WAITING FOR OCTOBER S1 – E6.5 – “Enoch”
by D.J. Sylvis
ANNOUNCER: There is a world – one of many that touches ours – known as October. One of the archetypes; one of the realities that is a source for our stories. It is not difficult to reach, if you know the way – you can experience their wildness for yourself, adventure there, and live, and love. But be wary – perhaps more than any other existence, here there be monsters …
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SCENE ONE
SOUND: Hillside background, evening (ongoing)
SOUND: Two sets of footsteps walking a dirt path
ENOCH
Down that side we’ve got taters – Irish and sweet, mostly sweet left in the ground by now. Yonder it’s bakin’ squash – and pumpkins. What they call pumpkins on this side, ol’ Lantern wouldn’t truck with ‘em. How’s xe holdin’ up these days?
KARO
You know, same as always. Xe liked Vonnie – she stepped right up and started a conversation.
ENOCH
Don’t sound like she’s the bashful type.
KARO
No, she’s a doer.
(they sigh)
I hope she’s okay with what she’s doing now. I should have gone after her.
SOUND: Their footsteps slow and stop
ENOCH
Every tub’s got to stand on its own bottom.
SOUND: Walking up the porch steps
SOUND: Screen door opening; a bit of far-back voices and kitchen noise behind
YOUNG’UN
Papaw! Y’all can’t come inside yet. It’s a secret.
ENOCH
That’s just fine, we’ll set a spell and talk. Are you gonna say hi to Mx. Karo?
YOUNG’UN
Hi, Mx. Karo. Y’all can’t come in yet.
KARO
That’s okay. What are you making?
YOUNG’UN
Chicken and dumplin’s, a mess of soup beans, an’ cornbread. Papaw eats all the cornbread.
ENOCH
You hush. Go on and help your baba.
SOUND: The screen door closes, and the accompanying noises cut off; from here on we only occasionally hear very faint sounds from inside
SOUND: A bit of a creak as Karo sits down on the front steps
KARO
Such a cutie.
ENOCH
Scrooch over an’ make some room.
(he groans just a little as he sits down)
That’s Thomas’ young’un, so some kind of crossways relation. They all call me Papaw.
KARO
You’re the founder of the feast. I don’t know how you’ve done it all this time.
ENOCH
Hain’t always been easy. This world’s been a piece of work since the beginning – not that I was here for the beginning, don’t listen to tall tales. But long enough it’s where I belong to.
(he sighs a little)
I feel like you came lookin’ for advice about October, but most of my remembrance, an’ experience, has been over here. Not that it weren’t a rocky start, but I put down my roots and – you can see what’s grown.
(he chuckles)
I don’t have t’ tell you about rocky starts, either. You came t’ ourn poor as a bear that wintered up in th’ Balsams, after them circus folk turned you out.
KARO
It wasn’t really a circus –
ENOCH
I couldn’t tell if you were man or monster until you stopped shiverin’; just this peaked little face in a poncho I recognized from our clothesline. Woulda took you in either way, but oncet you told your story, I knew the family weren’t gonna let you go.
KARO
You had a little to do with that.
ENOCH
Like I say, this is where I belong to. I wished it for you, but … th’ world works in mysterious ways. Both of ‘em, I reckon.
(brief pause, he laughs)
Folks sure wondered when I first wound up in th’ holler! Even when they saw me close by, an’ that took a few weeks. For a while, I was just some varmit bustin’ into their food sheds an’ scarin’ the coon dogs. Or a shadow at the tops of th’ trees – that’s when I come closest to gettin’ shot at. I didn’t know there ain’t nothin’ my size up in the sky around these parts! Hell, on our side I was a pipsqueak.
(brief pause)
That’s when a lot of th’ stories started – when I was too big a fool to know better. I was lucky t’ learn my lesson before drones an’ cellular service. Most of th’ legend these days stays legend, but that took some doin’.
(brief pause)
I didn’t even have th’ sense to find a decent fraidy hole – I slept up on the bald where th’ crossing is, hard to believe it took weeks for someone to find me.
(his voice softens)
An’ that’s where my real luck started, ‘cause it coulda been anyone, but … that was Leland. I miss that ol’ geezer, most of all at night.
(brief pause)
The nights were pitch black in them days, lessen there was a moon. Didn’t bother me, of course – I could see, and smell, and hear pareful enough t’ find my way. But I felt like I didn’t need to pay much attention oncet I settled in a spot. It’d be awful strange to find one of them up that far after dark.
(he chuckles again)
But “awful strange” might as well have been written on Leland’s mailbox. He was right ‘round thirty when I met him, baching way back in th’ head of th’ holler, farmin’ just enough for hisself an’ then walkin’ the woods in search of interestin’ leaves or someone’d seen a boomer with white fur and he had t’ find it, or just starin’ up at th’ stars and sketchin’ constellations. If anyone’s gonna stumble over a Mothman …
(another chuckle)
Which is just about how it happened! He was watchin’ the skies, not where he was walkin’, down he went and up I leapt! But my wings got tangled an’ I was still waking up when he pinned me in place with his flashlight – I stared, he stared, and the first thing he said was, “You shouldn’t sleep up here, you’ll ketch your death of cold.”
(brief pause)
Not likely, but he couldn’t know that. He lowered his light and kept his voice easy … an’ before I knew it I followed him home, answerin’ question after question until I liketa go hoarse, ‘til I fell asleep on the shabbiest pull-out couch you ever seen and … in th’ mornin’, begun a new life. My real one, roots and all.
SOUND: The evening is starting to deepen; we can hear a few crickets now
ENOCH
Why’d I follow him down off th’ mountain? Might could be because Leland was … gentle, inquisitive, curious when he came up against somethin’ new and unusual. Or he was just … “awful strange,” and like called to like. All I know is, just like when he first shined that light in my eyes – I couldn’t look away. And afore too long, I wasn’t sleepin’ on that couch no more, neither.
