CineMan

continuing the story of Cal and Miranda

It was a stroke of genius

to expose the resident monster

to all the classic horror films.

Miranda’s dad pats himself on the back

for coming up with that one.

He’s got a pretty impressive selection,

useful in helping his daughter and ward

become “cultured” in a way

that doesn’t feel like torture.

 

Of course, what he doesn’t learn

until it’s too late

is how Cal takes advantage of this.

Miranda’s dad learns this the hard way

when Cal comes running into his room

right as he’s in the middle

of a fairly complex experiment.

Cal, standing outside the door,

jumps in the air,

his feet smacking the ground.

Once he has the Master’s attention,

he screams,

“Putting on the Ritz!”

and runs away.

It was his first-ever full sentence,

which is something Miranda is

immensely proud of.

 

He was, of course,

mimicking Young Frankenstein,

when the Creature supposedly becomes

a cultured, sophisticated

man about town.

Both monsters have

a long way to go.

 

What seems like a fun way

to spend sweltering hot

island afternoons

has another meaning,

beyond entertainment.

Those movies,

some of them old and a little cheesy,

provide lots of information

about the way things are going to be run

from now on.

 

Cal doesn’t understand that then.

He’s only just learned

how to speak human,

and the ways of adults

are nebulous.

 

What he does understand:

Skull Island is the land

that time forgot,

that even though Kong

acts on his natural instincts

when meeting the intrepid explorers,

somehow those instincts

are wrong,

and that New York City

is a place he never wants to visit.

 

As he gets older,

things fall into place.

Needless to say,

Cal is not too happy about this.

Being compared to a

big-a*s gorilla

is somehow the least of his problems.

 

When he speaks out,

when he asks questions,

questions about what life was like

before the explorers arrived on Skull Island,

when all he wants is for things to be the way they were,

and when he mouths off,

taking a page from Freddy Krueger

(his latest horror discovery)

only pain follows,

both physical and psychological.

It’s supposed to teach him to obey,

but all it makes him want to do

is destroy,

to embrace his monstrous side,

because this is his island, d****t.

Isn’t it?

 

Sometimes he wonders what his mom would think

if she saw him now,

forced down to his knees,

his skin bearing many battle wounds

in the fight against civilization.

It is a fight,

and he’ll do whatever it takes

to win back his island.

 

One time, Cal attempted

to bite off two of the master’s fingers,

the second and third on his right hand.

Unfortunately,

it didn’t work.

He did, however, draw blood,

and then spent the rest of the day

in the fetal position,

wracked with muscle spasms.

The master still has the scars

to this day.

 

He warned Miranda

that their resident monster

was craving the taste of humans

and that she should not, by any means,

go near him.

This could not be further from the truth.

Cal didn’t want to eat the master

(although if that’s what it took, then perhaps he’d consider it)

but Cal liked the idea of him being the source of fear

instead of having it be the other way around.

Author's Note

continuing on with developing Cal and his love of horror. Just want to make sure that 1) I'm not reference overdosed, and 2) you all can understand why I'm referencing what I'm referencing.

Reviews

[An owl on the moon]

There is a deep, moving richness through your words, walking through your expressions, breathing in the scent of this world. I loved the references, each one awakening a profound memory of those films, those places. It was powerful, connecting us back to these gripping places through new eyes.

[Hayley]

Thank you for the kind words. :)