Chapter 35

"I want to know about the other people who live near here. I do not know what you call them. They are like us but they are not just like us."

"That is what we call them - The other people. I do not know everything about them and I do not visit their camps often. They speak similar to us but not exactly like us. They do not care for my advice, but sometimes listen when I tell them of things that are happening or about the movements of animal herds, if I know of any. They will also listen to what I tell them about how soon the winter is coming and other things I say about the weather.

"It is strange to me they do some things like we do and other things completely differently. They do not ask a payment for their mates. Their leaders just tell them who will mate whom. The women have no say in the matter.

"Also, the women do not often hunt, especially after they are fully women and have children. Their girls also seem to come to their womanhood in less time than ours do. The men hunt much more than we do, but they must because they do not throw their spears. They thrust them into the prey.

"They are fond of running prey off a cliff or into a blind canyon when they can," Georgo said.

"You said that you visited their camps some times?"

"Yes. I visit the camp that is south of here at least once a year. The women cook differently there, but it is always good. The women do almost all of the gathering and they are very efficient about it. They always have more things than meat to eat. They are also much better at finishing skins.

"They cannot swim though. They go into the water to bathe and fish but they do not swim and they do not use any type of boats, " Georgo said.

"Do they kill each other for mates?"

"That is one of the strange things about them. The leader more or less assigns the women to the men and that is all accepted. If a man kills another though, he does take the mate and all the possessions, just as we do. They do not do it often, but when it does happen it is not treated as out of the ordinary.

"I think taking the mate and possessions is just an accompanying circumstance for them. If one man kills another it is for some other reason and the one who lives takes the mate and things as if it were a duty.

"It is also strange when a man is killed while hunting or in some type of accident. If the man has a mate she will usually remain unmated for a while, sometimes for a long while. Apparently the leader just doesn't give her to another man it seems. Maybe they think she is bad luck. Even while she is unmated they do not let her go hungry and if she has children they do not go without.

"I have seen them bargain for mates in a different way though. If a camp does not have enough women and another has more than they need, the camp with fewer women will offer goods or food for a woman or two from the camp with more females.

"I even heard of two men like us who have bargained for women of the other people. The two do not live near here. They were from far off. I think they actually made a journey just to find women of that type to trade for, but they did not tell it to me," Georgo said.

"What did they trade for the women?"

"Salt. It is one way I knew they must not be from near here. I talked to them later and found out for sure. They had very much salt and seemed to know it would be good for trading, and it was. The other people's leader was glad to trade for the salt," Georgo said.

"How much salt did they trade?"

"I don't really know how to tell you and I think the men gave more salt than they needed to. It almost seemed it was more trouble for them to take it back than it was to leave it. They traded all the salt they had with them.

"Most of it for the two women, but they traded for skins and traveling food with the rest. Maybe there is much salt where they came from. I know the leader of the other people was very happy with the trading. The women who were traded seemed happy enough to go too," Georgo said.

Going over to where my salt was stored and taking him with me I opened the container and asked him if it was more salt or less than the men had traded for the women.

"They didn't trade so much for both women, maybe about half as much, but probably even less. Where did you get so much salt?" Georgo asked.

"I have my secrets too Georgo. Would you like some? I have plenty and can get more easily enough."

"Yes, I would like some salt. I don't have anything to give you in return though. I cannot give you women for it," He said, and I could hear the humor in his tone.

"You have given me information. It is much harder to get than salt."

Finding two of the empty bean cans that had been cleaned, I filled them with salt for him. As I showed him how to manipulate the lids he thanked me again. Shortly he left to find a place to sleep for the night. As he was leaving I thought to myself I had been hoarding the salt for no reason.

Everyone in my camp would probably like to have some and I was just letting it sit around in its original container. My mates had seen it while we were moving but hadn't mentioned it again and I don't think that they had even used any of it. Maybe they thought I wanted to keep it for some reason. I would fix the misunderstanding in the morning.

We went to bed soon after. I was expecting to thank my mates for letting me take another, but sleep took me almost as soon as I lay down. I remember thinking it was strange I was so sleepy after all the coffee I'd had with Georgo.

A dream started and then turned into a talk with Argent almost at once.

"John we have disappointed you and you have thrilled us again. I can't tell you how excited we are," Argent said, at once.

"I don't know how I did it and I don't suppose you can tell me can you?"

