Tuksook's Story, 35,000 BC

by Bonnye Matthews

  Huaga’s wife was beginning to understand that in three days she’d be traveling on the boat that she feared deeply. Her husband had said it would be, so it would be, but she was frightened.

  Exit asked whether anyone else wished to speak.

  Yumo said, “Yes.”

  Exit nodded to him.

  “I have spent cycles arguing against moving. When Huaga asked me to go with him to see how the People lived in their land, I dismissed the idea. Then, as the leader of us boatmen, he simply told me I would accompany him. I could not refuse the order, so I went. I now admit I was terribly wrong. The People are healthy as was the case with us before the drought. They have children who live and grow fat on their bodies. The place abounds with happiness and health. When I saw them there, I wanted to fall on my face and weep for those of you who were here. What is possible there is a wonderful life, now. I will take my family three days from now and travel with Huaga to this land. I urge all of you to come with us. We have lost our Wise One; they have one. If only you could see what I’ve seen, you’d be joyfully preparing now, filled with hope.”

  Exit looked up.

  “Does anyone else have anything to say?”

  One man said, “In the stories, sometimes a boat is lost.”

  There was silence.

  “It sounds as if you’re making some kind of ultimatum, Huaga,” Exit said.

  “I’m trying to save your lives! If you hadn’t gradually become used to seeing yourselves starve, you would be where I am. In fact, I was planning to wait, but it’s impossible to wait. Too many of you will be dead by then. As I see it, you have only one chance, and this is it.”

  “We could die at sea!” Exit argued.

  “Here you will definitely die. At sea you have a chance,” Huaga argued. He was blindingly tired and had to talk to the boat workers about the things he’d had them unload from the boat. “I’m not willing to remain here to watch my family die before my eyes, when I know I can change their lives for better. What manner of man would I be if I chose to do that?”

  “I will go,” one of the hunters stated, “I will take my family.”

  “I will also take my family,” another hunter said.

  “Well, this is my home and my family—we will stay here!” another said.

  “Yes, me and my family, too,” said yet another. “This is home!”

  Huaga looked at those who blindly chose to remain. “All I ask is that until we leave, think about it. Realize that your bellies could be full daily, your hunter skills brought back, your happiness return. It can happen—but not here. The boat has room for every person who wants to come with us. You will eat on the boat. We catch fish while we travel. We stop at islands for other food and water.”

  Exit realized that silence once again struck through the extraordinary message Huaga was delivering.

  “Does anyone have anything to say?”

  Silence.

  “Then, council is ended for this night.”

  Huaga found Slantmin and asked him to reserve the foods he’d brought. He wanted them to go back on the boat.

  “I’m coming with you,” Slantmin said.

  “Good, Slantmin, I’d hate to leave you here. Protect that food. None but the boatmen and you and I know it’s here and where it is. We’ll need it for the sailing.”

  “Have no fear, it’s safe.”

  “Thank you, Slantmin.”

  “I’m eager for this change, Huaga.”

  “So am I. I fear for my family whether they will survive until we reach them, but I must try. I must go now to sleep. I am very tired.”

  “Sleep well, Huaga,” the boat worker said.

  “Thank you, Slantmin.”

  Huaga stumbled back to the cave where his wife had prepared their sleeping skins. He knelt down and stretched himself out on the skins. His last thought before he slept was of the bench/sleeping places in the bent tree house.

  There was unrest in the cave. The People were frightened. Huaga had been at sea for what seemed to be always to most of the People. He would no longer go to sea? That was extraordinary. And the way he described the land where the migrating People settled, could any land be so filled with food? Why should they believe this man? Maybe he was so tired then, he just didn’t see correctly, except Yumo was verifying what Huaga said. It was all so confusing.

  The morning meal was more of the same soup and not enough of it. Huaga went outside. The wind blew moderately and the sand and dust flew about sometimes making spirals of sand run across the dirt. They looked like tiny tornadoes. Huaga wondered where the People found the food they ate.

  About high sun, Yumo found Huaga and told him they needed to talk where they’d not be overheard. They walked a distance from the cave.

  “I hear that Slantmin is planning to remain here. He plans to take the food from the place where you told him to store it, to hide it for the use of few.”

  “Very well, how ready are you to go back on the boat?”

  “Any time you’re ready, I’m ready. There is something desperately wrong here, and I want to escape from it.”

  “Will you call a special council?”

  “Right away!” Yumo stood and called, “Special council meeting, right now. Special council meeting, right now.”

  The People were curious and they gathered quickly, sitting in their usual places, looking like gray ghosts.

  Huaga and a few boatmen entered the cave later than others. He looked around himself and noticed that Slantmin was among those who were attending.

  Yumo asked, “Does anyone have anything to say?”

  “I do,” Huaga said. “We leave as soon as the boat is packed. Those who will go with us, stand, please.”

  Huaga’s statement threw the entire People into confusion. They had not made up their minds. His family and Yumo’s family stood. All the boatmen stood. Slantmin stood with his family.

