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 say that great leaders can see into the future, or perhaps they are just good at looking ahead and preparing for the worst, but whichever it is, my father was one such man. Before he gathered his people by the rocks overlooking the falls he made sure they had brought with them all their weapons.
Tabi's eyes remained downcast after he told his tale. They had little idea how this fate happened to Young Sinomi. He sat, scratching the dirt with a stick, flicking small cinders into the air. They all had been so engrossed with this turn of events, that none noticed the Outsiders.
The Outsiders were waiting impatiently, pacing and softly singing to themselves. Riangi was pacing too. When he noticed the gathering cannibals, he thumped his fists on his chest and shouted unintelligibly. He was not easily frightened and he walked up to the captain demanding to see Junga. His sudden movements and assuredness made the captain recoil.
Most of these men had grown fond of the visitors, so they thought, especially Riangi who was often seen with Junga wandering about, hunting together, and taking women, acting as if they were vast friends. It confused them that they were now given orders to kill them.
Julie feared for Riangi's safety and walked towards the altercation, but Kamrasi stopped her with a strong grip and pushed her back.
You stay here and protect the child, he said, tossing an old jawbone he had stolen from Beadle, at her feet. Jason carelessly picked up the bone, smiled at Julie, and said, Momma?
Julie took the great cave bear's jaw away from the boy, who only smiled blindly at it, and threw it at the little captain, cracking his skull. He dropped him instantly.
Junga came rushing towards the fight followed by twenty or so warriors, shouting orders that no one could hear. Julie took the jawbone from the body and went to face Junga. Weapons were raised; clubs, knives, and spears were ready to impart a fair amount of damage when unexpectedly the earth shifted violently throwing people off their feet. Explosions were heard in the distance from the direction of the Mountain.
While everyone stopped, Julie felt she had to take advantage of this situation. She thought they could be easily frightened, and if they think this is my doing, then all the better. Then for no real reason other than it came naturally, Julie began speaking English - loud and fast.
Why did she speak like that? English, she calls it, is her own, and in her rage, it just poured out. She screamed, veins popping from her neck.
Unable to contain their fear, the Outsiders stepped back into the trees. The name Yellow Face was uttered. Junga yelled something, but his voice was drowned out by a deafening Boom, another explosion. Projectiles began falling; large head-sized hunks of lava hardened in midair began flying from the mountain. One of the Outsiders had his skull crushed like a melon by such a rock.
Stunned, scared, nobody moved.
The black sky raced toward them. And a violent push of air hit everyone at an incredible speed knocking them off their feet. Julie got up, brushed the debris out of her hair, and ran to get her son, which was me, I had been thrown back almost to the edge, very near the nick point of the river.
Grabbing my arm, she shook the ash and cinders off of me and turned to look after her friends. She saw a huge plume that rose from the volcano. Later, Julie said it reminded her of the videos she used to see in school of above-ground tests made during the fifties and sixties of atomic bombs - whatever that means - and it was filled with a giant ball of flame.
BOOM – BOOM – BOOM
KAKA' ALAKA
BOOM
The drums began beating in the village, this time sounding alarm. They were under attack.
Riangi, Julie shouted.
The others ran to Julie as she stood with me clutched tightly to her breast even though I was able to stand and run with the adults. Riangi came up to her and grabbed her hand. We have to go.
And so Riangi told Tabi to follow us, who were already moving. This way, he said, running towards the falls. Subsequent explosions were muffled by the vast lake and forest lying between them. And as they came to the crest, Riangi paused and looked at the lake below. Tabi, a weathered scout, saw immediately they were on the wrong side of the nick point.
There, he pointed, we have to cross, there.
It was the path they climbed when they were taken by the Outsiders as prisoners nearly two years before. Quickly we crossed the stony stream and hurried down the path to the lake below. Once down, we stopped to rest. I say we because it was around this time, that my memory began, though this is still Julie's tale, as she told it for so many years until she left us.
The air smelled of rotten eggs.
Julie often recalled that it was the same odor prominent in the Basindi village, only, much stronger. She was hungry and tired and leaned against a tree. And then suddenly she got up ran almost pulling my arm off. It was as if the baby was spurring her on. But there seemed no need to hurry because the waterfall had begun to slow down, quickly coming to a trickle. The silence was alarming.
Look, Julie said, do you see that? Listen.
I hear nothing, said Kamrasi.
That's just it, she said, there's no water. It's stopped.
The jungle was quiet as well. The forest, usually filled with birds and monkeys calling one another in an endless cacophony of mating rituals was now silent.
The animals, Riangi said. No birds. Where are they?
Then as if he jolted awake, he yelled, Run. And we took off along the shore of the little lake. On cue, nature waited until we were almost at the gauntlet that fed the river when the ground began to rumble and heave this way and that. Violently.
The earth split, opening large fissures that ran up the sides of the hills. Trees slid off the opposite slopes as if they had no roots. The rocky outcrop that had dammed the lake from the river crumbled - like sand - into the water, closing off our retreat. What was up, was now down, what was here was now there, what had stood forever, now changed. And the world was surely coming to an end.
So we were forced to climb the hill. We slid as much as we climbed. When we were only halfway up, there was a terrible roar and it seemed that Lake Basindi came gushing out of the cave that Julie had discovered, washing away any evidence of the cannibal shrine there. Almost as suddenly, what couldn't fit through the cave now gushed over the top of the waterfall and down into the dingle below. Later, Julie mentioned it reminded her of the story in the Bible about the Tower of Talk a Lot where the gods became angry with their people for some reason, which I can't remember why - but they did. And the gods destroyed the Tower of Talk a Lot, and everything the people had done there.
Except for the waves in the Watersee, I had never, in my life, seen so much moving water.
We were doomed to be washed away.
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