The Duke’s Happy Birthday

“Happy birthday to you ooh, happy birthday to you!”

***

On an evening in the early part of April, an antique but gorgeous red-brick house was drowned in the great bold noises of celebration. The master of the estate was an old Duke in the town. He was once a general in the national army. The harsh battles he had been through stripped of his vigor and energy, turning him into a cold and withdrawn man. At the same time, the cruel wars robbed him of his eyes. The two empty holes which were once filled with two crystalizing eyeballs now were as hollow as two dark and creepy creatures that smell of dead lake. Few people really talked to him face to face due to his grotesque appearance. The firm and deeply-carved wrinkles and scars on his face served as another weapons that terrified people away. Little was known of the serious man but his large property. He seemed to have lived alone without any children. “If he died it must be a big news.” One lad said with greedy desire.

Down the valley of the town stood a shattered bar titled ‘Monster’ standing alone in the abyss. The bar seemed to present its character at shadowy moments. It had its special taste which always welcomed bitter men from all over the countryside to gather at nights with dense cloud hovering over the sky. The diffused beam from fragments of a moon could be seen nowhere. Those who met here were also so-called ‘monsters’ as no light was shed on them. The place served as the best position for black sale. But for the old Duke, the bar was a paradise for him to flee from the horrible outside world. He simply thought that loneliness was the common feature shared by these monsters, and was the reason for them to come together.

The fact revealed the truth that humans needed companions. Once the old Duke thought a friend was the least thing he needed. “How very wrong I am.” He murmured to himself. In the bar, magic performed well to him. Everyman in the shabby room could be tickled up by a mere giggling of others; the click sound of the mugs connected the men’s shared emotion roaring in the compressed air. “One true friend is enough in my lifetime. And I have five! ” The old Duke smiled with satisfaction. The five men he met at the bar came from different villages with different personalities and careers. A hunter nicknamed ‘Fox’ was as cunning as the animal he was made fun of by the lot in the bar (Playing funny tricks on villagers were his favorite entertainment.). Another man with long mustache circling his face was a parson in the neighboring town who always took a bribe. But no one would mention his past in his conversation with the old Duke. Simultaneously, the villagers respected their privacy. No incident broke the balance.

No matter who the ‘Monster’ goers were or where they were from, no one can stop the assembly of the banishing hearts in the bar just like the sly blood inevitably tricked into the vile vein.

***

It had been a year since the shipwreck happened. Last April, the Duke invited the five to a cruise party in order to celebrate his birthday. He had not tasted the fruitful sweetness of friendship and companionship for a long time. All his family died of wars and the famine ten years ago. The unspeakable grief still stung his mind. Nightmares came to every one of his dream at night. But the occurrence of the young hearts in his life enriched the vacancy of company. His mindset was changed into a steady state. No other bad mood could shake off the joy of owning friends. The transformation of the Duke surprised himself as well as the neighbors in the town.

“He IS different, isn’t he?” said a maid of the Duke to a dairymaid living across the street where the bricked house is located.

“It must be God’s grace on him.” The dairymaid nodded her head to the maid’s direction with a meaningful wink.

“Might be possible.” The maid rolled her eyes. She didn’t seem to agree with this theory. She was curious about her master’s mysterious deed every Wednesday night. “Master must have creped out to a remote chapel to worship some cults down in the valley.” She muttered in a low register. The exact spot she thought of was after her tracking of her master. But the mouse-like mind of hers did not allow her to further violate her master’s solitude. That was the reason why she did not follow him to the last moment.

“Hey, I bet some miracles were done on him. Even the tragedy last year did not distance his heart from people again.” The dairymaid guessed in a bold manner. “Yeah, it was a disastrous catastrophe! How can men cut off his hand willingly?”

The cruise party on the Duke’s birthday last year end up with a tragic outcome. An unexpected storm damaged the ship and trapped the group of six people. The booming thunder, stiff winds and pouring rain stranded them to the edge of death. Holding the remains of the ship was like seizing the last hope in their lives. When the 6 pairs of clammy hands were about to let go their only hope of survival due to fatigue, the huge waves brought them to the beach of an uninhabited island nearby.

“If it was not a miracle, what could be one?” the dairymaid stressed her viewpoint again.

“Alright, it might count.” The maid said reluctantly. In her mind doubts and questions were inflating bigger and bigger like a dilating balloon day by day. No maids in the house dared to ask what was happening on the island. All they knew was what they saw—the master was coming back with one hand chopped off by himself. The bloody section of the sliced flesh now still left all the servants at scene an image of devil’ art and trick on humans. The ongoing dropping of blood stained every piece of memory of them with the color red. The Duke made no explanation of his self-multination. “We saved ourselves. All six of us.” This was the only comment the Duke made before he stumbled into his room to wrap up his hands.

“It seems that your master sacrifice himself to save them all, right?” The dairymaid said, scratching her chin.

“No one knows. After the wreck, the five so-called ‘friends’ of my master never showed up again. At least not in my sight. What a poor man.” The maid made an abrupt plaint to her master’s misfortune.

***

What surrounded the old bricked house was a totally different atmosphere. Mirth and jolly could be spotted everywhere in the house. The old Duke was busy managing his birthday party after the rebirth of the disaster last year. “It would be better to celebrate my birthday on land.” The Duke said to himself, and then fell into a constant string of chuckles.

In the old Duke’s mind, the shipwreck hardened the friendship among all of the bar men. He neither told anyone how they suffered from hunger and fear on the isolated island nor the decisions they made in order to save everyone. The old Duke slowed down his movement of his command to the house maids, and allowed his minds to soak into the memory. The vivid picture of the distressed days came to life again. After he grabbed the sands of shore, he finally felt secured. He struggled onshore and strived to touch the solid ground under his feet.

