Chapters1-8

Ahmad Ali, the postgraduate physics student from the Middle East, always attracted some kind of a rumor concerning who he was or what he was doing. Some said he was a magician, some said he was a sorcerer, some said he was a philosopher, some said he was making some kind of a bomb or a machine. Although we have been dating for quite some time, I hadn't seen him do anything that unusual. I thought people talked because they were jealous. Since Ahmad Ali was a great student, they had given him permission to get in and out of the physics lab as he pleased. That added to the gossip going around the campus like wildfire.

One little thing... he talked funny. No, it wasn't because English was his second language. He talked funny because he thought funny. He wouldn't say, "My girlfriend is studying English." He would say, "She is learning how to stretch English." He wouldn't say, "I love you." He would say, "You have me mastered my love for you." He wouldn't ask, "Why do you look sad today?" He would say, "Today you are hidden from me, why?" In a weird way I liked it, except for this:, he once told me if he could bend some rays in some way we could be transported into the future. I didn't care too much about that mumbo jumbo but after all he was a physics guy. He had the right to be eccentric.

To ease the tension of the continuous schoolwork, I took up diving and swimming in the pool of the campus, which was a step away from the back door of the physics lab. Whenever I was in the pool, Ahmad would show up by the poolside playing with some kind of a contraption or a hand-held game.

It was late June when we planned to go hiking for the weekend. We decided to start off immediately after he would finish his work in the lab. That day, I lugged my backpack to the side of the pool and got ready to take a dip. Just as I was going in, he came running out of the lab with a small metal box in one hand and waving his other hand in the air. He yelled at me to do something but I couldn't hear him well through my earplugs. I had already gotten into the motion of a dive so I jumped in. The last image in my memory was Ahmad throwing my backpack into the pool after me.

I opened my eyes with an abrupt choking, dizzying sensation. My bathing suit was dripping with pool water but I was in the middle of an intense forest-like place. I had once seen a banana tree with huge wide leaves. Well, those leaves stayed tiny compared to some of the leaves on the bushes around me. There were trees with twisting crusty trunks I didn't recall ever seeing. Large wild flowers had sprung up in bunches from the ground. I am not a botanist but I knew a thing or two about plants. What I observed around me was beyond description and beyond imagination. It was as if the earth was left untouched, the civilization, as we knew it, had never happened, and I was thrown in the middle of a strange occurrence. "I must have hit my head in the pool somewhere," I thought.

Yet, at that moment, my situation felt real and I had to get out of my bathing suit real fast. I saw that my backpack had landed a few feet ahead. I opened it and got some clothes out and changed into my stretch pants and a t-shirt. Then I put on my socks and hiking boots. At least now I wouldn't get scratched and clawed by the thorny ground cover. I wrung the water out of my bathing suit and stuck it in the wire mesh pocket of the backpack.

It was now time to assess my predicament. I had no food, no drink and I was in the middle of a weird jungle. I was here probably as the result of Ahmad's idiotic experiments. Oh, why didn't I heed people's rumors? Didn't that lunatic claim that he could go or send people to the future? If so, why was I in this jungle? I'd think that our wonderful civilization would have gotten rid of all the jungles and rainforests by now. Maybe the imbecile goofed and reversed his input. Oh, no, What if there were dinosaurs around...

I opened the backpack again and took an inventory. I had my journal with its small pen attached to it. Some good it would do to me here! I had a Swiss army knife, a gift from Dad. Good. A fifty-foot climber's cord Ahmad had given me when we went on the Wild Expeditions trip. The sewing kit my mom makes me carry around with me, since she is so proper. I also had a box of Arm and Hammers baking soda, for insect bites and stuff. Then a large tube of glue completed my treasures in this wilderness. Ah, of course, I had my bathing suit, too.

I opened my journal and glanced at some of my previous entries. A quotation on the side of a page attracted my attention.
"You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it."

2. Foraging

Soon it became dark. For ground cover, I cut three large leaves and spread two of them on the ground. The third leaf I didn't need but still I draped it over me in case the night got cold. I had a king size bed on the jungle floor of a prehistoric time probably on a prehistoric planet in who knows which part of the universe. Funny thing is, all my life I had wanted a big bed. Why don't I get things when I want them? At my parents' home that notion was out because my room was tiny. My apartment, the same story. God is not hard of hearing. He just has late hearing.

