The First Genesis Read online

  She returned to where she had spent the night with Hachakyum, weary from a day of listening. He was not there. She sat down next to the remains of the fire that had burnt itself out hours before. She put her head into her hands. Her life was unending but, for generation after generation, she solved the same problems caused by the same mistakes of others. A horrible thought occurred to her that made her lift her head from her hands. Perhaps Hachakyum had left, once again she would be alone, because she had not paid him attention. She remembered criticising his behaviour that morning. She was distraught at the thought of resumed loneliness.

  She heard the sounds of young children playing. She went in that direction. Some of the children may have seen Hachakyum as their play ranged over the extended camp site. She would ask them where he was.

  She came upon a strange sight.

  A dozen young children were running chaotically, screaming and squealing with delight. Each child was being pursued by a fist-sized stone that followed them a step behind and at head height. The children wove in playful attempts to escape their flying pursuers. When a child slowed, the stone would also slow. If they stopped then the stone would stop, but then would resume a slow approach causing the child to squeal and run.

  K’ul Kelem saw two of the children, smarter than the others, run towards each other and then duck and swerve at the last second, so that their following stones smashed into each other, ejecting a shower of shards before they careered off and fell to the ground.

  Hachakyum stood in the middle of the mayhem, smiling and watching the children. One child had the bright idea of running directly at him, passing by so closely that the following stone would hit him. He lifted his arm, as if preparing to deflect a blow, and the stone exploded into a hundred fragments.

  Hachakyum saw K’ul Kelem. The stones stopped in mid-air and fell, once again lifeless, to the ground. A collective groan of disappointment came from the children. They loudly, randomly, called his name. They did not want the game to end. The children ran to him and pulled at his arms and at his tunic. K’ul Kelem strode into the rabble centred on Hachakyum and told the children to leave him alone. They ignored her. Hachakyum smiled at their disobedience.

  The god told the children their games were over for the day and waved his hand to indicate they should leave. They ignored him too.

  The children, as a group, lifted off the ground. They hovered for a second as they were turned to face towards the camp site and then flew through the air for ten paces where they were landed. That trick did not help. It made matters worse. The group of children ran back to Hachakyum, yelling ‘Again! Again!’

  He flew the children a few more times until K’ul Kelem again told them the games were over. This time time they obeyed, they were hungry and tired. They returned to their parents.

  ‘It’s a pity they grow to be adult humans,’ Hachakyum said as he accompanied K’ul Kelem back to the rock shelter.

  After eating a meal prepared by others, they spent the night again separated from the rest of K’ul Kelem’s people. She told him of her day with the elders. She talked and he listened. It was the first time she had done that for longer than she could remember.

  Chapter 6

  K’ul Kelem woke the next morning, in the same position, with the same disorientation as the first morning. She did not move as she examined the rock face next to where she lay. She thought of the second night with Hachakyum, almost with guilt, as if her pleasure had been selfish. He had stayed inside her for a longer time and, somehow, they had talked, but not with the sound of words. He had joined the conversation stream that ran through her head. At the time, she had been thrilled by the intimacy but, afterwards, the next morning when she was not fully awake, she felt a shame of overindulgence, as if she had been excited by something obscene. The invasion of her privacy had been absolute and more intimate than anything physical. She didn’t know if she enjoyed it. During the act, of course, she could not get enough but afterwards she was not so sure. How could she face Hachakyum, knowing that he knew everything about her at the moment of her extreme pleasure. Her sexual gratification had been his too, she remembered him saying or thinking in her mind. She did not know the difference.

  She rolled over. He was sitting by the smouldering fire watching her. All her guilt, all her worry about privacy disappeared when she saw him. It was nothing obscene, she understood. It was the unique way of sharing her life with a god. She returned his stare and wondered what it would be like to be inside his mind. She wanted to know what he felt and thought as much as she wanted him inside her head sharing everything about her.

