Tuksook's Story, 35,000 BC

by Bonnye Matthews

  Screaming, she raced from her hiding place to the open meadow to find her mother. She brushed against the plant leaves and thick stems that had formed a rash on her skin from the previous day’s exposure. The rash burned. The sun made the burning worse. It had to stop. It affected her ability to use her mind web properly. Her screams rent the calm of their meadow and all turned to see what was the cause of Tuksook’s screaming. The girl ran straight into her mother who noticed the rash immediately. Item led her to the bathing area where she helped her out of her tunic and had her stand in the waterfall. She told her to stay in the water while she returned to their lean-to for her herb bundles.

  Item knew plants from their old land but had no familiarity with what plant caused the red rash on Tuksook’s skin. She’d never seen anything like it. She was certain a plant that grew in the new land, not the old was the cause. She would have to try for a cure instead of knowing instantly what to use. Item chose several previously ground plants, mixing them together to form an analgesic balm. That is what she would have done for painful rashes in the past. She brought skins to hold the balm to the affected areas.

  “Be still, my Daughter,” Item said, hoping the balm would help. “Does the sun make it worse?”

  Quiet now, Tuksook nodded, tears rimming her lower eyelids until they overflowed.

  Item applied the balm and covered the rash with the skin strips.

  “You’ll have to stay out of the sun. The best place for you is the new bent tree house. Rinse your tunic, put it on, and go there. Ask someone where you should stay to be out of the way. Tuksook, what plant did this to you?”

  Tuksook described the very tall plant with thick, hairy stems, huge leaves, and tiny white blossoms that made up what looked like a large flat flower.

  “I know the one,” Item assured her. She left to find Heek and Port both of whom knew plants and their healing properties. The three would examine the plant that caused the red blisters on Tuksook’s skin. They would begin to study the plants in the area to expand their understanding of this new place.

  Tuksook put her tunic quickly under the waterfall to remove any remaining plant material that might cling to it inside and outside, shook it out, put it on, and left. She followed the shade in the forest to the bent tree house. On his way to replenish his bag of mud, Gumui saw her in the forest and wondered why Tuksook might be outside the meadow.

  “Tuksook,” he quietly asked her, “why are you outside the meadow?”

  “Look at me. I have a terrible rash that the sun makes worse. My mother told me to go to the bent tree house to avoid the sun. I need to do that until this heals.”

  “That looks awful.”

  “Didn’t you hear me screaming?” she asked.

  “I heard something but I was on the inside of the roof putting mud up there, and I wasn’t sure what I was hearing. I’m sorry you’re hurt. What did it?”

  “The tall plant with the big leaves, thick stalks, and tiny white flowers that look like one big flat flower.”

  He examined the rash on her face closer. “I know the plant. Wow! That looks mean.”

  “My mother couldn’t cover the one on my face. The rest are wrapped.”

  “Come, Tuksook. I’ll lead you to your new bench/sleeping place.”

  “You built the bench/sleeping places like the ones from Ki’ti’s time?” She was enchanted. She loved the Ki’ti stories best of all the stories. Tuksook and others not involved in construction had been told to stay out of the bent tree house because the construction was very busy and people not involved in the work would be in the way. Few knew what the inside looked like. All they knew was the description of the bent tree house in Ki’ti’s time from the stories.

  “Yes, we did. Yours has a nice caribou skin on it. Come. Let me show you.”

  Tuksook was astounded that she had a personal place to sit or sleep and that it had a caribou cover on it. She followed Gumui excited to see this new thing. When he reached the part of the structure that contained her place, he stopped. Tuksook’s mouth was open but wordless. The bench/sleeping place was a rectangular braced structure made of bamboo about as high off the ground as her knees. Leather straps from the boat were stretched from end to end and then more straps went across, weaving through the first strips, making a strong webbed netting over which to lay the caribou skin. She ran her hand lightly over it to feel its softness. There was a smooth skin and a furred skin from the first wolf she ever killed. Both were folded on her sleeping place for additional covering.

