Zulu Warrior in Belgium

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The 26 eclectic-genre short stories for my #AtoZChallenge are excerpts from travelogue notes by

novel character Gahlen, who first appeared in SHARDS OF MEMORY – Oral History in a Heartbeat.

Each A-to-Z daily post is a complete, stand-alone tale.

Zulu Warrior in Belgium

Genre: Shared Fantasy

(305 words)

Belgium demonstrates its humor in unusual ways. They honor a rather risqué, diminutive bronze sculpture, Manneken Pis, located on an obscure corner near the Grand Place in the heart of old Brussels.

Strangely enough, nobody seems to actually know why the manneken is there. He is believed to be nothing more than a decoration on top of a fountain, where people in the Middle-Ages came to get fresh water. Already in the 15th century, a fountain called 'manneken-pis' existed in the Stoffstraat/Rue de l'etuve. The official origin can be traced back to 13 August 1619 when the city ordered the sculptor Jerome Duquesnoy to make a new bronze statue of manneken-pis to replace an old and withered one.

As one of the stories goes, during the course of centuries, the little manneken has often been hidden to protect him against bombs of invading armies. According to a restaurant waiter most eager to refill my beer stein, the statue has been stolen several times by plundering soldiers and even by the citizens of Geraardsbergen, a city in Flanders that claims to possess the oldest statue of a peeing boy in Belgium.

The Brussels statue of a naked little boy, picturesquely doing just what the name implies, has over 654 costumes – donated from every country in the world. A Costume Committee reviews each new submission to assure that it meets the criteria of authenticity and proper structure. Costumes range from Santa Claus and a Swiss Soldier to a Zulu Warrior.

The waiter leaned close while refilling my stein once again, and said, “The little statue has become a national treasure.”

With no inclination to question the statement, I sipped my beer in silence. Another question I refrained from asking: “Why would any army want to bomb a little boy who is so desperately in need of relief?”

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Oh, what a relief to have arrived at the letter Z in the #AtoZChallenge!

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W is for WALLONIA TO WISCONSIN #AtoZChallenge



For this year's challenge, my theme is The Fun in Writing. Each of my 26 posts for April is aimed at
illustrating fun parts of an author's day. A writer doesn't only write.
Creating a story or an essay requires research, revision, editing, and lots and lots of coffee and chocolate.


W is for Wallonia to Wisconsin

Wallonia is the name for the French Belgian area of the country, the southern part. The northern part is Flemish, and in the very center is the capital, Brussels. The Kingdom of Belgium has three official languages: Dutch, French, and German. A number of non-official, minority languages and dialects are spoken as well. English is widely spoken throughout Belgium as a second or third language.

 

My father's ancestors moved from Mehaigne, Belgium to Mishicot, Wisconsin in 1856. In 2007, I took a trip to Belgium to visit relatives and experience the country of my heritage. 

 

For a virtual tour of this beautiful country, please visit the blog site that I had so much fun compiling after the trip, and will use as research material for future stories. Featured are Brussels, Gent, Bruges, and all the little historical towns of my ancestors; plus the swans, beer, chocolate, and Mannekin Pis: 

 

http://belgianbaugniet.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

 

Just south of Namur in the Ardennes village of Profondeville is the gracious Villa Gracia. The owner, Gisele, arranged a room for us for three nights in the hotel originally built as the secondary home of Belgium Army General Gracia.

 

 

 

Lacemaking in Brussels

 

 

 

Rooftops in Bruges (Brugge) built with stair-like roofs for easy exit in case of emergency

 

 

 

 



AS ABOVE, SO BELOW A Novel of Peter Bruegel by Rudy Rucker

If you have read Girl with a Pearl Earring and enjoyed the references to Vermeer’s paintings, you will likely enjoy reading Rudy Rucker’s imagined tale of artist Peter Bruegel’s progress with his many paintings. The story ends before his two sons, Little Peter and Jan, took up the brush. 

Each of Rucker’s chapters is headed with the title and photograph of a Bruegel painting. The journey begins in the French-Italian Alps and Rome, but quickly moves to Belgium, mainly in Antwerp and Brussels. 

Life in the middle 1500s was not easy, what with the Inquisition breathing down your neck or lopping off your head at the neck. But even with an uneasy certainty that someone you knew would soon be hung or headless, life went on in soap opera fashion. Family life, friendships, feuds and patched relationships abound with humor and tragedy mingled together in a fascinating narrative. 

Throughout, Bruegel’s dry humor and joie de vivre shine a bright central light on the tale and move the story forward. A comment that especially struck me was: 

“That was the thing about art:

your fingers spilled the secrets of your soul

before you knew them yourself.” 

Another comment that remains vivid in my mind is presented after Peter Bruegel witnesses an everyday scene in a street filled with descriptive characters and everyday occurrences: 

“—life was endlessly rich and endlessly various,

and it could take a man eight years simply to paint

one single moment of one single day.” 

This intimate look at Bruegel’s Beekeepers, Beggars, and Birdsnesters is well worth reading. 

 

Next up for review is:

Kill Switch by Steve N Lee