Family: OUT OF THE DARKNESS

Once upon a time, long, long before Cinderella was born, a little girl lived in a cave. She had only her hairy father and mother to keep her company. Maa stayed in the cave most of the time but left Chaa alone when leaves and twigs had to be gathered for the fire. Faa was not there many moons as he had to hunt for food to survive. When there was almost nothing left for the three of them to eat, out he would go again. Neither the hot sun or wet drops that fell on him held him back.

 

Little Chaa liked to sit by the small fire to look for faces like hers in the flames. The cave’s floor had many rocks and small stones that kept her busy. Rubbing the rocks together she learned to sharpen them into points. Not as sharp as Faa’s but good enough for her to draw pictures on the cave walls. With the brown stones she made a ring around the fire. Trickling down the wall was a narrow stream of wetness. Both Maa and Faa kept leaves filled with it so they could drink it with the cooked meat.

 

No one had a watch. Days were days. Nights were nights and Chaa was growing up. Soon she would be ready to leave the cave with Maa and gather with her. Grunting, jumping she made a basket out of an animal skin and taught her Maa how they could carry more that way. On the third day they went out together, Chaa saw something move among the greens that Maa was breaking off. As one, they dropped their baskets and ran back towards the cave. Noise followed them.  Once safely inside, Maa grabbed a heavy stick, poked it into the fire until it caught on and flamed. A shadow went past the cave’s mouth, made a howling noise, and came back. With its arms dangling to the dirt floor, it moved close to Maa who poked it with the hot stick. It backed into Chaa, knocked her down and climbed on top of her. He shook her and shook her until he was tired, made no sound and left.

 

Nothing had changed. Father, mother and Chaa gathered and hunted until Chaa was fat and could not work hard.

 

The fire in the cave was very low. In the near darkness Chaa screamed and screamed. Her parents woke, believing a bear had come in the cave. They gathered rocks, ready to chase the bear. There was no bear. A tiny, tiny hairy thing was on the floor, with a snakey thing attached to Chaa. Maa took one of the sharp rocks Chaa had rubbed into a point and cut off the snake.  Maa lifted the hairy little thing that looked like her except much smaller. Chaa sat up and looked too, then took it from Maa.

 

And so the three became four and Chaa soon had someone to keep her company, make arrows, draw on the walls, and was happy.