  Gumui pointed out that her parents had the big bench/sleeping places with the giant new beaver skin laid across the leather strips. Gumui told her Orad had killed the giant beaver for this purpose. Lurch and Orad prepared the skin so that it was incredibly soft and in perfect condition. Midgenemo and Item didn’t know about the gift. It would be a surprise, he explained. Tuksook felt the giant beaver skin. It was softer than anything she’d ever felt. She knew her parents would be very pleased. Then dark thoughts replaced her happiness for them when she thought of her father. There were additional coverings folded there she noticed. Tuksook’s place was between Orad’s and Lurch’s places.

  “You’d better sit on your bench now. It’s very busy in here,” Gumui said. “I must return to my work. See that place up there where the mud hasn’t covered the roof yet. I just came down to dig more mud when I saw you in the forest.”

  “I was told to stay out of the sun, Gumui.”

  He put his hand on her shoulder. “Little One, I was sure of that as soon as I saw your face. But I will ask what you were doing hiding among the big leafed plants.”

  “The big leafed plants are in the meadow. I did not go out of the meadow until I had to avoid the sun to reach this place. I just wanted to be with Wisdom. I needed just a little solitude to have that special time. Every time I try, I find it doesn’t work.” She had twisted her arms and had her fingers interlocked. Clearly, he thought, Tuksook wants to have quiet time with Wisdom—perhaps she even requires it.

  “Has it occurred to you that Wisdom may have something to do with that?” he asked without having thought through what he said.

  “No. Why would Wisdom block me?” That thought had never entered her mind web.

  Gumui was blindsided by her reaction, because he hadn’t meant to imply Wisdom’s blocking her. It was an interesting idea to him. He gained what he felt was insight. “Tuksook, are you still angry with your father?”

  “Well, of course,” she replied. “Who wouldn’t be? I trusted him and he let all the People down—most of all Pito.”

  “Tuksook, have you never done anything wrong?”

  “Why ask me that? You know I have lied.” She hung her head.

  “What’s to say that Wisdom sees your father’s wrong any differently from your lies?”

  “My lies never killed anyone!” she said defensively.

  “Your father didn’t kill anyone either, Tuksook. Rimut did. Midgenemo’s a man—not Wisdom.”

  “He’s supposed to represent Wisdom.”

  “Still, he’s a man. According to Wisdom’s way you must love him, because he is your father. You are supposed to forgive him, if he wrongs you. Forgiving is Wisdom’s way. Now, I really must return to my work. Sit on your bench and think about what I’ve said to you. You can have solitude in here, for People here are too busy to bother you. I will tell you that your father called on Wisdom and Wisdom refused to come while you were gone. Wisdom did not return to him until he changed, vowing to depend on Wisdom, not himself. You may be having a similar experience. It’s worth considering. Women and children left us when we did evil against Pito. The women understood Wisdom’s ways. Wisdom won’t spend time with someone who disregards his ways any more than women will spend time with men who disregard Wisdom’s ways. Forgiveness is one of Wisdom’s ways. So is truth telling, Tuksook.” Gumui turned and went back outside to pick up the bag he had been on his way to refill with mud. He had learned Wisdom’s lesson from the w
omen’s absence and the fact that Wisdom left the Wise One alone. He had seen the lightning. This should be a simple lesson for Tuksook, he thought. He brought the full bag back inside and climbed the walls crossing to the place where he’d been working and began to apply the mud to the ceiling. That, the men trusted, would prevent stray cinders from settling in the ceiling to start a fire.

  As Gumui began to climb the wall, Mongo called to him, “Where’s a large hammer stone?”

  “Over by the entry to the south part of the building,” he shouted back.

  Tuksook sat on her bench/sleeping place and stared at the interior of the building. She wanted to learn each tiny detail. The structure was made of two intersecting rectangles, as a flying bird would see it. One long rectangle extended from north to south and the other, equally long, went from east to west. There was a big hearth in the center where the two rectangles of the house met. Above that was a hide-lined hole for the smoke to exit. Tuksook wondered whether the central area would be the council meeting place. There were smaller hearths in the center of each section of the rectangle. Above each hearth, there was an opening in the ceiling. The openings made it easier to see since some light came through. They also let hearth smoke escape.

