CHAPTER V
Turtle Man
"Wow!" Ed had to say, when he stepped out of the longhouse with Mouse and had his first full-daylight view of the town/village of Giants' Rest. More than a dozen longhouses stretched before him, each of them several times larger than the one that he stayed in. They were all nearly the same size in terms of cross-section; they only differed in length. Some appeared to be as long as a football field.
"Each longhouse is home to over a hundred people of common clan," Tsino:wen explained. "Your smaller longhouse is where visitors to the Tribe stay, along with a rotating troupe of housekeepers, fire tenders, and cooks that treat you like royalty."
Many of the longhouses had large sheets of thick plastic tied over them, Ed noted. A few of them even sported solar panels, satellite dishes, and television antennas. Modern technology was indeed being adopted by the Tribe!
"I hear voices including singing and some flute music, but don't hear any TVs," Ed remarked, as they passed near some of the longhouses that featured rooftop TV antennas.
"When we discovered radios and TVs and so forth, we also discovered headphones," Mouse explained. "We are a musical people, but prefer to make public only our own traditional music, such as the flutes and singing that you hear."
"You have laws that restrict the noise of TVs?"
"Not laws, Ed Rumsfeld. Respect for others. Why would someone subject others to such sounds when they can be restricted? Besides, it is daytime and most people are working now. This is our busiest time of year."
Indeed nearby a great cultivated field stretched for hundreds of acres, where hundreds of tribes-people labored, picking the last of the fall crops and moving them to longhouses for processing and storage. Distant shouts and conversation could be heard, but song could also be heard coming from the fields, mostly in the form of rhythmic, wordless chanting. Among the many workers several horse-drawn carts could be seen, piled high with squash, pumpkins, and corn stocks.
"Horse use spread rapidly throughout the continent when introduced by the Spanish," Tsino:wen noted. "Carts came later, after the horses as is proper. We have adopted such white-man ways to support the multitude that we have become. The horses and their wheeled carts are useful but the horses eat much and need to be sheltered in the winter. As you white men say, there is no free lunch. We also adopt white man wisdom when it can be detected among the unending cascade of blather and foolishness."
"It's hard to believe that you can grow most of your own food without use of modern machines," Ed remarked.
"It can be done because most of our people work in the fields, when we are favored with good weather. Even the children help with plantings and harvests; school will not resume until after the snows come. However the growing seasons are becoming shorter now, and the winters are becoming longer and colder. This may have been our last corn crop, and we are starting to use faster growing varieties of squash and other foods. Expect to eat a lot of zucchini."
The two of them walked on, passing more longhouses and more fields. Women and children, along with lesser numbers of men, were everywhere, patching longhouse roofs, harvesting crops, and carrying fire-wood. The people tended towards a healthy looking thin to stocky build, he noticed, without obesity. It was cold, no more than thirty-five degrees, and these people were preparing for the far colder weather that would be coming very soon.
There were also a few dogs and cats wondering about, but they looked suspiciously like coyotes and bobcats. "THEY EAT THE VERMIN," explained Mouse. "OR AT LEAST THE VERMIN WE DO NOT EAT OURSELVES."
"Yours is a very hard-working people, Mouse," Ed remarked, "Including the children."
"By necessity. The climate change of the white man comes, and perhaps brings with it our doom, but with extra hard work we survive for now. The future is far less certain."
The longhouses and agricultural fields with busy workers gave out to forest and silence, but Mouse led Ed still further and ever upward, following a well-worn foot-path that wound ever closer to the towering granite mound that was Giants' Rest Mountain. Its peak glistened brightly in the morning sun. Too brightly!
"Is that snow on the Mountain?" Ed asked. "In early October? Isn't it too early for snow?"
Mouse laughed. "We think so too, Ed Rumsfeld. This last year the Mountain snows did not fully melt until the end of September, and snowfall resumed only a week later. We fear that in this coming year and those that follow the snow will persist on the Mountain without fully thawing, perhaps with very unfortunate consequences."
