by Lou Cadle
She was a dozen steps back into the woods when she heard footsteps behind her. Jodi trotted up. “Yes?”
“I want you to know,” the girl said, and then stopped and looked around, as if hoping to find her next words written somewhere on a tree trunk.
“Go on,” Hannah said.
“I’m not. We’re not. I mean,” she said, blowing out an exasperated breath. “I don’t even know for sure he likes me.”
Hannah had to work not to laugh. “He likes you.”
Her face lit up. “Really? You think so?”
“Well, I guess you’d have to ask him to know for sure. But no matter how much you like each other, I was serious back there. Serious as death. No intercourse, or near-intercourse, or anything like it.”
Jodi nodded.
“That it?”
“Yes, I just didn’t want you to think we were, you know, shirking on our work.”
“Or forgetting to watch for predators while you were kissing,” Hannah said.
“Oh,” Jodi said, in a small voice.
“It’s a dangerous world,” Hannah said. “I hate to begrudge you a moment of fun, but please don’t forget that.”
“Okay,” Jodi said. She turned to go and then stopped and turned back. “But you did know Claire is into girls, right?”
“I did. But you never know. When animals don’t have mates available, almost every species will turn to same-sex interactions instead. I figure it might go the other way, too, for Claire.”
“I think Dixie might—” Jodi said, and then stopped herself with a little shake of her head.
Hannah’s worry shot up. “Might what?”
Jodi opened her mouth, hesitated, and shook her head again.
“Look, if I need to know it, please tell me. It’s not gossip if it saves a life.”
Jodi could be seen to have an internal debate and come to a decision. She said, “I think she has an implant.”
“Ah, well, thanks for telling me. I won’t mention to her that you said anything.”
“Okay. I better get back to the fire.” She turned and ran back out of the trees.
If Dixie did have a birth-control implant, that’d be one small worry off Hannah’s mind. But she’d have a talk with Nari and Dixie and Laina, too, as soon as she found a chance.
She pushed it to the back of her mind when Rex came up to her and showed her a lashing he was trying. He had wrapped two sticks perpendicular to each other and lashed them by crossing the cord over in an X. “I’m experimenting with how many times—how few times—I can get away with, and how much anchoring I need to do.” He wiggled the sticks back and forth to show that they were stable. “I figure, if we pile up boughs and stuff on the roof, they’ll need to hold some weight, so they have to be able to bear the load even better than this.”
“Yeah, we don’t want a roof crashing down on our heads at night. And don’t forget if it rains, the roof will get heavier as it absorbs water.”
“Good point. Also, I really wish we had brought more vines from the Paleocene. I think they’d work better for this.”
“We haven’t looked here yet. Let’s you and I remember to. There might be vines, or a tree with bark that strips and stays flexible, or other sources that don’t require as much braiding or twisting.”
“Everything takes so much time.”
“That’s the truth. But once we have the bricks fired, we’ll be able to build the walls in no time flat.”
“Which reminds me. I think you should make some holes in some of the bricks, for the uprights to slide into. Here.” He got down on his knees by her supply of raw bricks. There were still three she hadn’t hauled to the fire yet. He jammed his stick into one of them. “I don’t know how you’re planning to build the bricks together. Like offset them halfway, or what. But if there was a hole down the top course of bricks, or better, two courses, and we could set the framing into them, then mud it up to make it hold even better.”
“Yeah, I see what you’re saying. Sure. We just need to know what we’re doing ahead of time so the holes are placed right, and we can take it down two levels of bricks.” She said, “Hey, Bob, come over, would you?”
The three of them sat and worked it through. Bob said they should mortar to make it work. Hannah had already worked out how many bricks she’d need of the size of cabin she was planning, so once they had the design worked out, she was easily able to compute how many of the bricks would need to have the holes drilled in first.
“Maybe leave a stick in there,” said Bob, “so it doesn’t collapse as it’s baking. If the stick burns away, no big deal, as long as the hole keeps its shape.”
Ted, Dixie, and Laina came back. Their arms—and Dixie’s small backpack—were full of yellow fruits.
“Good job guys,” Hannah said, “But we don’t need that many until I test them and make sure they’re edible.”
“They’re edible,” said Ted. “Laina knew what they were.”
The fruit were completely unfamiliar to Hannah. “Really?”
“Sure,” the girl said. “I saw them in Columbia, growing in plantations, and in people’s yards, too. They’re cashews.”
Chapter 12
“Cashews?” Rex said. “You mean the nut?”
“The nut’s right there, at the end of it,” Ted said, pointing. Isn’t that cool?”
Laina said, “But you can’t eat the nut raw, just like it is. I don’t remember why, but you can’t.”
“The fruit is edible?” Hannah said.
“Absolutely. It’s a little—I don’t know the word. Not tart, really, but it puckers your mouth.”
“You didn’t try any?” Hannah said.
Laina looked guilty and worried.
Ted said, “We all did.”
“But you guys,” Hannah said. “We don’t know for sure. I mean, they may have changed in forty million years, right? This fruit could be toxic.”
“I feel okay,” said Ted.
