Bal's Bane

© 1994 By James Lester

Bal took another look at The Father's Face before he continued the low chanting of his own longname. He knew there were some men whose longnames were shorter than his. They were poor unfortunates who lived in other Clans. He was proud that it took most of a morning to declare his. And, he always felt such a warmth in his heart as he neared the end of it, because that was when he could see his mother, and her mother, in his longname. He still knew them both, and had learned his own longname as a boy in their laps.

Right now, Bal was especially happy because the task he was performing was long enough to allow for the recital of his complete longname. Those were the good tasks. Other tasks only required recital of parts of his longname.

But, today, he was walking to the Band where his son lived, and he was almost there. It was one longname away in the Forest from the Band where he lived. Soon he should begin to encounter the members of this neighbor Band, and it would be good to grunt his grudging recognition, and receive theirs. There would be plenty of time, later, for tales by the fire.

It was truly rare to encounter anyone with whom one had not already exchanged longnames. It was the major activity of early adulthood to travel to all nearby bands within The Clan and declare one's longname. Small as the bands were, it nevertheless took days to complete the process, and for this reason, travel by the young was restricted to certain Moons of the year. Otherwise, no one would have been able to do anything but longnames day in and day out.

Bal had declared his longname long ago. His son, Gom, had done so only recently. Bal remembered with a momentary rush of pride the first day he watched Gom declaring his longname to those in the Band. He remembered how anxious he was for Gom to travel to Bal's mother's Band and "declare." Mother will be so proud of me, he had thought.

Now, Gom was living in the Band of the woman whose own young children were fathered by Gom, and that was where Bal was going on this beautiful day in the forest. The message had been strange and asked him to hurry.

Another glance at  The Father's Face told him that The Father's Love had risen to just the right height above The Mother's Lap. He was coming to the end of his longname and his journey at a propitious time. It was best to be in the shade of The Mother's Trees during the height of The Father's daily Love for The Mother. And, here is another good sign, Bal thought as he rounded a bend in the path.

Bal slowed his walking as he respectfully skirted a small group of women of the Band with whom Gom now lived. So beautiful! he thought, lowering his head with a smile.

The women acknowledged his passing with a pause in their digging for the precious Roots The Mother had prepared for them. The flash of a smile, the glint of laughing eyes, a suppressed giggle, told Bal they still remembered him from the last meeting of The Clan. It was good to think ahead for a moment to the next meeting only a few Months from now.

Of course, he needn't declare his longname to these women. And, they needn't declare theirs to him. Women never walked about in the Forest alone, so they did not need to tell their longnames; only occasionally the longname of their Band. Women were constantly in the company of their sisters, mothers, mother's sisters, and mother's mothers. And, of course, they were the constant intimates of The Mother.

Because men often traveled singly, they often had to tell their longnames. Bal shuddered involuntarily as he thought, not for the first time, of the terrible prospect of someday meeting a man who had no longname. He had been told such people had existed long ago. His mind utterly refused to deal with what it would be like not to have a longname.

Now, with the women out of sight behind him, he prepared himself to recognize the first man he would encounter from this Band.

He hesitated. Someone was running toward him in the Forest. He could hear the footsteps, the labored breathing, and was alarmed by the sense of dread in these sounds.

Bal stepped behind a Tree in order to observe the approaching person without remaining in the path. He realized from the sound of the breathing that it was a woman. This filled him with consternation. Was she running from something? Women never ran that way unless the Band was being attacked, and that had not happened in recent memory.

The instant the woman burst into view, Bal knew her as the mother of the children Gom had fathered. Bal leaped from behind the Tree and caught Lorn in his arms.

"Where is your danger, Lorn!" he cried as he steadied her.

"Oh, Bal," she gasped, "I'm so glad you've come. It's Gom. I am afraid for him. Come!"

She grasped his hand and pulled him back in the direction from which she had just run.

"Is he hurt?" Bal asked as they ran down the path. Lorn only shook her head and would not look at Bal. They stopped suddenly as they entered the clearing in which the shelters were erected for Lorn's Band.

Lorn stood still and pointed to one of the shelters near the edge of the clearing. It was neatly constructed, and Bal could tell Gom had had a hand in its making. The children of the Band had withdrawn to the other side of the clearing and were milling around the adults, who were staring fearfully at the shelter Bal was approaching.

Bending to enter the front opening, he straightened as he stepped inside. There on the mat was his son, Gom. But, Bal had never seen him in such a state of abject terror. Gom was bent forward on his knees, clutching a large, square, flat object to his chest as if to keep it from jumping free to attack him. His face was red and strained with the effort. His mouth was wide open, and as soon as he saw Bal, a shriek exploded from his lungs.

"Help me, Father, they're going to get out!" Bal grasped Gom's shoulders, then slowly pulled the object from his son's death-like grip.

"Don't open it! Please, don't open it, Father!"

"All right, Son, all right. I promise I won't open it." Sitting down with the object in his lap, Bal motioned for Gom to sit across from him on the dirt floor of the shelter.

The Mother's Breath was still. The Father's Love, slicing down through the fronds of the shelter, cast long shards of light across the dark, sweat-streaked bodies of the two men, increasing the feral quality of this breathless moment.