"No, I should not tell you, but I can tell you the one who should have been helping you with the bathing facility has been dealt with. He was removed from this project, with a damaging report in his performance files for his lapse," Argent said, seeming almost giddy while telling me.

"I thought his behavior was odd. You asked me to design the facility and told me I would be warned if I exceeded what was allowable. I sent a message telling I was starting on the plan and then heard nothing until he told me I had vastly exceeded what was allowable and acted as if it was my fault."

"He was only here because of his family's connections higher up. He has always been an under performer. I never wanted him on this project anyway and was forced to take him.

"I had a discussion with my superior over the matter and when he started berating me for the failure I took your attitude and I'm afraid I almost became angry. I pointed out I had resisted taking the slacker in the first place and it was he who insisted I do it.

"I also let him know I had connections on up the ladder myself and the bathing facility you designed must be put in place or the whole project was in danger of failing. I pointed out if the experiment collapsed I would be able to make it known it was directly attributable to the actions of the one he had made me take despite my protests.

"It got his attention at once. He agreed immediately without looking at the specifications you had provided. I will admit this project has gained importance due to your excellent performance. If there is anything else you would like in the bathing facility you should specify it as soon as possible in the morning," Argent said.

This was another total shocker for me. I had already called for everything I could think of and now he was asking if I wanted even more. I also wondered what in the hell I'd done that was so excellent. Something else to ask for came to me at once though.

"I don't need anything else for my personal use. Would it be possible to have a more utilitarian facility for the other caves? More toilets would be especially useful. With more and more people coming here it is going to get a little shitty outside unless we spend a lot of time building privies."

"It is a perfect suggestion John. We should have thought of it ourselves. Do you want to plan them?" Argent asked.

"I'd rather not if you have someone who can design them and take into consideration there will be more people coming."

"I have design engineers that specialize in exactly these matters. As you suggested the facilities will not be as ornate and I think they should allow a little more privacy, since many different families will be using them," Argent said.

Dicky throbbed for my attention. I know it was a lecherous thought, even for me, but the shower scene from one of the Porky's movies popped into my head and I decided to try heading off any extra privacy if I could.

"I wouldn't worry much about their privacy. They are already accustomed to bathing more or less in public. I don't guess a few partitions would hurt anything, but if I need to drop in and take a piss I wouldn't want to miss out on seeing a few of the women washing themselves if they were involved in such activities."

"I see what you mean. I wouldn't want to deprive you of some harmless enjoyment. I will specify plenty of mirrors be installed also. We will plan a facility for every cave," Argent said, and damned if he didn't sound thrilled.

This was bordering on surreal. What was I thinking? It was fully surreal. Large community bathrooms for every cave, I was having a hard time imagining it.

"We couldn't help hear you are asking the shaman to stay with you," Argent said.

"Yes I think it would be good for him to spend more time here."

"We also think having the shaman here would be advantageous. Would it be helpful for him to have a private place for residence?" he asked.

"I'm sure it would be a good inducement for him to stay longer. He will have to maintain his extensive traveling though and I doubt he will be able to stay with us continuously while the weather is suitable for traveling."

"Would it be helpful if he had a wagon such as yours to use? Could you furnish horses if we gave him a wagon?" he asked.

"Of course it would be great for him whether he realized it at first or not, and I would be glad to train some horses for his wagon. I don't think it should be nearly as big as mine though. Look up buckboard and you will get a better idea of what I mean. It would be good if it could be closed up like mine though, to make a safe place for him to sleep while he is traveling."

"I will let you sleep for a while, but I need to contact you again in a few hours, before sunrise, to talk further about these plans. Will it be acceptable?" he asked.

"It will be fine."

I was out as quick as I said it and slept soundly until Argent came back.

"We have planned the other bathing facilities John and we have made a preliminary design for the shaman's wagon and residence. Please look over the plans for anything which might need to be changed."

The designs came to me as three dimensional images, similar to dreams, but they didn't wander or swirl away. In fact, when I concentrated on a portion its view changed to show me more detail and give me a preview of how things would appear from different angles. If I imagined I was in one, I seemed to be there and I could walk around and look at things. It reminded me of the holodeck in StarTrek. What a trip, a holoshitter.

The huge bathrooms ran more heavily to showers than tubs. They had plenty of tubs too though and all included a large tub for twenty or more. I saw they included a mini swimming pool like I had, but it was even larger. Apparently the Aliens thought it was necessary for our normal cleanliness and no doubt assumed the communal units needed to be larger to accommodate more people at a time.