A Time Traveler's Journal (Book 1): Pushed Back

by Ison, S. A.

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  I went early one morning to check on the palm dates, Harper was with me. We were excited, because if these were ripe, we could dry them and then we could begin to make our pemmican. I had saved the tapir’s intestines for just that purpose. We used the stomach to hold the rendered fat. All were kept in my baskets at the back of the cool dark cave. It was beginning to really get filled up with our food stores and I couldn’t be happier.

  The cave was also filling up with wood for the winter. We had no idea how much we would need, but we kept adding to it daily. We were also going to use another ax that Harper had made with one of the stone’s he’d knapped out. The other he’d made had shattered. I had tried my hand at knapping the stones.

  “This is harder than it looks.” I said one evening at the mouth of the cave. We still had light outside, but we knew that this was the predator’s hunting time. It was far safer above. We had a small fire going, for when it got darker. We tried to keep the coals alive, we didn’t want to use up our lighters. Harper knew how to start a fire with the old rubbing the stick in a cradle, but it was a pain in the ass and took forever.

  “Yeah, it takes a lot of practice. I think I’ve hit almost a thousand rocks. Or at least it feels like it.” He laughed. Far in the distance we heard a loon calling. Its haunting song hitting us. It made me homesick, but a lot of things did that. I shook it off.

  I shook off the memory of that evening, and tried not to skip to the squat palmetto trees. They were loaded with fruit and I was ecstatic. They were also a good size which meant more fruit meat.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever tried these things.” He said, excitement in his voice.

  “It’s been years since I’ve eaten them, but these should be a tarty sweet flavor. Just watch out for the large pit, we don’t want you to break a tooth. They are getting squishy and you want them just before they are squishy. Not too hard, and not too squishy.”

  We each pulled one off the tree and I peeled it with my teeth. Taking a tentative bite, I groaned in pleasure. It was as I remember, though just a little less sweet. I don’t know if it was because as a kid, I thought they were really sweet. But they were good and they were juicy.

  “Oh man, these are great. I really like this.” He said and gnawed around the large pit.

  “Yeah, they are, so, let’s pick a bunch and get them to drying. We can come back to get more, I know the animals will be coming, I can already see that they’ve been nibbled at the dates.”

  “Yeah, I think I heard the deer at night. Let’s just hope the bears don’t come.” He said.

  “Do you think they will?” I asked nervously, looking around for bears.

  “They may, I’m sure they are trying to get fat for winter. There are a lot of these palms around, not just here, so maybe they’ll hit those. At least during the winter, we won’t have to worry about the bears. They’ll be hibernating.”

  “Great, let’s just hope we can get plenty before our animal neighbors come to eat. I’m sure if the mastodons come, they’ll eat all of whatever is left. Well, let’s get what we can, and if you want to get more while I peel these and set them near the fire, you can. I’m also going to lay them out in the sun as well. I figure if I can cut them thin, they will dry pretty quickly, maybe by the end of the day.”

  “Sounds good to me.” He grinned and it took no time at all to fill the two baskets and my backpack. We lugged them back to the cave, which thankfully wasn’t far. We are hoping that our presence here will keep some of the wild life away, by our smell, the noise and smoke.

  Harper took his basket and my backpack and went back to pick. I sat with a bowl of water, these things are sticky. As I pealed and sliced the dates thin, I ate my share. I had a nice flat rock that was heated and I laid some of the thin fruit on that. The fibrous fruit began to rub my gums, so I had to stop eating them. They sure are good though. Harper came back and dumped out more.

  “Think this will do us for a while?” He asked, sitting and eating some of the dates.

  “Yeah, it will take me a while to get these peeled and set out to drying. I’m glad you made more plates, these are really coming in handy. Also, the mats as well.” I have become a weaving fool. We now have mats, baskets, hats and skirts.

  It is near the end of June by our calculations. We’ve both lost so much weight, that our clothing no longer fits us, at least the jeans. My bra is useless, unless I use it as ear muffs this winter. So, I had started going topless. Harper was now very used to it, since I’d taken it off when we’d butchered the tapir.

