I AM THE DEATH LIZARD

Just returned yesterday from camping and biking in Ohiopyle State Park in Western Pa. For the next several days, I will be blogging like an echo from that experience.

I got to hang out with a plurality of family members...some don't live close enough to have made the drive but most of the Pennsylvania-based immediate family showed up for a weekend. So, we had decision-making powers and authority since there was a quorum. At least for Pennsylvania matters.

I discovered that my niece Julia has a fascination with lizards. She wants one like most kids want a puppy or an X-Box. She likes bugs in general, and particularly butterflys. She was walking around with a grasshopper perched on her hand for a spell. She probably loves snakes too.

So, to amuse her, I concocted a tale about "THE DEATH LIZARD" and his epic battles with the Killer Coyotes that ate his family, with the exception of his mom--who lives in the desert of Arizona in the ancestral home, now surrounded by high-security fencing. The only other members of the extended family and community of near-to-distant relatives (a distinct breed of lizard) to survive the catastrophic coyote attack were two unborn babies still in their eggs (lizards are born in eggs aren't they?). Fortunately, as it happens, to be one male and one female. My niece added to the tale that they were to repopulate the Lizard Farm later when they were grown.

Yeah, it was a riff on Rango...but my niece didn't call me on it so I proceeded from there and charted a different story from the ground up.

The Death Lizard made provisions for his mom's safety hiding her with the Peace Grasshopper far in some cave while the Coyotes allies, the Slithering Snakes, acted the spies. Under the cover of night, the Death Lizard, with the two to-be-hatched eggs in tow, decides to go to Law School at Harvard. It is far too cold up in New England for the coyotes. He wants to work on Lizard Rights in the Courts of the Land.

In leaving the compound, he is helicoptered out by Cranky George (my dad) and the Death Lizard and his companion eggs parachute out of the copter and land on a cactus, while being dropped off at the Tempe Greyhound Station. The eggs were not broken, phew!

I was basically making up stuff on the fly, three seconds ahead of my niece's imagination. It was like a streaming video on YouTube. The red download line was slightly ahead of the actual story. Not by much though. I even have the first page of the book's illustration drawn in my mind. THE DEATH LIZARD screaming "I AM THE DEATH LIZARD!!!!" eyes bulging with fury and ferocity, and tongue a-flying, sweat swishing off his face. Looking kind of scary until the second page, where the illustration pans out to show that THE DEATH LIZARD is very minuscule, and is screaming to a deserted desert with only sand as his audience. Again, I might be rehashing some Rango scenes.

The Death Lizard sees himself as formidable and fierce as a way to steel himself for his conflicts with the coyotes who far outnumber him, and are quite hungry. It is the psychological armor that he needs to fight and carry on. Truthfully, he is not threatening by nature, only be necessity. He uses his wits to fight battles alone.

Julia kept asking for more but I had to put an end to it. Not for a lack of avenues to explore but because I wanted to chat with other family members. It is always fascinating to see the effect of stories on kids. Their natural curiosity is hard-wired for it, especially tales that have danger, sacrifice, tragedy, and redemption. To think of it, in a nutshell (or an eggshell), the Gospels.