The object was hard and smooth. Its surface was brown, and although it looked like wood, Bal knew it was not. The thick edge was bright and shiny. There was a crack visible all around that edge.

"Where did you get this?"

"From the old cave, near the River."

"Tell me what happened."

"I found it in the back of the cave where that big piece of rock fell away. There's a huge place back there with all kinds of shiny things inside. It's really scary, Father. But, this was right at the opening, so I picked it up and ran back here with it. Then I opened it, and it started happening. Oh, Father, it’s so horrible!"

 "It's all right, Son, I'm here, now. We'll see this through together. Whatever it is, we'll never let it harm any of us."

Bal lifted the object gingerly, and pulled the two halves apart at the crack in the edge. The bottom half slowly drooped to the floor, leaving the upper half slanted upward.

He pushed the upper half to the upright position. The inside of the upper half was smooth and shiny. The surface of the lower half was covered with markings in different colors. There were little pieces of material on its surface, all shining like the rest of the object.

A Ray of The Father's Love had moved, touching one of these pieces, and suddenly, an image appeared in the space between the upper and lower halves.

 "It's happening again, Father!" Gom shouted, leaping to his feet and pointing at the image.

 "Wait!" Bal shouted, just as Gom was turning to run from the shelter.

 Gom stopped and turned slowly around, still shaking as he stood waiting for his father to speak.

 "Sit down, Son."

 Gom reluctantly squatted, again, across from his father.

 Bal gazed at the image. It appeared to be the image of The Mother's Trees surrounding one of Her great Breasts, with The Father's Face above. Except that the Breast was shaped like a perfect square. And, the Trees of the forest seemed to be very small and close together. And, The Father's Love was not visible in His Face.

 Bal reached forward as if to touch the upper corner of the pink square. As his finger merged with the image, the image changed so that it was now the image of only a part of that corner. It did not take any more space in the shelter, but somehow Bal could see the corner of the pink square as if he were standing upon it.

 He withdrew his finger, and the image returned to its former appearance.

 Next, he pointed his finger at the Trees. As his finger merged with the image of the Trees, a truly remarkable and frightening thing happened.

 The Trees became the faces and shoulders of men!

 Bal jerked his finger away from the image as if it were hot, and it collapsed, again, to its first appearance.

 "That's what I mean, Father!"

 Bal held up his hand for silence.

 Now, Bal could see that what looked like a Forest was actually a forest of men. Too many men to comprehend. It seemed impossible that mothers could give birth to so many men. And yet, there they were, stretching out as far as the eye could see around that huge pink square object.

 Bal began to point at various places in the image to make it show a close-up view. He found that all the men were standing, angry faces toward the square in the middle of the image, fists raised defiantly in the same direction. And he found that the pink square was an immense shelter of some kind with openings in the sides. And in those openings could be seen the frightened faces of men, women and children looking out over the forest of angry men outside.

 These images really were quite upsetting, Bal realized, and he did not blame his son for being disturbed by what had happened to him. He was even breathing fast himself, though he now understood what the images meant.

 Slowly, Bal closed the two halves, and the image disappeared.

 "Now, I know the story Clan Mother teaches us at the elder Initiation is true," he said.

 "There was a time, long, long ago, my son, when Evil men decided to force The Mother to give more Food than She and The Father wished to give. The Mother and The Father warned them not to do this. But, they would not listen.

 "They had forgotten that sometimes The Mother and The Father roll over some of their people in the fullness of Their love-making, just as we sometimes step on ants as we walk along a path. But, who are we to instruct The Mother and The Father? And, do ants force us not to walk on the paths?

 "And so, these evil men made fire so they could live where The Mother does not want us to live. They forced The Mother to produce more plants than she intends to produce, and they forced other animals to produce great numbers only to be killed as food. Then, they were able to increase their numbers because they forced women to bear many children just as they forced The Mother. They used these many children as soldiers to kill people like us who did not agree to live in this new, evil way.

 "They cut down the many Forests so they could force The Mother to grow even more food, and produce even more fire. They enslaved all these Extra people to do the bidding of the Few who had this sinful idea. These men wanted to become like The Father. But, they raped The Mother and the women. They forgot their longnames. They forgot how to remember. They had to use these markings to help them survive. They had to think up things to keep the Extra people busy, so they would not go mad and kill the Few who did this to The Mother.

"The Few felt guilty because The Father could see what they were doing all along. They invented a person whom they said came from The Father to forgive them for what they were doing to The Mother. They did this so the extra people would keep on raping The Mother for them.

"Our Clan did not know of these things until almost all the Forests were gone. But then, the Evil ones and the Extra ones turned upon each other.

"This is an image of what happened in the end. You were not supposed to hear this story for many namings yet, my son. Put it out of your mind, for now. When you do hear it again, you will be the only one who will be able to see the horror of it, clearly. Remember that, my son."

That same day, Bal and Gom took the strange object to the Cave by the river. They put it back inside the opening and sealed it up, so The Mother could keep those things in Her care, forever.

The End

Last modified:

Saturday, August 24, 2013