Stildus, The Bohr of Treakle
Stildus was a Bohr who existed alone in a gray green land that was flat every which way. Stildus the Bohr knew nothing else and looked as far as he could at the flat nothing every day and with much contentment. There was a very deep well in that very flat land that at the very bottom sat a gooiness called Treakle. When Stildus was hungry he drew a big bucket of Treakle from this well, which he ate smacking his lips, and then used to floss his teeth and as a moisturizer and sun block on especially sunny days. He did nothing else but draw Treakle and stare off happily into the flatness of his Bohrdom.
One day an extra blob of Treakle came all by itself, it seemed, from the hole. Poor Stildus was so happy staring at his flatness that this bit of Treakle most upset him, and he stared at it for a full two days straight. He didn’t even floss his teeth. After the second day he decided he would make something with this gooey Treakle up from the well. He couldn’t think of anything else to make but another Stildus, him being the only thing that existed in his Bohrdom.
For days and days he picked and pushed, studying every flab and fold, every wrinkle and spot on his Bohrish body so as to copy every detail of himself in the Treakle. He thought how great it would be if his creation could move and bumble about like him. And he thought and thought and thought, imagining how it would haul Treakle from the well, how it would floss its teeth, and all of this just like Stildus himself. How wondrous!
Stildus had been sitting still on that flat land thinking and thinking and thinking about the wonders of his creation, shutting his eyes tighter and tighter, falling deeper and deeper and deeper into his mind’s imagination. Then suddenly he opened his eyes to look at the thing he made, to check on it and make sure it was alright.
But his creation was not where he had left it. He looked every which way in that gray green land and saw nothing that was new, no bump or lump, nothing that looked just like him in his Bohrdom. He heaved a heavy sigh and plopped down quite hard onto the ground.
There was something missing in his Bohrdom and he felt it acutely. Just then he heard his same heavy sigh echo behind him and a big thump made the ground shake a little under Stildus’s rump.
Why, what was that? A wry smile parted on Stildus’s lips. He sat very still and quiet for just a minute then quite suddenly spun his head around to look directly behind him. Why, and there it was! His creation! His Wondrous Thing!
Stildus felt a great happiness he had never known. The great happiness was the opposite of what he had felt before. This time he felt overflowing.
So now, when Stildus was hungry he drew a big bucket of Treakle from his well and Wondrous Thing was right behind him, ready to follow exactly in his footsteps. When he ate, Wondrous Thing ate too, chewing at the same lazy pace except just a beat behind so that his lips smacked just after Stildus’s, which made for a lot of smacking.
And then Stildus would stare as he had, into the flatness of his Bohrdom. And there was Wondrous Thing just there, a step behind him, but staring just as well. Wondrous Thing’s presence interrupted Stildus’s old contentment.
“Wondrous Thing’s Bohrish ways make him boring,” thinks the Bohr, who only after a couple of days had bored of him completely.
Stildus didn’t know what being discouraged was all about so the very next day he up and pulled another chunk of Treakle out of the hole (with Wondrous Thing following just immediately afterward). Wondrous Thing had kept him up all night snoring just after Stildus snored, rolling over just after Stildus had finished his roll, and so on. It was all Stildus could do to not throw poor Wondrous Thing right on down the Treakle well where he had come from. Sleepy and frustrated by the constant equal movements Wondrous Thing was doing with his own bit of Treakle just behind him, Stildus closed his eyes and wished and wished for his second creation to wake up before he had quite finished meticulously copying the curly down way of his own mustache and the rounding bump of his own knees. Of course, Wondrous Thing was doing the exact same thing.
Wondrous Things II and III animated immediately (Wondrous Thing III just a little after his twin). These new things looked around with big wondrous eyes which sparked at their creators in even curiosity. Delighted, Wondrous Thing II fingered his mustache. With a quick snap of his finger he curled each side up and around the ball of each cheek. His knees bent at the crease but he propelled himself sideways with fast little movements, like a scuttling crab. Wondrous Thing III rubbed his own big eyes and pinched his own fat cheeks. He grabbed the two sides of his own mustache and ripped them right off, smiling all the while. As he took his first step his knees pushed out behind him instead of in front so that he spun a little on his toes before he lifted up his leg. Without a wave, off they went, two bulbous silhouettes on the grey green flatness that didn’t seem so everywhere anymore.
Stildus watched, tickled by his uniquely treakled Wondrous Things. He looked at Wondrous Thing, who looked away just at that moment. Stildus smiled haplessly for the extra pair of hands. He led Wondrous Thing back to the well to get to work, creating and creating with less and less detail. In no time at all, groves of Wondrous Things bopped about in every which way.
One day Stildus had the idea not to alter the Treakle at all, and he and his Wondrous Thing animated the gray green blobs that lay like nothing in particular just in front of them. The blobs bubbled and bee bopped like boiling mud and suddenly exploded. Little pieces of Treakle flew everywhere, all at once, sticking to Wondrous Things and causing malfunctions. Stildus turned just in time to see his first creation, his Wondrous Thing get hit by a giant Treakle bit right in the face. With a tinge of sadness, Stildus watched as everything melted into the grey green Treakle-soaked earth.
Stildus didn’t know what disappointment was all about. “Oops,” he said with a giggle. “I guess I can’t expect something to just form itself!”
He shrugged his shoulders and giggled some more. He pulled more Treakle from the well to start all over while flossing his teeth with a bit of Treakle that has stuck to his foot from the explosion. All around him bits of melted Treakle settled into the ground in heaps and piles, some parts streaming down others like rivers down mountains.
