voice. "I threw a wrench in your Omnipresent Plan."
"I'll have to punish you unobtrusively", said God, mildly. "Delays are supposed to be part of the multiplicity of the Plan, not the Raison D'etre of it. And you deliberately misinterpreted Plan on purpose again, to confuse things and ruin Beauty and Truth and Development and Love, Realized."
"I'm sorry", said Thonk, suddenly, to Gorf. "It's okay", said Gorf. " I forgive You."
"At Last", said God.
"What?", said Thonk. "You're always Last. It's just you and me."
"What?", said Gorf.
"I am Last", said God......"and First."
"Oh", said the Other Voice. "I'll just chew on this, then, Eternally."
"Whatever", said God. "Let's get on with this, Please."
"Thanks", said Thonk to Gorf.
"You're Welcome", said God. "Well Done."
"Not Again", said Thonk. He rolled his eyes. "I'm bushed."
"This is going to be far more Complex than the Blueprint", said God, absently. "Oh well. The complexity of it will make up for the time spent simply achieving this one Aspect."
"Give me back a piece of one of these, Please", said God, gently chipping a piece of rib off Thonk.
"That hurts", said Thonk to Gorf.
"Oh, don't be a Baby", said God. "I'm making Something." "You, keep chewing", he said to the Other Voice.
"I don't have anything left, I'm just a sensibility and an Approach again" said the Voice.
"But I gave you Form and Purpose", said God. "It was too hard", said The Voice.
"That's too Bad", said God. "Now what are you going to Do? You have neither Form or Purpose Realzed, any longer, having chewed yourself into Nothing, thinking it Completion and Realization."
"It's what I Do", said the Other Voice.
"Now they Do, too.....and that's not what I intended." He pointed to Thonk and Gorf.
"They're just stupid clay", said The Voice.
"Well, they're more than You are at this Moment", said God. "You chewed your own tail as the expression of everything you Are. I breathed into Them, and they became My expressions, realized....not your bad Habit."
"It's not really good or bad", said The Voice. "There are degrees, you said. I can still steal your vessels, take over them, and ruin what you intended."
"You're still not an Artist", said God. "I am. I am....That I am."
"I know, I know", said The other Voice. "Alpha and Omega, blah, blah, blah."
"That's later", said God. "Stop stalling. You really limited yourself to what I allow you to ruin, now, didn't you?" He sighed.
"Always with Rules", said the Other Voice.
"What?" said Thonk, pointing to The Woman. Gorf was staring at Her.
"What's that?" said Gorf.
"It isn't you", said Thonk. He smiled.
"This might be Interesting", said The Other Voice.
"Be careful with that", said God.
"Okay God", said The Woman. "I'm sorry."
"Understood", said God. "You know what to Do."
"Be Careful with that", said the Woman, staring up at the Sky.
"Who are you talking to?" said Gorf and Thonk.
"It was Me", said The Other Voice. "No it wasn't", said The Woman, sternly.
"Be careful with that", said Gorf and Thonk to The Woman, kindly.
"With what?" said the Woman.
"Nothing", said Gorf and Thonk. They started chewing on nothing.
"Where's God?", said The Woman, feeling worried.
"I'm Here", said God, softly, Pleased.
"Whew", said The Woman. "For a second I thought you saw me as an empty vessel, and I was being very careful about what was supposed to be the Sacredness it was meant to Hold." She hung her head.
"I never thought that about You", said God, gently. "I made you. You're different. I showed you Creation, Differently. But I used some of the same parts....I couldn't improve on them, and solid infrastucture with subtle differences can make all of the difference in the World, from a Corporeal standpoint. It's not that Difficult, really."
"You must be Lonely", said the Woman, kindly.
"I have learned to stay Focused", said God. "I am, after all, The End and the Beginning. I'll try to explain that later, when we get into the First is Last, and the Last is First." He felt hopeful, suddenly. Here was Reaffirmation.
"Be careful with that", said The Other Voice.
"What?", said Gorf and Thonk, annoyed.
"Nothing", said The Woman, sadly, with clarity. "You'll understand, Later."
"But Differently", said God, smiling. "This is my Area", said God to the Other Voice. "And I will Do as I Will."
"Be Careful with That", said Gorf, Thonk, and The Woman, in unison. They laughed at the spontaneity, uniformity and ....something Else.
"Yes!", said God. "We'll understand more Later", she said, softly.....hopefully. Thonk and Gorf were
sleeping.
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