The path they followed steepened and wound about great trees and boulders. The Mountain loomed ever closer; they were clearly in its foothills now. "Is that a redwood tree?" Ed asked, as they passed by a huge tree with dark reddish-tinged bark that had a ten-foot in diameter trunk and stretched majestically hundreds of feet into the air. Other trees with darker trunks were nearby that seemed to be equally as huge.
"Yes, Douglas Fir and Coast Redwoods, you white men call these trees. They are extinct in most of the world, but our tribe nurtures them and ensures that they encircle the Mountain, to help keep evil spirits from escaping into the world. Besides, they are far too large to be used for their bark or for longhouse frames."
"Rodger that," Ed responded. Evil spirits? Ed didn't believe in spirits, evil or otherwise.
They passed several great piles of dried wood, obviously gathered there by the Tribe. They seemed to be assembled in the form of barriers that circled the Mountain. Why such a great quantity of firewood was kept here and not closer to the longhouses was puzzling to Ed, but Mouse offered no explanation.
Some of the boulders that they passed were close in size to houses, and seemed very out of place. One of the largest boulders was inexplicably surrounded by huge piles of dried wood and mounds of what appeared to be charcoal. This boulder sat more upright than the others, and was very oddly shaped. Sunlight and shadow made strange patterns on its surface, and Ed paused to stare at it.
"According to your Uncle the great rocks were placed here by glaciers," Mouse explained, in response to his thoughts about the boulders. "That is undoubtedly true for most of them."
"JACK WOULD KNOW," he replied silently.
"That great boulder indeed has unusual shape," said Mouse. "Our legends say that there is a great stone giant frozen within it. Doesn't the top part appear to resemble a great misshapen head and shoulders?"
"Vaguely," said Ed. He also noticed that most of the boulder's shape was hidden by the great piles of wood. Could there also be giant arms, torso, and legs? "I can see how such legends arose. Why is all the firewood here?"
"Our children sleep better knowing that ready-to-burn firewood and charcoal surrounds this sleeping giant."
Ed would have inquired more about the strange boulder but Mouse was already continuing along the pathway. Soon they climbed a long stairway that was hewn into solid granite and warn smooth by the press of countless moccasin-clad feet. At its top was a broad bowl shaped clearing covered with ankle to knee-high green grass.
"This is a glacier carved amphitheater called a cirque, according to your Uncle Jack," said Mouse. "We are grateful to Jack for the science knowledge that he brings to us. Our Tribe's legends speak of glaciers but Jack has told us much that our people have since forgotten."
On the far edge of the natural amphitheater a longhouse of singular aspect rose with its back against the Mountain. It was shaped like a 'V' with a huge head-like dome at its center and two conventional looking longhouses that stretched out to either side of it along the amphitheater rim like gigantic arms held wide. Several well-armed guards stood outside the dome.
"We call this the Great Lodge. Here the Tribe leaders may gather under one roof and have the great honor to confer with A'no:wara Ronkwe."
"I too will be honored to speak with him," Ed said.
"I warn you Ed Rumsfeld: do not seek to tire or deceive him. He is very old and weary."
"Certainly," Ed assured her. "What does he want to
know from me?"
"TRUTH," she said simply.
The well-worn path they followed cut down and then up, straight across the grassy field of the saucer-shaped amphitheater and directly to the dome itself. As they approached the entrance to the dome a dozen women came out to greet them. Most appeared to be nearly as old as Mouse herself, and wore what Ed assumed was traditional tribal clothing. They walked stiffly and were not smiling, and Ed sensed their antagonism. Most of them averted their eyes from his, and those that did meet his gaze wore stern expressions indeed. They stopped in front of Ed and Mouse, blocking their path forward. The woman in the lead was nearly the mirror image of Mouse but was probably only in her early fifties, and she was openly scowling. "Tanon'onhkani:se'" she demanded of Ed.
"He is the Kenra:ken Ronkwe called to the Great Lodge by A'no:wara Ronkwe," Mouse answered, her tone equally stern and commanding. "Tiohrhen:sa sata:ti."
Ed translated from Mouse's thoughts that he had been introduced as the white man called here by Turtle Man, and that the Mouse demanded that further speech be accomplished using English. That suited Ed, as except for Mouse he couldn't read the thoughts of these women, and therefore couldn't translate their words into English.