Hannah felt like banging her head against the nearest tree trunk. She’d been over and over the food testing procedure. She had three people—including herself—who were the only ones who risked testing foods, to keep everyone else safe. And these kids had jumped right over all that caution and eaten a strange food.
“They’re pretty sour,” Dixie said. “And it’s like they dry your mouth out.”
“Astringent,” said Bob.
Laina said, “That’s a good word for it, yes. In Columbia, people waited until they dropped on the ground. Every morning, people would go out and eat them and toss the nuts aside for dealing with later. The fruits were really squishy, and juicy, and you got messy eating them.”
“These weren’t messy either,” Ted said.
Laina said, “They’re less ripe. We picked them. I think you’re really supposed to wait until they fall.”
Rex said, “I want to try one.”
“No!” Hannah said. “Not until we see if these three are okay.”
“I feel okay,” said Ted.
Bob said, “You have an expert at finding wild foods, and she told you how it’s done, but you just went ahead and ate anyway.”
Laina said, “But I knew what they were.”
Bob gave her a severe look. “You knew what they become. It was foolish, and I’m surprised at all of you.” He sounded disappointed, and they all three looked ashamed.
Hannah said, “You’re sure you’re okay? None of you are feeling dizzy? Or strange? Urge to vomit? Stomachache?”
Dixie said, “What would you do if we were?”
“Make you stick your finger down your throat and vomit,” Hannah snapped. “And I’m thinking about if that’s what we should do anyway.”
“Sorry,” said Ted, “But I don’t vomit. I mean, pretty much nothing makes me vomit at all.”
Bob said, “Ted, your face looks red.”
“It does?” He shrugged. “I’m fine.”
“Hannah,” Bob said. Look around his mouth.”
“I feel fine,” Dixie said. “It wasn’t all that great-tasting, but I’m not in the least sick. Is my face red?”
It wasn’t. Only Ted’s.
“Really,” Laina said, “Don’t worry. People everywhere eat the fruit.”
“I’d feel better about it if we were in the modern world. I’d feel better about it if I’d ever seen a cashew fruit for sale in the store.”
Bob said, “Maybe they don’t ripen in transit.”
“What?” Her anxiety was reaching such a high pitch, she had a hard time understanding what he might mean.
“Bananas can be shipped green. So can pineapple. They can be ripened with gas or will just turn ripe on their own. So the shipping costs are minimal. But something that won’t ripen except on the tree, that can’t really be shipped around the world. Maybe that’s it.”
“It’s the taste, I think,” said Laina. “There are better-tasting fruits.”
“That could be,” said Bob. “Persimmons aren’t very popular. Crab apples are perfectly edible, but no one eats them, and you definitely don’t see them in stores. Maybe we should just wait and see.”
“But if the fruits are poisonous, then it’d be too late,” Hannah said. “I think you should all make yourselves vomit.”
“No,” said Dixie.
“Can’t,” said Ted.
Laina said, “I don’t see any reason to. I feel perfectly okay.”
Hannah felt as if she had a rebellion on her hands. But she couldn’t force compliance. Either they were willing to make themselves puke, or not. She could hardly sit on them and force it to happen. She looked helplessly at Bob.
He shrugged. “I guess we should get back to work. And keep an eye on them.”
“Don’t hover,” Dixie said. “I hate that.”
Zach and Nari came back then, with another load of grass.
“Fine,” Hannah said. “Dixie, you work on cordage. Laina and Ted, you get the hand axes and consult Rex as to what size of trees and limbs we need to construct the frame for the top of the house. And if any of you feel sick, in any way, mention it immediately.” Though she had no idea what she could do if they did. At some point, forcing vomiting would not solve the problem any more. “And nobody,” she said, “nobody ever do that again. It only takes a day to test a food. We have fish. There is no reason to take such a risk even if we didn’t. I don’t care if you run across a banana tree with ‘Dole’ stickers on every banana. We still go through the testing process.”
She was glad making bricks required so little focus. She was still able to accomplish something despite being distracted with worry.
Ted went through a phase where his face—around his mouth, where the fruit’s juices had touched him—was definitely red. But neither of the girls had the same symptom. And after ninety minutes, Ted’s skin went back to normal. They all seemed fine. Dixie was short-tempered, Laina quiet, Ted full of barely-contained energy. For those three, that was typical.
She had Jodi and Claire cook the fish an hour earlier than usual and everyone ate. They needed to build another debris hut for Dixie and Claire before they lost the light.
Dixie was nervous about sleeping on the ground again and started talking about it as they banked the fire for the night. “Maybe I should sleep up in a tree.”
“You might fall out. And the snakes might live up there anyway,” Hannah said.
“Then at least build it out by the beach.”
“They might live out there, too. And we know for sure animals drink out of the lake, so a lakeside shelter seems the riskiest option of all.”
“The grass.”
“Definitely there are snakes in grass.”
“I’ll stay up all night, then.”
Bob said, “Dixie, you can’t. There are dangers all around us. The chances of another snake making trouble tonight are remote. Besides, it’s Claire who was hurt. Look at her. Does she look nervous?”
