Chapter 54

I went out to the cave and we ate a good supper, much livelier than last night. We settled in for our nightly gab fest with our loved ones. It was not as subdued as the night before. Sothenar told about all the fish they had caught and Merthar told of the aurochs we gathered and put in the canyon, and of the saber tooth I killed and was butchered and frozen for later. He said, “Bob needed 2 shots today to kill the long tooth. I am sure the bright sun made him miss with the first shot. Well not really miss, he hit him in the shoulder, and he could not get back up. Then I drove him closer in the truck and he shot him in the head. When we were butchering the long tooth, we saw Bob had shattered his left shoulder; that is why the cat could not rise again.”

“Merthar, did you say you drove the truck today,” asked Heagern.

“Yes Heagern that is the second time I have driven the truck. I like it a lot. It is much fun. Maybe Bob will teach you too when you come home.”

“I would like that, Bob will you teach me too?”

“Yes Heagern, I will try to teach you too when you come back.”

I was able to have a semi-private talk with Barbara and she said I needed to talk with Phil later. But it wasn’t urgent.

After some more talking with the loved ones, they signed off. We all headed towards our bedrooms then. I stopped by to talk to Phil thru Fred and Caroline. “Phil, what is all the secrecy?”

“Bob, Barbara talked to the other women today and she agrees with you about keeping her implant in. But she wanted to know if you wanted implants for your wives there so there wouldn’t be any unplanned births for a while.”

“Well it seems Fred has been a little lax in informing everyone up there what we are finding out. We have found that most women will be infertile for the next 1 to 2 years, but not all. There will be some births, just not many. I think I would feel safer if my wives down here were protected for a year or two. I think I can put up with a jealous woman or two a lot easier than having 8 children in diapers every year.” I also explained what we had found out about the cyclic birth rate, if our sample was anything to go on, and about the binary stars. I said we were waiting on frequency variations and intensities to see what causes this phenomenon and if we can change it or make changes here to lessen its effect. But at least we will be prepared when the cycle comes around again.

Phil agreed and said he would bring one of my wives up each night until they each were done. I thanked him and said I was tired and went to crawl in bed. I showered and went to bed and was attacked by four horny women. I put up a good fight, but they had their wicked ways with me and I left a healthy (?) dose of my baby batter searching for some small thing to worm inside of, in their wombs. I hope nothing was found. You know that is another thing about women, I don’t understand. When each of my wives came here they were each on their own schedule for their monthly visit. But two months later, they were all on the same week, and would be all on the same day within a couple more months or less. Well only five of them anyway, the rest would be available for a while. I drifted off to sleep after that.

I woke to a good morning kiss from each of my remaining four wives and told to get going as I had to take the gatherers out for veggies, fruits and herbs. Since I took the men out yesterday, it was only fair that I take the women out too. So I showered and dressed and went into the main cave. There was about five women all ready waiting on me. There was Kolstar, Bolonar, Violette, Wenton, and Conpire. They already had several baskets and Kolstar said there would be more for the wagon or truck bed, whichever I preferred. I preferred the truck bed so we did not take the wagon. We loaded up in the truck and went off with Kolstar directing me to where they needed to go. We drove around stopping every so often for the women to pile out and gather things and then dump them in the truck bed. They would then climb back in the truck or just walk some more and gather more stuff. Finally, Kolstar said, “We are finished we can go home now.”

I said, “I do want to go see how our new herd of aurochs is doing. We brought 23 back yesterday and I want to see if they are still in the canyon. You ladies don’t mind going for a little ride do you?”

They all said no. Violette said, “I didn’t know you had gathered any aurochs. How did you do that?”

“We surrounded them with the truck and ATV’s and kind of nudged them in the right direction and they went. We never hit them, we just got close, and they would go away from us, so we just guided them to the fence gate.” By then we had approached the gate and could see several aurochs and a few horses over by the stream drinking. They all oohed and ahed over the animals we had penned up and then we left as the sun was coming over the plateau at us. We got back and the ladies emptied the truck and took the baskets over by the cooler. I was helping and I saw several plastic bins in the wall. I could see that this was our root cellar. It was cool and dry inside the bins; somehow the air was dried and circulated back through them. I helped unload the baskets. In the main cave the people were watching comedies again. I had a bunch of Benny Hill tapes I made in England and some Steptoe and Son which was the original that Sanford and Son was later made from. I understood the humor because I had been there for about 5 years, but there was a lot of slapstick comedy in them so our people here could understand some of it. I just had a thought about teaching our people English.

