Bonesetter

by Laurence Dahners

  Pell thought to himself that it was good that the walk to the cave was short, as he didn’t know how long he could take Tando’s burbling. Especially, Tando’s constant references to Pell as a “healer” and his unshakable confidence that, because Pell had fixed Tando’s wrist he would be able to fix Tellgif’s cough.

  However, as soon as they reached the cave he was assaulted by a similar torrent of babble from his own mother. Tando and Donte had talked themselves into a highly optimistic frame of mind during their trip to Cold Springs Ravine. Any difficulties that they may have contemplated had been set aside for Pell to solve with “his healing powers.”

  Donte was also quite excited and full of questions about Pell’s “cave.”

  -“What mystical ceremony required that strips of meat be hung over a bush back in the back part of the cave?”

  -“Did he know that there was a lot of smoke back there and the meat was getting dried out and ruined?”

  -“How did he get enough meat to be able to spare it for the ceremony?”

  -“What had Pell buried back in the soft dirt at the back of the cave?”

  -“There are wolf prints everywhere! Had wolves tried to take his ‘cave’ for a den?”

  -“Did he know that there were some wolf prints on top of Pell’s prints so the wolf must have been back recently?”

  “Oh.” She almost whimpered when she saw Ginja. The young wolf had appeared at Pell’s side in the doorway, hackles raised despite Pell’s scratching behind her ears.

  “Donte, he controls wild animals now too!” Tando said in an awed tone.

  “No, not wild animals, just this wolf! She’s my friend!” Pell exclaimed. My only friend, he thought. The veneration they were heaping on him was in such stark contrast to his previous social interactions that he just couldn’t accept it.

  Donte sank to her haunches, staring at her son ashen faced, as she had done after his successful bonesetting of Tando’s wrist. “You control the Wolf Spirit!”

  “No, no, she’s just my friend. Just this one wolf, not the Wolf Spirit. I call her Ginja."

  After a period of stunned silence during which both Tando and Donte alternately stared at the wolf, Pell, or each other, Tando cleared his throat to suggest that he and Pell go out hunting, “So that they might have something to eat that night. When they threw me out of the tribe they wouldn’t let me have any food. Ha, I was the one who’d made the kill that day too. I should have taken all the food, but you know how it would be trying to take it, I’d have had to fight Roley for it. Donte got some food when she left to join me, but we ate it all on the trip here.”

  Pell, certainly understood why no one would want to take on Roley. “I have meat, but we should go gathering.” Fumbling in his pouch he pulled out more of the leathery material Tando had seen him give to the wolf. He held out a piece for each of them.

  They took it and smelled it. “It’s meat isn’t it?” Donte asked, “Is it some of the ceremonial meat from the back of the cave? It smells smoky enough!”

  “Taste it!”

  They nibbled tentatively, then with enthusiasm. “It’s good! Is that why you hang meat in the smoky place in the back of the cave? To give it this flavor?”

  “Well, yes, but mostly because once it’s smoky, it doesn’t spoil anymore.”

  Tando and Donte gaped. “It doesn’t?”

  “No, in fact I killed this rabbit several weeks ago, just a little while after you left to rejoin the Aldans.”

  Tando and Donte looked at each other in astonishment. Tando whispered, “He’s not just a healer Donte, he’s a powerful mage as well! This smoked ‘spirit meat’ is a sure sign of the Spirits’ blessings.”

  Pell stared at them, “No, it’s not magic! It’s just the smoke. Look,” he said going to the back of the cave and beginning to dig in the soft dirt.

  They were even more astonished when he pulled up one of his skins full of smoked meat and the stuffed “fingers” he’d made with intestine. He intended to demonstrate to them how well the meat was keeping. But Tando considered the trove of meat for only a moment before saying with quiet envy, “So, you have become a mighty hunter as well! Do you use your spirit magic to call the animals for your hunting as well, or do you have some secrets that you could teach even me?”

