The Desert Squatch, Episode 2

Time passed strangely as Moxi and Loon sat before the Desert Squatch in the lonely valley of the desert. A notion of the future felt like a memory of the past. There was no telling between what had already occurred and what was about to unfold. Moxi and Loon would eventually leave this place unsure if the encounter had lasted minutes or days.

At some point there was a long interval of silence as the Desert Squatch scratched his chin, studying the young men who sat before him. There was no wind, no scurrying critters. Only the calm, faint smile on the squatch’s massive face, and the Joshua Trees dancing in the peripheries. The feeling of contemplation bore deeply. Moxi and Loon waited patiently for the next sentence to appear in their minds, wondering if the telepathic connection had been broken. But just as a small cloud drifted in front of the sun, the booming voice returned to the place between their ears. It spoke,

“Just as every other earthling I’ve come to know, you have chosen a path rife with challenge and growth. Yours are marked by hearts ignited with passion, and a keenness to fulfill a call to service. I see foolishness, naiveté, and courage. I see internal weather systems, vacillating between bright days of unyielding faith, and torrential storms of doubt.”

“There will be days in which you make great strides, and days where you collapse in the crippling defeat of self-destruction. You earthlings are apt to forget that this world is made of light, especially during the time you now live. For this reason I’d like to give you a gift to carry with you and help you remember.”

There was a brief moment of silence as the small cloud passed and the sun pierced back into their eyes. The Desert Squatch suddenly clapped his hands overhead and ripped a hole in the sky above them. A mind-splitting cacophony of sounds poured forth from the hole in space and time. There were deafening drums interfused with the stampede of elephants, monkeys, lions, and swarming bees. An orchestra of violins and sitars climbed in pitch until there was a singular, screaming note that felt like a lightning bolt to the eye. Moxi looked at Loon and saw a bird beating its wings on the gusts of a hurricane. Loon looked at Moxi and saw a wolf caught in a blizzard, howling at the ghost moon. Above everything was ten thousand chanted Ohms and the drifting mantra,

“Om Gan Ganpataye Namo Namah.”

As soon as the last syllable of the mantra was sung, the hole closed and the sound was vacuumed back into the depths of space. Hair standing on end, Moxi and Loon returned their gaze back to the calmly seated, ever-smiling Desert Squatch. Frozen in shock, they sat and awaited whatever the giant furry humanoid had in store for them next.