A Salty, Little Beach

Part IX | Central African Republic | A Salty, Little Beach

A salty, little beach where the rainforest spring used to be in the Central African Republic.

"They said he came back quartered." Panama Gold stepped gingerly on a layer of slimy, wet leaves and twigs covering the forest floor. Juicee J was up ahead on the path headed toward the former location of the Rainforest Spring. A booming voice shook the trees overhead and startled Panama Gold out of his reverie.

"I'll always be by your side." The male Jaguar, Bagheera had said (of Junior) when the right hand of an unauthorized spy {0} brushed up against the tip of the almost 3-month-old male jaguar cub's tail, setting off a chain of events that led to the quartering of 3 million individuals worldwide who turned out to be plastic idiots. "Quartering" meant their heads had been chopped into four equal sections and left attached to the torso at the neck.

Even the youngest children (and some babies) had been taught what to do if someone set off the tip of the Jaguar's tail. They were to be quartered. Immediately. They were not to be cared for, only kept track of on other people's lists. Simple as that. No one wanted any more backwards-thinking, plastic idiots interfering with their water supply or their society or their government enforcement. Not anymore. Not ever. Never. They had all promised themselves (and each other) they wouldn't concede to idiocy as people had in the past. Things were going to be different now. They were going to bring the magic back!

Belle or "Bellie," the Giant (female) Jaguar had had her own tail stepped on often enough at the train station in Kinshasa by the woman known as "Gilat Bennett," who did it always on purpose and always with a long cigarette holder she used to smoke emerald from one end of the train to the other. {1} Gilat even bruised the Jaguar's tail by stepping on it repeatedly! Gilat's arrival always announced her villainous plans to build a Central African aqueduct in the Republic of Congo, and her projects had been started in a few places in this heavily forested jungle that borders the Democratic Republic of Congo on its [DR Congo's] western side. Gilat (and others) had been warned (and fined) repeatedly for their illicit construction operations in the Republic of Congo and were told the Rainforest Spring aqueduct construction was to begin near the Spring's former location in the Central African Republic (outside of Kozza), not in the Republic of Congo as Gilat had always insisted.

Belle, the Giant female Black Jaguar originally from Peru, inhabited the Republic of Congo for centuries, waiting with her mate Bagheera {2} to take over guardianship of the Rainforest Spring currently located in the DR Congo's Parc National de la Salonga, or Salonga National Park.

A failed aqueduct attempt in the Republic of Congo

Notes

{0} Sigourney Weaver sent a couple to "investigate," Alexander Dreymon from The Last Kingdom (2015-2022) series and his sister.

{1} See "Gilat Bennett" as Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians.

{2} Find Bagheera in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.