A Texas girl finds herself admiring a light in the sky only to find out it is indeed an alien, which transports her to another time long long ago in Africa and pairs her with a Neanderthal population in hopes that her descendants will populate Nort...
They came to Riangi's camp - a clearing in the trees. A little lean-to made of saplings he had tied together to form a cone-shaped hut.
Lying beside it were two very large rabbits, one was skinned and stretched over a cross made of twigs, and the other was still untouched and whole. Riangi squatted and began picking at the drying animal. He had a small set of stone tools he presumably used to skin his meal.
He smiled and offered her some of his food. Eat, he said to her and picked up a piece of flesh shoving it at her face.
Julie just looked at him and shook her head. No.
No? he said.
That's right, no.
He seemed to understand what she was saying because he shrugged and watched her while he ate. She began gathering wood, and small sticks and leaves and putting them into a pile. I'll show you how to eat a coney, she told him. I'm goin' to make a fire. You know what that is? Fire?
Fire, Riangi said and nodded in understanding, and produced a fig and nibbled on it. She began by placing the large sticks in a tee-pee fashion much like the shelter he had made for himself. Then beneath this, she piled the dried leaves, grass, and twigs, which she broke into tiny sticks. She searched the riverbed, found the appropriate stones, and began striking them together next to what she had just made. Riangi laughed, No fire no fire, he said and went over to the stream to get a drink of water. He looked back to see Julie bent low blowing into the pile of leaves that turned into a smoldering fire.
She began piling larger pieces of wood on top of that until flames burst forth. She looked over at him. You look like a deer in headlights, she said, Riangi. D'ya know that?
Fire, he said and shook his head in disbelief, his mouth open. Jujube made fire.
It seemed she had one-upped him, and it pleased her. That's right Tarzan. Jane is cookin' herself a rabbit for dinner.
She understood a little of what he was saying. It seemed easier than she thought it would be. Had the Orion's made fundamental communication possible between the two disparate characters? While the fire took on life she took the other rabbit and one of his knives and sliced its belly open. He watched with an amused smile as she gutted, and skinned, and then washed the rabbit in the stream. He nibbled on a fig as she made her own cross from a sturdy green stick and attached it to the rabbit. Then he yelled as she placed it over the burning coals of the fire. He jumped up and pulled her by the hair with him.
No, he yelled. Don't burn the food.
She jerked away and pushed him off and before she could say anything he took a backhanded swing cutting her lip with his fingernail.
Julie instinctively reached for a firebrand and thrust its flaming end at her new friend's face forcing him to step back.
Don't you ever hit me again, she said, you hear me? Her face said it all, and he seemed to take its meaning. She swung the burning stick and he jumped back further.
You understand? She said. Huh? She was bleeding and wiped the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand and spat. I ain't gonna eat nothin' raw.
Put that down, he said, before someone gets hurt. He seemed nonchalant but was still cautious as he walked to the fire and looked at the food she had thrown onto it.
What are you doing to this beautiful meat? He said. Fire is bad. Eat the meat, don't burn it. He demonstrated what he meant by eating more of his own. Words like fire, bad, and meat seemed to have a commonality, and she could understand him when he spoke in single-word sentences.
She cursed Taso of the Ori. Some cluster-fuck you got me into, she said looking at Riangi. Yeah, Tarzan. I'm talkin' about your sorry ass.
Julie. Shaman, he said speaking briefly and loudly, as if she might understand him better if he spoke that way.
It sounded guttural. Her mother's father spoke like that, but he migrated from Poland and never picked up the English language. To Julie, all foreign languages sounded the same.
She watched him as he ate, as he wiped the fatty blood from his mouth then put the bone, stripped of meat, on a large rock and smashed it with another rock. When he had done that he slurped the bones, sucking hard to get at the marrow. He saw that Julie watched him and offered her a taste.
No thanks, she said, and shook her head, and smiled. Then he belched and buried his face in the stream and took a drink of water, and tossed some figs at her. And while she ate her cooked meat, Riangi slept. The air was warm and dry. A light breeze kept the flies and bees away. Julie felt miserable. Why me, she kept saying over and over to herself. There were noises and smells that she had never experienced in Texas. The air felt the same as back home. She thought it must be summer now as hot as it felt.
She heard a noise, some strange distant yodel, and then a deep purr. I was scared shitless, she recalled to those gathered around. They don't have cats in Texas, and coyotes don't like getting too close.
She ran to Riangi's side and woke him up long enough to push her away and he rolled over back to sleep. She had new opportunity to examine her new friend more closely. His head was large, almost square, but nothing she hadn't seen before on some people. He had a well-defined torso, lean and fit it lacked the classic washboard muscles but she knew those had to be worked on to achieve. His arms were not too large but there was little room for flab. His skin was dark but not as dark as she would have thought.
He was fairly hairless, at least compared with Clevis, her boyfriend. He had a flat stomach and firm round buttocks. His flaccid phallus was unusually large, and his legs were strong and thick like those belonging to a runner. His feet were small, and he was flatfooted.
So what made him and his kind so different from her and hers' she wondered. His nose was a little broad, his teeth were excellent. And he kept his hair close to his head, thick, and curly. She ventured a smell, sniffing at him. Manageable, she thought, I wonder if he ever bathes.
She finished eating. Riangi woke as Julie headed towards the stream to drink and wash up. He watched her. Her long legs lacked his women's typical rounded hips, but her's swayed back and forth much more than he was used to seeing - a graceful stride not unlike that of the large cats that persistently threaten his village. It was a sight at once frightening, and exciting. Her body was lithe and smooth, and far less natural than women usually are. Even between her legs, she seemed to have very little hair. He couldn't get over the color of her skin, so pale so untouched by the Sun.
When Julie reached the water, she lowered herself to her knees and bent over the stream and began washing her face and hair. Riangi looked on. She was soft and fair, offering him a view of the female anatomy he had never seen before. He was very excited by now and quickly approached her, and without much gentility went to his knees behind her.
He was fully excited and breathing heavily as he forced his way upon her. She raised her head out of the water with such speed that her hair flew up and over, flinging water, and drenching him. But she never protested, neither frightened nor receptive. He was brutish. Julie gave herself up to the moment, knowing it had to be, either now or later. Better now. Better have it done with.
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The next Chapter will be available on Friday, September 6, 2024
