Remembrance of Eve *NANOWRIMO13*

Chapter 14

“What shall we use to write upon?” Adam asked, bringing me back to the present.

“Oh! Yes. You used your robe to test the ink. Why not use parts of the hide? It is straight, and soft, or it was last time I checked it.”

“The hide, yes,that will work. We need to go check it any way. Come.”

Adam placed the bag of ink, and the leaf of ash dust carefully in the branch of a tree, out of the reach of the goats, then took my hand in his. Together we walked to the hide.

We were delighted to find the hide stretched taught and smooth. It was now dry, ready to use.

“It looks beautiful,” I breathed.

“It does. It is time to take it down and use it. Please help me.”

I started on one end untying the vines on the standing trees, while Adam did the same on the other end. We untied the hide from bottom tree, then lifted the top tree out of the forks of the tree and separated the hide from it, untying the vines.

“This hide is soft and supple, we can use it for many things,” Adam commented.

“Yes, like hinges for the door to our house, new foot coverings for us, and”

“And something to write on.” Adam finished my thought. “Please help me fold this and take it back to our house. Tomorrow, we can divide it up. We will definitely use this to begin our Book of Remembrance.”

The hide was heavy, though not as heavy now that it had soaked.

“We should have scraped the hair off of this, it would weigh less,” Adam said.

“Next time, we will remember next time.”

“We will not be sacrificing again for a while, but when we do, I will remember,” Adam laughed.

It took awhile to carry the heavy hide to our home, and put in in the house. It would be safe from the weather there.

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The next few days were busy. Adam put the door on the house, while I made us some new foot coverings. We took the time to cover the top of our house, filling in the spaces with the trees and branches the goats had helped us drag down from the hills. Fortunately, we did not see that creature, Lucifer, again, for a while.

The sabbath was again spent in prayer and song, eating of food I had prepared earlier. The dried meat was a nice addition to our grains and vegetables. As always, we discussed our blessings, the commands we had been given, and our plans for the coming seven days.

Adam cut a portion of the bullock hide, the next morning. He meticulously sliced it into squares, punching three holes along one side. He then sliced three long, thin strips, which he used to tie the pages together. He now had the beginnings of his Book of Remembrance. He retrieved the ink and reeds from the crook of the tree. The ink was still in good shape, but the reeds had dried, and were no longer usable.

“Oh, my. The reeds have dried. They are not usable for writing with. I will need new reeds. Would you gather me a few new ones?”

“Of course, my love.”

I walked to the stream bank where the reeds grew. Pasha followed me, searching for an affectionate scratch between his ears. Ducks and geese flew in, landing on the quiet bends of the stream. A goose paddled to see what I was doing. She swam about my legs as I cut a handful of reeds, fresh and green. These would be good for writing, I hoped. Reeds dry fast, maybe we could find something better. For now, reeds would have to do.