  ‘Not yet,’ he said quietly, with words.

  ‘When?’ she asked.

  ‘You’re not ready,’ he said.

  ‘You said you wouldn’t be inside my mind, except when I let you,’ she asked.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘You were shouting, it was hard to not listen. I’ll try harder.’

  ‘I have to go away today,’ she said.

  ‘I know,’ he said. ‘I’m coming with you.’

  She smiled.

  Chapter 7

  Hachakyum and K’ul Kelem left the campsite later that morning and walked until the sun had almost set. Hachakyum opened a bag made of woven strips of bark and set out food onto large leaves he plucked from nearby plants. K’ul Kelem made a fire and they sat near it as they ate.

  ‘We should stop on the way tomorrow and pick more fruit,’ Hachakyum said as he ate the red, juicy pulp of fruit-flesh and seeds.

  ‘If we see a place, we will,’ K’ul Kelem said. ‘Should I hunt?’ she asked.

  ‘If you want to, but there’s no pressing need,’ he said.

  They ate in silence until K’ul Kelem noticed that all the food in the bag was gone.

  ‘We’ll definitely have to stop,’ she said sharply. ‘It’s many days walk. We’ll have to eat, or at least I’ll have to.’

  ‘There will be food tomorrow,’ he said.

  She stared at him. ‘Can you just make food appear?’ she asked. ‘Or, do you just know where it is?’

  ‘Both.’

  ‘Then why did you carry the food today?’

  ‘Why not? It’s what you do isn’t it?’

  ‘If I have to. But you don’t have to.’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘I don’t.’

  He resumed eating as if their conversation had reached a natural endpoint.

  ‘You can be most exasperating. Did you know that?’ she said.

  He smiled.

  When, again, he said nothing more she laughed and shook her head.

  ‘We don’t even need to walk to the coast,’ she said. ‘You could just make us be there. Right?’

  ‘Yes.’

  She stared at his face for awhile and then looked down at the flames of the fire.

  ‘But,’ he said. ‘This is fun isn’t it?’ he asked her. ‘I’m enjoying this. I don’t live like this normally.’

  ‘How do you live, then?’ she asked. ‘Normally.’

  ‘Not like this.’

  She laughed again but this time she was angry that he had refused to answer. He did not think she was ready, or she was not smart enough. I must be like a game to him, she said angrily to herself.

  ‘I’m very tired,’ she said abruptly. ‘Let’s get up before dawn and try and get to the coast as quickly as we can. Good night,’ she said rudely. She lay down next to the fire and closed her eyes.

  He did not understand how her mood had changed so suddenly.

  Chapter 8

  The following afternoon was excessively hot and humid. The air was still and it hung heavily as if reluctant to move. K’ul Kelem felt like there was angry resistance as she sluggishly made her way through the jungle and along the rare paths. They came upon a shallow, swift-flowing stream of mountain-fed water.

  ‘Let’s stop here,’ he said. ‘We have come far enough today.’

  She agreed. They left their clothing and what they carried on the large-lea
fed, spongy grass of the river bank. They waded into the water and lay in it facing up stream. They held onto large stones strewn on the river bed and let the water flow over and around them. K’ul Kelem ducked her head in and out of the water watching the eddies and whirls as they approached her like an angry crowd that anticipated delay. She laughed, enjoying the flowing stream of water that whisked over and passed her body.

  Hachakyum did not understand why she was so happy and he was intrigued at his lack of knowledge. He had changed somehow. He did not require answers to everything, he did not need control of all situations, he even looked forward to, again, being surprised and startled like he had been by the young messenger on the first morning. K’ul Kelem was altering him. He knew the bliss of wilful ignorance. This is what it is like to live their lives, he thought. It was wonderful, to a degree. Although he knew the difference between having power and refusing to use it, and powerlessness.

  He left the water and sat on the bank next to their clothes and equipment. K’ul Kelem stayed in the refreshing water, bobbing up and down as she immersed and re-immersed her body.

