A NOVEL SET IN PREHISTORY
The Oak People
Chapter 24: Bo visits Ansa and becomes a woman
Bo
‘Ama Bo! Carry me!’ wails Hua. She has flopped down in protest, in the middle of the path.
Bo turns round. ‘Get up,’ she calls. ‘You’re big enough to walk.’
Hua’s face creases up pitifully and Bo goes back for her, trying to keep the smile from her face. ‘Come on then,’ she grumbles, hoisting the little girl onto her hip.
‘They’ve been here already!’ Gashi says, when Bo has caught up with her. ‘Why didn’t they say?’
‘Who?’
‘The others — Ikomar and Sorne. It would have saved us a long walk. Every patch of peas here has already been stripped.’
‘But surely we would have seen them coming back,’ Bo muses.
Maybe they went further on, she thinks, with Nuno along to carry for them. It still doesn’t seem right, a man foraging with the women, but picking peas is work he can still do. A smile comes to Bo’s face. He can do one other thing, it seems, because his wife Ikomar is growing a baby in her belly at last.
‘Eggs!’ Gashi says suddenly. ‘We’ll go back on the tortoise path — there may be some eggs.’
‘Eggs!’ Hua crows. She clambers down from Bo’s arms, happy to walk now.
Amid the oak scrub, they find several scrapes, where the earth has been disturbed. Gashi tests the ground with her stick. She unearths eight perfectly round white eggs which had been completely hidden from view. Hua takes one and runs to find a rock with a sharp edge, so she can break it open.
Hua’s face, covered in sticky yolk, reminds Bo of that strange day, last spring, when Ansa found the antelope calf. Bo quickly wipes Hua’s face and hands. It is painful to remember Ansa as she used to be, before the madness took her.
Gashi has moved on, as far as the spring. Catching up with her, Bo sees a clump of nut grass, growing tall where the ground is damp. Gashi has started digging, to get at the tubers.
‘Will they be big enough?’ Bo is doubtful.
The roots are barely thicker than Bo’s finger and the pungent smell is unpleasant, but Gashi seems glad to have found them. This spring, anything is better than nothing.
On the way back, Bo is quiet. When they reach the fork in the path, she takes a deep breath. ‘Should we take Ansa a couple of the eggs?’
She waits anxiously for Gashi’s reaction. The eggs are precious; perhaps they should go to the children, to Goi’s son who is sick. Gashi is silent for a time, then she nods.
‘I’ll take them to her,’ Bo says quickly, before Gashi can change her mind. After all, when Koru died and Ansa ran away to the shelter, it was Gashi who insisted they should keep feeding her. Some of the others wanted to leave her alone to die. But it’s been so long and she’s no better and they are all so hungry.
Bo takes two of the eggs from Gashi’s bag. She squats down beside Hua. ‘Go back with Gashi now.’ She kisses the little girl’s cheek.
‘I want to go with you,’ Hua says.
Bo exchanges a glance with Gashi. ‘I won’t be long.’
The older woman takes Hua’s hand and starts back to the cave, while Bo takes the path across the face of the mountain and up to the rockshelter. It is the hottest part of the day. She stops to wipe the sweat from her eyes and to rub her back, low down by her buttocks, trying to ease the dull ache that has been plaguing her ever since she woke.
All through the winter and the spring, Bo has been taking food to Ansa. The winter rains and the spring flowers have long gone and now the days are growing hot. Bo reaches the shelter and calls from the path.
‘Ansa! It’s me. I’ve brought eggs.’
She is not surprised when there is no reply. Often, Ansa will not speak to her, not at first. Sometimes, on the coldest days of winter, she would sit staring out blankly, not seeming to notice that Bo was lighting a fire. Later, Bo would lie awake in the cave, worrying that Ansa would fall into the fire and burn herself.
‘I’m coming up!’ Bo calls.
She secures the bag with the eggs to her back and scrambles up the rocky cliff to the shelter mouth. Coming from the light of midday, at first Bo can see nothing in the dark gap beneath the overhanging rock. She climbs up over the ledge and crawls in, peering around her: dried bedding grass, skins they have brought to keep Ansa warm, the remnants of a fire. Something crackles under Bo’s knee — acorn shells lie scattered over the rocky floor, amid the rat droppings. There is a strong smell of piss coming from the back, where the crack in the rock is nothing more than a narrow fissure. But there is no sign of Ansa herself.
