From the Beginning: The Old World

by Kurtz, Timna

  I turned to thank Rebecca for her gift, but as I was turning all I could see was her good smile as she faded from my sight, becoming a water cloud that broke into many little rays of sun in the spray. I reached out to catch her, but all my fingers could feel was the spray of the water.

  The blue eagle flew again onto its branch, flapping its wings trying to get my attention. It spread one wing aside and the other folded under its chest, then bowed its head over the folded wing, as a sign of respect, without a voice telling me that it was there again to watch over me and protect the tribe. I bowed my head as well in gratitude. My heart overflowing with pain and love. Is he coming back to me?

  The sound of splashing water caught my attention again. Two magnificent dolphins were jumping towards the center of the lake. They leaped over the water twirling in the air, doing acrobatic flips, circling the lake with their tricks and then vanished to wherever they came from. After a few seconds they appeared again, swimming parallel to each other, their heads peeking from the water, in their mouths was a thick rope, and they were pulling a wooden boat that resembled our life boats. The scene was strange and mesmerizing. They were getting nearer, gently floating the boat towards me, as if it was carrying a sensitive and precious cargo. I gazed at the blue eagle, as if asking whether I would need its help, but it stood quietly and relaxed in its spot. The boat reached my feet, and the dolphins gave me the rope, thanked me with their giggling chuckles, and cheerfully swam away hopping on their backs.

  I wrapped the rope around the rock I was standing on a few times and peaked into the boat. I was amazed to see the white eagle laying in the boat, hurt and helpless, its white feathers were messed and faded.

  Panic and confusion took hold of me. I understood from Rebecca’s words that the white eagle would bring good news— and now it is lying before me like something that was hit directly by the storm.

  I reached out my hand to see if I could help it. My fingers touched its soft feathers, which felt silky and pleasant, like the skin on a known loved one.

  Its eyes opened, and I pulled my hand in fear. The clear piercing green was very familiar— but I couldn’t remember from where. Its beak moved in pain when it told me the weirdest things I have ever heard: “I can’t remember… Remember and don’t remember… help me! Only you can… His deep voice echoed in my head, triggering a vague memory, but before the fog dissipated, a baby-like murmur was sounded from under the eagle’s wing, and a little baby peaked out its white feathers.

  “Ma-ma…Ma-ma,” the baby gargled, and dimples appeared on its cheeks. “Mama, Mama,” he purred at me extending his chubby arms with a sweet smile. In awe, I extended my arms to pick him up.

  “Mother! Mother!” A small hand shook my shoulder, waking me from my dream.

  I opened my eyes, it was the break of dawn. Jezebel was bent over top of me, waking me with energetic whispers.

  “Mother, good morning. Come outside with me! There is something you have to see!” Her eyes gleamed with joy, so much like Rebecca’s sparkling eyes.

  I rose from my spot, my limbs still stiff from the disturbed slumber being scrunched into the corner of the cave. Most of the tribe members were still fast asleep, leaning against each other or held in the arms of their friends.

  Roan and another friend, Billy, who acted as Roan’s assistant, were not in their place. Jezebel led me out of the cave and started climbing on top of it, to the spot where we had left Rebecca’s body a few days earlier.

  At the peak of the island, on top of the world, there stood Roan and Billy, gazing into the eastern horizons where the first rays of sun started appearing. They waved at us when they heard us arriving, with the same radiant expression on their faces as Jezebel had.

  “Grace! You have to see this!” Roan extended his hand to me.

  I stood between them, embracing Jezebel’s shoulders, with Roan and Billy hugging us on both sides, and together we witnessed the most spectacular scene I had ever seen! Throughout the great big endless sea, many little islands appeared!

  “Roan…This is unbelievable!” The excitement brought tears to my eyes blurring my vision, and for a moment, it seemed as if I was seeing the strange underwater drawings, connecting the islands with lines and arrows, creating a weave of an underwater map.