  She stood up, having had enough cold mountain water, and waded across the flowing stream to re-join Hachakyum. He was struck by a revelation. She was physically beautiful. He had taken a similar shape to hers, to all her people, but he had not considered physical beauty in that alien form. It was her other attributes that had drawn her to his attention. He was physically aroused by her naked body and smiling face.

  She laughed when she saw his state.

  They made love on the edge of the stream, shrouded in the cover of jungle shadows, during the hot afternoon.

  K’ul Kelem entered the water again, to refresh herself afterwards and noticed a strange cloud jerking and bobbing towards her. She laughed out loud with happiness as a mass of butterflies came close, circled above and then landed on her. A few fluttered about but most covered her body and face. They clung to her nose and hair, they spread themselves over her shoulders and down her arms, which she held out sideways away from her body. They were over her breasts and stomach, over her back and down the back of her legs. They clung to her pubic hair and clambered over her thighs clinging to the almost invisible hairs on the vertical surface.

  The butterflies gently flapped their wings as if they were waiting for flight but had yet to receive the command. She slowly turned her body to Hachakyum and his face beamed a smile she had never seen before. Her body shuddered with his delight.

  ‘They do you great honour,’ he said. He waded into the water to be closer to her. ‘They are my favourite creatures in this place,’ he said.

  ‘Did you do this?’ she asked through a clenched mouth that could not open fully for fear of harming the butterflies perched there.

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘They like you.’

  He stood back from her and watched as if he was burning that image into his memory. He held out his hand to touch her shoulder and two of the butterflies calmly walked onto his finger.

  ‘I will teach you a respectful farewell,’ he said to her. He whispered sounds from a language she did not know then placed the two butterflies onto her fingers. ‘Repeat those words,’ he said.

  K’ul Kelem, with sparkling eyes like a child about to attempt a new trick, moved her hand close to her mouth and whispered the sounds Hachakyum had spoken. The mass of butterflies rose from her body, circled above her head as if waiting for the group to come together and then continued on their journey, following the bank of the stream.

  ‘These two don’t want to go,’ she said. The two butterflies Hachakyum had placed on her fingers remained there.

  ‘Talk to them again. Then they will know that it is time for them to leave,’ he said.

  She repeated the same sounds as before and the two butterflies on her finger lifted off and fluttered away following the direction of the others.

  ‘What does that mean?’ she asked.

  ‘It is an honourable, and respectful, thank-you,’ he said. ‘As my race would say it.’

  She watched the butterflies until she could no longer see them then turned to meet his stare.

  ‘I feel a little different after that,’ she said. ‘Like a new person.’

  ‘You are.’

  She laughed. ‘What have you done?’

  ‘I’ve extended your name,’ he said. ‘This moment will be remembered forever.’

  She thought for a second and then sounded her new name, which she knew. ‘K’ul Kelem Pep’Em Ha.’ She laughed again with happiness. ‘I like it.’

  ‘Divine Strong Butterfly Water,’ he said softly, repeating her new name. ‘It is a beautiful name for a woman.’

  ‘Did you create them?’ she asked.

  ‘What?’

  ‘The butterflies. They’re beautiful,’ she said.

  ‘No. That’s not something I can do.’

  ‘You created me,’ she said.

  ‘No I didn’t. Life is not something that can be made. It’s why we do what we do. I can re-make existing life, I can create forms, I can prod, I can shuffle,’ he said. ‘I can destroy,’ he added quickly, ‘that’s easy. Everyone can do that.’

  ‘Who’s we?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You said, “we do what we do”.’

  ‘Some of my race are able to do these things. Not all. My family has the ability and the skill.’

  She laughed with joy of knowing something personal and private about him. ‘You have a family?’

  ‘Why does that surprise you?’

  ‘I cannot imagine you being cared for, nor accepting punishment for wrongdoing.’ She laughed at the silly idea.