  “While I continue here, boatmen, load the boat.”

  Slantmin was shocked. It was boat workers, who loaded the boat, not boatmen. He wondered at Huaga’s change. He had a faint fear that his plot to steal the food might have been uncovered.

  The boatmen were quick to follow through on the order. They left before the council ended. They would load the food first, knowing where it was, for Huaga had told them before the meeting.

  “My People,” Huaga pleaded, “Please suspend your fears and think of the future. Bring your families to the boat so you return to health in the new land. Come with us. Those of you who plan to come, gather up your things and move down to the boat. Do it now!”

  Huaga’s wife and children immediately set to gathering their things. In little time they went to the boat to wait to be told to climb on. Yumo’s wife was hesitant, but she did start gathering their things and he helped her carry them to the boat. Her children also helped.

  Two other households came with their children. Then nothing more. Huaga counted the People. There were twelve boatmen not counting Yumo and Huaga. The boatmen had only two family members still living, both boys almost grown. There were five in his family counting himself; there were four in Yumo’s family counting him; and counting the two other families, there were a total of nine. Huaga counted thirty-two People. Yumo’s guess regarding the number of People who might migrate had neglected to count the boatmen when telling the People the number. Huaga had overestimated the number he could convince to migrate. There were no infants on the boat. People had been barren since the time of starvation.

  The boat was loaded and the People left. They asked no help to push off; the boatmen did that themselves. The People who remained watched them go from a great distance. They did not regret their choice.

  After they had taken off and had gone some distance, two young children, Paw and Lumu, both aged eight, came to Huaga.

  He noticed them and said, “What have you to say?”

  “We sneaked on the boat. Our parents are not here,” Paw said quietly.

  “You what?
” he asked unsure that he was comprehending.

  “Please don’t take us back,” Lumu said. “We don’t want to die. We want to live.”

  “You’re safe here, girls,” he said. “I wish your families understood as well as you do. Find Yumo and ask him to give you sleeping skins. Tell him I said I agree that you should stay with us.”

  The girls went to find Yumo while Huaga returned to the task of controlling the boat. It was late in the year, he knew. After a while, Yumo went to stand near Huaga.

  “Those girls were brave,” Yumo said.

  “They were reasoning,” Huaga replied, “something many People there no longer seem able to do.”

  “Did you notice the vacant stares of some of the People? They seem to have lost their mind webs.”

  “Yes. That with your information about Slantmin is why I decided to leave early. I think the starvation has ruined their ability to reason. That, and they’ve had no Wise One for a very long time. With no guidance, they strayed too far away. Within a year, not one will be left alive, I think.” Huaga’s belly ached for them.

  “I noticed that Slantmin, who said he was coming, didn’t even come near the boat.”

  “Maybe he realized we left when we did partly because of him,” Huaga said.

  “That may be so.” Yumo looked to the western horizon. “We seem to be having good weather at least for now.”

  Huaga wanted to weep for the People left behind. He couldn’t lose his memory of the way the People who stayed behind looked at them as they left. The vision would remain with him for life. The People who stayed behind didn’t show a wish that they had changed their minds. What Huaga saw looked like hate. He could not know what they thought, he reminded himself. They just didn’t know what he knew, and he had not been able to convince them all. It hurt him deeply. Huaga would grieve for days, but the boat would require his attention, and the grief would fade for the living dead as life replaced it.

  When it was time for the evening meal, the People on the boat ate. They had many fish caught that day and fruit stored from their tropical travels. Huaga cautioned the People to eat slowly small amounts at a time, because of the starvation. Eating too much too fast could make them sick.

  Back in Eagle’s Grasp, the People had set about preparing for those who might come. They did it immediately, instead of doing it in their spare time. Hunters had sought animals that would be good for food and skins for clothing during cold times. They knew if the People had the right protection, the cold would not be a problem for them. The expansion on the north side of the bent tree house provided plenty of additional space to keep extra skins so they’d be ready when needed for those who might come. Some of the women had already begun to make cold times protection that was standard. They made beaver hats and mittens in various sizes, keeping a conservative count until they actually knew how many to expect and the size. For jackets they used a variety of skins. They made some standard sized jackets. The boots would have to wait for the individual wearer.

  Men worked diligently on the north side of the bent tree house and the south side. They had the knowledge now of how to build it. Children brought sand from the river level for flooring once the men had smoothed the ground as much as possible. Children put the sand inside the extension close to the standing structure. The men would spread the sand. The sea aurochs fishers went to sea to fish for the food that tasted so good wrapped in skin that was excellent material to cover the bent tree house. The People spent time tying the sea aurochs’ skin down. They lashed it with ropes that kept the wind from pulling it loose, and the skin proved strong, sturdy, and waterproof. The pace was much faster than they had ever experienced since their move.

