*written on January 2, 2016
In a far away land there lived a King who hated cows. He so hated cattle that he had them banished from every area in sight. When the king looked out from his balcony to inhale a fresh breath of air he smiled, for not a single manure-tinted air molecule grazed the receptors on the nerve fibers of his olfactory bulb.
"A fine day, isn't it, Eliza?" he said to his queen.
"Yes, I suppose," Eliza replied, examining her delicately painted nails. "Whatever makes you happy, Rupert."
The King sighed in contentment as he continued to look out to the shining blue sea in the horizon and the stretch of green untouched pastures below.
"Oh yes, this pleases me so. Very much so."
Eliza looked up from her nails and stared at her husband's back in curiosity. "Why do you hate cows so much? They taste good."
King Rupert was silent for a moment before turning to Eliza with a patient face. "They do not taste good. They are an abomination."
"I fail to understand why," Eliza said, going back to her vermillion nails.
The King sighed and turned his back on the picturesque landscape he was taken with. He leaned his elbows against the railings of the balcony.
"Eliza, have I ever told you the story about the red-eyed calf?" he began. His wife sent him a flickering gaze before mumbling, "no."
"Well, when I was a young land my father made me tend to the kingdom's cattle," at this Eliza stared at him in surprise. "Whatever his reasoning, I never asked. We had keepers that should have been sufficient help but alas, my king father ordered me the job."
Eliza was rapt. The King paused, reminiscing and reliving the past.
"One day while I was cleaning a heifer's stable, I found something extraordinary. But let me tell you, a few moments before this, I saw blood oozing from the heifer's stable. I opened it and saw that its hay was caked with blood. Its hind legs were red. It had given birth to a calf. Needless to say I was surprised at the sudden event. I didn't think the heifer was at all pregnant. I didn't even hear it give birth!"
"Well, go on!" Eliza prompted.
"Yes, so there I was frozen, staring at the bloody calf. When it opened its eyes, I was taken even more aback. They were red, Eliza. Red as blood. I didn't know what to think of it. It gave a cry, a cry of such agony that I was reminded of a suffering human child. This got me to my senses and I cleaned up the little thing. As I was cleaning it up, scrubbing at its new skin with a damp rag, it stared at me. Not once did it blink."
"Oh my, how strange indeed!"
"I led the heifer and the calf into another empty stable so that I could clean theirs. But when I came to get them, the red-eyed calf was gone."
"Where did it go to, Rupert, where?"
"I had no idea," the King replied. "It couldn't even walk."
"What else happened?"
"Well, one morning, as I was hoeing hay, I heard strange noises coming from one of the stables. I can still hear it. It was this chomping sort of sound that banged uncomfortably against my ears. The very recollection of it sends shivers down my spine."
"What was it?"
"It was the red-eyed calf. And--"
"What, Rupert, what?" Eliza pushed.
"It was dining-"
"You mean it was eating hay?"
"No, it wasn't hay."
"Then what was it eating, Rupert? What!?"
"It was feeding on a child. A human child."
"Oh dear God, Rupert!" Eliza exclaimed, standing up. "What on God's name!"
"What was even more bizarre was that, it stared at me. As it fed. It stared at me with red blazing eyes. And I could have sworn it--"
"What did it do, Rupert?"
"It smiled at me."
The husband and wife remained quiet, absorbed in the abnormality of the story.
"Where is the calf now, Rupert?" Eliza was the first to speak and she did so faintly.
The King turned back around to gaze at the horizon. This time, however, with an undecipherable expression.
"I haven't any idea, my dear. I haven't any idea."
Copyright © 2016 Ma. K. Daz
