A Revelation

 

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            Looking back, I believe I lived with this band of the Forest People for just about a full year before the events of this day. These kind people remained visible and solid to my eyes for that whole year. I think it was out of an excess of kindness, for the sake of one lost human child.  In that whole year I saw nothing but amiable faces and felt nothing but gentle hands. I was surrounded in an environment of tenderness, and I grew strong in their care.
            In that year I learned to speak with them in their language, as far as I was able to perceive it.  I didn’t know that I was human.  I’m not sure I ever wondered what I was.  By then, I was sure I wasn’t a wolf, not even a strange looking two legged one. Perhaps if I had been asked I would have said I was Jula’s child. I had become her child in all ways that mattered to me.
            As my language improved, we were able to communicate on deeper levels. She taught me how to do small practical tasks. I helped her with cooking, though she didn’t really need help.  I needed teaching. She and I also worked together at making me some clothing out of deer hides and we got better at it.
            One morning as Jula and I were preparing fish for a morning meal for the band, she said, “Soosha, I would like take you for a walk and show you something very important. I think after everyone eats we’ll go.” Of course, I had no idea what she meant, but I was willing as always.
            She had a way of threading fish that I later learned were trout on green saplings in such a way that they didn’t fall off into the fire, by going in the mouth and out both gills with small branchings. They didn’t need to cook long at all, so soon everyone gathered around the fire to have some fish. I should mention that there were six in this band, plus me. Jula and Hofel, Put and her mom, named Leen, a young guy named Tiv and his wife, Osa. I think Tiv did most of the fishing. It takes practiced youthful reflexes to hand fish trout.
            When they were done eating they threw their green branches into the fire and the cleanup was done!
            Jula said to her family, “Soosha and I are going for a walk today. I see that there is a Nomad band traveling through the valley below. They are human, and she needs to see them and their way of life.” Five sweet faces nodded a little sadly. I was still quite young, so I didn’t think to wonder why. I was just excited to be going for a walk with Jula. She and I had stayed almost entirely in camp for all of the time I had been with them. The others came and went.
            We held hands, though it was a real stretch for me to reach her hand. We headed downhill. The stream where Tiv fished and where the Nomad band was camped was in a little valley not too far away from out home camp. I was as quiet as Fila had taught me to be. Jula moved silently also down a narrow path, with brush pushing in from either side. As the path continued the nature of the forest changed.  We came out of the huge firs and entered a lighter area with maples and alders and various lower brushy plants. But we stayed under cover as we approached the camp by the stream.
            Looking downhill, I saw four round structures covered in hides, built on frameworks of long poles. They were decorated with painted figures, looking very exciting to my innocent eyes. I saw four horses tied out and grazing with their tails swishing back and forth. At last, I saw a woman, and then a man. They were clothed in skin garments and were hairless except for their heads. I turned to Jula in amazement.
            “I want you to look at the Nomad camp Soosha. I know you see the people. I know that you see that they don’t have a coat of hair as I do. Do you know what that means Soosha?” she asked me so softly. “They are human people, like you little one.”
            If you could have seen us, we would have presented a strange sight I think. Jula had sat herself down on the grass just out of sight of the people down below, behind a convenient growth of wild roses, and I, a tiny human in a skin dress and moccasins, sat on her knee looking intently upon the riverside camp.
            “One day, maybe tomorrow, you and I will go talk to these people. We will find out all about them. Perhaps we can all be friends,” she said as she got to her feet, picked me up, and started walking back up to our own place.
            It’s hard to explain. But I was not frightened. I was intrigued. I had never, since Fila rescued me, seen a smooth skinned person. I couldn’t help but notice that I was a smooth skinned person myself. Like calls to like, they say, but I hadn’t considered yet what it might mean.

All four little chapters.