Slowly people began to return to the cave. It was a very quiet time. Many of the older people wondered about Jalutui and her knowledge of the story. Did she know other stories, they wondered. Was she to be a Wise One? None of those thoughts passed the mind web of the young girl. She simply knew that story and told it. Afterwards, she felt very tired, but she didn’t understand why.
That evening the men outside heard the drums. They told that the terror birds had passed through the Northern Kapotonok land and had entered into the Southern Kapotonok land. There were ten terror birds. Golmid quickly went to the cave to alert the People. He was surprised that flightless birds could move that fast through such a large territory. All of the People were urged to return to the caves.
When Hutapska got up to get her evening meal, she thought she detected some movement from Pikotek. She stared at him carefully, but saw nothing else and assumed she’d been mistaken. She returned with some camel and some fruit, not much of either. She sat there and picked at her food. Suddenly she felt movement beside her. Pikotek’s hand had touched her side. She was so startled that she dropped her bowl and didn’t realize it. She had crouched down to hug Pikotek. Her joy was boundless. He was terribly weak, but he was clearly living and functioning in his mind web. Colitoba brought some camel broth and cleaned up the meat and fruit Hutapska spilled. Hutapska slowly fed Pikotek the broth and struggled to keep her joy controlled.
Pomodaw came slowly to his mother’s side. He looked at his father while his mother put her arm around his waist.
“Is he going to be well?” Pomodaw asked in a very small voice.
“I am going to be very well,” Pikotek said with as much smile as he could create.
Pomodaw jumped and then recovered enough to grin at his father. “I’m glad!” he said and left to be with his friends.
That night the council met to discuss what they should do with the terror birds so near. It finally came down to agreement that all would stay at the cave and they would be very quiet. The drums would tell when the birds had passed out of the Southern Kapotonok’s land and from that message on the drums, it would be a short while before the terror birds cleared their land. It could be days before the next drum to the south reported. They would keep silent and remain hidden in their caves while there was danger. Once the far south drums reported the birds, they’d feel safe. Otherwise, some of the terror birds might be lurking nearby. The People could not spare the loss of a single person.
As the days passed, Pikotek improved daily. He heard of the storytelling by Jalutui, and he asked her to come to him to tell some stories. Jalutui was uncertain whether she had somehow offended the Wise One by taking his place. Before he could begin testing her, he had to assure her that what she did was a very good thing, not an offense at all. He asked her to tell the story she had told when they buried the Wise One. She began and continued through to the end. He noticed immediately what the others had noticed. She did not use the sing-song method of traditional storytelling. She spoke directly to the listener as if the listener and she conversed. She told the story with significant and appropriate feeling. As he listened, Pikotek thought how much easier it was to learn the sing-song method than to speak directly to the listener as if in conversation. He also realized how much easier it was on the listener to follow the story the way Jalutui told it. He marveled at her youth.
He had her tell story after story and he realized that she was destined to become another Wise One. He was twenty-three and Jalutui was seven. It surprised him that she was so close in age to him, but he also realized that he was not to question Wisdom. There would be a reason for Jalutui’s becoming a Wise One. He definitely had a responsibility to teach her. As soon as the council met, he shared the information with the People. After having heard her, no one was surprised. It meant keeping watch over another Wise One, but the People would not question that responsibility. They had great respect for Wisdom and the memories were given by Wisdom. What Wisdom chose to do, they would support wholeheartedly.
Terror birds reached the land beyond the Southern Kapotonok border, the drums sounded out one night. Because the Kapotonok killed one of them, only nine crossed into the southern lands. The People felt a great sense of relief as they continued on with their lives with less apprehension.
“You think you’re so important!” Oscola, quite red in the face, railed at his brother. “You got the best trial of valor, the peccary tooth necklace, two sets of twins! In addition, you still have a body of a young man, not one like mine. Oscola’s hands started at the front middle and smoothed around his great girth to the sides. Just wait until I am Chief!”
Mechalu looked at his brother as if he’d never seen him. They were at the edge of the sea, having gone to gather crabs. “You are my brother. I do not set myself up against you. What is the meaning of this?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t take great pride in having found the golden woman or having received of our father the peccary tooth necklace. Don’t tell me you didn’t glory in your knowledge when we were sent to school and all the information came to you so easily, while I struggled so hard. Don’t tell me you aren’t plotting to become Chief when Father dies.”
“What’s the matter with you? I have no interest in becoming Chief. I know that’s yours. You are my brother. I love and respect you. I fully expect you to become my Chief. I am a hunter! I’ve always seen myself as a hunter. It’s what I do.” Mechalu was dumbfounded. He had no suspicion that his brother held anything against him.
“It’s just like you to act so innocent.” Oscola was snarling. Sweat was dripping from his body and his face was puffy and red. It was hot but not hot enough to cause so much sweating, Mechalu thought.
