The Late Bloomer
Page 35
KJL: —coincidences . I’m with your Grandma Lucille. Wish I’d met her.
KGM: Me, too. She died this summer. Missed all this fun. Listen, as soon as it’s dark, we’ll drive up to Utopia. Or somewhere in the Hill Country, somewhere where they can’t box us in. Wait out the winter there.
KJL: Kevin?
KGM: What?
KJL: Feel that?
KGM: What?
KJL: That…[whispering] There’s someone here.
[sounds of heavier, quicker breathing close to the microphone]
KGM: Who’s…who’s there?
[sounds of heavy, quick breaths close to the microphone continues]
NEW VOICE35: It’s only me, brother. No other.
[KJL screams]
[muffling noises; popping on the microphone]
[sounds of children humming one note; loud close surf]
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
JLM: Good morning, brother. Here, take this thing.36 Let’s finish your story. We want it to be complete, don’t we?
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
KGM: [scratchy, confused voice] Johnny?
[long pause]
Where’s Kodie? What have you done with Kodie?
JLM: She’s fine. She’s over there.
KGM: Over where? Kodie! Kodie!
JLM: Stop.
KGM: [breathing heavily] We can help you, Johnny. I came here because you all asked me to. To help you.
JLM: [his voice wet and flangey here] Sure. That’s why you two were trying to escape. You wanted to help us.
KGM: If you need our kids to grow and breed with yours, if that’s what’s going on then, okay, I can see that and—
JLM: No no no. Not at all. That’s not it at all.
KGM: Johnny’s pacing. My brother paces back and forth. He’s agitated, he’s—
JLM: Stop. Always talking. All you ever did. Your world. Talk talk talk.
[sounds of children humming one note; loud close surf]
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
KGM: Yes. We talked. I talked. I had to tell the story.
JLM: Why?
KGM: I can’t explain it.
[children’s humming falls away]
JLM: Yes you can. Tell us.
KGM: He waves his hand like a game show host over the huge crowd of kids surrounding us.
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
To understand, I guess. To try to understand. To make a record so we can remember what happened.
JLM: Blah blah blah.
KGM: You’re holding your head. [sounds of children humming low]
JLM: I don’t want to remember. Stop making us . . .
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
KGM: Why did you bring me here, then?
[long pause]
KGM: You’re looking around. Your face is desperate. The faces around you look back with cold indifference—
JLM: —I don’t want to do this!
KGM: Do what, Johnny?
JLM: You want me to explain? You want me to talk? So you can understaaannnnnd? Well, I won’t do that. [JLM sniffing37] We do. Kevin? Do you understand? We just do. We take care of each other. Each and every one, all the time. We know each other’s faces intimately. We don’t have names for each other. Do you understand what I’m saying? Do you get what that means? You call me Johnny because that’s all you know and I respond to it with words right now because I have to.
[long pause]
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
KGM: You think this will last?
JLM: It just is. There’s no thinking to do. The morning of, as you call it, it all changed. Simple.
KGM: Simple.
JLM: That’s right. But you can’t understand that.
KGM: It’ll break down, Johnny.
JLM: There’s nothing to break down. We just are, and we just do. We exist, we sing and then we die. So simple.
[sounds of the ocean; whales rubbing against the pier; sounds of gulls crying]
[long pause]
JLM: [the voice wet and flangey] It’s time.
KGM: Johnny? All these kids are milling around. Lining up. Johnny?
JLM: It’s time. And that’s all.
KGM: [voice sounding clipped and panicked; sounds of heavy breathing] Why not just let me and Kodie go? What’s it matter?
JLM: Because we can’t.
KGM: Why? Is this the beginning?
JLM: No. You were lied to. No. This…. this is the end. And that’s all.
KGM: We can do this together. Or you can let us go and we won’t bother you. We promise.
JLM: It’s not a task I want, Kevin. You must know that. I need you to know that.
[long pause]
[sounds of children humming]
[sounds of KGM’s amazement; a quick intake of breath; the ocean wind booming hard on the microphone; voices obscured]
KGM: That thing out there…it’s moving…oh, it’s…oh, Johnny what is that thing?
JLM: [whispering] Don’t look at it, Kevin.38
KGM: WHAT IS IT?!
JLM: It doesn’t matter.
KGM: Does it come for me?
JLM: It doesn’t matter.
KGM: [ocean wind cuts out the voice] You’re [unintelligible] Johnny. [unintelligible] just happen. You can’t [unintelligible] won’t let you [unintelligible] controls you.39
[sound of many many children humming, growing into a note] It needs you to [unintelligible].
