SABIS the SURVIVOR

Chapter 7: Tribal Movements

Chapter 7: Tribal Movements

Gadi worked on a musical instrument that his Father had played for him as a child: the Flabiol. It resembled a flute. After being with Janet, he realized how much he missed playing and hearing music.

"Music helps to achieve balance, to stay straight in mind and body," his Father used to tell him.

Besides music therapy, Gadi also had come to realize that his ice-water current immersion on the day the earth moved had healed him in some unknown way. Perhaps the shock of the low water temperature had 'reset' his brain's hypothalamus and pituitary glands. Or maybe the icy current had simply washed away all of his sins, carrying them out of his mind and body and sending them away, never to be seen again. Either way, Gadi believed that Mother Earth had healed him.

So he created a ritual for all tribe members to undergo once a month. Each adult would submerge their entire naked body in ice-cold water for a brief moment. This would 'cleanse' them of their soiled thoughts and purge accumulated and unwanted thoughts and emotions. Furthermore, any aches and pains would be healed.

Once this ritual became a routine occurrence, tribe members began to build their schedules around the monthly ice-water immersion. They would trim their nails, cut their hair (or tie it up in a ponytail), perform prayers on the evening before, and even abstain from sexual relations for the entire week before the immersion.

There were exceptions allowed: The frail, those with a weak heart, and expecting mothers. Janet, having missed her menstrual period three weeks earlier, had assumed that she had conceived a child with Gadi. As this week forecast her turn at the ritual cleansing procedure that some called 'purge and submerge,' she needed to tell Gadi about her pregnant condition. So she waited until the Elders had finished their weekly meeting to talk with him.

"Hello Gadi, it has been a month or so. Can we talk in private? I have some news for you," she could barely contain her secret much longer.

"Sure Janet. Let's go to my cave."

So they walked together, holding hands while Gadi whistled a tune from his youth.

"Gadi, what's that tune you are whistling?"

"It is an Andorran lullaby that I used to sing to my two daughters as I put them to bed." Gadi's eyes misted and he blinked back his tears.

Janet put her arm around his waist and they continued to walk in sync until they reached their destination. Gadi started to hum and then finally he sang the words of his lullaby.

When it is my time to go to sleep, I reach for the hand that helps me keep

Peace.

When it is my time to go to sleep, I thank God for the oceans that are so

Deep.

When it is my time to hear a song, I try to listen with my ears and I

Long.

For when it is my time to be sleep, I remain still and quiet and I

Breathe.

Janet looked up at Gadi and beamed. He would make a good Father for their child of this new Ice Age.

"That was beautiful Gadi. I felt as if you were singing to your children, they must have enjoyed your songs."

Gadi sniffed back some tears.

"There's more to the song but I did not want to cry. My kids were so innocent, gentle, curious, smart, and loving─just like their Mother. They did not deserve to have their lives cut short. I think of them every day, even more when I see the other children run around the caves playing hide and seek."