Happy New Year! Today I want to share an excerpt from a book I published in 2008. It’s about two siblings, Luke and Lucy, who take a trip to the high country and find themselves in a strange land called “Symbolia”, where they have to walk the Sacred Path to get back Home. In this episode, Luke and Lucy have become separated at the Gulf of SimonSez, and Lucy is trying to find her way back to the Path:
Lucy walked along the trail that Brownoze had insisted that she take, but she still wasn’t sure it was the one she wanted. Even though she was sick of having Luke boss her around, she didn’t like being all alone in this strange world, either. She knew it wasn’t safe for her to go back to the Gulf of SimonSez, where Luke was. Those bullies would get me for sure! she thought. Oh, dear! What am I going to do now?
After a while she noticed that the terrain was changing. It wasn’t so much like a dessert any more. There were more plants now, and even a few small trees. Soon Lucy came to a crossroads. There were no signs, and she had no idea which way to go – maybe straight, maybe the path to the right. Then she saw three figures approaching on the path to her right. They wore long dark robes, tied around the waist with a rope. They seemed to be chanting something, but Lucy couldn’t quite make out the words.
As they got closer, Lucy could hear the words of the chant.
“U-Shuud Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah,
U-Shuud Doo-Wah Ty-Zay.
U-Shuud Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah,
U-Shuud Doo-Wah Ty-Zay-Tu-Du,”
the three robed men droned on in unison. Funny words, Lucy thought to herself. Must be in some foreign language. Wonder what they mean
One of these chanters was very tall and thin, with a stern, narrow face, thick, dark eyebrows, and intense eyes. He was carrying what seemed to be a piece of wood in one arm. Another was medium height but with a massive physique, a squarish jaw, and a rather forlorn expression on his face. The third was short and rather pudgy and almost bald. A ring of short brown hair encircled his shiny dome, above a round, shiny face and big, wide, blue eyes. He smiled blissfully as he chanted, “U-Shuud Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah, U-Shuud-Doo-Wah-Ty-Zay-Tu-Doo.…”
All three of the chanters looked harmless enough – and this pudgy one even looked friendly. Lucy decided to ask directions.
“Excuse me,” she said politely to the wide-eyed chanter. He stopped walking and chanting. His two companions stopped walking, too, but they continued to chant: “U-Shuud Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah….”
“Can I help you?” the wide-eyed chanter asked. His voice was soft and kind.
“I think I’m lost,” explained Lucy, feeling she could trust him. “I was trying to get away from some power trippers at the Gulf of SimonSez, and I seem to have lost my way. I was wondering if you could tell me how to get back on the Sacred Path?”
“Just follow us,” U-Shuud Sayer Gul continued. “We will show you the way. May The Roolz be with you, my child,” he replied. “Let us introduce ourselves. We are the U-Shuud Sayers of Dogmapolis. I am U-Shuud Gul. This is U-Shuud Matt and U-Shuud Ritt.” The other two men nodded pleasantly enough at Lucy but never stopped chanting. “But what’s a U-Shuud Sayer?” asked Lucy.
“A U-Shuud Sayer,” began Gul, “is one who has dedicated his life to serving The Roolz. We are protected by The Roolz. We are taught how to live by The Roolz. We worship The Roolz!”
“What’s The Roolz? A person or a god or what?” Lucy wanted to understand, but U-Shuud Sayer Gul had already turned toward the other two U-Shuud Sayers and joined them in their chant. I guess I’ll find out later, Lucy thought as the three men began walking again, away from her, through the crossroads and on to the left. “U-Shuud Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah, U-Shuud Doo-Wah Ty-Zay-Tu-Du. U-Shuud Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah, U-Shuud Doo-Wah, Ty-Zay-Tu-Du…”
Lucy followed them, glad to have someone guiding her, but she didn’t feel really settled inside. Cheer up, she told herself. You’ll be back on the Sacred Path soon.