  But before I was able to engross myself in this sight, Roan drew my attention to more changes that came about by the storm. He took me to the edge of the cliff and hinted at me to look down. Here too the sight was amazingly beautiful: a few feet under the spot we were standing on, there was an opening of a waterfall cascading far under us, creating a big pool at the bottom, about a hundred feet in diameter, its shape resembling the lake in my dreams.

  “Instead of climbing up to the cave to bathe, we can go down to this pool and swim in it. It is really close to our living area. And if you look closely, you will see it has ‘gone up a floor’ and the cave here can continue to be used for what we intended from the beginning— for purification and sanctity.” Billy showed me the most important discovery so far— the water levels had gone down drastically, revealing a new and bigger turf of the island.

  I gazed at the sights, overlooking from the heights of the island, surrounding the summit from all directions, surveying the newly discovered layout. Many trees were now exposed presenting green spots everywhere, telling of a fertile land we could now use. Flat lands were spread out all around, creating a new coast line for the island.

  I ran from one end to the other, sizing up distances and terrain, yearning to go down and explore the new discoveries.

  “It’s… It’s… It’s simply a miracle!!” Both men and Jezebel caught up with my excitement. We hugged again, jumping up and down dancing in a circle like little children who had just discovered Treasure Island. The hurricane had indeed sucked vast quantities of water, lowering the sea levels by at least eighty feet overnight!

  “Just a minute!” I stopped the morning celebrations. The ball of sun had just appeared sending a long golden ray of light exactly to the center of the cave’s ceiling. At the place where we left Rebecca’s body, only a few rocks that surrounded her body remained, but no sign of her remains! I leaned to the spot where the ray of sun touched the rock, and it was warm under my hands.

  “My daughter…” I thought I heard Rebecca’s soft loving whisper carried away by the morning dew.

  “Thank you…Mother…” I whispered back with shining eyes to the caressing winds.

  An hour later, after we pecked on a measly breakfast that consisted of a few dried roots, we made our way back towards our dwelling cave. Hungry and frustrated on one hand, but excited on the other towards our tour of the newly discovered layout of the island, we prayed in our hearts that we would find new hints of any kind of food. Maybe we would find fruit on the trees? Although it was obvious that after long weeks of being submerged in water everything would be rotted anyway, the mere fact that maybe they were fruit trees caused us to cheer up and hope for the best.

  The tracks of the storm were visible everywhere. It was so powerful it caused rocks to fly, smash and scar the face of the little mountain. But, our biggest disappointment came from the damage the storm caused to our planted plots.

  With teary eyes, people were walking in the plots trying to fix and replant every little salvageable plant. Despair was at its peak. Our food supply was now all gone!!

  People looked at me with anxious eyes waiting for me to say something. Expecting me to provide answers, as expected from the leader of the tribe.

  I was silent. I did not know what I should do. What would I tell them? It’s not like I had any solutions available. Was this really the end? What about the dream I had? Would it not come true either?

  I looked at the despaired and worried faces of my friends, but instead of speaking to them, I spread my arms to my sides and called them to join me. People moved from their spots, coming closer, reaching for each other and creating together with me a wide human circle.

  “Come
, let us pray,” I said quietly. “This might not fill our stomachs, but at least it will fill our hearts— and this isn’t any less important right now!” I lowered my head and closed my eyes, connecting to the familiar spot in my body—the one that generates the vibe—and for the first time, I awakened it myself.

  I started singing a prayer, asking for the grace of the heavens to shower us with food and continue bestowing upon us the fortune of luck we’d been having since we were rescued.

  As I was chanting, I thought I heard another sound being carried in the wind, climbing from the bottom of the island, calling my name.

  “G…R…A…C…E…” the sound called again. I wondered if this was a figment of my imagination or was it a real voice that was calling to me. When I heard the call for the third time, I had no more doubt. I raised my eyes to see where the call came from.

  At the bottom of the island, on the newly formed coast line, I saw a figure waving at us from afar.