  I’d gone from a modest C cup to a very modest B cup. Also, I’d lost so much in my butt, that I think I went from a size 12 to a size 2, if not more. As I said, we are very lean now. Our diet is healthy, but we have almost no fat in it. It isn’t for want of trying. We know we desperately need that fat. It is funny, because I was always so careful with what I ate, now, I need a good dose of fat.

  I had made both of us grass skirts and loin cloths with some of the rabbit pelts. Our underwear no longer fit either. So, for at least for now and modesty’s sake, I’d made woven skirts that went down about mid-thigh, and the loin cloths, that were a bit shorter. It is actually nice and cooler wearing these. The days here now are humid and hot. And I am also glad we can now drink the river water, which is still cool and refreshing.

  “I’m going to go cut down a few trees.” He announced.

  “Sounds good. How many do you have down now?”

  “I have three down and today the fourth will go down. Then I will start on number five.” He went up into the cave to get his hatchet. He’d taken leather strips from the tapir hide and had secured the stone ax head to the thick piece of wood. He’d also boiled down some of the hoof of the tapir to make a glue. I can’t even describe the smell of it, except eeww. It worked to some extent.

  I watched as he walked down stream, there was a stand of young oaks, they were clustered together, maybe about fifteen of them. There had been a busy squirrel apparently and the animal had hidden its stash in that area. The oaks were roughly twenty feet high, still very thin in comparison to their father above our cave. We were hoping to get acorns raining down on us this fall. It would make it easier to collect them, rather than going down stream and going up the edge of the bluff.

  Oak is a hard wood, using a stone ax to cut it down was incredibly difficult. Soft woods are hard as hell to cut down as well. I’d tried to help, but trying to hatched out a hard tree with a five-pound hatchet, my arms were noodlely in five minutes. So, I left that to Harper. It has taken him nearly a week to cut down each tree. They are roughly two feet in diameter, like I said, saplings. These trees would be for next year’s winter. We would use the whole tree if we could.

  We had pretty much cleared all the deadfall from our area and were now going farther afield. Harper was cutting limbs off trees now and we stacked those against the bluff for next year. Or if we ran out of firewood, this winter. We no longer needed the big fires. We have also, and I know this is gross, but we have also been collecting mastodon dung. Yeah. We let it dry in the sun and believe it or not, it burns very well. When it is dry, it doesn’t smell. Much.

  We have a nice big poop pile up in the cave. If anyone would have told me I’d be cleaning up after mastodons, I’d have called them a liar. We wouldn’t use it now, that was for winter.

  “Timber” Harper yelled. I grinned, there was no one around but us and he was fifty feet away. I shook my head. What a clown. As you can imagine, Harper and I are becoming very close. How could we not. I watched as he made his way toward me, dragging large limbs.

  “You think you will cut down anymore?”

  “Naw, I figure the rest we can use at some other point, and if they produce plenty of acorns, we don’t have to worry about getting up to the papa tree above.”

  “True enough. You know, if deer come to eat them this fall, maybe we can trap one and kill it.” I suggested.

  He flashed a grin, “It’s someth
ing to think about. It would be nice to have a big hide.”

  “Yeah, hopefully we will be able to stay warm with our own clothing. I’ve made us winter hats out of the rabbit furs. At least our heads will be warm. I’ve also started on mittens.”

  “I saw them, mine fits pretty good.”

  “I was also thinking about trying my hand at pottery. I think I’ve gone as far as I can go with weaving. I’d really like to make some kind of cooking pot we can set on the fire.”

  “Let me think on it. We’ll have to build some kind of kiln. We can’t get it hot enough though. Let me think on, though.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  “I’m going to go fishing, get us some dinner. I’d like to make a mud fish.”

  “Oh, that sounds good. Maybe we can stuff it with some of these dates, I think that would give it a great taste.”

  “Yum.” He laughed.