Claire tried for a smile that wasn’t entirely convincing, though Hannah appreciated her effort. She hadn’t eaten, but she had managed to swallow small sips of water, which gave Hannah some optimism she’d recover fully.
Hannah’s urge to care for the girl all day had been strong, but she had been thwarted not only by the need to work on the cabin, but by her utter inability to do anything to help Claire heal. She couldn’t do anything about that, but maybe she could reassure the girls in one small way. “Look, why don’t you two take our shelter, if that’s okay with everyone. All the little sticks are off the ground, even. And we never saw a snake. Everybody can build a new one for Laina and me.”
Ted said, “I’ll find a good spot.” He, as well as the rest of the cashew fruit group, seemed to be fine and had eaten the fish enthusiastically.
Zach said, “I’ll help you pick a spot.”
Hannah said, “Please make it close to Dixie and Claire’s, so if there’s any trouble at night, I can be there in five seconds.” She had remembered to leave her solar light to charge by the fire all day, and she tested it now. It was nice and bright. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.
“Look over there,” said Zach. “Across the lake.”
Over on the other side of the lake was a pair of uintatheres. Even from this distance, they looked huge.
Ted said, “Think how long we could eat on one of those.”
“Waste of meat,” Bob said. “An oreodont is just right. Unless we come up with some way to smoke meat. Or find a salt source to mine and then salt meat.”
“They’re so ugly,” said Zach. “I guess not to each other, but sheesh.”
“What about that Gollum-faced thing?” Jodi said. “That was no beauty contest winner, either.”
“Which one was that?” Ted said.
“Oh, we saw it out in the grass. I think a predator, but really small.”
Zach said, “And it did look something like Gollum. Big eyes. Round ears.”
“Stripes in the fur,” Jodi said. “It was the size of a small dog. Not small like a Chihuahua, but smallish, like maybe a cocker spaniel.”
“It didn’t show aggression?” Bob said.
“It didn’t see us,” said Zach. “I think it was looking lower, like for something to eat at ground level, mice or something. It was alone.”
Bob said, “Maybe a hyaenodon of some sort.”
Ted said, “Those were big animals the first place we were.”
Bob said, “They’re smaller here. And they are varied. In ten million years, most of the species will be entirely different.”
Laina said, “We’ll get another twenty million year jump next time. So almost everything will look way different.”
That started them wanting to talk about what else Laina had figured out about the timegate, but Hannah cut it off. “We can talk while we build a place for us to sleep tonight. But not while we walk over there. Be wary for animals coming to feed.”
Across the way, the uintathere snorted out a stream of water, its multiple horns and immense size providing a better warning than any words Hannah could devise.
Chapter 13
The next day, they started building their permanent home. If Laina was right about the timegate’s appearance, they’d only get a little over three weeks’ use of it, but three weeks behind a solid wall sounded pretty good to Hannah. They were lucky that the snake’s was the only nocturnal animal attack so far. Maybe the nature of the debris hut fooled predators, made them doubt their noses. Maybe the smell of humans was so strange they didn’t imagine it could mean food.
She let Claire continue to fish, and she set Dixie to tend the fire and keep watch for Claire. The rest helped build the cabin.
They had enough bricks for several rows, but not enough for the whole house.
“Maybe we should use some stones,” Bob said. “Big flat stones, mo
rtared. Then stack bricks on top of those.”
Rex said, “I think all brick is better, though yeah, it’ll slow us down a couple days. And I’ve been thinking about leveling them. We have that one sports drink bottle with the printing stamped into the plastic. Who has it?”
Packs were dug into until the bottle was found.
Rex said, “All the other labels fell off weeks ago, which is a shame. But this has printing right in the plastic. So we can set it on its side, half-full, and because of the printing it’ll work as a level. What I don’t know is if we should be putting the bricks onto something. Or digging down. Maybe set posts, and run a course of bricks with holes in them? Maybe carry sand over here and make some sort of base layer?”
“You’re thinking it might fall over?” Hannah said.
“Or collapse under an animal attack. I don’t think one of the uni-things or rhinos can make it through the trees, but maybe they can. So yeah, seemed to me that more stability is good.”
Hannah said, “Well, we have some of the bricks with holes, so we can do the anchor thing, drive hardwood rods down into the ground.”
Zach said, “How do we measure? For putting the poles in the ground, I mean?”
Bob said, “Just lay the bricks out in a square, like we’re going to be using them.”
Rex said, “Hang on.” He went to the stack of bricks they’d been piling up and took down a half-dozen. “I want to show everybody what I’ve been thinking of for the corners.” He began to stack bricks, offsetting a second row of them.
Jodi said, “I’ve never really noticed what brick houses look like before, but I guess that’s right.”
Bob said, “There are a couple of different common patterns, I think, but I’m with you, Jodi. I can’t bring but one of them to mind.”
Rex had the corner built. The edges weren’t flush.
Hannah said, “My fault. I didn’t think that through. They need to be a two to one ratio, don’t they? Width to length.”
Rex said. “Doesn’t matter that much, I don’t think. Not for strength. It’s fine if there’s a bit sticking out like this.”