  Exasperatedly Pell said, “It’s not magic! Just smoke.” He let it go at that by turning to bury the skin again, trying not to expose the other skins full of meat that lay beneath the one he had shown them. From their reaction so far, he anticipated that the additional skins full of preserved meat would never be comprehensible to Donte and Tando without “magic.” Pell had already begun to worry about how he was going to conceal the fact that he didn’t actually “hunt” at all.

  They went out gathering. At first Tando hadn’t wanted to go—gathering was “women’s work.” Pell reminded him that, if they were going to have a tribe of only four, their group would be too small to honor the traditional division of labor. They must have other food than meat, which at present they had plenty of. Eating plants would stave off sickness. Tando finally did agree to go gathering but only because he wanted to start back to get Tellgif soon and accepted that when they returned with her, they would have to have other foods available to help restore her health. He did recognize that more hands would make for quicker gathering.

  As they went out Tando chattered about the future as he saw it. “After Pell cures Tellgif,” began one sentence and shortly after that he said “won’t Pont be surprised when Pell makes Tellgif better?” Pell occasionally tried to protest that he didn’t know anything about sickness. He tried to suggest to Tando that Tellgif would be better off with a “real” healer, perhaps from another tribe, but that brought an angry response from Tando. More of a tirade actually, concluding with Tando’s assessment that Pell had a “gift” for healing that must extend beyond “just” broken bones and joints.

  As they gathered, Donte taught Pell to recognize several edible plants that hadn’t been ready for harvest when she had left weeks earlier. After a while even Tando became interested in recognizing the different plants and, with his help, they made good progress by evening.

  That night over their meal they made plans to leave in the morning. Pell had finally ceased his protests regarding his inability to help Tellgif and instead had sounded his concern that he shouldn’t leave the cave for long for fear that a predator would break in and get to the stored meat.

  However, Tando badly wanted Pell to go along on the trip. He wanted to have two men to help carry Tellgif if she needed it. He also beleived that the sooner that she came under Pell’s care the better.

  Pell continued to voice his concerns about leaving the cave but then Donte volunteered to stay and protect the meat. She proposed that she could also continue gathering, looking especially for some of the medicinal herbs that she had gathered for Pont in the past. Pell could use them in treating Tellgif when they came back.

  Pell found it astonishing that they would think that Pell would be able to decide which of the medicinal herbs were appropriate for Tellgif. “I’ve never been trained in the use of herbs! Why would you even imagine that I’d know which ones to use for a cough? I just don’t know about this whole idea. Really, we should take her to a healer in a different tribe!”

  Donte said, “Relax Pell, you’ll know which ones are right. Just trust your ‘instincts.’”

  Pell and Tando set out the next morning. Tando was excited about traveling with the smoked “spirit meat” so that they didn’t have to watch for game while they traveled. They also took a bit of early fruit and a few tubers to eat as they walked. They practiced their new gathering skills as they traveled, constantly keeping on the lookout for edibles. It pleased Pell no end when they proved adept enough that they were finding more than they were able to eat or carry with them and therefore had to pass most of it up. This also pleased Tando, though in his case it was because he begrudged any moments spent picking instead of traveling.
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  They camped that night but only after they had walked until it was really too dark to see. Tando spurned Pell’s “sensible suggestions” that it was dangerous to travel at such a pace.

  Leaving at dawn the next morning they forged on, reaching the tribe’s summer campsite on the plain by midmorning.

  As Tando and Pell came within sight of their campsite, the Aldans, led by Pont in his finest ceremonial getup, were carrying someone out from the center of camp on a bier. They carried her out… to the burial mound… it was Tellgif! She was dead!

  Tando flew into a frenzy, charging the burial mound. He sobbed on Tellgif’s body. He raved at Pont for his incompetence. He ranted at Roley for turning him out at the healer’s urging. He returned to Tellgif’s body to lie moaning at her feet.