KJL: [her voice far away; some of it lost in the wind] What is that? Jesus Christ, Kevin! Johnny!? What is that out there? [her voice a shriek]
JLM: It doesn’t matter. [very flangey voice now]
KGM: Kodie! I’m here! Let me see her! No! Move! They won’t let me by. [speaking into the microphone] Johnny’s eyes are fluttering, closing…he’s raising his arms like he’s done before, like, heh, his goddamned Wayne Rooney poster on his wall…the thing out there…it moves, dear reader. Mom! Dad! Martin! Mr. E!
[pause; heavy breathing]
[whispering loud and close into the microphone] Grandma Lucille—help me! It moves. No such thing as luck. Oh my God, it moves so terribly.
[the humming note rises, changes form, rises again]
It’s…coming. Close close close.
[the microphone cuts out]
[sounds of the ocean; sounds of gulls crying]
JLM: Kevin. It’s over now. Kevin, wake up.40
KGM: [voice groggy] What?
[long pause]
JLM: It’s time.
KGM: [pause] It’s not...Where’d it go?
JLM: It’s time.
KGM: Time? Time for what?
JLM: It’s time.
KGM: I don’t understand.
JLM: It isn’t to be understood. It just is.
KGM: What?
[the mass of children begin humming again; a different, darker note, unlike any other on this recording]
KGM: [voice cracking] Why? Oh no no no no. God, why?
[voice emotional but collected] My brother holds a plastic grocery bag. [sound of sniffing] Oh god he’s tearing it open.
[pause] [sounds of sniffing] [sounds of the ocean; sounds of gulls crying]
He holds the stone. The price sticker from the HEB…
[pause] [sounds of sniffing] [sounds of the ocean; sounds of gulls crying; children humming low and thick]
KGM: Johnny, wait. Can I…Will you let me play
a song? Can someone get my trombone? It’s…I don’t know. Somewhere.
[long pause] [sounds of sniffing] [sounds of the ocean; sounds of gulls crying]
[close sounds of KGM opening the trombone case; sniffling]
JLM: [voice wet and flangey, through crying] Play, Kevin.
KGM: Where’s Kodie? [Kevin sounds strong now, resolved]
JLM: She couldn’t watch.
KGM: [big deep sigh]
[sounds of the ocean; sounds of gulls crying]
As I’m about to raise my horn to my lips I see ten thousand children step aside together to reveal many small piles of stones. They each stroll over and pick one up. Each of them with a smooth brown stone. [voice hitched, sounding surprised] Ah, oh—[breathing quickly] they snap into a line that goes down the beach. They all put their hands behind their backs. Johnny steps up to within several feet of me. I will now raise my horn to my lips, dear reader, and I will play for you “When the Saints Go Marching In”. The jazzier, snappy version Grandma Lucille really liked.
[loud and close to the microphone,41 the song42 plays]
[tussling sound; scratching on the microphone]
KGM: [his voice clear and loud directly into the microphone43] Dear reader! You! Don’t keep this between me and you! Don’t you do that! You’ve got to know what happened. You must remember. And you must fight back! This isn’t the way it has to be! It can’t be! You’ve got to remem—
[sound of a single loud thump44]
[sound of the recorder falling into the sand]
[sounds of less loud thudding]
[sounds of the ocean; sounds of gulls crying and the continuous sounds of stones thudding into the body of Kevin Gabriel March]
[the very last sounds of the recording are of the faraway sounds of Kodie Janine Lagenkamp, screaming]
* * *
1 Kevin Gabriel March (KGM) utters these words in whispers. Another sound appears here, a wheezing, emitted from another person in the room—Kodie Janine Lagenkamp (KJL). While these words are unintended for inclusion in the overall purpose of the recording and are wholly disconnected from its structure as depicted in the following transcribed pages, as such is specifically mentioned on page 172, they are included herein by reference.
2 Transcriber/editor attempts to indicate and include dramatic pauses, sighs, various vocalizations, obvious emphasis (wherein italics are employed), and paragraph breaks like this one. Editor places the entire prologue in italics, as such was common in old-world literature.
3 Section breaks such as this indicate that KGM has stopped recording. The next passage or paragraph indicates his resumption of recording.
4 Olympus WS-822 Digital Voice Recorder with Intelligent Functions, mfg. China 2017
5 Photo of box attached as Exhibit A
6 A copy of this document is attached as Exhibit E
7 I didn’t know what I was doing there, let alone what Kevin was doing. I have no memory of what happened the morning of. Seeing Kevin while holding my dad’s glock in Rebecca’s hallway is my first new-world memory. The sudden clarity, brightness, loudness of things stunned me. It was as if a thick wad of cotton had been extracted from my mind.
