In honor of World Gorilla Day - September 24th, 2023 - I’m sharing the opening scene to a story about PINKIE, a 400 pound, 14 year old, silverback gorilla, and his plight to protect his family.
The story is called The Nile and the Time Traveler’s Road and the first scene is how Pinkie takes in the morning.
Audio version: The Morning Song
EXT. VIRUNGA MOUNTAINS, RWANDA - BEFORE DAYBREAK
PINKIE, a 400 pound, 14 year old, silverback gorilla begins to wake from a good nights sleep. He stirs, then suddenly his eyes pop open like he’s forgot something.
Pinkie tilts his head up to see a deep blue sky, the color before blue hour.
PINKIE (whispers to self) “Whew.”
Pinkie sits up, stretches his limbs and climbs quietly out of his nest made from bamboo samplings.
He mentally counts thirteen sleeping gorillas. Happy he hasn’t woke anyone, he turns and walks into the forest.
CONTINUOUS
Pinkie easily makes a path through the vegetation.
He whistles the lyrical tune of Ravel’s Bolero.
Behind him, a branch SNAPS. Pinkie freezes, listens, then spins around.
He stares into the jungle bush, then smiles.
PINKIE “Come out you little rascal.”
UWACU, a three year old gorilla tumbles out of a nearby bush.
UWACU “How’d you hear me?”
PINKIE “Instinct.”
UWACU “What’s that?”
PINKIE “It’s when you hear a branch snap and you see your little sister in hiding in a bush.”
UWACU “Oh.”
Pinkie turns and continues walking.
UWACU “Where are we going?”
PINKIE (chuckles) “We? We are going to see the morning song, come on.”
UWACU “Yippee!!!!”
Uwacu scrambles to catch up.
UWACU “What’s a morning song.”
As if on cue, they emerge from the dense canopy bush of the jungle into a clearing with a vast view east down the mountainside and across the flat lands to the horizon.
The sun hasn’t risen yet, but in the distance, the color of the sky where the earth and sky touch is turning a cobalt blue.
Pinkie plops down and takes a seat.
PINKIE “Good, we’re not late.”
Uwacu plops down next to Pinkie and snuggles.
UWACU “Good, we’re not late.”
Pinkie points toward the horizon.
PINKIE “Uwacu, look. Do you see the thin line where the sky starts and the blue begins? That line separates the earth and the sky.”
Between the blue sky and the green earth, a razor thin white line pulses with electricity.
PINKIE “That’s called the Horizon Line. That’s where the morning song comes from.”
Uwacu climbs on top of Pinkie’s back for a better view. He takes in the beauty of the morning, the cool blue sky, the horizon line and quiet land before everything wakes up.
UWACU “That’s a nice morning song, Pinkie!”
Pinkie picks him off his back and set his in his lap, facing the skyline.
PINKIE “It gets better.”
UWACU “You’re kidding? I mean just look at this how could it get any better than this?”
PINKIE “Listen.”
UWACU “I always listen to you.”
PINKIE “Close your eyes and listen to the wind.”
Uwacu closes his eyes.
Carried by the wind, is the distant drumming of a chorus of snare drums.
This is THE MORNING SONG
CUE RAVEL’S BOLERO
The snare drum begin with a two bar, 24-note pattern that repeats throughout the entire song.
DUM DADADADUM DADADADUM DADUM DADADA DUM DADADADADADADADA DUM
Uwacu’s eye pop open and he looks again at the horizon line.
UWACU “I hear it!”
PINKIE “It’s on it’s way!”
We hear the melody from a single flute, the sound floating in the air like lyrical hymn.
Pinkie and Uwacu lean forward.
Coming out of the horizon line, reaching north and south as far as the eye can see, is a line of drummers.
They are the front line of the Morning Song, moving west in perpetual motion.
The drummers are dressed in shimmering indigo shirts that are embroidered with sunlight. Snare drums hang at their waist and their wrists work the barrel tips of their drum sticks.
Their identical blue hair is punk spiked like the sharp rhythm of their drum beat.
PINKIE “What do you think of that?!”
Uwacu is mesmerized by the drummers moving across the landscape like a wave moving to shore.
A pair of Rwenzori double collared sunbirds fly from a nearby branch as the sound of a high clarinet plays the melody and harmonizes with the snare drums.
PINKIE “The drummers are the only the beginning.”
Uwacu climbs on top of Pinkie to see what’s behind the drummers.
PINKIE “Those are the morning dancers.”
Following the drummers are hundreds of thousands of morning dancers. As a group they are shaped like the long wide Nile river.