  As she’d known it would be, Tuksook had found little time for solitude, so she enjoyed it fully by walking the meadow. Mi sat on the rock reciting the stories within sight of people working on the water diversion. Tuksook looked at the bent tree house. It seemed enormous to her. The extensions were longer than the structure already built. A noise above caused her to look up and she saw a large number of cranes flying overhead making their noise that reminded her of laughter and too many talking at one time. She wondered whether the People from the old land would come. Somehow, based on what she’d heard from Unmo and the older People, it did not sound promising to her.

  “Oh, there you are,” Dipcaco called out.

  “You are looking for me?” Tuksook replied.

  “Yes. Sutorlo has fallen. Item is going to him. Will you come?”

  “Of course,” she replied and turned to the house.

  “Oh, he’s not there,” Dipcaco explained, “He’s down on the lower level.”

  She followed him. “How did he fall down there?”

  “He and I were standing at the edge of the meadow on the river side. Sutorlo started to sneeze and he kept sneezing. He was too close to the edge, Wise One, and he fell backwards when he sneezed.”

  “Why did he choose to stand so close to the edge?”

  “We were looking at a set of stones in the ground. They are covered with designs. We were curious about their purpose, and who might have put them there. You could see the carvings in the rock better from where he stood.”

  “Hunter safety is so important; it’s just hard to imagine his not keeping that in mind.”

  “Looking back, I can see that, but we were both fascinated with the stones. Also, Sutorlo couldn’t see with his left eye,” Dipcaco said as if that might explain the fall.

  They reached the bottom of the path and there was Sutorlo lying on the ground. His head had struck a big rock at the bottom on the path. Tuksook hurried toward him.

  “How does it look, Mother?” Tuksook asked Item.

  Item did not speak but instead shook her head negatively.

  Meha came screaming down the path. Sutorlo’s eyes turned towards her, though he saw nothing. He was also unable to move. Blood oozed from his mouth.

  Meha threw herself on Sutorlo’s body. He tried to smile. He let out a great sigh, and all knew they had lost Sutorlo. Meha was thrown into deep grief. Item closed Sutorlo’s eyes.

  Sutorlo’s sons, Echa, Knom, and Snum, and Vole went to the tool storage and gathered digging tools. Children who heard spread the word to other children. They began to pick flowers. Mi left the rock to gather flowers with them. Bitro and Lolrin brought the stretcher down the path. The men helped slide the body onto the stretcher and Bitro and Lolrin carried it up to the place where the grave was being dug. They put it gently on the ground, showing respect for the man even in his death. Amuin and Meg brought skins for washing, a pouch of ground red ochre, and a bowl of water. They washed the blood from his mouth and head wound. They washed the rest of Sutorlo’s body and began to apply red ochre to it. The grave depth was reached and Knom and Echa inside the grave took the body from Bitro and Lolrin. They placed Sutorlo’s body on his side in the grave, using the man’s hands to keep his jaw placement looking normal. Children circled the grave, tossing flowers in it to cover the red stained body of Sutorlo. All the while Meha was near the grave, weeping quietly, belly ripped apart.

  Tuksook grieved the loss of Sutorlo but also the fact that the People had become complaisant. Each person was cherished. There was no need whatever for someone to fall over the edge. She found Dipcaco.

  “Will you show me the rocks?” she asked Dipcaco.

  “Certainly, follow me,” he replied.

  “They are right here. Please, stay away from where you stand,” he asked.

  “Is this where he stood?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he said. “Then, he sneezed, and it threw him backwards.”

  Tuksook never doubted Dipcaco, but she found it unbelievable that Sutorlo had sneezed to his death. She wondered whether the sneeze was a sign of some other part of the body struggling and what that might be.

  “These are the rocks,” Dipcaco said, diverting her attention back to the stones.

  “I expected them to be small, Dipcaco. These are
big enough I couldn’t lift one. I doubt you could alone.”

  “Look at this curious work on the stones. You could see them better, if I put some water on them.”

  Tuksook shook her head. She had no difficulty seeing the designs. The designs included circles around circles, spirals, odd shaped things that looked like People with heads too large; there were wavy lines and many dots; there were what appeared to be fish on another rock. There seemed to be many rocks under the grasses buried or partly buried.

  “I can see why this drew your attention,” Tuksook told him.

  “He was my teacher and friend. I miss him already,” Dipcaco was on the verge of tears.

  Tuksook put her hand on his shoulder. “When the length of your life line ends, Dipcaco, it ends. We ache for our loss, but it is not a bad thing, simply a part of the temporary nature of our lives here.”

  Dipcaco nodded. Tuksook realized he was choked up enough that he couldn’t speak. She began to move to the grave side. Dipcaco followed, staying on the periphery of the assembled People. He didn’t want to talk to anyone.

  Slowly the People gathered from all over the meadow. Tuksook said, “Let us speak our bellies about Sutorlo. Start here, please, Stencellomak.”

  Mi slipped into the circle next to Tuksook.

  The circle took a long time. There was much to say about this very talented, quiet, humble man. Everyone loved him. He encouraged others when he saw the need, and his judgment was right. When the circle was complete, Tuksook told the creation story, and the People slowly drifted away from the site. They resumed the work they had been doing.