They were walking out of desert terrain now, and through fields of growing crops and small farms. Occasionally a farmer with a horse-drawn cart full of vegetables would pass them, travelling in the same direction. The farmers always waved a greeting to the U-Shuud Sayers and Lucy. Lucy always waved back. The U-Shuud Sayers nodded devoutly to each farmer as he passed, but they never stopped chanting their U-Shuud-Doo-Wha chant.
Before long Lucy could see a huge form glistening in the distance, towering above the rest of the landscape. It seemed to be some kind of very large building, far taller than any of the trees that they occasionally passed. As they drew closer, Lucy could see that the form was a massive stone pyramid, nine stories high. Each story was smaller than the one below it, giving the appearance, from a distance, of huge steps, each about ten feet tall, leading up to a temple-like structure on the very top.
“What’s that?” asked Lucy, pointing at the imposing structure rising before them.
“That, my dear, is the blessed City of Dogmapolis,” Gul answered, pausing briefly in his chanting. “That is where we are going.”
“Why are we going there?” asked Lucy. “Is Dogmapolis on the Sacred Path?”
“Oh, yes!” U-Shuud Sayer Gul answered. “Not only is Dogmapolis on the Sacred Path; Dogmapolis is the Sacred Path.”
“But it looks like a pyramid!”
“It is a pyramid,” the U-Shuud Sayer replied. “It’s a step pyramid. A ziggurat, to be exact.” Then he resumed his U-Shuud chant, and Lucy sensed that he didn’t want to answer any more questions.
Hm-m-m-m, she thought, that doesn’t exactly sound like the Sacred Path that Morningstar was talking about, but these guys seem pretty sure about knowing the way. I’d be lost without them. So she kept following the U-Shuud Sayers toward the layered structure in the distance.
The closer Lucy got to the City of Dogmapolis, the more details she could make out. She could see that each story or level of the step pyramid had evenly spaced, square windows or doorways all along it, leading out to a walled walkway that appeared to go all the way around each level. The whole thing seemed to be built with large slabs of cut stone, each with a shiny surface that reflected the sunlight. She noticed that the bottom level itself was surrounded by a very high wall, also made from gigantic rock slabs.
As Lucy got closer still to the step-pyramid city of Dogmapolis, she began to notice that at each corner of each level there were stone statues of some kind, looking out over the Desert of Avariss and the Pink Mountains in the distance. These statues appeared to be only half a person—from the hips up, as if it were growing right out of the stone. Then Lucy could see that they weren’t really people either. They had heads and faces and ears and eyes and arm and bodies, but they weren’t really people. At least not like any people Lucy had ever known. Some of them had large, pointy ears, or horns, or fangs, or tails, or scales, or claws. When Lucy got close enough to see the expressions on the statues’ faces, she noticed that they were not very friendly. In fact, they looked downright nasty. That’s weird, she thought, but she kept right on following the U-Shuud Sayers toward the great walled city of Dogmapolis.
Eventually the three U-Shuud Sayers led Lucy up to the main gate of the walled, pyramid-shaped city. The gate was guarded by two tall guards dressed in black-and-white spotted jumpsuits. They looked really silly to Lucy, and she almost giggled the minute she saw them. They look like Dalmatians, she thought to herself. But then she noticed the very serious expression on their faces, and even though that, too, looked funny to Lucy, she could tell that it definitely would not be okay to laugh at them.
Lucy and the U-Shuud Sayers paused just before they got to the gate. Matt, the massive, square-jawed U-Shuud Sayer, stopped chanting, and turned to Lucy. “Before entering our glorious city of Dogmapolis,” he said, “you must put these on.” He pulled a cloth bag out from under his robe. He took two items out of the bag and handed them to Lucy, one at a time.
The first item was a pair of goggles. The second was a sheepskin coat with an attached sheepskin hood. “Put them on,” U-Shuud Sayer Matt ordered.