  Mongo and Taman walked rapidly through the west part of the building, seeming not to see her at all. They exited to the meadow.

  Tuksook kept hearing noise outside the structure and mumblings. She had no idea what was going on, but she was not free to run about satisfying her curiosity. Instead, she was constrained to stay out of the way of the construction workers and inside sheltered from the sun. Tuksook hurt from the rash, from Gumui’s words, and from having to stay in one place, fascinating as it was. She curled up on the caribou hide and pulled the lightweight skin over her. Tuksook watched Gumui mudding the ceiling. Finally, drowsiness overtook her and sleep followed.

  Tuksook dreamed. She was flying. She soared, enjoying the sense of the wind under her. Suddenly there was no wind. She tumbled and rolled from the sky. She hit trees on the way to the ground. She fell into a small pond. Tuksook dragged herself from the water and coughed as she walked to the land. She waked up coughing. Construction was going on as if nothing had happened. Nobody noticed her, not even Gumui. Tuksook felt her hair. It was dry. She had dreamed. Nothing more. She thought of the dream. She had been unable to reach Wisdom recently. Her father had the same problem. No one had told her that except Gumui. She wondered whether Gumui had some understanding of Wisdom she lacked. Her belly had no inclination to forgive her father. It rebelled with cramping feelings at the thought. Somehow, Tuksook felt that being Wise One placed him in a different position from the People. He had more responsibility. He talked with Wisdom. Well, so did she. Her father let Pito die. Tuksook could not ignore his complicity in the death of Pito. She pulled the lightweight skin over her head. She was miserable. The skin brushed painfully against the rash on her face, so she removed the covering quickly. Tuksook wondered how Gumui could think Wisdom might see her father’s bad judgment equal to her lies and lack of forgiveness. It hurt her for him to think badly of her. It bothered her considerably to wonder whether he might be right.

  Wave, Pago, and Hawk had been down by the boat deconstruction where they’d been working for days. They salvaged numbers of logs and tie strips. They planned to make several small bamboo boats to navigate the river. They could fish as well as hunt in this place where food was abundant. By evening they had the first of the boats completed. It was much smaller than the one they dismantled. It fit four hunters—no more. They tied the front and back of the boat to an elevated level much higher than the water level and the center was flat. They had stacked all the oars from the boat along the hillside. Knowing that water could rise without notice, they tied the oars so they could not float away. When they finished the first boat, the men each chose an oar and took the boat for a trial in the river. Other men watched, hopeful the boats would work. In the old land, boat builders had become fewer and fewer, and new ones were hard to find. The best remained in the old land when the People took to the sea for a new place.

  The onrushing water kept turning the boat to the side, so the men quickly decided the bottom of the boat needed something to make the boat stay parallel with the riverbanks. What they needed was a keel. The big boat on which they arrived in this land had a keel, but the men were hunters not boat builders, so they had to learn as they went along. As they fought the sideways turns, they soon realized the purpose of the keel. They decided they could construct a downward sloping bottom to the center of the boat. That would become the project for the following day. They reasoned that would keep the boat going in the direction of the river either with or against the current.

  “What’s that?” Pago asked as they turned for home and could see the pathway from the north where hunters walked carrying burdens.

  “It doesn’t look like any animal I’ve ever seen,” Hawk said, considering the color of the beast and that it was suspended on a pole by its legs, not quartered like the other animal. “It has the look of a cat.”

  “The quarters Stencellomak and the others are carrying look like a giant deer,” Wave added.

  “It seems we have meat, but if that’s a cat, it’s the biggest one I ever saw. I don’t want to eat cat!” Hawk sneered.

  “The dogs aren’t so hard to please,” Pago laughed. “I’m guessing the hunters took it because it threatened them, and the skin looks interesting from here.”