  I smiled a big smile when the call was heard again, clearer, louder:

  “Grace!! Fish!! There are fish in the water!!!”…

  * * *

  Chapter 25

  The way to the beach wasn’t too steep, but the path was slippery, and in some parts even dangerous. But all of this did not distract me from the figure on the beach, towards which I was racing, skipping lightly and very excited over all the obstacles in my way, ignoring the rocks and stones under my feet that hardly touched the ground. I was so happy it felt as if I was gliding on air!

  The wind blew on my face on the way down, sending tears of joy into the air. I ran the distance in seconds, leaping into Jack’s open arms, who was waiting for me on the coast.

  He grabbed me and hugged me with the same intensity I had jumped on him, kissing me with excitement, responding with joy to my happiness. Laughing and crying, I hugged him and kissed him on his lips, his forehead, his eyes and any kissable spot on his face. We touched and caressed each other’s faces, clinging to one another with excitement.

  In a few minutes, the rest of the tribe members surrounded us. Some huddled around us, also excited to see Jack, and some did not stop running and headed past the sand and into the sea. A few feet from the beach a silvery patch was spotted, which was a huge school of fish— just as I saw in my dream!

  A few of the men swam to the school of fish, taking their shirts off and using them as little fishing nets.

  Soon, many fish started piling up on the beach. Roan and Billy hurried to organize a small fire from sticks and dried twigs that we dehydrated during the night. We didn’t even bother taking the lute back to the cave, we just grilled them on a fire right there on the beach, relishing their tender, nutritious meat, devouring with exuberance the food we prayed for, licking our fingers. We felt like we had been given the chance to taste a piece of heaven.

  Embraced in Jack’s arms, I watched my friends appeasing their appetite, but the hunger I was feeling wasn’t coming from my empty stomach. When no one was looking, Jack and I snuck away from the celebrating gang, climbing to the place where the new pool had formed.

  Jack led me along the edge of the pool towards the white waterfall that cascaded from high above raising gleaming clouds of spray. We reached the waterfall wall, and there, Jack showed me a narrow pass, that was hidden between the waterfall and the rock wall.

  With cautious steps we advanced sideways, squeezing between the waterfall and the rocks until we arrived at a little cave that hid behind the waterfall, in it another small pool was formed, that one could sit in like in a round tub made of rock and stone.

  Hands were probing, lips were meeting, and fingers burrowed, massaging. Our bodies sliding on one another, connecting once again to the same wild, primal instinct that had carried us away again and again, its intensity increasing more and more—only now it was accompanied by the intensity of our love that we finally allowed ourselves to fully feel and give to one another.

  We lay hugging and naked, satisfied and loving. His arm was resting under my head, and his other hand aimlessly wandered on my body. My fingers drew imaginary lines on his bare chest as he told me of the moments of horror when he plummeted into the water and into the unknown, and how he was saved thanks to all of the grueling training he had gone through in his special forces military training and then in the secret service— where he learned special techniques of extending the breathing during diving missions as well as in oxygen free rooms, or under an attack of gas or smoke grenades. That is why, when he fell into the pool buried under the heavy cascading waters and for a few very long minutes he could not move or breathe, he knew what to do to stay alive.

  “So the rumors were true…” I smiled as if I knew the secret, “You are an ex-secret agent!” I revealed his secret with delight.

  “Well. I have no choice!” He grasped my neck, squeezing it gently in a joking strangling motion. “Since you found out my secret, I am forced to kill you… with kisses!” He showered me with kisses that left no room for air, but enough to cause me to laugh with pleasure until he stopped.

  “If we’re on the subject of revealing secrets—” His face turned serious when he started to come clean about his actions on that dark night, “There is something else I think you should know: I didn’t kill Cole. Although you could say I was the one to send him to his death. I put him, passed out, on a little raft that I improvised beforehand. The main incentive was to distance him from the island so he would no longer pose a threat to the tribe. I left the rest to God’s and nature’s grace so they will decide his fate.”

  I could have asked him why he didn’t tell me this right after it happened, but I remembered I was too distraught, and there was no point. I was relieved to hear this confession, and to know for certain he had no blood on his hands and that he did not take another man’s life.

