Zun

By Ed Merwede

After losing his wife in childbirth, Otis was beside himself in grief. The baby, a bu, survived, but it truly shouldnt have. Thats all Otis had left. And although the doctors recommended the child not live, Otis stuck to his gujs and took what was left of his life home.

He ran a small business and always made time to take care of his son. The child grew and was quite hideous to look at, but Otis always put his arms around him and told him he loved him.

What Otis tried to contain was not possible, and his son found a secret and was in and out of the house. The town was exposed to a series of bizarre events that would and could not come to a happy end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543442878

Ed Merwede

ED MERWEDE, also the author of “DONE!” started his career with Yale University Press. After eleven years as plant superintendent, he went on to manage three other printing companies before starting his own business with his wife, Ellen. That business, PrintAbility, operated for fourteen successful years, before the couple retired to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In the late 1990s, the author was diagnosed with syringomyelia, caused by a very severe crash while serving on a US Naval Air Station. Ed is listed as 100 percent disabled with the Veterans Affairs Office. His wife of thirty-five years, Ellen, died in November of 2014. He is now living in an assisted living facility on Cape Cod.

Book preview

ZUN

ED MERWEDE

Copyright © 2017 by Ed Merwede.

Library of Congress Control Number:         2017912148

ISBN:                 Hardcover                          978-1-5434-4281-6

                          Softcover                           978-1-5434-4280-9

                          eBook                                 978-1-5434-4287-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 08/02/2017

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

763951

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten: Zun Goes Exploring

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

I dedicate this book to

my two sons.

They have been my support team.

Although I am now seriously handicapped,

they never give up on supporting me

and providing laughs when truly needed.

Both these men have been successful in

their careers and never once lost the importance

of being just plain good fathers and

husbands. If this sounds like boasting

and pride, well, it is.

Chapter One

In the Green Mountains of Vermont, just a short way off the Mohawk Trail, was a quaint little town of Brookside. There was a short, maybe two-block, area of tourist gift shops offering a variety of Vermont specialties. Tourists liked to stop and browse the two-block area and buy many of the goods on display, not to mention maple syrup, a very big item for sale.

The people lived scattered in the woods, out of sight of the village. They were hardworking people enjoying the solitude and joy of the mountains where they lived. Many men were lumberjacks, supplying the trees to be turned into planks and some finished pine boards. Many of the men hunted for food to be butchered, frozen, and consumed over the bitter, cold days of winter. Deer, bear, and wild turkey were plentiful, not to mention the exceptionally good fishing in the local streams and lakes.

Not too far, on the edge of town, lived an older man who ran an animal farm. Tourists loved it; their kids could get out of the car, stretch their legs, and see and pet many of his animals—just goats, lambs, a few deer, and of course, the obligatory pig. Chickens and ducks ran around to the delight of the children. His charge of admission was only ten dollars per car, and that did not turn anyone away. Just to get the kids out of the car and stretch for a few minutes was worth it. He also had a small gift shop stocked with deer antlers, rocks from the local river he claimed were hundreds of years old, and of course, porcupine quills, bear teeth, and raccoon hats.

What the town, or the tourists, did not know was the occupant in the house with him. It was his deformed son. Why he survived birth, he did not know. As he grew to adulthood, he was grotesque. Otis, his father, kept him in the cellar of his old house. He brought him food and water and cared for him as much as he could.

On one of his many visits, Otis tried to get his son to understand verbal communication. He would sit opposite him and say, Me father, and, touching his son’s chest, say, Son. His son would show a big grotesque smile and then say, You fadder, me zon. Otis smiled because of the great effort it took to get through even that much.

His son was now in his early twenties and, being fully grown, was a sight to behold. He had mammoth hands and feet and arms that were long and extremely muscular. Otis wondered how he got so strong. What he didn’t know was, the creature exercised every day without fail, trying to get as strong as he could. He didn’t want to live in this place his fadder called the cellar.

So during the day when he was left alone, he started to dig a tunnel upward in an attempt to get out. He covered his efforts every night so that he didn’t get caught. His long fingers and fingernails helped him immensely in his effort to reach the surface.

One day he finally did reach the surface. Dirt fell back in as he opened the hole, and then, there he was outside! He ran around, jumped, and made the only sound he knew—Arghhhh! He stopped and looked around to make sure no one heard him or saw him. That would be awful, and his fadder would be upset. He returned to the hole he came out of, and after looking around, he found a large rock to put over the hole, so now he could come and go at will.

After getting back inside, he jumped and howled at his accomplishment. Now at night, he could go hunting for treasure to put in his treasure chest. His treasure chest was an old chest his fadder gave him. His time was about to be known.

Chapter Two

Everything that summer went well. Otis had enough customers to provide him money to survive the coming winter. It didn’t take much money. His house was paid for, and there was no need for landscaping charges. His property became a little overgrown, but who cared? His wife had died at childbirth, and he had no other family he remembered or knew about. He would spend as many free hours with his son, always hoping to make a breakthrough; even a tiny bit at a time pleased him.

Of course, Otis had no idea that his son had discovered a way out of the cellar. Just before the winter really settled in, his son went out one night, jumping and enjoying the freedom. He decided to stray a little farther away from home, being careful to break a branch or two so he could find his way back. His travels would expand as time went on. This being his first experience away, he was cautious not to get lost. Coming out of the woods, he found a road; and standing still, looking both ways as far as he