Romulus Lupus

Romulus Lupus

Short Story

By Nicola Reddwoodd

His name is Romulus Lupus. He had left his brothers and sisters in Yellowstone because he hated seeing one after the other being shot by the land management officials who were shooting them from airplanes. Romulus is a huge supporter of Hillary and Bill Clinton because during their administration they did not allow something so horrific as those shootings to happen. Times are rough and Romulus decided to find a better place to live in and different people to hang out with and those who welcomed him just the way he was. He wished for a place without conflict just as all individuals deep down underneath all of the self made coping mechanisms wish for. His own coping mechanisms are much more straightforward than those of others. His needs are quite basic and anyone should agree that it should not have to be so difficult to grant a living being the fulfillment of those basic wishes as the wish for safety, food, water, shelter, freedom to roam, play, good communication, peace and a place without inner nor outer conflict.

Romulus headed South West not knowing what was going to happen next. He sang at night hoping to find a girlfriend but all the girls he saw had house arrest, they must have been teenagers who were not allowed to date yet. He said well, well, well, then I have to move on. Homeless, hungry, thirsty and cold he kept on walking, didn't even have a truck. He walked past gas stations and someone hollered something but he could not understand what the person was saying. He kept on walking. A woman came out of a house to give him water. He drank and thanked her from the bottom of his heart, he gave her a quick kiss and walked on. Across a wonderful landscape he found some hot springs next to an enclave, a rocky wind barrier. The hot water steam heated up the enclave and he settled down to take a break from his hike. He stayed at this wonderful place for several days until hikers with backpacks came along. The hikers gave him food. He drank hot spring water from the stream where it had cooled down, thanked the hikers and continued on his path South West.

Romulus hiked and hiked through forests, past agriculture land, past cows. He had to eat carcasses of small animals in the forests which had maggots in them but he did not care. He sang at night songs that he composed himself, he called them Lunar Songs. Without a guitar he sang acapella songs about being solo in solitude and it sounded sad but passionate. He sang one song about the sorrows he felt about the massacre in Yellowstone, >May the volcano erupt and bring the gods Mars, Venus and Dionysus up to the surface shedding their lava of wrath on the cow ranchers, after me the lava flood of Neptune. May they all join the Neptune Society.<

Romulus headed towards the ocean, it was still a long way to go to do whale watching, but he did not give up. In the desert of Oregon he found a wonderful natural swimming pool and enjoyed the warm sulfur water of the pool and he swam in the pool until a long bearded guy with an old truck and an Airstream trailer pulled up. The guy got out of his truck to take photos of Romulus swimming in the hot springs pool. He told Romulus that he has read about him on the Google News. "Where are you heading next?" Romulus said he was heading to Ashland because it’s a nice and open minded community. He might find what he was looking for all along in Ashland.

When Romulus arrived in Ashland he ran into people who were dressed in 1600 clothes. They all surrounded him and praised his good looks. They told him that they were actors in a theatre play called Romulus and Remus. He thought that was weird. His name was Romulus, quite a rare name and then there is a theatre play in which a character named Romulus appears. The nice actors told him to be careful, they heard on the news that the cow ranchers were looking for him now and that they had decided to persecute, round up and execute him for being different and for his opposition to the cow ranchers. Romulus was terrified. This was bad news indeed.

"What should I do? Where should I go? Who can help me?" he asked the actors but they did not have the answer to his question. They only said "Be careful Romulus, stay away from the cow pastures, that is where the cow ranchers reside and they might be out there even at night looking for you". Romulus went to the farmer's market, got himself a few loafs of old bread, drank good Ashland mineral water, and he even got a dish of chicken without bones from a nice lady who was selling chicken and she made that dish just for him. She was crying and said how scared she was for Romulus, she did not want anything to happen to him. She said that she believes that Romulus was named after the son of Rhea Silvia and the god Mars.

An activist lady heard her talk to Romulus and offered him a good home. He climbed onto the back seat of her fully solar powered convertible Mercedes Benz and they drove through a wonderfully green environment past trees, grass meadows and through a very large iron gate with rock columns on each side and on top of each column sat a cubic shaped bronze sculpture. They drove on a cemented road through a thick forest and arrived at a gigantic cement building with lots of glass walls. The activist lady opened the car door for him and he thanked her with a quick kiss on her cheek. She said that she has the perfect girlfriend for him, a blonde girl with long hair about his height and her name is Acca Larentia de Rothschild. He cautiously checked the girl out and she cautiously checked him out and they decided to like each other and they ran over the grass meadows together with bare feet like children run in pure joy. "At my house there are no cow ranchers allowed. Only art rules here. Only love governs this beautiful place", said the activist lady.

