High Country Ch. 03 Pt. 02

He said many other things, too, but these ideas are enough to explain to us what had happened. Gai told us that he had gotten word at the opera house concert (the one Jeremy and I had attended) that strict adherents of the Rastafari, who called themselves pure, had put a 'hit' out on the band called 'The Mighty Diamonds' because, they said, the group had corrupted the true beliefs the Rasta held dear. These heretics, after all, called themselves Rastafarians and were comfortable with the blasphemous Rastafarianism...

The victims of the mountain attacks, far from being tourists, were instead, stagehands from the reggae group. The murdered had been attempting escape by a high mountain route when members from the Rasta underground had caught them off guard. They dismembered the two in accordance with a ritual cleansing to bring atonement for the bands' drift away from the true ascetics of their perceived religiosity.

In other words, it was another killing in the name of religion by a group claiming they were the true believers... The bears had only happened along afterwards and by chance, picked up some of the body parts, their tracks leaving the appearance of them being the perpetrators of the killings.

The night of my frightful experience in our bedroom, one Rasta had tracked Ambergai Gee to our home. Somehow reaching the balcony entrance, the assassin for some reason had aborted that attempt, jumping down from the balcony and escaping into the night, leaving the torn patch of burlap clothing stuck to the tree where I had discovered it.

Gai figured he had been startled, maybe by me... he had also seen the disappearing figure, rightly identified him as a threat to his 'family', Jeremy and me, so he had resolved to leave us to ensure our safety, and try to avenge the wrong while ridding the threat...

He spent the next days pushing forward to do just that. Using Adolpho's remote, abandoned house as a base, he had convinced another stagehand from the band, who had also remained in the area, to help him. The two tracked down the true murderers, though in so doing, the stagehand had been critically attacked, as well. Again, the bear clan had just happened by afterwards, perpetuating the public's fear that marauding bears were attacking humans. Gai was devastated that his band friend had been so injured and upon finding him, had left the man anonymously at the ER entry for hopeful saving, disappearing again to carry on the quest. The man died the day before, as he now told us, and his heart was aggrieved.

The day of Hallowe'en, Gai had caught up to the zealots and he had 'put an end' to the threat, as he put it. He would not tell us what had happened, only that the threat no longer existed. And, he had gone to the Sheriff with the evidence, proving what had occurred. He had done certain things so the sect would threaten us never again.

His critically injured friend had regained consciousness long enough to verify Gai's explanation and the Sherriff, along with the town officials, had decided to allow the bear attack story to remain intact, relocating the innocent bear clan to a remote area of another mountain range away from humans. They had tasted of human flesh and that in itself was a danger.

The case was now officially closed, the cover up was to persist, the truth never to be told...We were all sworn to secrecy and must agree to hold the knowledge close amongst just us, he had insisted.

The best laid schemes o' mice and men...oft go awry. An apt quote, with much truth to it.

Our agreement sealed the ending of the whole affair, and the ritual lighting of the hookah hash pipe provided both closure and then levity after the bittersweet tale.

Ambergai Gee, IV, then informed us that by taking turns bringing the Daddy Rastafarian of the domicile to climax, while the rest of us watched, we could all be sufficiently atoned for our knowledge. Well, we all 'sucked it up' and did the penance. Now, if that didn't seem like the kind of religious ritual I could embrace, then I didn't know what ever would be. And would the deep woods Jamaican who could, would he fuck wood? Indeed, he wood...errr, would.

Boy, did we sleep like pussy babies that night...