Using my backpack as a pillow I tried to snuggle and sleep but it was impossible because of the night creatures dashing through the jungle. I shuddered when I thought that there could be snakes, lizards and Heaven knows what.

The forest floor was humid and damp; yet it was a clear night. I searched the sky trying to remember what little I knew of constellations. This was a trying task. I couldn't place any of my checkpoints as far as stars go. There were more stars that looked like Sirius than venders in a flea market. There were numerous big dippers and little dippers; therefore, Orion's Belt had become Orions' Belts. North Star became North Stars all over the night sky.

I was relieved when the dawn broke. I don't know why. Was I any safer in daylight than in the dark? If you're going to be eaten anyway by some strange creature in some eerie jungle does it matter whether you see him or not? "Hello, thou beastly creature. Since I am your lunch I am glad to make your majesty's acquaintance." Is that what I was going to say? Oh, puhleease.

My bed sheets, if one could call them that, had wilted a little. A bright idea hit me. Since I could fold them more easily maybe I could drape them around me in case I would be in danger. Didn't all life have its adaptation techniques? So why not me? The idea gave me some confidence and, draped in a wilted giant leaf, I started searching for food. Water was not much of a problem because the huge leaves of the jungle had large dewdrops on them. Each one could fill a bottle easily. After I drank some, I filled a plastic bag with more water and started to search for food.

I figured I could eat some of the vegetation around but I didn't know which was edible. Imagine eating a queer mushroom or something and getting high in this Godforsaken jungle. Yet I hadn't eaten since my dive into the pool and my stomach had started yelling at me a long time ago.

As I had lifted another leaf up to check under, I heard a crackling noise. When I raised my head, I saw a figure dash through the tree trunks. It looked like an ape but it couldn't have been because I was sure I had seen a human arm. "Hello there," I said meekly, "I am a very friendly person... really." No answer. "Well, his loss," I thought. I bent down and continued my search but that same crackling sound kept following me all through the day.

I got lucky at some point because my nose alerted me to a familiar scent. Garlic! I was sure it was true. I examined the vegetation more carefully. Yes, I had found a cluster of them. Their top growth looked like scallions four-feet high. I bit a little piece off and chewed. It tasted like fresh chives only a lot more pungent. If I could get to the root... the soil was loose and I pulled one out with ease. Yes, it was giant garlic; each clove was as big as my foot. Eureka! I ate the whole thing.

Dusk was settling in. I cut two more leaves and spread them on the ground. Then I put the two older leaves on top of them. Not only did I have a king-size bed, but it was now cushioned as well. My only worry was being spied on by that thing I felt was following me. Was this a friendly being or could he be a cannibal waiting for the dark to settle? If he were friendly, he would have shown his friendliness before, wouldn't he? If he were a cannibal, well, then with all that garlic in me, he was going to get some heartburn!

3. THE HUNT OF THE DAY

After two days of water and garlic diet, I tried to risk my life and sampled a few other plants. So, with the exception of one spiny leaf that caused stomach cramps, my diet consisted of several green plants, garlic, and dew water; however, this was not enough because I was spending too much energy looking for food and I was always hungry. I knew I needed protein in my diet. So I decided to hunt for food, but first I had to build me a shelter.

One night all of a sudden torrential rains had invaded the jungle and I had gotten soaked. I cut some tree branches and tied them together. That would be the floor of my shelter. Then I searched for rocks to place them underneath because on the night that I had gotten soaked, the water level had risen to my knees. I found a tree with fairly numerous thick branches at one side that were entangled with each other. That could be the roof. The height seemed perfect. I decided to find some rocks and put them in layers or compact them together the best I could. That would prevent the water from coming in. It took me more than two days just to carry rocks of all sizes to my home site. By this time I was feeling so tired that I could hardly move and of course my bashful stalker had been at work following me. I still didn't know what to think of him; however, he had been harmless so far, so I decided not to worry about him too much.