  “This certainly isn’t a land where we should worry about hungering or needing skins,” Hawk said.

  They moved towards shore and tied up the oars and boat. They had a long heavy rope that was tied to a stout tree at the top of the riverbank. They’d tie the boats to the heavy rope and if water rose very high, the boats would float to whatever height the water rose. The boats would remain above water regardless of weather or rise of the river.

  When Pago, Hawk, and Wave had the boat tied up and secured the poles and oars, they climbed the path to the meadow eager to meet the men arriving from the day’s hunt. Moki and Remui were entering the meadow with the cat on the pole followed by Stencellomak, Vole, Hai, Tern, Orad, and Taq. They carried quartered meat and a very large skin.

  “Whew!” Stencellomak exclaimed to no one in particular, as he lowered his shoulder and let the hindquarter slide to the ground. “I’m not growing any younger and these animals are heavy! Look at the antlers on that head Orad’s been carrying.” The antlers were enormous and strangely shaped to the hunters’ way of seeing deer. “That thing’s not going to wander through any forest!” Stencellomak observed. “Those antlers would snag on trees!”

  “It was a male giant deer bigger than any of us. It was feeding on water plants at a creek in a big open area high on that hill.” Vole pointed to the north. “We killed the giant deer first. After we bled it and began to quarter it, Stencellomak saved my life from the cat,” Moki said breathlessly. “The cat never made a sound. Look at those teeth!” The cat had extraordinarily long teeth that extended beyond its jaw; they were serrated on both sides. The fur was gray with black blotches on it, so it blended in the forest making it hard to see. It was very soft.

  Lurch, Pod, Ragiel, and Sutorlo had come to help sink the meat quarters in the storage pond, eager to hear about the hunt. They realized the cat hadn’t been bled, so they began to untie it.

  “Wait on the cat, boys,” Stencellomak said. “I have plans for that. I want the skin removed whole including the feet. Can you do that with extreme care?”

  The boys looked at him. “The only one of us who’s that good is Lurch. He’s really good. Want him to skin it?” Ragiel asked.

  “Lurch, do a good job with that skin,” Stencellomak said firmly but smiling. “And I want the teeth.”

  “I will do my best work ever,” Lurch promised. The boys carried the cat to the far north of the meadow and hung it up between two trees to bleed.

  All could hear the rocks banging together announcing the ev
ening meal. Item left the cooking area and went to the bent tree house. “Tuksook,” she shouted from the west-facing entryway.

  “I am here,” came her daughter’s voice from some distance.

  Item shouted, “Come to eat. You should be fine. The sun is low.”

  Tuksook stood up and raced to the entryway. She was eager to go outside. Her mother was half way to the eating area. Tuksook thought she looked tired. She left the house and followed her mother. She hadn’t been aware she was hungry, but the thought of food made her salivate.

  Eilie joined Tuksook on the walk to the place where they filled their bowls with food. “Are you doing better now? I was afraid for you when I heard your screams.”

  “Staying out of the sun does help. I won’t go near those plants again!”

  “What does it look like inside the bent tree house?”

  “It’s just like the house in Ki’ti’s time. Everyone has a bench/sleeping place that is their own place. It’s larger than you can imagine inside. It’s wonderful.”

  “Do you have to stay there tomorrow?”

  “I have to stay there until this rash goes away.”

  “What do you do in there?”

  “There’s not enough to do. I’ll take some sewing tomorrow. Today I watched the work and slept. At least when I sleep I don’t think about the rash.”

  “I’m so sorry you had such pain. Tomorrow Hustep, Ubassu, Elfa and I will go to the southern meadow to dig up those plants. Your mother calls them mother of red rash. We’ll put them on the trash heap to dry out and we’ll burn the flowers and roots. It’s a plant we want to discourage near our living place.”

  “I wish I could help.”

  “It’s too dangerous for you to do it. Some of us may have a problem, but so far we don’t know about it.” We will be careful not to touch it if possible. We gathered lots of old leather pieces to protect our hands from touching the plants.”

  “Be very careful.”