Bo’s heart is beating fast as she scans the path below. After a while, the figure of Ansa appears, coming back from the spring. She is hurrying, her head bent low, eyes on the path. Her gait is uneven. Bo gasps when she sees the swelling of Ansa’s pregnant belly — her belt scarcely visible beneath it.
‘Ansa!’
Ansa pauses, trying to locate the sound, then squints up towards the shelter. She often complains now about the bright light. There are wet splashes of brown around her mouth from drinking at the spring, but the rest of her body is caked with reddish dust. She doesn’t return the greeting but climbs awkwardly up to the shelter.
Bo puts out a hand to help Ansa over the ledge and, for once, she accepts it. She is panting with the weight of her belly and murmuring under her breath.
‘Has he come back?’
‘Who?’
‘Is he there?’ Ansa jabs her finger in the direction of the opening.
‘Balqa? You mean Balqa?’
‘Shh …’ Ansa hisses. ‘He can’t see us here, but he can hear us.’
Bo sighs. Balqa has been absent from the sky for three nights but it is no use trying to reassure Ansa. And, anyway, he will soon reappear, a fine crescent of white.
Back in the safety of the shelter, Ansa seems calmer. She sits rocking in just the same way that Hua does when you sing to her. Tears prick at the back of Bo’s eyes. She reaches out, but Ansa pushes her away and carries on rocking. After a time, she tries again, laying her palm flat on Ansa’s taut belly. She waits, her mouth open. Soon, she is rewarded by a movement from inside: a tiny fist, or a foot perhaps.
‘There! Did you feel it?’ Bo is delighted. But Ansa just turns to her, blank eyes in a blank face. ‘There it is again! That’s your baby.’
Bo takes Ansa’s hand and presses it down where the baby kicked but Ansa pulls her hand away.
‘I’m hungry,’ she says. ‘What have you brought?’
Bo’s pity is beginning to dry up, like a patch of piss under the eye of Eshtu. Ansa doesn’t deserve another child. She never even asks about the one she has.
‘I’ve brought something special,’ Bo says. Surely she will be glad when she sees the eggs. ‘Gashi and I found them when we were out with Hua.’
‘Hua?’ Ansa sounds puzzled.
‘Yes, Hua. Your daughter. She misses you.’
Ansa shows no sign of having heard the edge in Bo’s voice. She seems to be looking at something else, something far away. When she turns back to Bo, her voice is different — strong and clear.
‘Ansa can’t be trusted. That’s what Ama says. Ansa can’t be trusted. She didn’t look after Zeru.’
‘Zeru? Who is Zeru?’
But Ansa has turned away again and is drumming her fingers on the ground and muttering under her breath. It is no use trying to make sense of it. Instead, Bo opens her bag carefully.
‘Look what I’ve brought.’
There is no response. Bo clamps her hand over Ansa’s to stop the tapping, but Ansa wrenches her fingers free with surprising strength.
‘Don’t do that! Now I’ll have to start again,’ she protests.
Quickly, Bo holds out the eggs. ‘Look!’
Ansa stares at them, then up at Bo. She edges away, hiding her hands behind her back.
‘What’s the matter?’ cries Bo. ‘They’re fresh!’
Ansa holds her head still, as if she has heard something. Bo listens, but there is nothing.
‘I’ll crack one for you,’ Bo says.
Ansa moves quickly and, with a deft movement, she knocks the egg from Bo’s hand. It falls onto the rock and breaks open, the precious yolk spilling out, fouled by the dirt and droppings. Ansa recoils from the sticky mess and, snatching the other egg, throws it out through the mouth of the shelter.
Stunned, Bo watches as Ansa crawls back to the shelter wall, where she starts rocking once more. Anger pushes up from Bo’s belly and out through her mouth.
‘Why did you do that?’
The rocking stops.
‘They’re poisoned,’ Ansa says then crawls close, peering into Bo’s face, her eyes narrow slits of suspicion. ‘Why did you bring them? Did he send you?’