KARO
I wish I’d had the chance to know him.
ENOCH
Cancer is meaner than a striped snake. Twenty-five good years, and weren’t nowhere near enough.
(after a moment he shakes it off)
He was the founder of th’ feast, an’ th’ family. Somethin’ about our joinin’ lit a fire in that man – he started takin’ more trips into town, gettin’ to know the neighbors, attendin’ civic meetings. He was always the talkingest once you got him goin’ – but now folks would listen. Watchin’ that man make a speech set my heart to quiver’. Even if I had to watch from the outside.
(brief pause)
An’ then, quiet-like, he started bringin’ me in. The stories had taken hold – there was a time in there I read too many comic books and thought I should go out on patrol, cain’t say I helped much but it led to a heap o’ sightin’s, an’ Leland used that to till the earth … I still don’t know how he did it, this was the Eighties and it’s not enough being black, gay, and a pillar of th’ community, but here, th’ Mothman is my boyfriend!
(he chuckles)
A touch subtler than that, but everwhen he got the chancet, he made an introduction. Folk came for dinner and left with a secret to carry home after. Not too many, not too often … but good people. His friends became my friends. A few grew even deeper. We took in some strays – them who needed a change, or a safe place, or felt some kind of kinship. We cultivated a family.
(after a bit)
I took him over to visit October a few times after th’ crossing moved close. I asked th’ Endling if that’s because of me, but they’re always stingy with information. Leland got to meet them once – when I was asked to guard this side. Only time I ever seen them cross over – said it was a dangerous precedent, but they needed me. They met Leland, then they and I went a-walkin’ and they said, “Enoch, you’re an anchor in this world. I need you t’ hold things together.”
(a harsh laugh)
Which was bullshit, puttin’ it kindly, but nice of them to say.
KARO
I don’t think that’s bullshit.
ENOCH
Anyways, it was somethin’ t’ focus on. Leland was already getting poorly by that time.
(a deep sigh)
What can’t be cured must be endured.
KARO
I don’t know if I could endure it. I’m not sure we’ll make it far enough to find out.
ENOCH
I know you’ve got a lot of hist’ry and a heap of questions to be solved on that side. And I don’t blame you for wantin’ Yvonne beside you.
KARO
She’s really so great. She’s given so much already. It’s not as long as you and Leland, but …
ENOCH
I don’t know if it’s a matter of long so much as deep. And Leland had it easy, I stayed in his world.
KARO
I tried that way.
ENOCH
No one’s faultin’ you. One way or t’other, you got to foller your own lights.
KARO
She’s already following hers.
ENOCH
That’s how it’s got to be. I crossed over here and I tried to be “The Mothman,” got pretty good at buzzin’ cars, gave a boost to the local tourist trade, but my heart weren’t in it. But then, bein’ husband, partner, uncle, Pawpaw …
SOUND: Right on cue, we hear muffled laughter from inside that swells and fades
KARO
It’s pretty great that you have all of that.
ENOCH
Don’t I know it. An’ I still get ten percent of all t-shirt sales from that place by th’ highway.
(brief pause)
You had a hard beginnin’. I never met your parents, but I understand they were a piece o’ work. If they cared about you, they had one hell of a way of showin’ it. But that don’t mean you ain’t been loved, present company included. And that’s not all you’re gonna get. One heart leads to others, sure as shootin’, right as rain. Whichever world you choose, them’s gonna be who choose to do it with you.
KARO
I hope so. I hope that’s Vonnie.
ENOCH
You did say that she’s a doer.
SOUND: The porch creaks as he stands up; Enoch groans and stretches
YOUNG’UN
(muffled, from inside)
Papaw! Baba says get your butt inside!
(they giggle)
ENOCH
That means supper’s just about together. Let’s get in there. We’ll stuff you full before you make the crossin’.
SOUND: Another creak as Karo stands up
KARO
(groans comically)
That’s all I need. Let’s do it.
SOUND: The screen door opens, and we can hear increased cooking sounds and voices
ENOCH
Well, praise the Lord and pass the taters! Look at what we’ve got here.
SOUND: We hear the door close again as if we stayed outside, and then the background fades
(The scene ends.)
(The episode ends.)
PRODUCERS: Hi! Thank you for listening!
Waiting for October is written by D.J. Sylvis, with sound design by Caroline Mincks, and music by Trace Callahan. This episode featured David S. Dear as Enoch, Robin Regalado as Karo, and Caroline Mincks as Young’un.
Our co-producers are D.J. Sylvis, Tina Case, and Sarah Müller. Our associate producers are Fool & Scholar Productions, Kathleen Lucas, Marcus Briggs, Martin Chodorek, Rebekah B.
A special thanks to our Patreon supporters who have helped make all of our stories happen! If you’d like to support our work or celebrate the folks who make it happen visit our Patreon at patreon.com(backslash)monkeymanproductions
Today our Crowdfundr shoutout is to Jenny Sylvis and Marissa Robertcop.
Today, I’m recommending an audio drama from one of our cast members – Adam Qutaishat, who plays our werebear Karim – you’ll hear more from him soon! The show is called Vigil, and it’s an intense, engrossing superhero thriller that’s uniquely told and performed. Find it anywhere you listen, and let them know we sent you.
Next episode here, it’s Karo’s turn for a solo quest, where they’re headed … do you know? Can you guess? Would it help if I told you the guest stars are our Raven, Cole Burkhardt playing one of the Gill folks, and … no, I’ll hold back that last one, that gives it all away! For now, keep an eye on the treetops when you’re out at night, praise the lord and pass the taters!
Note – there may be advertisements inserted at this point in the episode.