  Pell stood woodenly by. Not knowing what to do, not knowing what could be done, wishing mightily to be away from there, he nonetheless followed Tando, though at some distance, from place to place. Though Gontra did stop and brace his old friend Tando by the shoulders, the rest of the tribe uncomfortably ignored the two of them. They were, after all exiles, by tradition to be ignored, usually to be driven away. No one made to drive them away as yet, as they were too uncomfortable with Tando’s grief. However, Pell was sure it was just a matter of time before their annoyance grew great enough to overcome any empathy. Pell saw Denit glaring at him and expected soon to be the butt of some derisive remark. But so far, Denit held his tongue.

  Having grown emotionally exhausted from being around Tando, Pell had wandered off and was sitting on a small rise near the edge of the meadow containing the campsite. Pell watched the sun go down and chewed slowly on a particularly good piece of his smoked meat. He heard Tando calling his name.

  “Tando, I’m here.”

  “Pell, come on back. Do something.”

  Pell walked slowly back down to where Tando stood by Tellgif’s body. She lay in her finery awaiting burial. “What did you want Tando?”

  “I want you to bring her back!”

  “What!?”

  “Bring her back now. I know you can do it! I can’t take it any longer! Bring her back, bring her back, bring her back…” Tando sobbed this last pitifully and cast himself back to the ground at Tellgif’s feet.

  “How, Tando? I don’t know spirit magic! I’ve told you, I don’t even know healing magic. Only… only a simple trick for straightening bones!”

  “You do know magic! You keep the spirit meat. You control the wolf spirit. Call the wolf spirit to help her!”

  Stunned, Pell contemplated the bizarre request. He was sure that there was nothing he could do, or was there? Maybe he did have some kind of power? Had he only been able to do the things he had done because he did have some kind of contact with the spirits? After observing Donte and Tando’s wonderment, even Pell felt somewhat astonished at the number of new things, never dreamed of before, that he had accomplished in the past few months. From reducing bones to preserving meat, to trapping animals, they were all things that seemed simple enough but actually contained great power. After a bit, he murmured, “OK Tando, I’ll try, but, but... I really don’t know what to do.”

  Tando rose to his knees to hug Pell about the waist while sobbing in relief and thanking him effusively. Pell patted him uncomfortably on the shoulder and wished he would let go. Then when Tando did let go Pell found himself uncomfortably wishing he was back—he had absolutely no idea what to do or where to begin. Pell sank to his own knees at Tellgif’s side and reached out to take her hand. It was cold and stiff! Pell dropped her hand in revulsion, but, because of her stiffness, it didn’t fall. He swallowed, then took her hand again. He couldn’t even grip it comfortably. Ill at ease, he let his eyes rove over Tellgif’s body. She looked wasted away—for instance in her sunken cheeks, yet oddly swollen in other places. Death had drained the color from her and in the twilight her ghastly appearance raised the hairs on the back of Pell’s neck. Odors of death, sour smells of tired sweat, musty smells of Pont’s herbs, they all clung to Tellgif in a repulsive miasma. Pell was frightened by the death specter hanging over her, nonetheless he held to her hand and prayed aloud to the spirits, begging that they return her to the living. He used a voice just loud enough for Tando to hear but hopefully quiet enough that no one else in camp could hear. He called out to the Wolf Spirit as Tando had asked; though only at the last moment did he remember not to address the wolf spirit as “Ginja.” Pell petitioned the Spirits with his head bowed. After a time, he looked furtively up at Tellgif’s face, hoping—though he had a hard time admitting his hopes even to himself—that he would see some change in her dead face.

  There was none.

  He looked slowly around the camp, continuing to chant to the Spirits. To his dismay, he saw Denit had come out of his shelter and stood glaring at him. Denit turned and strode rapidly to the healer’s shelter, a lean-to of poles bound with thongs and covered with sheaves of grass to keep the rain off. Denit leaned under the edge, saying something that neither Tando nor Pell could hear. Pell dropped Tellgif’s hand, though again it didn’t fall, and rose, stepping back from her body

  A few seconds later the healer burst from under his shelter, roaring in a slurred fashion. Obviously he was in his usual hemp induced stupor. Pont soon had roused the whole tribe, claiming that some “hyenas”, as he couldn’t recognize the two exiles as human, were in camp “disturbing Tellgif’s body.” Under the healer’s urging the tribe slowly became threatening. Pell and Tando eventually were forced to slowly back away from Tellgif.

