SAGUARO KING

INTRODUCTION

THE EGO... Strange thing when bolstered by overheard mutterings in the surrounding spaces. Also understood to closely resemble the overblown id, the swollen head syndrome, the art of being "too big for you britches," all these reflect our personal idea of ourselves when it is based upon assumption and not fact. It can create a situation that keeps those we would hope to attract on the opposite end of our personal space. It makes us closely resemble the...

SAGUARO KING

The foothills of the Catalina Mountains boasted some of the more handsome flora and fauna of the southwestern United States. There were the common barrel cactus, saguaro... or as some call it "the one arm" cacti, and their close neighboring fauna, jackrabbit, roadrunner, and javelinas. If lucky, you could spy a quail of two with a new family running across the foot of one of these dinosaur plants... similar to the great Saguaro Forest... tree tall cactus, face prints in some and too many arms on the others. Every other one sporting a pigeonhole from some camping critter. Before the sun could rise, one morning, Paisano called his crew down for a shoot, photography was a difficult task in the full heat of the Arizona sun. The group assembled their equipment and met just beneath the mesquite tree, the largest in the stand.

"Set up over there, I'll spot us a good backdrop," he chortled out. As the models sorted their outfits Paisano dashed about and up to various plants, stopping at one perfectly shaped cactus. It loomed ten feet up from the ground. "This one is perfect... it will do for our everything. Get over here and primp." They spent hours snapping and posing on the ground, peeking from behind and caressing it; everything but touching it. "This one is beautiful. We'll use it again!" We'll use it on the next out!" They packed and left just as quickly as they had arrived. The sun was just showing above the top of the highest peak of the mountains. The word got out that this was the SPOT for images, the best backdrop for color and scenery. They even named the cactus BIG BILL. People arrived by the carload, models and photographers, for video and still shots. Pencil sketchers from the art school came and most included the one arm giant in their artwork.

One late night deep murmurs could be heard by the people living just beyond the stand of cacti. Coyote cries and deep throat lizard wails were heard all coming from the same area. Something was different out there. That night the moon shone full and heavy cloud patches could be seen floating across the sky. It kept those closest to it awake with eerie imaginings throughout the night. Never before had it been this noisy... the natural things were usually asleep or soundless in the night. There was an occasional scream of a mouse or bird in the night but never such calamity as what was going on out there this night. It was loud. Unusually loud for nature. Daybreak saw clouds of purple and orange with streaks of dark blue much like the coming of dusk at the end of many long days. The women who sat in their picture windows this morning were forced to reflect upon remainder thoughts of the eerie images left in their minds from the night before. By mid morning everything looked normal, Things appeared to be as it should be, until just before sunset. The birds could be heard in the low areas near the Tucson Mountains, but exchanged phone calls among friends still at work and already home told a different tale in the Catalinas. The gentle rustle of birds wings usually heard with their passing in the still Arizona air, was missing. There was no chirping of cowbirds mimicking calls. No coos from the nesting doves and not from the hawks that circled above. Bombardier beetles approached without warning and departed the area after having caused terror at being touched by... " ewwww he's in my hair... in my hair" any and everyone in the open. What had seemed right, just wasn't.

The following day Paisano and his crew banded together for a new project. A new contract for the cover of Chique Magazine and a few still shots for soft drink advertising campaigns took them back out into the preserve area at the base of the Catalinas in Cordero Canyon. Four girls and two guys would be the central focus. The base subject was already in Paisano's mind He would shoot the big cactus. As they drove up the single lane roadway, shadows seemed to loom out at them from every place. The girls shrieked teasingly about thinking the saw this or that... shadows and quick dashes of low crawling things. Low crawling things that did not resemble the expected desert beasties and definitely not the desert plants. The guys were oblivious, their manhood was at risk. It appeared to be a different place with all the darting black shadows and heavy beetle attacks. Green beetles the size of silver dollars and black ones as large as half of a paper dollar lurching at them from every angle caused the photographers to look at each other with raised eyebrows and question, What is going on up here?" No one said anything out loud, they had all been here before. It was the best natural backdrop. In the place where the perfect cactus was supposed to be, there was a huge obelisk; a tower of sorts. Green spiny and topless as far as the eye could see. It reached into the clouds. The crew looked around a little more for their usual spot before they decided this was it. Big Bill had changed within a few days. It was as if it were inflated. There had been no storm warning or toxic wastes,, nothing on the news, but it was big as ever. "This is impossible." then someone else commented, "It can't grow that fast in this little of time, can it? ...What about those experiments... you know tree rings and age circles... that's how they tell how old these things are!... isn't it" "Man... do you think it's really this big with no chemicals? What's wrong with it?" One of the girls answered, "Heh!, I don't know but whatever it took, maybe you guys could use some of that! hahahha..." Paisano cut her off, "No, I think there's something wrong out here, all the noise the other day and the animals acting strange... it's too weird." "Let's shoot someplace else. This thing is just too big for us now." "You guys come on, there's some better sites back down the way, we'll have to get someone to check Bill out." The packed up and traveled toward the road entry, did their shots and left the area. No one came out to the perfect spot to do shoots after hearing the eerie tale of a swollen saguaro and peculiar action of the animals and the beetles in there. One month later, on a experimental run the university sent a pilot out to get an aerial view in case the news reports and other onlookers had missed something in their reports. Nothing was different in the aerial except the obelisk which had come from no place. The scan showed it with one massive arm and spines along its full length. It looked like the cactus... Big Bill. There were cloaks of white fluff around his upper parts at the stratosphere and a crown of spines that glistened at his crown from sun rays. Unable to control himself, the pilot returned screaming in disbelief,"He... he's grown to massive proportions out there!" "That cactus is larger than life with no explanation!" and, "What do ya think got this on?" It was like a swollen ego... so much attention and no way to contain it.

from a different perspective....................