"As you wish, Old Mother," the woman retorted.
"My daughter Singing Moon forgets both her manners and her place," Mouse said. "My sisters, this man is Ed Rumsfeld, nephew by marriage to Jack O'Brien."
"The Elder Council of Mothers is not pleased with this man's intrusion," Singing Moon replied.
"The Leader of the Elder Council of Mothers is not pleased with the behavior of her eldest daughter," Mouse replied. "As you well know, this man is here at our invitation."
"We seek only to protect the Tribe, Old Mother."
"As do I," Mouse replied. "Have I not always done so?" She turned her sharp gaze towards the other women, meeting the gaze of each of them one-by-one. "Does anyone here dispute that?"
"No, Old Mother," they replied in unison.
"Very well," pronounced Mouse. "If Turtle Man and I wish it, this man will stay in the visitor's lodge to help us, and in time he will meet also with you to seek your wisdom. If he does not meet with the Great One's approval and with mine he will be banished from our Tribe this very day. Further, if at any time in the future he is judged to be in conflict with the Tribe, he will be banished or worse."
Ed wondered what 'or worse' meant. Probably nothing good!
"Yes, Old Mother," the women replied in unison, with the exception of Singing Moon, who remained defiantly silent. They all stepped to each side of the path and studied Ed critically as he and Mouse walked past them and towards the Dome doorway. The armed guards had disappeared, Ed noticed. Apparently they wisely wanted no part of the terse female confrontation that had just occurred.
Wide double doors constructed of sticks and bark swung open as Ed and Mouse approached, pushed open by a pair of small boys each perhaps ten years old. Framed in the door opening stood a strikingly beautiful young women of roughly twenty years. She looked like a much younger and more cheerful version of Mouse and Singing Moon, but had larger, wider eyes.
"MORNING GREETINGS, GRANDMOTHER," the young woman thought powerfully, as she smiled pleasantly at Ed.
"GREETINGS, TALKING OWL," replied Mouse in kind. "This is Ed Rumsfeld, Granddaughter. We come heeding the call of the Great One. How does he fare this day?"
"He has again had troubled dreams, Grandmother, but he awaits you both. Please try to ease his spirit, Grandmother."
Mouse motioned Ed to follow her, while Talking Owl stepped outside. "Dreams are taken very seriously in our culture, Ed Rumsfeld," Mouse quietly explained, as they walked through a small foyer that featured several wooden stools and benches and pushed their way through a smaller inner door. "Especially the dreams of Great Turtle Man."
They stepped into a room that was both huge and ornate by any standards. More than a hundred feet across and forty foot high in the middle, the domed structure could have easily accommodated the entire long-lodge where Ed and Mary currently stayed. Instead of drying food and tobacco, hundreds of colorful art objects hung from the rafters: belts and long-bows and dyed animal skins, baskets and shirts, axes, spears, and wood carvings. On the walls great woven tapestries hung, depicting peaceful scenes of farming, hunting, and fishing, as well as battle scenes of great carnage as Tribe warriors fought other tribes and creatures both familiar and monstrously unfamiliar. Ed wasn't sure, but some of the animals appeared to be wooly mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and other species extinct for thousands of years. Many artifacts appeared to relate to ages long past, and some items seemed to be somewhat faded and worn by time. At the center of the great dome a huge stone fireplace housed a crackling wood fire.
Hundreds of colorful hand-woven rugs covered most of the floor. Mouse squatted to untie and remove her moccasins and display surprisingly colorful cotton socks, and Ed followed her example, embarrassed that his warn old grey work-socks featured several holes in them at toes and heels.
They walked across the comfortably padded flooring, around the fire-place and towards the back of the room, where an ornate throne-chair carved from solid wood sat empty upon a raised platform-like area. To one side of the platform, a thin human figure more ancient and wrinkled than even Mouse reclined on a small bed, covered up to his chin by an ornate woven blanket and half propped up by a mound of colorful pillows. On his lap was a small laptop computer. The old man was transfixed by it visually, and was also listening attentively to it using a set of headphones.