I took a day off and rested. The next day would be the hunt-day. I cut a few branches and whittled their tips to a point as spears. I put a few small rocks into my backpack. I figured I'd get something with those. I had observed some kind of a rodent-like animal, which couldn't run very fast. It didn't look too big but it was big enough to last me a couple of days and if I could cook and dry the leftovers, I'd get more mileage out of it.

I set a trap on the animal's trail by digging a deep hole and covering it with branches and leaves. As soon as that animal fell into my trap, I ran to it with a spear and a stone. What I hadn't taken into consideration was its fighting ability and its powerful jaws and teeth. My spear couldn't hold up and the animal grabbed my left arm. I felt its teeth sinking into me but I couldn't shake it off. Neither could I push it away. For a little thing it had the strength of a boxer. I stumbled while trying to get it off of me and fell down.

Suddenly the animal let go. I looked up and for the first time I saw my stalker in plain view. He had hit the animal with a stone sharpened on one side like a knife. He was about five feet eight, well built with sinewy arms and legs. He could very well model for LL Bean's Men's Catalog. He grabbed the animal from the back of its neck with his right hand, and from its backsides with his left hand. Then he twisted its neck and pulled it off. A rough grunt from him and the animal fell lifeless at my feet with its head separated. My stalker was my friend. He had saved my life! I wanted to thank him but he already taken to flight.

After washing my arm with water and baking soda, I sliced some garlic and pressed it on the bite marks. I glued some leaf strips together and put that over the garlic slices. Then I wrapped the top part of my bathing suit to hold everything together. Things had started to look up for me. I was still alive. My stalker was my friend and I finally would have some protein. Except, I would have to do without a rabies shot. Not bad at all.

4 A New Discovery

My arm had healed completely; even the tooth marks were barely visible. Best thing yet, I had completed my abode. It was a work of art, I should say. Too bad I didn't have my camera. Except, at night some animal walked on my roof of branches and leaves. I was worried that it would make its way inside. I didn't feel very safe, at all.

I've had little to worry about as far as the food went. My shy friend brought me some food and vegetation every day, but ran away as soon as I approached him. He had been feeding me like a zookeeper feeds his wild animals. From a distance. Maybe he thought I was his pet.

Since I didn't have to hunt for food all that much, I decided to explore and hopefully find a safer place to spend my nights. Some time ago I had ventured into what looked like a cluster of trees. Behind them was a tiny hill with an opening into what looked like a cave. It could be a den for a wild animal, so I had stayed away from it. Observing it for a few days I had seen no animal coming from or going into it. I decided to take a risk probably more from curiosity than anything else.

At the entrance of the cave, I couldn't help but shiver from fear. The cave was huge with a tiny streak of light seeping from its distant end. I decided to explore it further. I walked on tiptoe, holding a large strong piece of wood that had been chiseled at one end. The wood was more for emotional comfort than anything else. I had seen what had happened with my carefully whittled spear before.

After a few minutes, I reached the light, which was an opening to the other side of the cave. I stepped out of the cave into the blinding sunlight. What I saw was amazing.

Here was a canyon enclosed by sharp rock formations. It looked like a mixing bowl with greens and water inside. A small stream made its way from the rocks into the canyon through the trees. No animals or humans were visible. Probably nobody had been here or would be here. It was an ideal place for me. At least I could sleep better at nights.

5. My Canyon

I had to return to my home in the jungle and take it apart first because I needed every single item, like my rope, that I had used to build that thing. Only I wouldn't carry the rocks again. A glutton for punishment, I am not.

I had also noticed that in the canyon that those extra large size leaves were lacking. Yes, the leaves were very large there also but not as large as bed sheets like those of the jungle. I cut quite a few of those and pulled them along with me through the cave back into the canyon.

Once I settled in and made myself another home, this time inside a tiny cave by the side of a cliff, I figured that the time had come to better my life. I was sick of eating red meat dried in the sun. I had to find a way to make fire.