  It took the rest of the day to cut down the dates. I had a pile of pits, but I wasn’t sure what to do with them. Maybe once they were dry, they would be good as fuel for the fire. I was attempting to use everything around me. Some I was going to plant around our cave. It would take years, but it would be an eventual food source, close at hand. I’d done the same with some of the daylily bulbs, and tubers as well. Anything edible I found, I planted some of the seeds or bulbs around the cave. This would ensure we wouldn’t have to go far to find food.

  My cattails were growing well, it wouldn’t be until next year, but I hoped they would yield plenty of cattails. Every chance we got, I had Harper bring me more cattails from his excursions out. I would be needing the fluff for the winter. I was going to use it as insulation for our hats and mittens. That was what I was working on now, it sat up in the cave until later this evening.

  From the roots and stems of the of the cattail, I have been taking the starch out of it. I’ll tell you, it is a pain in the ass. It is a lot of work and time and effort to make a flour out of it. Washing the starch out and then letting it dry and scraping what was left over.

  However, now with the fat and the dates, I was going to attempt a fried date fritter for desert tonight. I could also use it to thicken our soups and we could also try frying meat, using the flour to dust the meat. I wish that I had salt and pepper. I had maybe three pounds of the starchy flour. I also had a nice flat river rock that I was going to leave in the fire and then when it is hot enough, I will put the prepared fritter on it and fry it. It might not work, but it was worth a try.

  It was getting late in the day and I began to gather up the dried fruit. I placed them in one of my better baskets. The fruit shrank quite a bit, but that was fine. I had maybe ten pounds worth by the end of the day and that was a lot of fruit. I would be doing more of it tomorrow with the whole dates. I took the basket of dried dates and placed it in the back of the cave. In the heat of the day, sometimes I sat back here in the dark, just to cool down. I put the basket of whole dates near the mouth of the cave, I left a few by the fire, for the fritters I’d make.

  When I came back down, I saw Harper walking with two huge fish. I shook my head. That man was a natural hunter. I was about to say something when I saw people emerge from the woods behind him. Something must have shown on my face, because he slowly turned around.

  NINE

  I recognized the woman; Eve and I smiled and lifted both of my hands, palms out. There were two men with her and another woman, and a child.

  “That’s Eve.” I said in a low soft voice that I knew Harper would hear. I saw him nod his head, letting me know he’d heard me.

  “Can you wave them to you? I think we’re having guests for dinner.” He said.

  I lifted my hand, walking forward, and I motioned them to come, smiling all the while. They all looked nervous, except Eve, who smiled back, seeming to understand. She began to walk forward and the men followed. The men were almost my height and I knew Harper must seem like a giant. Harper turned and looked at me and I smiled, keeping my teeth hidden and he nodded and smiled the same way.

  When the group came abreast of Harper, he nodded and lifted the fish, then indicated our camp. He began walking slowly with the group, keeping his movement slow and nonthreatening. I was so thrilled that they had chosen to visit us. I set out mats so everyone could sit. I built up the fire and when Harper got there, he laid the fish down. Everyone stood looking at each other in that very human, awkward way, as though to say, what do we do now?

  “Why don’t you get both fish covered in mud and while they bake, you can show the men your spear thrower, I don’t think they have that yet, at least not on this side of the world.”

  “You don’t think that will screw up the future?” He asked.

  It was hard not to laugh, “No, I think it will be fine.”

  Harper set about making mud and the group watched him intently. I cut up the dates, though I did this with my stone knife. It was more awkward, but I didn’t want them seeing my swiss army knife. The women watched as I shoved the dates inside both of the fish, along with some chives. I held the chives up for Eve to smell and her eyes crinkled in recognition and she nodded.

  Once Harper got the fish covered in mud, he raked the hot coals away and placed each muddy fish into the trench and covered them. He washed his hands and then went to get clean water in the wood bowl. He went up into the cave and the group watched in amazement as he climbed the stairs. He came back out with some of his spears and the launching stick.