Bo is beside herself. ‘I brought you the eggs. What are you frightened of? I brought them because I thought you’d like them. It was me, not Balqa.’
Ansa flinches at the name and puts her finger to her lips.
‘Stop it, Ansa! Stop all this stupid talk and come back to the cave with me.’
Bo is shaking but Ansa only turns her back and starts drumming again with her fingers. Tears begin to spill over and run down Bo’s face, but Ansa takes no notice. After a time, Bo crawls towards the shelter’s mouth. There is no point in staying any longer. The wasted egg lies smeared on the floor, food that could have gone to Goi’s son or to Hua. At the ledge, Bo pauses, filled with an urge to punish Ansa.
‘Hua thinks I’m her Ama now. Did you know that?’ she says.
The drumming stops. Bo waits but Ansa will not turn to face her. Bo begins the climb down and, one last time, she peers through the gloom. Ansa has covered her ears with her hands.
As Bo scrambles down to the path, the dull ache seems to move round to her belly. Walking back, the pain grows worse but now the rest of her body is more comfortable, as if she were sitting around a warm fire, with food in her belly. Then, she feels it — something wet between her legs. She dabs at her puti and stares at the brownish red stain on her fingers. Blood! A woman’s blood at last. She is proud but with the pride comes a heaviness. In time this will mean leaving the cave, living with a new people she doesn’t know, sleeping beside a strange man.
Bo walks on slowly, her thoughts circling like flies around this new thing. She will need to gather moss and dry it, as the other women do, to soak up the blood. And now she will start to wear the belt that shows she is a woman. They will cut her hair, right back to her scalp. Bo’s face colours with shame as she thinks of the men seeing her shaved head and knowing. Bidari. The thought of Bidari knowing races through her, tingling her skin.
Nearing the cave, she walks more and more slowly, but there is no going back. Esti is sat outside, chewing on a shoot of reed mace and watching the children. Keeping out of sight, Bo leaves the path, pushing her way amid the dense scrub. Soon, she finds what she is looking for — a hollow branch that will make a good clear sound. She snaps it in two and climbs back up till she is just below the path. Hiding from sight behind a bush, she beats one of the dry sticks against the other: once, then twice more in quick succession. She repeats the sequence then peers through the leaves, her heart thumping. Esti looks up at once, trying to locate the sound. Bo signals again and, this time, Esti gets up stiffly and comes towards her. Age has made her legs curve out from her hips, leaving a wide space between her knees. There is a look of excitement on her lined face.
‘Bo? Is that you?’ she calls, and Bo slides out from behind the bush, her face aflame.
‘I thought I heard the signal. Has the bleeding come?’
Bo nods. There is nothing of the usual complaining note in Esti’s voice. Her face breaks into a beam; for once, she will be the bringer of news.
‘Stay back here,’ she orders, ‘I’ll get the others.’
‘Can’t I come with you?’ Bo asks, the strange new ache pulling at her belly. She doesn’t want to be alone. ‘Let me come and help with the grass peas,’ she pleads.
‘No.’ Esti is full of her own importance. ‘You must keep out of sight. I’ll bring the belt — and a blade for your hair. We’ll cut it here.’
The old woman starts off for the cave, then stops suddenly and turns back.
‘What were you saying about grass peas? There aren’t any grass peas. Gashi came back with nothing. Just some eggs and a few measly roots of nut grass.’
‘I know — I was with her. Ikomar had already picked the peas, with Sorne. Aren’t they back yet?’
Esti stares at Bo. Perhaps her sense has left her along with the first blood.
‘Ikomar and Sorne have been here all day,’ she says. ‘Now get behind the bush in case the men see you.’
She sets off for the cave, leaving Bo crouching out of sight. Bo is puzzled. She and Gashi went to all the places where peas grow. They had all been stripped, even the small ones that should have been left to grow. Bo sinks down to the ground, too tired to think anymore. Her body feels heavy and unfamiliar and it is a relief to leave everything to Esti. Later, the talking will begin and the planning. A man will have to be found for her. But not yet. For now, while the bleeding lasts, the women will keep her away from the men.
Thank you for reading. Chapter 25 coming soon …
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