I whittled a few more sticks and gathered the shavings. Then I brought in some dead wood from under the trees. I made a circular pit in front of my cave and lined it with pieces of granite that had fallen off from the sides of the cliffs. Inside the pit I placed the dead wood and on top of it the shavings. I let the sun heat it for a while then I tried to start some sparks near it. I tried to strike two pieces of stone but I wasn't very successful with it. So I made a hole in a piece of dry dead wood and fitted a dry stick into it. I held the stick in between my hands and rubbed my hands together back and forth. There was a tiny spark after a few minutes, which encouraged me to move faster. Finally I was able to get the wood on fire. I carefully placed it inside the fire pit. I had managed to have a bonfire in quite a short time.

The fire was built but it had taken me quite a while. I decided to keep the fire going instead of trying to start it all over again each time I needed it. I brought over lots of dead wood. I found out that once the old wood turned to ashes it had the capability of keeping the burning wood hot longer. That meant I could venture away for other chores for short periods of time instead of tending the fire every few minutes.

Down by the stream I had seen some smaller rocks and pebbles. Some had taken different shapes being sculpted by the stream. I carried as many as I possibly could to my cave. Having had a bath in the stream, I sat in my bathing suit and inspected the rocks while my clothes dried by the fire. I was feeling refreshed and quite at home now.

I fitted some of my whittled wood into the holes in stones. Voila... I had hammers of different sizes. I carried over a large rock with a hollow dent on the top of it. Then I assigned several small but hard rocks to it. Now I had my grinder and tool shaper. Hitting and grinding the edges of some of the rocks I had brought over from the side of the stream, I made an assortment of sharp tools.

I had seen some yellow clay soil right after exiting from the tunnel, which had led me to this canyon. Mixing the clay with water, shaping and drying it by the fire, I was able to make some utensils. They weren't very artistic or shapely but they would work for me. They wouldn't make it to the Museum of Fine Arts but in Smithsonian they might be sought after.

After my recent accomplishments, as I closed my eyes to sleep in my cave over my mattress of leaves one night, I recalled a saying. "Necessity is the mother of invention." "There's more to that", I added out loud, "Necessity is needed for invention. Because of that, we have to honor necessity."

6. Lord Bacon's Tribe

One necessity I couldn't do away with was food. I had to go back into the jungle every so often to get my daily ration of generosity from my friend. By now I had decided to name him at least in my head. Someone with a name felt more like a friend somehow. Since he kept feeding me, I named him Lord Bacon.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose.
By any other name would smell as sweet..."

Well, I found out he didn't smell as sweet. The last time I went searching for what he had left me, I found him waiting for me. He was making strange guttural sounds. Despite his reeking, I walked up to him and said, "Hello, Lord Bacon." He listened to me intently; then made another sound. I figured that was his language. He seemed to want to say something to me. When we couldn't make any linguistic contact, he just grabbed me by the hand and pulled me. I understood that he wanted me to follow him. I nodded and walked after him. He looked at me with a strange grin. I noticed that some of his teeth were missing. This guy could certainly use a shave and a shower. Maybe then a dentist's chair? Naaah, I wouldn't do that to him.

He took me through another tunnel close to the cave I had discovered, which had led me to my canyon. His tunnel led to a circular clearing of some sort surrounded by trees. Together we went and stood there in the middle of the circle. Suddenly he gave a strange yell. Out of the blue, actually through the trees, lots of people filtered into the clearing. There were men, women, and children in skimpier clothing than on any bathing beauty I had ever seen. Some of them carried gifts of fruit and dropped them in a pile at my feet.

I couldn't believe this. I was standing inside a circular town square in the Stone Age, being offered gifts of fruit. Maybe Lord Bacon had told them I was starving.

Later, they took me to the hills behind the trees. Their homes were there in caves resembling mine in the canyon. They had learned to make cave life as comfortable as possible. The women showed me how to weave a mattress from twigs and branches. Then they filled it with dried leaves and covered it with animal skin. It was really comfortable. So comfortable that I didn't mind staying with them for a few days.

They also used the same weaving style to make shelves to hold their edible vegetation for winter storage. They had placed some shelves outside of their caves under the sun where they dried the food. Later they stored the dried food inside the caves.