The activist lady loved watching Acca Larentia and Romulus play together. He finally found what he had wished for and much more. His salt and pepper hair was shining in the sunlight next to his girlfriend's blonde hair. He found a young girlfriend half his age. The activist lady helped them with the decision not to have kids and they agreed, life was easier without the stress of parenting. They had the chance now to be forever kids themselves, the adopted kids of the activist lady. Romulus' hair was ruffled up and dusty when he was homeless and now his hair was shiny after the activist lady washed him with an all natural plant shampoo. What an amazing life one can have on Earth, he thought. Living in the wild is rough, the same as it is for homeless people. There are so many dangers lurking, one never knows when to find food or water and it’s cold out there during the winter months. He thought again about his brothers, sisters and cousins and he felt so sorry for them living in fear, hungry and persecuted. The activist lady gave him a hug and kissed him on his nose, she petted his living fur coat and was so grateful that she had found him and was able to rescue him from the persecution. He put one paw on her knee and looked up into her eyes in deep gratitude. Acca Larentia was sleeping curled up on the activist lady's bed and Romulus jumped up on the bed, turned around a few times and let himself fall into the soft memory foam bed. He thought: Being a wolf can be good.

During a hike through the private forest one day they met Nicola, Paul and Kenny, a couple and one very large and white Great Dane. Romulus said to Acca Larentia "Who is that? Is that a giraffe? I have never seen one in person before". Nicola said "We got lost on our trail, where does it go back to the trailhead?" The activist lady told her how to get back to the main path. Nicola said "I saw you on TV, you are Nathaniela de Rothschild, the famous environmentalist lady." Nathaniela said "Yes, that's me, welcome to my forest. I like meeting new dogs and new people."

They talked about the environmental situation, the politicians, animal rights and Nathaniela liked Nicola, Paul and Kenny so much that she invited them to her house for a vegan cheesecake with whipped almond cream. It was the perfect European tea time and it was 5 pm. Kenny, Romulus and Acca Larentia loved each others company and they ran together through the forest like they have known each other forever. They thought "What are they talking about, life is good, we don't want to read the news" and all three of them totally agreed on that statement.

During tea time a butler also served sesame seed cheesecakes, almond cheesecakes, New York style peach oatmeal cheese cakes and sesame seed whipped vegan cream with a hot carob tea. The 2 dogs and the 1 wolf received carob pralines on a golden tray. The 3 humans talked about their lives and they were so grateful that they had found like minded friends.

At 7 pm the butler gave Nathaniela a note. She said this was bad news because the cow ranchers had filed a restraining order against her. She was no longer allowed to hike near the meadows. Suddenly they heard gun shooting. They quickly walked Kenny, Acca Larentia and Romulus on leashes to a safe house nearby where they could hide. The house was made for this purpose, it was made out of camouflage colored materials and had bullet proof walls and glass. The door of the house was made out of steel and had a safety lock inside. Nathaniela talked on her satellite phone in the safe house and her body guard told her to make sure that they all stayed there until things cleared up. He said that the cow ranchers had hired hit men to shoot everybody on her property, but they got the situation under control.

The guards shot several of the shooters and 3 were badly injured, they have called the ambulance and the police. The hit men also had shot into the tires of all cars on the parking lot including their own cars. The guards called the mechanics to replace the tires of their own cars but not the tires of the hit mens cars. An hour went by but the police did not arrive. Nathaniela said to Nicola and Paul "I am glad that I have money because money can buy you good body guards. I chose them very wisely, they are all vegans and love animals. They have super characters and I can trust them. We are all a team here and have no hierarchies. See the thing is in politics and law enforcement that the lobbyists have too much financial leverage over the politicians, they can bribe their way through any legislation where employees either do not pay attention or where everybody takes their kickback cash. Today this country is almost completely run by the large corporate agenda, its a corrupt corporate conglomeration of CEOs and owners of companies which gain from exploitation and they pay huge sums to politicians and the media owners to manipulate the laws and the way people vote and consume in a very downcurve way. They do what Tony Robbins refers to as a class 3 experience which is something that feels good, is not good for you, is not good for others and does not serve the greater good. They seem to not realize at all that they are part of the whole symbiotic network of biological organisms which depend on one another, and when they damage this network of life forms they damage their own lives."

Nicola: "Yes, that is absolutely true, why can't those CEOs see this mechanism? What does it take for them to recognize this? When are they going to put A and B together?". Paul: "They don't care, it’s that simple, they don't have a conscience." Nicola: "What would fix that? What would grow them a conscience?". Nathaniela: "I wished they could just grow a conscience over night but things are much more difficult than that. I heard that the brain plasticity is flexible and that people can even grow formations that were previously atrophied or damaged, but this process is very slow. It would be very valuable for scientists to focus on this subject but we are having a pressing problem right now and those areas in the brain representable for high moral reasoning, conscience, and love take a lot of time to heal and expand."