  Although, in his past job as a secret agent— he probably had to deal with much more vicious assignments. But as far as I was concerned, Jack’s life prior to the flood was erased and gone, much like anyone else’s in the tribe, and that is why the thought that he had killed Cole was so difficult for me to bare. I didn’t want his new chapter in his life to be tainted with someone else’s blood. The protector of the tribe’s job did not compel him to have blood on his hands.

  “I am glad you told me,” I thanked him silently, laying my head on his arm again, relishing him and his love. Soon we were making love again, this time gently and with tenderness without any motivating vibe— just genuine and pure love that vibrated in our hearts.

  When we rejoined the tribe, which was mostly still on the beach, the sun was already high in the sky, and people were eating their fill, like at a banquette. We helped ourselves to some grilled fish meat, which was now especially tasty. We were starved and hovered over the hot food that was served to us. Like our friends before us, we sank our fingers and teeth into the food, relishing the taste of heaven, all giggling and smiling at each other’s gluttony.

  Once we have had our fill, I gathered a few fish spine skeletons, washed them well in sea water and rubbed them with sand to rid them of any remnants of food. These could be used as combs or needles in the future.

  I saw Roan quietly approach Jack and imply that they go aside. I was curious to know what this was all about and got closer to hear what they were saying.

  “…I really did try everything I could. I swear Roan! If I could, I would bring him back from the dead. I know you were childhood friends and close like brothers, but the moment Eddie threw me into the waterfall, we disconnected and there was no way I could see him or save him. I am truly sorry…” He put a comforting hand on Roan’s shoulder. “In spite of the disagreement between us and Eddie’s jealousy, I would not leave him to die just like that,” his words were said with honesty and warmth.

  “I know, I know…” Roan bowed his head sadly. “I saw what happened in the cave. I saw you tried to help him. I just wanted to make sure—since after all—you survived the fall. You know, it left a slither of ho
pe in me that maybe Eddie survived too…”

  Roan opened his heart, his shoulders slumping when he realized there was no more hope.

  “After I managed to get out of the water and rest for a bit, I combed the entire pool area and did not find any sign of Eddie. The water gushed out with such force that there was no way of knowing how far he had been thrown or whether he got carried away with the mighty current that kept on flowing out of the pool and into the sea. I scanned the area three times. I reached the shore, to the estuary, and from there I walked along the coast line until I saw the fish and you,” Jack specified to Roan all that had happened to him from the moment he fell.

  “It’s o.k. I believe you. You don’t have to apologize,” Roan reassured Jack. I could see that in the past few days, since Eddie had lost his cool, Roan learned to appreciate Jack and to realize his virtue too.

  “Roan—” I felt the need to jump into the conversation. “With all the love I had for Eddie, there is a voice inside me telling me that this was his fate. This is how things were supposed to happen. Just as Cole could not adjust himself to the newly formed situation and kept behaving violently like he used to, Eddie would have found himself estranged from the tribe too. And I almost can’t believe I am saying this, and these words are coming out of my mouth—” I apologized embarrassed, “But if the flood washed away all of our pasts and gave us a chance to start anew, it is no wonder that Eddie left us. He was too busy holding on to the past, instead of releasing it and embracing the reality and our newly created state of being,” I became silent, slightly worried about Roan’s reaction. Nevertheless, these were not easy things to say or hear.

  But Roan surprised us yet again. “I am in fact happy you said that— because this is exactly how I felt, but I was afraid to say it myself. Very well put. With all the love I had for him and our lifelong friendship, sometimes it takes extreme situations to cause people to reveal their true nature. In the old world, Eddie was a role model, a good example to all. But here, on this lonely little island, there is no room for jealousy or narrow-minded thinking. It hurt me to see Eddie in his final days. I kept hoping he would change his mind…” Roan wiped a small tear. I went up to him and hugged him, and we both remembered how we tried to comfort one another when we thought Eddie was killed in the first avalanche. Who would have thought this is how things would turn out.