Forget about the cliché picture of the caveman dragging a woman by the hair. In this society the women had the upper hand. Not only that, they seemed to be better educated for they made every effort to teach me their language. In a few days, I learned to communicate with them more or less. Women's language seemed to have evolved better than the men's. Women actually talked using all kinds of sounds. The sounds men made, on the other hand, were only guttural.

In this place, women told the men what to do, what time to hunt, what time to bring wood, and what time to take out the garbage. No wonder their life was picture perfect! I learned why Lord Bacon had helped me. It was because I was a woman and a direct descendant of the sun goddess due to my blond hair.

In their neck of the woods, these people had wheat growing wildly. They picked it up and ate it like one would eat sunflower seeds. I figured if I took some with me and ground it, I might be able to bake some bread, maybe even cake. I was letting my imagination roam. Just to know that wheat was available made me feel better about my situation.

These people were very good at making pinwheels from large leaves and long sticks. They used them to ventilate the insides of their caves. In very warm weather when there would be no wind, the men lined up and waved large leaves up and down, creating enough wind to get the pinwheels turning while the women sat down and enjoyed the instant air-conditioning. Watching these people, I kept wondering how our civilization had put women in an awful place and kept them there for centuries, while these primitives were worshipping her. When had that terrible change taken place? What had we done to ourselves?

7. The Cavewoman - Yours Truly

After some time, I told the ladies that I wanted to go to my canyon to start fixing up my cave for the winter. After the tribe and I prostrated ourselves before the sun goddess and they danced around their gifts for me, I left with Lord Bacon and a couple of younger guys carrying my prizes.

As soon as I got home I started on bettering my cave. I found that inside my cave the air got musty very soon. Since I didn't have the guys to air-condition it for me I had to find my own way to do it with the least amount of effort.

First I made several pinwheels. I placed them in strategic spots and by trial and error I made it so that when the first one at the mouth of the cave started, in a domino effect, the rest kept going with the wind of the one in front of it. The trick was getting the first one going. Once I had it moving the others got going for a while because of their circular arrangement inside the cave. In addition to get my fire going, I had now found a way to aerate the cave.

Next thing I accomplished was that I made some flour by grinding the wheat in between two stones. I added some water and just a pinch of the baking soda, which was in my backpack, to it and made dough. Sure enough I was able to bake some kind of bread resembling pitas or tortillas.

I gathered lots of branches and wove myself a set of furniture, from a bedroom set to a stack of shelves that looked like a wall unit on one wall of the cave. I brought up some stones and clay for the frigid season to come. It would be a good idea to make the mouth of my cave smaller to further protect myself from the cold of winter.

Then I figured I could use some of the stones and clay to make myself an inside table. After I did that, I brought up some larger stones flattened at the top for chairs. All this pushing, pulling and carrying had made me muscular. I noticed that my once flabby biceps had toned up beautifully. Everything I now owned had served to some use directly or indirectly. After losing the comforts of my apartment and knowing nothing about jungle life, I had evolved into a self-supporting cave dweller. The gains at the end of the phase had to be be greater than when this novice entered each phase in life. I took a good hard look at my cave. It was my home now. It was singing to me.

8. Winter Abode

The summer was over. Since I didn't know what kind of winters they would have here, I thought it would be wise to start getting prepared. I had failed to make the cave opening smaller, because a major section of its opening was of compacted clay and not rock. When the fall rains came the clay started to get waterlogged, then became heavy and fell down in chunks, making the opening even larger than it was at summertime.

I decided to look around more. To my surprise I found a few empty caves in the same vicinity. Exploring into them took some guts but I managed it. When you are in the thick of things, you stop worrying of danger.

One of the caves was small but well-lighted and from the inside you could see the stars. I loved the open fresh feeling but gave up on that as soon as I remembered that I was looking for a winter chalet not a summer lean-to. Another one was close to the trees and the river. Yet another one was higher up but well sheltered, although it didn't have a shelf in front of it for cooking purposes.

Then I found a cave especially worth moving into. Its entrance was small but it curved inwards. This would hold out the winter storms and fierce winds. The curve, or my hallway as I called it, opened into a very large hollow. This would be my studio apartment. There was a slight crack between the steep stone walls on one side where light came through from the outside. This was perfect. Even in New York City, people weren't so lucky with their rentals, I thought.