The other two U-Shuud Sayers were chanting, “U-Shuud Doo-Wah Ty-Zay-Tu-Du….”
By now Lucy was somewhat mesmerized by the continuous chanting. She took the goggles and put them on first. The band that went around her head and held the goggles in place was extremely tight and uncomfortable.
“No thanks,” Lucy said politely, handing the goggles back toward the massive U-Shuud Sayer. “I don’t want to wear these.”
At this point it was the tall, thin U-Shuud Sayer Ritt, who stopped chanting and took a step toward Lucy. He was now holding the piece of wood on his left arm, and Lucy could see that there were lines of carved symbols on it. His narrow eyes blazed as he shouted at her. “According to The Roolz,” his voice boomed, as he pounded the piece of wood with his right fist, “everyone residing on Level One must wear these goggles at all times. You are new here, therefore you must reside on Level One. And if you do not obey the Almighty Roolz, you cannot enter the safety of the City of Dogmapolis. Do you want to remain at the mercy of the barbarians, or do you agree to obey The Roolz?”
“Who are the barbarians?” asked Lucy.
“The barbarians are those who do not follow The Roolz,” replied Sayer Ritt, sharply. “We learn the One and Only Truth from The Roolz. Those who do not follow the Roolz do not know the One and Only Truth. They are barbarians.”
“U-Shuud Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah,
U-Shuud Doo-Wah Ty-Zay.
U-Shuud Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah,
U-Shuud Doo-Wah Ty-Zay-Tu-Du,”
chanted U-Shuud Gul and U-Shuud Matt.
“Okay, okay,” said Lucy to the U-Shuud Sayers, somewhat dejected. “I do want to be safe from the barbarians. I’ll wear your stupid goggles.” And she pulled the mask-like goggles over her head. Suddenly she felt like her brain was in a vice. She pulled them off immediately. “I need a bigger size,” she said. “These are too tight.”
“They are the correct size,” U-Shuud Sayer Ritt replied, sternly. “It’s supposed to be tight.”
Reluctantly Lucy once again put on the tight-fitting goggles. They really squeezed her head uncomfortably, but she figured she could stand it for a while. She could see that there was no arguing with the U-Shuud Sayers, and besides, she really wanted to follow them and get back on the Sacred Path again.
When the goggles were securely covering her eyes, Lucy noticed something peculiar. Hm-m-m-m, she thought, looking around. This is strange. These goggles take all the color out of everything. Everything is black and white, like it’s all a really old movie. And I can’t see anything on either side. But I guess I’ll get used to it. And it’s better than being lost and alone.
Then Lucy put on the hooded sheepskin coat. She felt really silly in it. “I don’t want to wear this coat either,” Lucy said. “It will make me look like a sheep.”
“You’re supposed to look like a sheep,” Sayer Ritt replied sternly.
“Why?” asked Lucy.
“To show your place, of course,” answered the uptight U-Shuud Sayer. “In Dogmapolis everyone has a place and stays in it. Your place will be here on Level One of Dogmapolis as a sheeple.”
“What if I don’t want to be a sheeple?” Lucy asked. “What are my other choices?”
“You have no other choices,” replied U-Shuud Sayer Ritt Thumper. “According to The Roolz...” His voice was starting to boom again.
“I know,” Lucy interrupted. “According to The Roolz, I have to be a Level One sheeple.”
“Exactly,” beamed Ritt. “You’re beginning to catch on. And you do want to be here, don’t you?”
“Yes,” answered Lucy weakly. “I do want to be here. I’ll be a sheeple.” She really wanted to get back on the Sacred Path again, and the U-Shuud Sayers said they knew the way. Reluctantly she pulled the hooded sheepskin coat around her.
As soon as Lucy had the goggles and the sheeple coat on, with the hood up around her head, the three robed U-Shuud Sayers, still chanting, moved up to one of the Blakkenwite gate guards. “A new sheeple,” U-Shuud Sayer Gul said to one of the jump-suited guards, nodding toward Lucy in her goggles and hooded sheepskin coat.