  The next morning, after an endless night of Tando’s sobbing, the two of them stood haggard on the little rise at the edge of the meadow. They watched as the tribe dug a new pit at the edge of the burial mound that had received so many other friends and relatives over the years. With Pont officiating and the whole tribe chanting, Tellgif was lowered into the opening. They did place a few of her things in the grave with her. Tando angrily noticed that many of her most prized possessions were not to be seen, presumably already divided up among the other women. Pell sat in vigil with Tando for the remainder of the day. That night he went down with Tando and sat for hours while his friend lay prostrate upon Tellgif’s grave sobbing. As he sat uncomfortably waiting for Tando’s grief to spend itself, his mind returned over and over to how much he loathed Pont. He mulled through his recollections of Pont’s ceremonies and treatments.

  The more he considered them, the more he thought that Pont didn’t really know anything about healing. It seemed that he only knew how to take credit when it wasn’t due and lay blame elsewhere when a patient worsened. Pell resolved to never do that for any bonesetting he might do.

  When morning broke, Tando was dry eyed and ready to leave. Before they could go, however, he dug a small pit by Tellgif’s right hand and he placed some of the “spirit meat” there for her to enjoy in the afterlife.

  As they traveled back to Cold Springs Ravine, Pell kept an eye out for gatherables, at first plucking only a few choice edibles such as berries, then as they neared home he began to stuff his pouches. Tando stumbled along, oblivious to what might be gleaned but Pell; having filled his own pouches began to fill Tando’s. After a bit, Pell gave Tando a large leather to carry. He folded it to make a huge pouch that he stuffed with tubers. They arrived back at Pell’s cave heavily laden.

  Donte greeted them joyfully but then wanted to know where Tellgif was? Her joy turned to anger because she assumed that they had let Roley drive them away. She accused them of lacking the courage to sneak back and steal Tellgif away. Then Tando’s disconsolate expression penetrated and, without a word of explanation, Donte guessed the truth. With a wracking cry, she began her own grieving process for her old friend. She left the cave and climbed up onto the cliffside above the cave. There she stared off into space, chanting the melancholy tunes that the women of the tribe sang in times of mourning.

  Tando cast himself upon one of the grass beds in the cave where he lay staring upward. Completely unresp
onsive to Pell’s attempts to start a conversation, he did little more than blink. Pell unloaded his pouches, then Tando’s, then emptied the big pouch of its tubers. As Pell looked about his cave, he was pleased to find that while they were gone Donte had produced a moderate sized stack of tubers. She’d woven a couple of baskets and filled them with early grain and some sheaves of edible leaves. To his surprise, when he looked back into the smoking recess, he found a number of objects back there in the smoke that hadn’t been there when he left. He looked closer. There was rabbit meat and to his surprise some sliced tuber, a flat basket with a thin layer of grain and some spread out leaves. Why hadn’t he thought of trying to smoke anything else after it had worked on meat? Even more puzzling, who had hunted that rabbit?

  When Donte came down from her vigil later that evening, he asked her excitedly about the smoking of tubers and vegetables. “Did it work?”

  “Well, not yet at least. I just started smoking those items today.”

  “That was a great idea! I’ll bet it works—we’ll see tomorrow. Where did the rabbit on the smoking shelf come from?”

  To Pell’s chagrin she pulled one of his thongs out of her pouch. “You’re not going to believe it. I found it strangled in this!” she exclaimed. “Was it your thong? I saw several thongs here and there in the bushes as I went out gathering. I couldn’t figure out what they were for, so I left them alone but then I found that rabbit stuck in this one. Sure wish more rabbits would get tangled up in them though, you’d be able to give up hunting!”