Bamboo

Bamboo

from

The Intro: Mr. Pike confesses that this story a) didn't take long to write, b) is strange, c) he enjoys strange things, and d) strangest of all, his novel The Visitor, which he acknowledges as being universally unpopular, is on his Top 5 of all time list. The one with the grave-humping? Really? The grave-humping one is your favourite, sir?!? Um, ok... on with tonight's story, then!

Three children - Gary, Teri, and Mark - grow up as best friends. They're also very close to their neighbour, Mr. Shambu, a man from India. Mr. Shambu plants bamboo and tells the children stories in his spare time.

One story goes like this: Five thousand years ago a guy was born into India's highest and most religious caste. But this was no normal guy. He was a demon. (Or "demond", as my boss says.) As a youth, he killed a bunch of animals and stuff. When he was 16, his parents got him a wife, who he also murdered.

Guy went to trial, but not before going into some kind of demond-anger-rage and killing both his parents. One of his sisters helped him escape and hide in the woods, but his other sisters turned him in when they found out.

He was beheaded and his soul was to walk the earth forever. Except his loyal sister found a way to put his soul into bamboo shoots, which popped and released his soul.

So, later in life, Mark falls in love with Teri. But - you guessed it! - she's dating Gary. Teri and Gary get married after high school, and Gary joins the marines. He dies in an explosion on his first mission.

At Gary's funeral, Teri tells Mark that she is four months pregnant, and that she never had a chance to tell Gary. She doesn't feel like she's able to be a mother. Mark tries to convince her that things will be ok, but that night Teri overdoses on pills and goes into a coma.

Mark goes back to university for 2 years, while Teri is still comatose in the hospital. After his graduation, he visits Teri and removes her breathing tube. After she dies, Mark goes to the field where Teri had overdosed and sets the place on fire. All the bamboo in the area pops and Mark feels relieved that Teri and Gary will be free.


Yeah, so that's, uh, a story. I didn't dig it too much, but props for having an actual Indian guy tell India stories. Up next: a school shooting goes all DB Cooper on us; a cult of witches wreak havoc; and home invasions, abortion, and torture collide.