John Sayles - The Anarchist's Convention and Other Stories

Esau is traveling on the ground, walking unhurriedly, with Warden and Lisa following. He appears to be constantly sulking, his head hanging down from his shoulder blades as he moves. He stops, lifts his nose in the air. His hair fluffs a bit, half-erect. The muscles in his arms tense.

Three apes, Schiffman's apes, appear in the clearing ahead.

Warden and Lisa grab hands, holding tight.

There is an adult male, same size as Esau, an adult female, and a younger, smaller female. Esau's hair is standing up straight. The three walk toward him warily. The adult male sniffs at Esau's hindquarters loudly, almost snorting. The two females stand in front of him, rigid, their faces inches from his. Esau is so stiff he is trembling slightly.

The male begins to hoot, tears a hunk of fern from the underbrush and shakes it. Esau turns to face him and the females both begin to throw bits of ground-debris at him. Esau lowers his head and bolts up a tree, the other Schiffman's all chattering and making empty-handed throwing ges tures at him. The male sees Warden then, gives out a high yip, and they are all swinging away through the trees.

Warden and Lisa watch until the three disappear. They look at each other, turn, and trudge after Esau.

July 5 — Esau's social behavior may or may not tell us much about the bonding patterns of Schiffman's ape. From the behavior observed so far I would postulate that the species travels singly or in extremely small groups, much like the orangutan. Their favored food materials are widely dispersed. Intraspecies contacts have been much more tense than those with the gibbons or smaller monkeys in the area. L. thinks Esau might be an isolated case. More data, based on a wider variety of subjects, are needed.

"Well, you're in a wonderful mood."

"Don't start, Lisa."

"I didn't start a damn thing. You started it when you banged out of the tent this morning."

"I should feel like a million dollars? I'm hot, I'm wet, I'm dirty and I'm going to stay that way for a long time. I've got crotch rot halfway down to my knees, I can't spread my legs without it burning — "

"So do I."

"I hadn't noticed the difference."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Warden turns away from her. Esau is on the ground about a hundred feet away, poking under the bark of a fallen log for grubs.

"I wish you'd walk further from the tent before you do your business," he said.

"I can't always make it that far, I told you that. I can't control it."

"Stop eating the damn grapes, then. That's what's doing it, you're up in the tree eating grapes with Esau. Going native on me."

"I'm not up in the tree with Esau. And I get sick of dried food."

"We're here to watch the animal, not to empathize with him. It's not very objective."

"What's not objective?"

"Your whole attitude. Just look at your half of the observation notes, it's obvious. We'll have to go over it all when we get back."

"And what about yours?"

"Mine is fine. If you want me to give you a refresher course I'd be happy to."

"Oh Christ."

"Where are you going?"

She keeps walking, away from Warden and Esau.

"Lisa." She doesn't respond. He calls. "Not near the tent, Lisa."

Lisa stops, takes a huge breath, then screams at the top of her lungs. Screams over and over. Warden looks to see if Esau has been scared off. The ape stands looking back at him, and their eyes meet, thinks Warden, with some measure of understanding.

Behavioral Observation — Schiffman's ape (eremites hirsutus) Field study — Adult male Esau, adult female with dependent infant.

Warden writes frantically, pad against thigh, not taking his eyes off the scene before him. He's glad Lisa is back at the tent. He flicks a glance at his watch -

5:48 p.m. Esau encounters female Schiffman's carrying infant on her back, feeding on ground. She stiffens, hair erect, as he descends and sits several feet to the left of her.

5:49 Female exhibits staring threat-display. Esau approaches slowly. Female emits warning squeaks. They stare at each other, bodies rigid, for a full minute. Esau stands bipedally, extends arms to full width and utters booming 'grumph' sound. Female exhibits 'waving away' display.

5:51 Esau rushes female, who bites at him, then flees uttering distress shrieks, the infant clinging to her back scream. ing. Esau chases, nipping at her haunches, catching her after several yards. The infant is knocked to the ground. Esau, penis erect, attempts to mount the female from the side. She claws and bites him off, turns and faces him in attack display, teeth bared. Esau picks the infant up and waves it over his head in threat display, apparently unaware it is not a branch. Female jumps at him, grappling and biting, and infant is dropped again, still screaming. Esau holds female's head under arm and mounts her from side again, pelvis half over her shoulders, and begins thrusting. Female breaks free, grabs infant, and scurries up a tree. Esau follows and female swings away. He pursues, but lighter female, even with infant clinging to her, outdistances him.

5:54 Esau gives up pursuit. It begins to rain, a steady, heavy downpour typical of this time of day. Esau sits hunched on a low branch in the rain and begins to masturbate, manual stroking method, a mournful look on his

Warden pauses, breathing excitedly, shielding the pad from the rain with his body, and tries to think of a more scientific word than mournful.

July 20 — Esau seems more depressed lately, something weighing on him. He spends more time sleeping in the daytime, staring off into space, going through the motions of feeding near the boundaries of the other Schiffman's' range. I now have his total confidence; my presence, rather than an irritant, often seems to have a calming effect on him.

The rainy season is on us and we are slowed by the humidity.

Warden empties the backpacks, dropping each item heavily onto the ground directly behind Lisa. Lisa sits and writes in her logbook, frowning in concentration. Neither speaks. Warden gathers the canteens, letting them clatter together loudly. He kicks through the equipment spread on the ground till he finds the compass. Lisa writes. Warden struggles to load himself up, then pauses and watches her from behind. He blinks sweat from his eyes. He squats down beside her.

"Lisa?"

She doesn't look up from her log.

"I've been thinking. Maybe when we get back, when this is under control, it would be a good time to have that baby we talked about."

Lisa looks up and stares, stares at Warden as if he's the strangest thing she's ever seen. He sighs, rises to go.

"I should be back from the temple by six," he says, voice flat now. "Remember what I said about your observation notes. Objectivity."

She doesn't watch him walk away.

Everything was the same, being married, and everything was different. That was what Lisa always said to her friends and it drove Warden up the wall. He'd make a disgusted face and she'd turn to him and say that she knew what she meant, she just couldn't put it in words. Which was even worse. Warden was at her constantly for her irrational thinking, though he liked it that she relied on him to make most of the decisions. And when Lisa did make a hard choice by herself, she did it with a coldness and finality that scared him.

But it was her stubbornness when she was being irrational that bothered him the most, her stubbornness when they dis agreed about something. Her irrationality seemed to surface most often in disagreements.

It was the same as before they were married, but with something added, something more at stake.

Being a faculty wife was hard on her, Warden could tell that. It prompted him to apply for the field study. They both invested a lot of hope in the possibility of being funded, and the first year of their marriage came to seem like a lingering disease that only the grant could cure.