8 Included in With Smiles On Their Faces: The Collected Poems of Kevin March, attached hereto as Exhibit D.
9 Ibid.
10 I was confused and scared here, beyond all understanding.
11 A copy of this document is attached as Exhibit B
12 A copy of this document is attached as Exhibit B.1
13 Sound of heavy thumping. KGM is tapping the device with which he makes this recording.
14 “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield (1967)
15 Somewhat incorrect. Everything was erased but those remembered, uttered words, the first words of this transcript.
16 While none of us remember these early days, we now know this is what happened to many people that morning.
17 This notebook of songs is on view at Records. Songbook rehearsal copies are available for checkout from Custodian.
18 A copy of both sides of this document is attached as Exhibit C
19 Dr. Warren Jespers’s recovered 2018 Dell HPC (High Performance Computer) is in a secure location.
20 The sounds of heavy breathing and water splashing, presumably from paddling.
21 Close scratching and thumping noises.
22 There is a pause here. KGM wants us to listen.
23 There is a pause here. KGM wants us to listen. The sounds of singing and humming grow louder.
24 Ambient or non-vocal sounds as well as voice descriptions, e.g., whispering, shouting, will be inserted between brackets instead of footnoted for the remainder of the document as the sounds often directly impact, edify, and sometimes modify what is being said.
25 KJL is Kodie Janine Langenkamp
26 Evening now, by the time stamp. It is believed they sit above the beach on the sea wall.
27 It is interesting to note that KGM said exactly this was the reason he thought he went down the river on a boat, yet he won’t admit such thoughts to KJL here.
28 KGM doesn’t mention the “winged thing” he saw to Kodie. See NDC-13 for more detail about Kevin’s First Days Manifestations.
29 It’s believed they are hugging here, as is ratified by KGM’s next statement.
30 By the recording time stamp, it is believed to be dawn.
31 It is believed that these sounds are the “whalesounds” KGM described hearing at the start.
32 2014 white Chevrolet Impala, specialty Texas license plate BB01B, “Texas State Parks”
33 It is believed this sound is the sound of a garage door closing. The car (type footnoted above) was found in an auto repair facility, Advanced Auto Repair, in Bay City, Texas, approximately twenty-one miles north of the Natural History Museum parking lot at Matagorda Bay. KGM’s boat bag was recovered from inside the car. Dr. Warren Jespers’s draft paper and the notes from Professor Kenneth Fleming and KJL were found inside, copies of which are attached as Exhibits B and C.
34 By time stamp, it is almost evening.
35 This voice belongs to Jonathan Livingston March (“JLM” hereafter), KGM’s younger brother, Johnny; me, transcriber and editor herein.
36 JLM, like Nate before him, speaks here in that “wet, flangey” voice. Around the world during that early period of weeks to months after the “day of” (now known as New Day or “ND”), though scant accurate records exist supporting this with this recording being the strongest. It is believed that no more than a few children were speaking, JLM and Nate among them. It is not yet understood why during this “transition period” the population did not speak. The “thing” referenced here is the digital voice recorder KGM has had with him throughout.
37 In my normal voice, I sound upset here.
38 I say this in my normal voice.
39 I have listened to this innumerable times and have employed different techniques to bring up the sound clarity. Knowing my brother’s voice, vocal inflections and what he was trying to say, I am confident that what he said here was: “You’re a liar, Johnny. Things don’t just happen. You can’t talk about it because it won’t let you. I know it’s not you. It’s making you do this. Just remember that. It controls you. It needs you to need it.”
40 I believe I hold the recorder and have started recording.
41 Apparently I hold the recorder close to the mouth of the trombone.
42 Also known as “The Saints.” Though KGM plays an instrumental, the opening lyrics to this famous song of the old world are as fo
llows:
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
43 KGM has snatched the recorder from me and speaks into it.
44 These early days—especially once I left the late bloomers with Rebecca to be with the children—are very foggy in my memory, nearly a blackout, but the memory of that moment on that morning on the beach is sharp enough. I do know, I do remember, though it hurts my head like memories of the old world still do, that it was my stone that knocked my brother unconscious. It struck him just above his right occipital bone.
Acknowledgments
Thank you:
Robert J. Peterson
Andrea
Stella
Elizabeth
About The Author
Mark Falkin is the author of the novels Days of Grace and Contract City. Though he remains a card-carrying member of the Texas Bar, he is a literary agent by day and oftentimes by night. He lives with his wife and daughters in Austin, Texas.