Nicola: "The Vipassana Meditation has helped prisoners heal their emotional wounds and many of them are now making something out of their lives, they got work, a goal, they practice respecting and they get along well now with one another." Paul: "But does the Vipassana Meditation help psychopaths and sociopaths or any person who is highly functioning and even successful financially but has no conscience at all?" Nicola :"I don't know. Those people might not even seek out such help". Nathaniela: "That's right. They got what they think they need". Nicola: "That is right, they got what they think they need but not what they really need." Nathaniela: "Exactly." Nicola: "Those people don't realize what they are missing out on when they don't have love in their lives. Having love does not mean only receiving love and particularly not buying love. Many of them don't even have a concept of what true love actually is. They will always misunderstand us for that matter. When I petitioned in LA to save the whales from active sonar I encountered numerous persons who did not seem to get at all why I was doing this, why I was standing there in wind and weather for hours in front of stores to get my petitions signed. Many thought I was getting a buck for each petition and when I told them that I was doing this as a volunteer they looked at me with the most twisted facial expressions. Some of them accused me of doing this for my own Ego. They just can not grasp the idea of someone helping other beings because of compassion. I have cried many times about this and I have been in despair because it appeared that 95% of the shoppers did not care the slightest about helping. Paul and I tried to bring saving the old growth Redwood forest on to the ballot. Not enough people signed and it did not get on the ballot to be voted on officially. Don't those people realize that it is their own air which they are breathing that they are allowing to be cut off?". Nathaniela: "No they don't realize it. They are not educated about their own biology. Most of them can not think farther into the future. They take the 5 M&Ms now and not the 1 M&M which would pay them later 10 M&Ms. But I am deeply grateful to you Nicola and Paul for giving your time and effort to helping the whales and the forest. I am deeply grateful for each person who has a good heart. Activism can be very difficult when you get rocks thrown into your path as I have many times in my life. That's why you need to be good to yourselves as well, take breaks, enjoy life, eat good and healthy gourmet food, do fun things to recover from your grief and sorrows. Never do too much at once. Find out how much you can do at any given time and then you will be more energetic when you do the work and you will have more success with it."

Nicola: "Paul dwells on the news too much every day, he wakes up and the first thing he does is checking Google news." Paul: "You have to know what is going on." Nicola: "Yes, but it would drive me nuts if I had to listen to that right after I get up in the morning." Nathaniela: "Yes, it’s much better to do something that motivates you instead of something that discourages you from enjoying your life. Be good to yourselves, a quality life is extremely important. We have to consider our priorities. Recharge your batteries and then you can work with passion."

The bodyguard called Nathaniela and said that the Sheriff had arrived, the ambulance had taken the injured hit men to the hospital and the car mechanics were working on installing new tires. They went outside to talk to the Sheriff who did not seem to be too interested in their story, but he took notes of what they said.

The next day the TV news talked about the incident for a few seconds only and many newspapers did not cover the shooting at all. Ken, a reporter from the free news paper Eco Justice, talked to the injured persons and they told him that they were paid by the cow ranchers to shoot the Rothschilds. Ken wrote a good article about the shootings but not too many people read the article because the community only trusts the newspapers which are not free. One newspaper with the name The Triple Christian actually reported a total distortion of the scenario. Their writer Santa Corporate Clausius wrote that Nathaniela de Rothschild was a member of the Free Masons, that she was involved with a Satanic Cult in the Redwood forest and that the shooters were ordained ministers who had been given the order by their Christian god to shoot the Rothschilds.

Nathaniela emailed Nicola and told her that they made that story up, she had never been involved with any cult at all and that this article was written for the Christian right wingers who believe in Christian conspiracy theories. That article was written to slander her and turn people against her as much as they possibly could. She told Nicola that many of those cults like Free Masons, Rotary Club, and Club of Rome for example are traditional organizations that had an origin in helping society but today they are more about who is who than anything else. Harmless and complacent groups that are totally useless.

Nicola knew people in the Rotary Club and the Club of Rome, those groups don't do diddly daddle for anything. But they are not shapeshifting sociopathic ritualistic organizations. All of that propaganda about them is just playing spook for entertainment, money, political scare tactics and slander.

The Club of Rome was celebrating the restoration of a byzantine chess game called Slow Chess made in 300 BC out of iron. Nicola liked that idea of slow chess since she had never been a fan of speed chess. Speed metal was much better than speed chess. A guy named Erwin invited the Rothschilds and Nathanielas friends to the event, everybody was welcomed to play slow chess and help themselves to the all you can eat gourmet buffet. The dogs and wolf got their service dog pass IDs around their necks and off they went to the slow chess event. While Nicola wondered why they would serve beef at the buffet when their writers had been writing for decades about the dangers of global warming, Kenny had gotten a hold of someone’s steak and was eating it much faster than anybody else. Nicola: "Oh no, I am so sorry for that". Nathaniela said to the guy with the steak: "It’s better to become vegan because then those things don't happen to you". They handed over more steaks to Kenny, Acca Larentia and Romulus and talked about how good the vegetable part of the buffet food tasted. Bobby Redwood greeted Nathaniela and she introduced him to Nicola and Paul who were huge fans of his work.

Romulus wished for all activists to protect the other wolves, the wild horses in Nevada, the dolphins and the whales, and he wished for the cows to do more family planning. He thought: I hope more and more people will join my friends and do what they can to help us Earthians as well as our mother the Earth because we all depend on her to be well.