Give Us Dismay Our Dainty Pain [FICTOID]

Pierrot danced delicately on the rim of the volcano.

Instead of lava, it spewed jade:  Dust / grit / pebbles / rock / boulders.

Pierrot ignored them; if he was fated to die, he was fated to die.

His slippers stepped lightly across the steep sloping slabs of jade along the rim, lifting him on point, spinning him around, sliding across the vivid green surface.

There was no gaiety in his movements, no joy.  They seemed funereal, somber, despondent.

Through the thin soles of his slippers he felt the Great Sea Serpent approaching long before he heard it, the volcano vibrating as the huge beast humped its way up the side of the volcano to their rendezvous.

He heard it before he saw it, the great dull thud of its massive body hitting the side of the volcano, the huffing of its lungs and it gathered its strength for another undulation to carry it uphill.

He saw it over a mile away, and waited patiently as it drew closer and closer to the rim.

At last the great beast reached the summit and threw its head down, panting with exertion from its enormous effort.

“…you…summoned…me…” it said between gasps of breath, each as strong as a hurricane.

“Yes,” said Pierrot.

“…why…?”

“To watch me dance.”

For several seconds there was nothing to be heard but the moan of the wind.

“To.  Watch.  You.  Dance.” said the Great Sea Serpent.

“Yes,” Pierrot said, resuming his dance.  “Isn’t it beautiful?  Isn’t it poetic?  Isn’t it…tragic?”

“You had me drag myself out of the Mariana Trench, across a hundred miles of dry land, up this stupid volcano -- ow!”  A forty-ton boulder spewed from the volcano struck the Great Sea Serpent on the head, a minor annoyance due to the beast’s huge size, but an annoyance nonetheless. 

The Great Sea Serpent resumed:  “Up this stupid volcano, drying my scales out, rubbing my belly raw -- I’ll be sore for centuries, I might add -- just to watch you…dance.”

“Yes.”

The Great Sea Serpent studied Pierrot in silence for several moments then said, “This had better be good.”

Pierrot danced, pouring out all the anguish in his soul into his movements.  He elegantly pantomimed unrequited love / betrayal / jealousy.

When he finished he lay prostrate on the big jade slab beneath him, not moving for several moments. 

At last he raised his head and looked at the Great Sea Serpent.  “Well?”

“’Well’ what?”

“What did you think?”

“I think this is a Poseidon-damned waste of time,” said the Great Sea Serpent.  “You dragged me -- figuratively -- all the way up here for that?”

Pierrot hopped up sprightly.  “Then you shall want to devour me, no?”

“What?  Are you crazy?”

Pierrot sighed a heartbreaking sigh.  “Yes, insane for the love of Columbine, only she has succumbed to the lures of Harlequin, and so my heart lays broken at my feet.”  He bowed his head contritely for several moments then looked up.  “Aren’t you going to devour me?”

“Why would I want to devour you?”

“Because you are enraged!”

“Not enough to devour you,” said the Great Sea Serpent.  “What kind of a monster do you think I am?”

But you must devour me -- I insist!” cried Pierrot.  “How else must such a tragically self-destructive act end other than for the lowliest human to be devoured by the greatest creature on God’s green earth?”

As if on cue, the volcano lobbed up another boulder, this one just a small one weighing 250-pounds.  It arced several hundred feet in the air, and when it came down it narrowly missed Pierrot but when t shattered the shards slammed into his body, pulverizing his bones, bursting open his organs.

Gasping for pain, blood-speckled foam bubbling from his mouth, Pierrot said, “There…see…even the mountain agrees I am better off dead.  Devour me, oh great beast!  Devour me and let my poetry live on inside you.”

“No,” said the Great Sea Serpent, turning to begin the long arduous path down the volcano.

Pierrot looked his, his vision quickly fading.  “Why won’t you devour me?” he cried, an angry spray of blood issuing from his lungs.

“Clowns taste funny,” said the Great Sea Serpent.

© Buzz Dixon