The inspiration for this scene came months ago, and I made a few quick notes before I tossed the whole thing back into my subconscious. Now I'm bringing the monster to life.
There's no point denying that I'm basically ripping off Moby Dick--which I've never read & don't plan to; anyway I know the gist--and Pynchon's V. with the white alligator who lives in the NYC sewer system. Herpetulian finds his perfect nemesis, and why shouldn't it be an animal?
How can I possibly talk about Pilgrims Dream without talking in circles? I must go around to come back again.
This entire sub-story of The Herd is backstory. As far as I'm concerned, the Genesis of the universe of Pilgrims Dream happens in the coffeeshop, when the pilgrims first meet. From that moment, the adventure begins. They launch into The Quest. But that moment also retroactively justifies that which brought them to the adventure. But, I think I will tell the backstories alongside the central story. The moment of creation must come at the beginning, even if the past came before the creation.
(I've wondered about what might actually hold the pilgrims together after they meet in the coffeeshop in that moment of Genesis. The rest of the novel needs them to stay together. But what could drive a group of five strangers who meet by accident in a coffeeshop to go off on a trip to the Amazon immediately? Of course, we the readers know the meeting isn't so accidental since Agents Grossberger & Troutslop were ordered to track the meeting even before it happened, seemingly by accident. Still, what is the pilgrims' motive? So: all of them have had someone very close to them disappear. And they feel the weird pressure of recognition before the uncanny truth comes out. Wundersprocket's teenage daughter. Herpetulian's fiance. Lux's mother. Laura Cloud's husband.
The strangeness of the encounter forces them to realize that none of them ever confronted the loss of their loved one. And how can they? This is the trouble with ghosts, the paradox of loss: how can one confront that which is not? And the answer is that one cannot confront paradox, but, as Kafka indicated, one must rise above it. Coincidentally, an early title for Pilgrims Dream was Everything Rises.)
So, Herp's backstory: he'd worked as a pharmaceuticals rep & had a typically successful American life. Then his fiance disappeared. Forever. The life he'd built became transparent, insubstantial, without the woman whom he'd founded the rest upon. So he quit his job. He wanted to do something real. After a few months, he took a job w/the Sanitation Department. As far as Herpetulian was concerned, the only real thing in the modern American world was garbage, and lots of it. Soon he finds himself working The Dump.
An old black man near retirement named K takes Herpetulian under his wing. K gives Herpetulian the nickname "Herps".
(Interestingly, K is a character I first wrote about over ten years ago. He was based on a real person--the only real person I ever wrote about. And somehow he found his way into this story.)
Before Herps' first excursion into The Dump, K lends him his .44 Magnum--Dirty Harry's gun. Herps asks what it's for. K says it's for the rats, which grow quite large in the unnatural, toxic environment of The Dump. But, K also says that as long as Herps leaves the rats alone, they'll leave him alone.
Herps goes along, doing his job. But he senses that something is going on with those rats. He eventually hears whispers about The Herd. There is a weird vibe. Old-timers talk about The Herd as if it is intelligent.
One day, Herps runs into a guy wandering about the hidden mounds of The Dump. The guy has gone commando. Basically I'm ripping off Apocalypse Now, & Heart of Darkness w/the Kurtz character. Herps learns that this guy used to work for the Sanitation Department before he dropped out of normal life to dedicate all of his time to fighting The Herd. The guy now lives in The Dump. He tracks The Herd, learns about all of it's secret tunnels, develops intelligence.
When Herps gets back to the locker room, he tells K about the character he met. K tells Herps to forget about it--stay away from it man. Like I told you, just leave them alone and they won't bother you neither.
But Herps can't stop thinking about it. The Herd. How could they possibly be intelligent? And what are they working toward?
Soon after, Herps dreams about Grandaddy: the great white rat leader of The Herd. He both sees the rat & knows it's name.
Next day in the locker room, Herps asks K if he thinks The Herd has a leader.
--I already told you to leave it alone, Herps! Drop it, man.
Herps says he had a dream.
--Shit. You saw him, didn't you?
K asks if the leader in Herps' dream had a name. Herps confirms it. K tells Herps to quit the job immediately. Move out to Kansas, or something. Get away. Fiji. Tijuana. Just get out. But Herps won't drop it. K sighs and asks, Was the white rat called Grandaddy?
Yes.
The old-timers never talk about it--the name "Grandaddy" is taboo. But, fact is, several good men have gone commando over the years, and each of them dreams of Grandaddy before they disappear into the wastes of The Dump forever.
Next day, Herps actually sees Grandaddy. He follows him. Grandaddy reaches the top of a high mound, the setting sun behind him, and turns to face Herps directly. They share a soul-exchanging moment. Suddenly Herps realizes he's been led into an ambush. The Herd has him surrounded, and Herps has the low ground. He looks again to the eyes of Grandaddy. And, how is this possible? it must be a hallucination, the entire impossible episode, because Grandaddy disappears into thin air, and Herps is left staring into the sun. The Herd has vanished.
When Herps gets back, he quits immediately. No notice. K pleads that Herps take a vacation somewhere far from NYC--just don't go back into The Dump, man.
Herps brushes off everyone's advice--they're all living in a fantasy world: willful ignorance of The Herd & it's malicious implications--and Herps decides to take one last trip into Manhattan--one final goodbye to New York, the city he's loved so well--before he dedicates himself to full-time rat combat.
Except, of course, his final trip into the city leads him to meet the other pilgrims, and Herps is launched instead into an adventure of a different sort.
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