They are dressed in sapphire silken shirts and loose fitting gypsy pants. They are adorned with gem studded necklaces, peridot green head jewelry, ruby scarves and gold anklets. They wear blue silk turbans that are crowned with a fan the color of sunlight.
The dancers pound the ground with their bare feet.
PINKIE “They are waking up the earth, waking up the roots and the animals. They even wake up the air with their arms.”
The dancers spin and dance with exuberant precision.
Pinkie stands up and begins to sway and dance with the music.
Uwacu jumps down and spins around, trying to copy the dancers.
Pinkie LAUGHS
As the morning song moves across the landscape -
- a team of hippos rise from the water and stretch their heads upward in a giant yawn,
- a family of golden monkeys sway and bounce in the trees,
- a Hygenia tree stretches it’s crown like the opening of an umbrella and a swallow of birds take flight.
The melody of the morning song is passed from a bassoon, to an oboe d’amore, to a harp.
Uwacu squints at something behind the morning dancers. He leans forward so far he falls down the hill a few feet.
Pinkie belly LAUGHS
Uwacu scampers back up the hill.
UWACU “Did you see that?”
PINKIE “The fairies? The ones singing? Nope, I didn’t see them.”
Uwacu pushes Pinkie, who doesn’t budge.
UWACU “You’re silly.”
Uwacu looks out to see a trove of fairies bringing up the line behind the morning dancers.
Each fairy, with their transparent wings, and in colors that span the rainbow, flit between the African redwoods, the towering groundsel, the delicate orchids and all the forest animals, singing to each one.
FAIRIES (singing) “Wake up, wake up, the sun is coming.”
They sing to the blue poppies and giant rhubarb, to the yellow double collard sunbirds and to a family of black and white Colobus monkeys.
FAIRIES (singing) “Wake up, wake up, it’s Time. Your day is here, your day is now. “
They sing to a team of African bush elephants who pound their feet next to the morning dancers and raise their trunks to the sky.
FAIRIES (singing) “Behold the Sun, your day has come.”
The drummers rise up the mountain and flow through the forest passing Pinkie and Uwacu on their way west.
The morning dancers spin and dance as they pass by.
A kelly green fairy lights upon Pinkie’s hand and sings to him.
KELLY GREEN FAIRY (sings) “Wake up, wake up, the sun is coming. Wake up wake up, it’s Time. Your day is here, your day is now. Behold the sun your day has come.”
She flies to Uwacu, hovers over him, kisses his nose, then flies off.
Uwacu sneezes. Then grins.
The sky is now a powder blue.
Behind the fairies we finally see the marching band who’ve been playing the morning song.
Dressed in a uniform that spans the shades of blue hour, from an inky blue hat to a powder blue velvet shoe. Sunlight swirls and weaves between each player, the way children run between their parents.
Pinkie points toward the ground.
PINKIE “Uwacu, look at their shoes. They are connected to the sun.”
Attached to the heels of each marching band player, are rays of sunlight.
PINKIE “They are always ahead of the sun and they always announce it’s arrival.”
As the morning song pushes across the continent, the forest is awake and ready for the sun.
A shoebill stork, with it’s seven foot wing span soars over the drummers, morning dancers, fairies and the finale -
The fluid melody, the staccato drum beat, the song and dance pull the giant sun west.
PINKIE “Look, look, here it comes.”
The blue light washes over them and all the instruments play. First and second violins, flutes, clarinets, oboes, bassoons, piccolos and horns.
The bass drums, tam tams and cymbals crest in the air.
With each strike to the bass drum, Pinkie and Uwacu see the golden sun rays streak across the sky like darts thrown across the land - north, south and upwards in every direction.
The golden light touches everything in view.
The marching band pass by Pinkie and Uwacu on their way west.
With the sun rise before them and the morning song behind them, they sit in silence and a profound feeling vibrates within them.
PINKIE “Do you feel that?”
Uwacu nods
PINKIE “That’s the connection to every living thing around us.”
The golden light of sunrise reaches toward them.
Pinkie puts his arm around Uwacu.
UWACU “Do you think it’s true?”
PINKIE “What’s that?”
UWACU “That today’s the day?”
PINKIE “I think so. I think so.”
Time is precious and I appreciate you spending your time to read and/or listen to my Substack.
If you like the The Morning Song, if it resonates with you, I would love to know what you think. I am always learning, so I also appreciate questions or comments if anything wasn’t clear.
Please feel free to like, share and comment in the app. Your support is greatly appreciated!! Thanks again. Sidse
I’ve heard about this story line, only vaguely, for some time, but I wasn’t prepared for the lyrical presentation, and I was surprised by the mental visualizations that accompanied the story. I could see it on the big screen of my mind. It made me internally grieve for our very limited human vision of the perspectives in the animal world.