CHAPTER 56
Back in Zenia, all in the valley were happy to see us return. They were also glad to be able to meet Alexis, Ocero Puddleby, Rinky, Terri, and above all, much to my delight, Rovette. Everybody loves Rovette. Especially me.
As for the newcomers to the area, they were all struck with how different Zenia and the surrounding area was from Africa, yet how beautiful it was in its idyllic setting among the pine, oak, maple, and redwood forests, the rushing rivers, the majestic mountains and valleys filled with Deer, Elk, Bears, Raccoons, Ringtails, Mountain Lions, Bobcats, River Otters, Flying Squirrels, Martens, Jackrabbits, Owls, Northern Flickers and other types of Woodpeckers, fields of Leopard Lilies and Western Columbines, Beargrass, and multitudes of other plants and animals, great and small.
After getting settled into the routine of our new life, we animals were all standing around one day reminiscing about our exploits in Australia, India, and Africa.
“I would hate to leave my life here, in this place and especially in this time, where everything is peaceful and wonderful,” said Stripes, “But sometimes I get the feeling we owe it to past generations to go back in time again, and teach the animals how to band together and form an unbreakable alliance so as to prevent the depredations that occurred in their time and place. After all, Australia and India and Africa aren’t the only places in the world where bad things happened: Europe, North and South America” —
“That’s true!” somebody said. It might have been me. I don’t remember now for sure.
Whoever it was, he or she wasn’t alone. Many of us had been thinking similar thoughts, but had been in no hurry to express them for the very reason that our Bengal Tiger friend had mentioned — namely because we were enjoying our life in the present time so much that the thought of returning to those distressing times did not seem altogether appealing.
It’s easy to postpone things that must be done, or should be done, when they seem difficult or distasteful.
“I’ve been thinking the same thing myself, Stripes,” Albert said. He had walked up as the Tiger had revealed his meditations to us.
“Do you have any events or places in mind in particular, my old friend?” I asked Albert.
“Yes, several actually, Taterskin. For starters, here are a few times and places I’ve been thinking about visiting in order to prevent terrible things throughout history from occurring” —
“I just thought of something,” Alexis interjected. “Since we prevented the pillaging of the Congo and its people, and put an end to poaching in Africa, what do the history books now say about those things?”
Albert smiles, and even chuckles a little. Unintentionally and without being aware of it, his chuckle has taken on an unmistakable resemblance to Yukyuk’s distinctive way of snickering.
“The history books are now completely silent on those subjects, Alexis. The same is true of the mistreatment of the indigenous people in Australia — nothing is recorded about those things, since they never occurred — because we saw to it that they never did.”
“What about us?” Ocero Puddleby asked. “Are we mentioned in the history books?”
“Well, that’s kind of funny,” Albert said. “There’s not much at all written about us — just the occasional footnote about there being rumors that a coalition of animals, accompanied by a handful of humans, were involved in concerted efforts of some sort, but they are always reported as being mere conjecture, stoutly defended by a few but generally regarded by the authorities as urban legends or old husband’s tales.”
“That’s OK,” Rovette said. “The important thing is that the destruction of humans and animals in those places where we went didn’t occur after all. It doesn’t matter that much who gets the credit, if anyone, does it?”
We all agreed that Yes, the results we had effected were far more important than whether we, either individually or collectively — as the Eco Defenders — ended up being given credit in the history books for our accomplishments or not.
Albert now continued with the list of events and situations that he had been thinking about and that he felt needed to be altered:
The Crusades that began in 1096
Christopher Columbus’ acts of terrorism and genocide in Hispaniola, 1492
The 1864 Fort Pillow Massacre
The Wounded Knee massacre of defenseless native Americans in 1890
The exploitation of workers in 1911 which led to the deaths of 146 in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
The 1915 genocide of Armenians
The 1921 Tulsa race massacre
The 1955 lynching of Emmett Till as well as other lynchings
The destruction of the Amazon rain forest, which had really picked up steam in 1978
“Anything else?” Albert asked. “This is a good starting point, I think. But I’m sure there are things I didn’t think of. What did I miss?”
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