‘Fred, have your people gotten hold of any of the old, or new for that matter, Sesame Street episodes or the old Electric Company episodes from television? They taught English to young children by learning their ABC’s and 123’s. The Electric Company was supposed to be for children 7 and up to 12 and was good, but critics didn’t like it because they thought it too mature, but it ran six years, whereas Sesame Street started in 1969 and was still on when I left in 2009. That’s 40 years; it is or was as the case may be, the longest running children’s television program ever.’

“That sounds great Bob, we will see if we can get some of that. Once we can communicate over long distances again.”

The ladies and I finished up the veggies and Kolstar asked me to stay a moment, as we were on the way out of the pantry, I guess you could call it. I held back and said, “You wanted to talk with me privately?”

“Yes Bob I did, I understand from Cherrine that you might be swaying towards giving some of us women ‘leader’s rights’ mementoes. I would not object, if one of them came my way.”

“I did not know I was such a popular man, Kolstar. You are the third woman who has approached me regarding that very thing. Is it the memento or the man that everyone wants?”

“Believe me it is the man; every woman in this camp wants you at least once. We have heard that your, shall we say, equipment is very enjoyable and you can satisfy any woman, no matter what she desires.”

“I will tell you that at the night of the first celebration, after this bright time is over, you very well may get your wish. In fact several of my headmen may be honored that night, depending on how drunk they get at the celebration.”

“Believe me Tovar will be very drunk and I will need help taking him back to our rooms. It may take me a while to get him in bed.” And she winked at me.

“Just let me know when you need ‘help’ that night, and I will assist with what I can.”

“Thank you Bob. I know Teanar and Valkerita will be looking forward to the night too. I would not be surprised if all of your headmen will be very drunk that night. I hope you can handle nine women in one night. But I heard that you had nine at one time, but one died on a hunt right?”

“Yes it was Magnie, she died in my arms. We do not speak of her anymore; just like Solange is not a name heard in this camp. It brings up too many bad memories. We let their names die with them.”

“Oh Bob, I am so sorry I have caused you grief, it was never meant to.”

“I understand Kolstar. Please, let it be known that either name is not a subject to be spoken of here in this camp. I do not wish to be reminded of such grief. I have Angel; it is like she has been reborn and is no longer the other name she once answered to. But let us go discussing the amount of roots and meat we have so they will think we have been to the cooler and freezer.”

We came out into the cave discussing the food situation. I said “We should have enough meat and fish for at least 2 to 3 months of winter; once this is over we will hunt and fish more so we have enough for 6 months.”

Kolstar said, “We only have about 3 months worth of roots, vegetables, and spices. We will need to collect more if we wish to survive this winter.”

I said, “You can go and gather more when this stops or we will go like we did today if the time of year will hinder your gathering.”

“Either time will be good enough. Gathering stops once snow is on the ground. We can gather nuts, berries, fruit, and most vegetables up until that time.”

“Thank you for helping me with this Kolstar, you have been a big help.”

Kolstar went and sat with her mate and then a short time later I saw her over talking to a bunch of women. I could not see who all they were. I sat with Angel on my lap watching the rest of the morning’s entertainment. Then we saw women preparing a meal, Angel said, “Get ready Daddy, food is coming.”

“Yes it is and I know where it will all go, in your mouth and down to your tummy,” I said as I tickled her tummy. “And make you big and fat like me.”

“You are not fat Daddy; you are comfy, just like your recliner chair.”

I couldn’t argue with her there, several people around us started laughing and it infected everyone and soon we were all laughing. I looked around at all the people and said loudly, “Well, I guess I got told.”

And everyone laughed harder, I said, “I guess that means that I am not the leader of this camp.”

“Of course not Daddy, we women are.”

That got an even bigger laugh until the women looked mean at us. Then it stopped immediately. “Yes Angel you are very right the women are the leaders here, they tell us what to do, and we do it and be happy we have good food and a nice bed to sleep in. Right Men?” That statement garnered me a lot of ‘Yes Sir, ‘ or ‘That’s right’ and a lot of grinning faces and head nods. I decided to leave well enough alone since I think I stirred a hornet’s nest. I sat quietly waiting for our meal. Lunch was served and I saw a lot of snuggling couples and hugging and sneaking kisses. Well maybe I did alright after all; well maybe.