“Let us sit in the shade and discuss this, Oscola. I am trying hard to understand what I’ve done to give you these ideas. Truly, I do not think better of myself than of you. I have looked up to you all my life. Something has gone terribly wrong, and I’d like to fix it, if possible.”
Oscola joined him in the shade of some palm trees. “When we were children, you’d be recognized in the School of the South over and over for having figured out things easily. You’d stand there in all the praise, smiling as if you were the Chief. At the Alitukit School you had the same response but you hid it better there. Don’t tell me you weren’t delighted to have showed better than I did.”
“Stop, Oscola. I had to figure things out just like you did. When someone praised my effort, I wasn’t competing with you. I was solving a difficult problem. My interaction was with a problem, not you. I never put you down. Always, I considered you a little better than myself, because you are my older brother. I esteem you. I always have. I have seen the teachers praise you. I didn’t take your smiles then as your raising yourself over me. You have me totally confused.”
“Father expects your firstborn twins to become men of renown. He’s never said that about Ghumotu or Too.”
“Oscola,” Mechalu said calmly and straightforwardly, “I cannot control what our father says. I think he was overcome with the meteor. We went to the Alitukit School. He never did. A meteor is a meteor, not a messenger. I can control what I think and how I feel—not someone else. I do not want our being brothers to be torn apart because our father thinks a meteor’s a messenger. I love you and have great respect for you. It would break my heart if you continue to think evil of me, for I have no evil intent towards you. I know that often brothers quarrel, but I thought you and I were special in that we loved each other.”
Oscola looked at Mechalu and really saw him. His anger had dissipated. The day was hot and he was very irritable, but he no longer carried ill will towards Mechalu. He believed what Mechalu told him. He could see the truth in Mechalu’s face. Mechalu’s face had always shown his true feelings.
“Then, maybe I was mistaken, my brother. Your words have calmed my heart. Shall we go now and gather many crabs?”
“Yes. Let’s do it. Thank you for discussing this with me, Oscola.”
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“And I thank you,” Oscola said, meaning it. He felt exhausted, uncomfortable.
Olomaru-mia was busy at her hut getting things ready for the return of Pipto and Token. They had been at School in the South, would be returning for about thirteen days, and then would leave for the land of the Alitukit. She wanted to enjoy every moment she could while they were at home.
She looked up. “Tuna, how are you?”
“I’m fine, Mia. It looks like we’re going to take another trip.”
“Where will you go this time?”
“We go east then south along the eastern seashore to the mouth of the enormous river.”
“Will you take all your children?” Olomaru-mia asked.
“No, they’ll stay with my parents. My parents love having them. I expect I’ll have this one while we travel,” she said rubbing her belly. “Coshiga just loves to travel, and so do I. I tease him about itchy feet. They’re very itchy right now. On both of us.”
“You did hear the drums about the terror birds, didn’t you?”
“Oh, yes, but we’ll be far away from them. No worry.”
“Ah, Tuna, I do worry. I know both of you know this land, but it’s only the two of you.”
“Mia, my lovely friend, we’ll be fine. I promise.”
“When will you leave?”
“In the morning early. We want to get into the rhythm of walking before it gets terribly hot.”
“I’ll miss you.”
“We won’t be gone that long, and when we return, there will be so much to share.” Tuna turned with a smile and headed towards her own hut.
Olomaru-mia watched her go, wondering at her friend who could pull up from responsibilities to take off for adventures with only one other person. She agreed with Tuna that the grandparents loved the children and cared for them, but she felt that there was something missing in parents who could just leave their children for countless days. She couldn’t understand it. What she did know is that Tuna and Coshiga were happy people and their children adored them.
Oscola and Mechalu headed up the path with large bags filled with crabs. Olomaru-mia saw them from the covered shelter where she sat out of the sun in front of her hut. She salivated just thinking about the crabs. Of all the food new to this land, Olomaru-mia loved crabs best. The firm white meat was mild and delicious, and it took minimal time and effort to prepare. The men had an enormous number of crabs. She’d be able to eat them greedily.
At the top of their climb, Oscola was struggling to breathe. He asked Mechalu to carry his crab bag to the women while he went to his hut. Mechalu realized finally that Oscola was having a problem that had more to do with how he felt physically than how he and Mechalu did in school. It struck Mechalu with a pang of fear for his brother. He would talk with his mother in confidence.
There was some commotion at the top of the hill. Many years ago Mechalu had descended that same hill with Olomaru-mia, when he returned to his people after his trial of valor. Mechalu quickly handed the two bags of crabs to the women who were standing near the fire, and he ran up the hill. The sight of Pipto, Token, and Ghumotu rewarded his run. His two boys ran to hug him. Ghumotu looked for Oscola, but he couldn’t see him. He continued walking down the path to his hut. Pipto was on one side of Mechalu and Token on the other. The three walked strongly to their hut, while their friends and older people lined the way welcoming them home.