"Great One, I bring you the one that I have spoken to you about: the white man Ed Rumsfeld," Mouse announced loudly.
The old man finally glanced up at his two visitors, smiled, sat his headphones and computer aside and reached a thin shaking hand out to Ed for a brief handshake. "Thank you for coming, Ed Rumsfeld. Please forgive my escapist preoccupation with technology; I find that I am very fond of flash mobs, particularly operatic, symphonic, and dancing flash mobs."
"Yes sir, there are some very good ones on the internet," Ed agreed.
"I would love it if the Philadelphia Opera Company would surprise me with a flash mob here in my lodge, but I don't suppose it will happen."
"Probably not," Ed agreed, thinking of the arduous drive and border guards that had to be overcome to get there.
"TALKING USING MY PITIFULLY WEAK VOICE TIRES ME. MAY I SPEAK SILENTLY? CAN YOU HEAR ME CLEARLY?" Turtle Man asked.
"I'LL DO MY BEST, SIR," Ed replied in kind.
"YOU DO VERY WELL FOR ONE NOT OF OUR BLOOD," Turtle Man responded. "MOUSE DID WELL TO BRING YOU HERE TO US."
"MY ABILITIES ARE AN ACCIDENTAL RESULT OF SCIENCE," Ed admitted. Ed recalled to them his nasty experience with the army/fire ants the year before, and how his neighbor Jerry Green had saved him by injecting him with his personal experimental drugs and how he had also been bitten by a jant. It was a story that he had kept from everyone, including Mary, and it felt good to at last tell someone about it. For some reason he trusted Turtle Man and Mouse with his secret, even though he had just met them. He briefly wondered if his trust was a notion that they had subtly given him telepathically or if it was totally his own.
"TELL US MORE ABOUT THE JANTS AND WHY THEY ARE HERE," Turtle Man requested.
Ed told them what he knew, but there was admittedly much more that he didn't know, including jant intentions towards the Tribe and humanity.
"You have been invited to be here, Ed Rumsfeld," Mouse at last stated, "but they have not. Our sacred lands and Mountain are not to be trespassed upon."
Ed hadn't ever thought of it that way. "I'm sorry; I guess that notion never even occurred to me. The jants are insects that like other insects go where they please without permission from me or any other human. They seem to want to go everywhere. But they have not harmed any humans so far as I know, and people don't appear to even notice them."
"THAT IS ONE REASON FOR OUR CONCERN," thought Turtle Man. "THEY ARE NOT
EVEN NOTICED, YET THEY ARE HIGHLY INTELLIGENT AND SHARE OUR WORLD. MANY CAME HERE TO US WITH YOU, BUT WE HAVE FOR SEVERAL PREVIOUS MONTHS SENSED THE RESTLESS THOUGHTS OF COUNTLESS OTHERS FAR FROM OUR LONELY MOUNTAIN. THE MEANING OF MOST OF THEIR THOUGHTS IS HIDDEN FROM US. WE HAVE WONDERED ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THESE STRANGE THOUGHTS AND ARE HAPPY TO AT LAST DISCOVER THEIR SOURCE, BUT WE ARE VERY CONCERNED ABOUT THE JANTS."
"I share your concern," said Ed, "and will discuss this with them."
"AS WILL WE, ED RUMSFELD," said Turtle Man. "IN THE MEANTIME WE HAVE TWO VERY IMPORTANT REQUESTS TO ASK OF YOU."
"Great!" said Ed. "I will do my very best to satisfy them, assuming they are reasonable, of course."
"FIRST," said Turtle Man, "BOTH YOU AND YOUR JANT COMPANIONS MUST STAY OFF OF GIANTS' REST MOUNTAIN."
"That's fine by me," agreed Ed, "and I'll talk to the Jants about it, though I don't really regard them to be my companions."
"SECOND," continued Turtle Man, "YOU ARE TO TRAIN YOUR TELEPATHIC ABILITIES BY TALKING WITH AN A'NO:WARA."
"With an actual turtle?"
"ESPECIALLY WITH A
Global Warming Fun 2: Ice Giants Wake! Page 7
