OO SHORT STORY FOR MODERN WEEKLY, CHINA

The name OO pronounced “oh- oh” is a formalist expression emphasizing sight by the resemblance of the double Os to a pair of eyes wide open. The two O’s allegorise the opening of oculi to see and the enabling of awareness of one’s place within a greater ecology. This sense of perception evokes the state of sensual awareness that makes an individual comprehend their interconnectedness to the cosmos.

Its weight heaves like the oxen and rhino, marks imprinting as it traverses terrain. It is difficult to classify this creature as terrestrial, aquatic or aerial for it exists on multiple plains. Oscillating between quadrupedal and bipedal ambulation OO strides, glides and swims through its environment.

It is a mnemonic beast, in that traces of the memory of landform, flora and fauna are aggregated into its many distinctive features. Great fins extend out from its legs, and arms. These vanes operate simultaneously as wings, floatation devices and signaling plates. Well known for its ability to transform into 101 shapes OO folds and twists these plates into a succession of arrangements becoming concurrently crustacean, fungus, mountain and manta ray.

The River of the Underworld meanders beneath the clouds of capitalist distraction, digging below architecture, excavating soil, travelling down roots, through rabbit warrens, slabs of fossil and mineral, penetrating the crust and mantle, magma and ancient primordial machinations. This tributary flows in multiple planes, connecting physical and metaphysical worlds. Decaying carcasses become the boats for those recently passed as these rivers permeate the terrestrial plane ferrying the spirits to OO’s native river.