The Creature

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V

I had tried to communicate with Kong from the very beginning of our association. He and I would mostly just stare into each others face for hours at a time. He seemed incapable of speech or speech like sounds other than screeching or giving off a soft whimper. 0nce when I tried to move his mouth to form words he inadvertently bit my finger and it bled fiercely. I remember whipping my finger out of his mouth and the blood splattering against the side of the cabin. It was my right index finger, the damage being in the middle of the middle joint. I soaked it in scotch whiskey which burned. I considered getting a tetanus shot or checking to see if it needed stitches but it had bled so much I considered this unnecessary. I remember cursing and yelling at Kong but he just looked at me with a stupid quizzical expression.

Yelling at Kong made no impression on him but if I yelled and waved my arms and jumped up and down he would get nervous and back away. I could always get him to back off by jumping up and down and yelling. In fact, by jumping up and down and yelling I can get most any person or animal to back off.

As to the cabin, Kong never set foot on the porch which was the way to enter. One could enter through the back door but I kept that bolted and locked and only used the front entrance from the porch. If I could not get Kong on the porch then of course he never entered the place. He would peer through a window at me or take things from the porch railing but never would he step on or into the place.

In about three weeks I taught him some commands that seemed to be necessary. He learned to STAY by my giving threatening gestures and holding him with repetition of the word over and over. I would put my arms around his chest and arms and press him downward and say STAY STAY in the early training. He finally got the idea. I had tried rewarding him with apples but he seemed to make no connection with the apples and the performance of the deed. I always tried to use the word STAY with my arm extended fingers out with palm down.

He learned that when I said GO he was to leave the area immediately. At first I had to make outlandish gestures and push him. Once I hit him with a switch which had no effect. I decided that this was bad policy since he was a creature of the universe and since he was in no way dangerous to me this was cruel. Besides he could have easily killed me with one sweep of either hand.

The word and sound BAH meant NO. I tried to teach him NO but he confused it with GO and would leave the area. I usually had to use BAH when he would touch me too briskly or start to eat one of the small surviving spruce trees I wished to save.

He would LIE when I said it only when I touched him. I did not like this command hut it seemed a good one to have in our repertoire. I did not like it because it suggested commands to an animal and my definition of animal did not fit Kong who had all the structures of a human including emotions which he conveyed with his eyes and mouth. He was able to convey pleasure, anxiety, fear, serendipity, and annoyance. Once I thought he was smiling hut it was only a grimace, probably from gas which he often expelled orally and anally with explosive force.

Teaching Kong was similar to teaching the handicapped or trying to communicate with someone who spoke a different language. It was me giving my terminology, my hand signals, my emphasis on living. If we are all creatures of the universe then there must be some language that two unlike creatures could use in communication. This was the attitude I had in trying to communicate with Kong.

He understood FOOD and EAT but did not pay much attention to any commands of this nature. I would leave food on the tailgate of the station wagon and would say "Kong, food on car" but there would not be an instant response to the idea of car. He would check other places where I left food before he got around to the car. These places included the picnic table, the cabin steps, the porch railing, and the base of a large wild cherry tree.

He did not seem to grasp the meaning of YES or OKAY because he had no need for asking permission. In the world of nature the creatures take what they want or do what they wish and are only deterred by superior force or logic. Therefore, he did not need to ask me if it was okay to eat an apple. If he had an apple in his hand and wanted to eat it he would do. If I took an apple away from him and he wanted it back I was not in any position to prevent this.

I once tried training him to take food from my pockets. He was able to take a small peach from my chest pocket with ease. Wanting to really try his dexterity I put an apple in my front pocket of my blue jeans and put his hand on it saying "Kong-food." He didn't understand this and so I curled his fingers around the apple and he finally realized what it was. He calmly ripped my pocket down to my knee and in so doing threw me to the ground. I was happy when the apple rolled free and away from me. Kong picked it up unconcerned and squashed it in his mouth.

When I related that Kong and I would sit and stare at each other for hours this is not exactly the case. He would not sit but would kneel on his knees, squat, or stand. The comfortable position for him was squat. I would try to assume his positions and the squatting position came easy Lo me since I was a catcher in baseball and could stay that way for hours if need be. The mountaineers of the Appalachians refer to this position as "hunkering" and these people can all do it for hours while engaged in conversation and hand movements, often balancing a jug and gun at the same time.

I often had the feeling that Kong was studying me as much as I was studying him. I do not know his purpose but mine of course was scientific and it was my obligation to report his presence to the civilized world. I cannot imagine him communicating anything about me to anything or any other creature of his own likeness. Since he existed 1 am under the impression that there are others of his kind in the universe. I suppose I should use the term earth rather than universe since the latter may convey the belief that he was from outer space. To me this is absurd.

What could possibly have gone through his mind as he sat there staring at me. I have had my boyhood dog "Pal" stare at me and into my eyes for what seemed like hours and in my childhood I wondered what he could have been thinking. Perhaps I am capable of the hour long stare that pleases animals and perhaps I hold them with an eye expression that I am not aware that I possess.

In my entire association with Kong he never once handed me anything, he never shared. His actions were one of take or ignore. He would touch me but I could never understand why. He didn't seem to be feeling my skin or analyzing me or checking me out, just reach out and touch every once in a while.

In our many hours of just squatting and looking at each other there seemed to be no purpose on his part. He seemed to anticipate that I would devise something or do something to give him something. It does not seem strange to me that we would sit and look at each other for hours. I do that with my cat to this day. Members of certain Indian tribes of South America lie in hammocks for sixteen or eighteen hours a day with no communication with each other. They stare at the trees or the sky and just lay there for days. In our social structure people who lie around for hours are frowned upon and methods of prodding and ostracism are employed against them.

The longest Kong and I stared at each other was probably two and a half hours. I do not want to give the impression that this went on in marathon fashion with a massive stare down. I would just study him for about a half hour and then do some little work around the cabin and go back to the spot and Kong would still be there ready for another half hour session. His patience was remarkable. These sessions seemed to produce a hypnotic trance on him but when I would move it would break the spell and he would shuffle. While in the staring state he would appear to be immobilized but then all of a sudden he would move and break this spell.

In our stare sessions I would often reflect upon his knowledge of his environment. I wondered if he was aware that we were on a planet circling the sun and that there were other planets doing the same thing. I wondered if he had any knowledge of great metropolitan areas. Did he know that there was such a place as China or Germany or Finland. I know so many things, the amount of my knowledge staggers me when I reflect upon it. So it is with all humans. What did Kong know? What fraction of my knowledge did he possess? I suppose it really doesn't matter if a creature is aware of atoms and molecules since it probably doesn't matter to the average human that atoms and molecules exist. They will go on with their important social relationships and their vehicle and television hang-ups and in this area worry when the Pirates have their next shot at a pennant.

If Kong possessed knowledge of anything beyond eating he didn't relay it to me. He was a creature of the environment and he took from the environment those things that he needed and ignored the rest. He was obviously shy of humans and yet he had made contact with me and seemed to enjoy it or at least he kept coming back for more.

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