At their hut the hugs shifted from Mechalu to Olomaru-mia. The boys had grown so tall. They were taller than Olomaru-mia, but not quite as tall as Mechalu. They might easily pass his height at their age, a fact not lost on their father.
“We have brought you something, Mother,” Pipto said. “They grow on the top of the mountain where our school is,” Token continued the thought, while Pipto pulled out a white crystal from a soft piece of leather. “This is now yours, Mother,” Pipto said watching the sparkle in his mother’s eyes.
“It’s beautiful,” she murmured. “What do you mean they grow there?”
“They appear on the surface of the top of the mountain, just like flowers,” Token said.
Pipto could not contain himself, “We asked one of the masters if we could bring you one, and they said we could, because they grow there.”
“The place where you have your school must be a very unique place.”
“When we have some time to slow down, we’ll tell you all about it,” Token said. “You won’t believe it. Nobody prepared me for that place! When you see it for the first time and people tell you it’s necessary to climb to the top, you’re sure it’s impossible. Can we go talk to a few of our friends before the evening meal?”
“Of course! We’ll talk later.” Olomaru-mia looked at Mechalu quizzically.
He sat beside her and put his arm around her. “The school is located at the top of a tall mountain that has sides that go straight up. The mountain looks like an incredibly huge tree trunk that the top has been sliced off flat. It’s very, very difficult to climb up and go down. Once there, it’s as if you were in a different world. I won’t spoil it by sharing it with you. I know the boys want to do that.”
“There is so much about you and your earlier life that I don’t know.”
“If you’d lived here all along, you’d not know much more. Most of my life has been involved in learning away from here. There are only three places where a young person can go to learn more than what’s passed on right here. One’s the School in the South, up high on a mountain. The other is in the land of the Alitukit, again on a mountain. Not all boys go away to school. It depends on whether the family can do without the child’s help and whether the child has the curiosity of mind to make it worthwhile. Boys sent who waste the time of the masters are sent home alone. The third place is wherever the boy goes for his trial of valor.”
“Has anyone been sent home that you know?”
“No. My father has carefully made the decision on whether the children go or remain at home. Just because parents want to keep the child here or want him to go, it matters not unless my father agrees. He will not send just any boy. He will send the ones who are bright and show a desire to learn things. He observes them from the time they’re born. He refused to let a friend of mine go, and I was unhappy about that. Later, I discovered that the father of the boy became very sick, and he was needed at home. My father must have seen the illness coming on. That friend later died from a sloth slashing. Some places let the families decide. I’m not certain which is the better way.”
Olomaru-mia snuggled against Mechalu. He looked at her with a wicked grin, “Let’s make another set of twins.”
“Now?” she asked.
He was on his feet and extending her a hand, “Now!” he replied, still grinning. They disappeared into the hut.
Ghumotu had entered his hut to find his father lying on his sleeping mat drooling and looking strange. He seemed happy to see Ghumotu, but smiled a strange crooked smile. He also seemed to be very unhappy that he wasn’t functioning well, and he couldn’t speak so that his son could understand. Ghumotu ran to find his mother. She was with the women in the cooking area. Ahma, Oscola’s mother, understood the problem and she followed Fimolamo and Ghumotu. By the time they reached Oscola, he was struggling to breathe. Finally, he seemed to give up and shortly afterwards, he stopped breathing. Oscola died young. It was a complete shock to all but Ahma, who had seen a few people die in this manner. Ghumotu was undone. He loved his father and the loss was terrible. He assumed that the loss would mean that he would no longer be able to continue his learning with Pipto and Token. His life had gone from delight in the early part of the day to complete dismay before the evening meal. Fimolamo was distraught. Immediately women arrived to help prepare Oscola for burial.
Some of the men raced off with digging tools to the area where the Nola Nola buried their dead. In hot climates people did not wait to bury their dead. The job was completed and the men came to get the body of Oscola. It took a while to find Oscola’s pr
ize of valor. The prize of valor had to be buried with the man whose prize it was, since no other man was permitted to touch it. His was a seashell from the waters of the western sea. His son, Too, found it, climbed into the grave, and placed it in the hand of his father. He climbed back out and stood beside his mother. All the people gathered at the grave and the Chief said a few words:
“Creator of All, this is my first son, Oscola, who died too soon. A man should not have to bury his child. Take his body and his spirit and give them new life in your eternal land, for he was a good son and a good husband and father. I will look after his widow and children, so that his son may continue his learning. Do any others wish to speak?” he asked, his voice cracking. No one spoke up.
Zamimolo’s Story, 50,000 BC: Book Three of Winds of Change, a Prehistoric Fiction Series on the Peopling of the Americas (Winds of Change series 3) Page 17