  He smiled. ‘No, I do not accept punishment. I have only one who would be able to do that.’

  ‘Who’s that?’

  He looked to where the butterflies had gone. She wondered if he was about to call them back for her.

  ‘I have a brother. He may be a problem.’”

  Pep’Em Ha paused her storytelling. The night was late but she had no intention of stopping. She smiled affectionately at Jim and asked him to get her a drink, she was thirsty. Jim eagerly ran off and returned with her refreshment.

  ‘That moment has been remembered forever,’ she said. ‘Our people built this village on that spot. That place on the stream is near to where Hamish and Jim spent their first night with us. It’s where Jim likes to swim.’

  Like a spell possessed them, the Westerners simultaneously turned their heads as if they could see the spot by the stream through the pitch darkness that surrounded them.

  Pep’Em Ha drank deeply and then resumed her story-telling.

  Chapter 9

  “They rose before sunrise the next morning and continued their journey. That afternoon they heard a guttural roar and a shriek that rose in pitch and panic. The origin of the sounds was not far from them. K’ul Kelem ran in the direction of the shriek that had cut out abruptly. She crashed through the jungle. She surprised a large, long-toothed cat holding the remains of a human boy in its mouth. It growled at her through the flesh it held in its teeth as if from one predator to another, warning her off the kill.

  K’ul Kelem stood her ground. The flesh in the cat’s mouth made a whimpering sound. She rushed at the cat. The predator was surprised by the human. It dropped its prey, wary of the woman’s unknown ferocity and fearlessness, and backed off while it decided whether to defend its kill or retreat.

  K’ul Kelem stood over the moaning body of the young boy, brandishing her weapons at the cat as it decided the woman was not a threat and tensed ready to pounce and retrieve its kill. K’ul Kelem threw a spear that pierced it in the eye. The predator roared in pain and slunk away, before the woman could harm it further.

  K’ul Kelem waited until the animal had retreated. She fell to her knees to inspect the boy while she kept one eye on the direction taken by the cat. The boy’s body had been mangled. There were deep cuts and chunks of flesh hung from him. He was missing the side of his abdomen
and had been partially disembowelled. Blood flowed freely but somehow he was still alive. His moans quietened. He slipped into unconsciousness. He would be dead in minutes.

  Hachakyum stood behind K’ul Kelem as she knelt next to the boy’s body.

  ‘He will be dead soon,’ he said plainly. ‘Let’s continue on our way.’

  ‘Don’t you care?’ She was angry with the frustration of helplessness. As she stood to face him she checked the direction taken by the cat, her hunters instinct still in control.

  ‘Don’t worry about that animal,’ he said, peering in the same direction as her. ‘It won’t bother you again.’

  ‘You can save the boy,’ she said, quickly and frantically. ‘Like you re-made me.’

  ‘Yes, I could.’ He did nothing.

  ‘Will you?’ she asked. She tried to sound strong, so that he would have no choice.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘There’s death everywhere, K’ul Kelem. Where would I stop? That animal you injured will die from its wounds, unable to hunt. There is an old man dying near here.’ He lifted his head as if smelling death in the nearby, but unseen, gathering of people. ‘He is a relative of this boy.’ He looked down at the mangled, bleeding, unconscious but still alive body. ‘Hundreds of your kind will die today. Do you want me to stop death for them? I have interfered more than anyone of my kind has ever done by what I did to you. For you. It doesn’t work like that. I’m sorry. Death is everywhere.’

  ‘But this boy is here,’ she said calmly, contradicting him. ‘And you can save him. You don’t need to make him immortal, just not let him die. Not here, not in front of me.’

  ‘I won’t do that every time someone you see is injured.’

  She did not listen to him. She ordered him to answer, ‘Can you do it or not?’

  ‘Yes, I can.’

  ‘Will you do it as a gift, for me?’ she asked.