  He came to the men and held them out. They politely looked at the launch stick and spears, but they didn’t touch it. They knew what the thin spears were, but because they were so thin, they more than likely figured, this poor bastard couldn’t kill anything with that. However, Harper carefully loaded the launcher, and turned his body sideways and reared back and launched the spear. It sored impressively and I heard the men ooohhhhh. I hid a grin and so the men left us to go play with the spears and launcher.

  Harper looked like a tall gangly bird beside the shorter men. Each of the men took turns and I heard their laughter. I smiled. I went back into the cave and came out with my basket of starchy flour as well as a small bit of the precious tapir fat. I indicated the mats for the women to sit on.

  Once more I pointed to myself. “Ivy.” The women looked at each other, and I said it again, “Ivy.

  Eve looked at the other woman, who looked like a younger replicant of Eve and said something, her voice was deep and pleasant. She then turned to me and pointed to her chest, “Isi.” I repeated her name, “Isi.” She nodded and then pointed to the other woman, “Peta” and I did the same. For the child, who was naked, and a little girl, “Takhi” That was harder to pronounce and I tried to say and the little girl giggled, her hand covering her mouth. I smiled and put my hand to my mouth as well.

  I offered the women dates, we still had so many left over. They nodded and we sat and ate for a bit. We could smell the fish and it smelled wonderful. I pulled a smaller wooden bowl over and shook out the flour, the women watched. I then put the cut-up dates into the mix. I added some water and a dollop of fat and mixed it well. It didn’t look very good and if I’d thought better about it, I wouldn’t have made it. But I’d started. With my stir stick, I pulled the hot flat rock out of the fire. I ladled out a small bit, about a rounded tablespoon full and plopped it on the rock, where it began to sizzle.

  I have to say, it was a satisfying sound. I let it cook for a few minutes and then turned it over. I added several more dollops of fritter onto the hot rock. As they cooked, I put them on a wooden plate. I invited the women to take them to eat. As well as Takhi. I took one myself and hoped it didn’t taste too bad. It didn’t, in fact, it was quite wonderful. The women made sounds of enjoyment as did the little girl. I did too.

  I noticed that the men drifted over and again, it was hard not to laugh. I guess things transcend time. When it came to food, the men found their way back. I lifted the plate to Harper who offered our guest some. I had shoved the rock back into the fire to he
at up once more. The men made the same sound and nodded to each other.

  “This is really good Ivy.” Harper said.

  “Thanks, I didn’t know if it would work.”

  The men sat down around the fire and we all ate in silence. The men wore no ornamentation, and were lean. Their hair hung loose and wore it long like the women. All were barefooted. Peta had the crimson line down her part. She also had a beaded necklace of some kind of shells and the strips of leather around her ankles. They looked to have knots in them and were colored with an ochre tint.

  Their skin was a deep bronze, and their teeth startling white. The older man looked to have several missing. I didn’t stare, but watched them surreptitiously. These were my ancestors, though so many times removed. Takhi sat by Peta, silently watching me and Harper. I smiled at her.

  Harper raked out one of the fishes, he took a heavy stick and broke open the hard shell. There a collective ahhh from the group, and we waited a bit until it was cool enough to pull the fluffy meat with our hands. Harper pulled the other fish out as well, wanting it to be ready to eat when the one we dined on was finished. The men spoke low between themselves and nodded from time to time.

  Peta fed the child and I wondered if Isi was Peta’s mother and Takhi’s grandmother. I thought so, but Peta could be Isi’s sister. Isi had long black hair, but I could see strands of gray running through. Around her dark eyes were a fine webbing of lines. Peta had the same lines, but not as deep and not as many. One of the men was older and so I guessed that he was Isi’s husband and the other man, Peta’s husband. I wished we could communicate, but for now, this was fine.

  The day was growing to an end though there was still several hours of daylight. The shadows were growing long, and in the distance, the sky was pale purple and blue. Isi and her group stood to leave. I ran up into the cave and retrieved some of my flour, a bit of the fat. I came back with a basket, and I placed many of the unused dates into it and gave it to her. She seemed startled and nodded as I gave it to her.