The guard looked Lucy over and then nodded solemnly to Gul. The three chanters and Lucy moved forward, past the guards, through the gate, and into the city of Dogmapolis. U-Shuud Gul Abull motioned for Lucy to follow them, which she did, grateful to be inside the walled City of Dogmapolis, safe from the dictators at the Gulf of SimonSez.
‘U-Shuud Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah, U-Shuud Doo-Wah Ty-Zay-Tu-Doo,” chanted the U-Shuud Sayers.
Lucy was now inside Dogmapolis, and the heavy gate slammed shut behind her. The tight-fitting, goggles that U-Shuud Sayer Ritt Thumper insisted she wear, made everything look black and white, without even any shades of gray. And it took her a while to get used to the tunnel vision imposed by the goggles, which forced her to look straight ahead, unable to see anything on either side of her, or above, or below. But she could see a line of people directly in front of her, all wearing goggles and hooded sheepskin coats, and all carrying bags of something over their shoulders. Lucy couldn’t see what was in the bags, but the sheeple carried them as if they were quite heavy.
“This is your level,” U-Shuud Sayer Matt Terbound told Lucy, somewhat gruffly. “Get in line over here.” He pointed to a space in the carrying line, behind a short, rather stocky sheeple.
“What do I have to get in line for?” asked Lucy.
“In Dogmapolis everyone has to get in line,” Matt explained, and his voice sounded like he was losing patience with Lucy. “And see that you stay in line!” he added, harshly.
“U-Shuud Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah, Doo-Wah, U-Shuud Doo-Wah Ty-Zay-Tu-Doo,” droned the chanters, and they walked through one of the square doorways in the bottom level of the pyramid, turned a corner inside, and were out of Lucy’s sight.
Lucy took her place in line, as ordered, behind the indicated sheeple. Another sheeple, wearing goggles and a sheepskin coat but no hood, handed Lucy one of the large, heavy sacks. “Welcome to Dogmapolis,” he said. “Your job is to carry this burdenbag.”
Lucy hoisted the bulging sack over her right shoulder. She still carried the fire kit and canteen on her left. The burdenbag was heavy, and Lucy had to hold it firmly with both hands. “What’s in these sacks, anyhow?” she asked the sheeple in front of her.
The short, stocky sheeple had to turn all the way around in order to see Lucy, due to the restrictions of the hood and goggles. The sheeple did this very carefully, being sure not to step out of line. “You must be new here,” the sheeple said.
“Yes, I am. I just arrived here in Dogmapolis. My name is Lucy.”
“Hi,” said the sheeple. “I’m Patsy.”
Lucy was surprised to discover that the sheeple in front of here was a girl.
“There’s mostly gold in these burdenbags,” Patsy continued. “And sometimes jewels.”
“Who does it belong to?” asked Lucy in surprise.
“Oh, it’s all for the Grand Nimroodi and the Grand Kolumbooti,” the stocky sheeple answered.
“Who are they?” asked Lucy, but just then one of the Blakkenwite guards bounded up to Lucy and Patsy. “Stop talking, turn around, and carry your burdenbags quietly!” he barked.
Lucy wanted to giggle again, but again she knew that it wouldn’t be appropriate. Besides, that bark was pretty scary. Sheeple Patsy turned back around quickly, and Lucy couldn’t tell if she was also amused. Lucy had many more questions for Patsy, but for now they would have to go unanswered. She stayed in line, silently carrying the heavy burdenbag, contributing to somebody else’s wealth, like all the other sheeple in line in front and in back of her. But at least I’m safe here, she told herself, as she shuffled along, shifting the burdenbag from one shoulder to the other to avoid pain.
~~
Please let me know how this grabs you and if you want more.
Peace and Love,
Sylvia
