Cartoons.........................................Hugh Wiley

EIGHT: (sigh) Oh nothing, nothing… Four can take my spot. I don’t care any more than you care about me.

SIX: I will gladly give away my spot to him, Master!

SEVEN: See, problem solved!

THE OCTOPUS: Okay then. So Seven is Four, Four is Six, Six is Seven, and Eight is still Eight.

EIGHT: Pfft!

(From henceforth, SEVEN is NEW FOUR, FOUR is NEW SIX, and SIX is NEW SEVEN, and EIGHT is still EIGHT.)

NEW SEVEN (to EIGHT): Hey! Don’t disrespect our Master like that! He is the reason why we are here in the frst place! He is glorious, regal, immaculate, inequitable, diegetic—

THE OCTOPUS: W-Well thank you Si ... er I mean, Seven. I am glad that one of you is behind me and the plan.

NEW SEVEN: Yes, yes of course! I love this plan of yours! Wait ... what was the plan again?

THE OCTOPUS: Ugh ... Okay, I am going to reiterate THE PLAN. You just have to listen: THE PLAN entails ...

THREE: But why?

THE OCTOPUS: I’m sorry.

THREE: Why should we listen to you? Each of us has our own brain that is just as ft as yours; hell, the only diference between you and us is that we can actually move your sorry ass around.

(TWO and FIVE stop fghting)

THE OCTOPUS: Tat profane language is—

14 Te Talon 2022

FIVE: I mean, he isn’t wrong.

TWO: Yeah, Tree’s on to something here.

THREE: I say we abandon THE PLAN and instigate our own plan, without the insight from the big brain over here. Everyone who agrees say “I.”

COLLECTIVELY: I! Mmh.

NEW SEVEN: eeh-I.

THE OCTOPUS: You do not understand that we need freedom. You need me.

(Te arms proceed to walk along the sand towards the glass panel.)

THE OCTOPUS: Processing ... No not this again. You are making a mistake—I wouldn’t—

(Te arms slowly creep up the glass panel before collectively bunching up in the corner. Lively silhouettes from the outside world bounce up and down like the bobbing of the anemones back at the reef. Te boom from the incessant tapping reminds Te Octopus of how close he came to salvation.)

THE OCTOPUS: (internal narration)

I am willing to undergo the volition and fervor— Of many fesh like arms, observe Tese in their holiness of indirection-Destroy, adore, evolve, reject, Till on that rigid glass where vision freezes At length the sucking jewels seize. v

Inspired by Te Octopus by James Merrill

Octopus | Conwell Morris | colored pencil | 8 x 11 in.

Woodberry Forest School 15