“Where are you?!” He squatted with his arms circling his bended legs, shouting with every single strength squeezed out of his body. It seemed that every tissue of his body would fall apart after the desperate cry.

“Here!!!” The familiar voice of the lot responded him, which showed that they were not far away from where he stood.

“Thank God! You are all right!” The old Duke panted with the sigh of relief. “I’d go to you.” His loss of eyesight became the biggest obstacle for him to find the way. He acted like a bat, listening to the subtle clue of sounds and trying to reach the exact source of voices.

“Wait, we go for you.” The five young lads had already reunited beside an oval rock. They moved to the direction of the old Duke with a tidy pace of steps. If the old Duke could have seen their faces, he would definitely discover their conspired minds working rapidly which people could easily tell from their changing facial expressions. “Thank you bros, I feel so sorry for you.” The old Duke stretched out his hands to grasp one of the lads’ arm. “Never mind. Not your fault. But there’s one important problem.” One of the crowd said with his eye brows frowning.

“Not even a bug is in sight. That’s the problem. Oh, sorry, you can’t see it.” Said the hunter with a not-really-sorry tone. The crowd found out that the island was in shortage of food and clean water.

“Oh, but we need food.” The old Duke pointed out an obvious truth.

“Without food and drinks, we would die. There’s no difference between drowning in the cold sea and starved to death on land.” A doctor in the group made a concise conclusion.

“Actually we made a cruel decision.” The parson spoke firmly. Not a muscle on his face moved. The old Duke could notice the firmness of his voice because his words were as callous as cold steel. “I feel sorry. We arbitrarily decided to take a bitter means when you are not with us. But it is the only idea that we can come up with now.” The parson apologized again with a sincere tenderness in his speaking.

“What…what’s on your mind?” The old Duke panicked. He did not want to be casted out of the group.

“Everyone here has to cut down one of his hands to serve as supply of food. All six of us.” A cook in the crowd said with his voice cracking. Every man could sense the trembling of his utterance. Each word he said punched the old Duke’s heart with great shock and fear. The air was stagnated with an abnormal silence.

It was a hard decision. However, if they wanted to survive, this was the only choice they could take. “I guess all of you are in agreement, right?” The Duke broke the dead silence with a rhetorical question. “If so, I have no objection. Let’s do it now. Survive!” The old Duke knew well that the ruthless upheavals of sea had worn off their spirits and energy. Hunger was the only physical sensation they could feel.

The crowd reached the consensus reticently. The doctor took out his portable kits of scalpels, and purposely made the clang of the metal knives loud enough for every one on site to hear. “Pass them down.” he said.

The hunter also pulled out his pocket knife from his jacket. He directly handed it over to the old Duke. The Duke could feel sweaty hands of the hunter shivering with fear. Or…excitement? He could not tell the delicate differences of the two emotions. The Duke patted the hunter’s hands which were now clenched into a fist. “I am alright.” The Duke said. “Let’s count down. It would make me brave.”

“3, 2, 1!!!! Cut!!!!” Screamed the parson. At the moment, the shouting of pain and ache from all around drilled into the old Duke’s heart. The warm blood issued from the wound and wetted most of his sleeves. He was about to faint away due to the unbearable multination. What happened after the bloody slash was blurry in the old Duke’s segments of memory. All he remembered was the salty taste of human flesh. And every part of his body was whining for the great loss of his hand. But at last they survived the disaster together. The blood went away from six of them built a tight ‘blood relation’ as a family. When the passing fish boat finally saved them out of the island, the Duke made up his mind to share his property with them. He had the idea before; he never made any inkling to them because he was not yet trusting people without a shadow of doubt. But now it was all different. Life was changed. His life was welcoming a new phase of light.

***

“Happy birthday, my dear Duke!” Five men hoorayed when opening the gate of the house. They dressed in tidy wool suits and talked courteously which they never performed in the bar.

“Welcome!” The Duke waved his crutch excitedly to the direction of the voices. “You are my only guests! Come, Tess, go fetch the cake! Mary, bring them to the private room, hurry up!” He ordered his maids to settle down all the details. He arranged a big surprise for them—he was going to claim them as his family members and share his noble power with them. He was rejoiced about the idea of the happy screaming that his five friends might let out if the news was revealed to them.

At the moment, no one noticed the truth was coming out from the gloomy darkness. All was ready. Ready for the world to be overthrown. It was time about seeing the reality.

A series of clapping burst out in the private room. “Happy birthday to you ooh, happy birthday to you!” The flapping sound of palms startled the heart of the old Duke. There was a bucket of ice flowing into his stomach. He could not help but tremble with astonishment. “Clapping…” Clapping was not in order.

SMASH!!!!! The crutch flew directly to the ceiling windows.

“Villains!” the Duke shrieked, “conceal no more! Admit your deeds! I knew, he knew, everyone knew!” With a long groan, the old man rushed to the lot, scratching their bodies till his nails were tainted by the bright red. “I see! I see! Ha ha, I see the bright blood! It’s in black!” He tore up everything he touched, including the men’s skin. “AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! My flesh is here!” He rubbed the skin of the ‘monsters’ with his cheek. His shadow was like a hunched-back wild beast running madly in a scarlet forest of blood. Human bodies were scattered in all directions with flakes of dander randomly spreading over the floor.

“It’s my gift! Blood for blood! Happy birthday to me!”