Integrity, 130,000 BC: The Cerutti Mastodon Site

By Bonnye Matthews

In a super strong patriarchal society of one clan in southern California 130,000 years ago, a girl twin is born before her brother twin, and as a stroke of luck, she is not left to die, as would have been the case for a second-born girl. The girl, Elka, grows to be strong, fearless, and spiritual, things that didn't fit well in the culture into which she meets life, a culture where each man rules over his family without limits on his authority. One man, her grandfather, Geol, rules the clan. The clan's culture sees birth as perfection of person and every infraction of the clan rules as a loss of integrity, a brokenness. Lose a certain, unspecified, amount of integrity, and one is exiled from the clan forever, as there is no remedy for loss of too much integrity. s her father sinks deeper into power-driven attempts to kill the strong spirit within Elka, a spirit he fears, a possible escape plan opens up for Elka. Will the plan save her? Or, will she be victimized as one member of the clan already is, to become to the extreme of their belief, a slave to every unreasonable whim of her husband for the rest of her life? Elka opts for escape, agonizing at separation from her twin and others she loves in the clan. Will she make it? Will she survive the separation? Will she find a place where she can thrive in the huge land that surrounds her? Read to discover the answers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publication Consultants
• Release date: Dec 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781594338465

Bonnye Matthews

Alaskan author, Bonnye Matthews is the award-winning writer of the Winds of Change series on the peopling of the Americas before the ice age. After five years of intense research, she chose to write from the Pre-Clovis view, as it is supported by recent genetic evidence and new fossil and artifact findings of the last decade or so, plus more than 400 sites in the Americas. Her thirst for knowledge in this area follows the footsteps of Thomas Dillehay, J. M. Adocvasio, and many other archaeologists. She dreams of the day when a Homo erectus specimen has finally donated a viable genetic specimen. The Winds of Change series includes the following books: 1. Ki'ti's Story, 75,000 BC, the thrilling tale of how Neanderthals, Cromagnons, and Homo erectus race to avoid the ashfall from a supervolcano (based on the eruption of Mt. Toba, called Bambas in the novel); 2. Manak-Na's Story, 75,000 BC, the story of a father who travels from China/Mongolia by boat to Mexico and back, seeing people in the Americas; 3. Zamimolo's Story: 50,000 BC, where Zamimolo struggles with the terrifying new environment after migrating from Asia to Central America; 4. Tuksook's Story: 35,000 BC, where The People flee to Alaska to survive a terrible drought; 5. The SealEaters, 20,000 BC, a survival story of the Solutreans in Northern Europe as they face ice from the North and war from the East and South, explore and find a new homeland in the Americas. After winning awards for each of her titles, Bonnye has begun a new series continuing her focus on Pre-Clovis sites in the Americas - this time set in ancient Mexico, and beginning with Freedom, 25,000 BC. Contact Bonnye here: Website: www.booksbybonnye.com Facebook: http://facebook.com/pages/Bonnye-Matthews/484231424985849?ref=hl# Facebook Prehistoric Fiction Writers and Readers Campfire https://www.facebook.com/groups/1466936593554809/1511142539134214/?notif_t=group_comment Twitter: @BonnyeMatthews

Book preview

Mul

PART ONE

Elog was deeply disturbed. He twisted the edge of his old leather skirt. Where it had torn and left a long finger-like piece of leather dangling, it was tantalizing and, he thought through fingertip motion not words, a great place to drain worry, as if worry could be removed somehow through the fingertips. Sweat rivered down his back where the sun shone on his tanned skin, protected only by a single dark brown braid. He and his ten-year-old twin, Elka, had disagreed over what they would do to contribute to clan integrity that day. He wanted to spear a deer, and she wanted to satisfy her curiosity regarding the area where they’d seen the huge dead-eater birds circling far in the distance two moons ago. With a wingspan more than twice the height of a man, these birds could be seen at quite a distance. Elka assured him they could reach the place of the dead animal by running there and back in less than a day.

Their grandfather, Geol, had said no one should go to that place to gather tool-making material, until he was ready. They had no need of more meat to smoke. They had already stashed a great quantity for times when meat would be scarce. There was a drought, but their nearby lake was holding its water level. At present meat was plentiful, for their lake drew animals, especially when other, smaller water sources dried up.

Geol wanted to wait until the meat, identified by the circling dead-eaters, had rotted or been adequately scavenged, so the bones would be more easily available to harvest. He had no interest in competing with scavengers for tool-making material. Worst of all, a hunter’s find nearby of three dead-eater birds, dead for no apparent reason, bothered him—an omen of bad luck tied to the carcass, Geol thought. Jin, his cousin, had found the dead-eater birds lying on a hill near each other, and he left them untouched. You could eat animals that primarily ate plants, birds, eggs, but not animals that ate animals, not unless it was starving time. You never ate dead-eaters, dead in numbers for no apparent reason.

They hadn’t seen the dead-eater birds for a long time. Not until a little while ago when the sky seemed filled with them all heading to one place. The dead animal must have been a large one, they all agreed.

Geol said they could go when he was ready. No one would cross him. Crossing Geol could affect clan integrity. Geol was the clan leader. Everyone owed him obedience. It was part of clan integrity. Elka wanted to go there against Geol’s prohibition, and Elog did not know how to reason with her, other than to say it would be wrong. Likely punishable. His argument had been ineffective. Elog ripped the long leather finger from the bottom of his skirt. He hung it on a thin tree branch, thinking a bird might use it for nesting material.

It was high sun and Elka had been gone since early morning. In frustration Elog threw a pebble hard at a flat rock. It bounced back, hitting him in the knee. His knee bled, but the wound was not a bad loss of skin integrity. Elog was unsure what to do about Elka. He scanned the area for Sig, without success in locating his older brother.

Dal, his mother, called to him. Where’s Elka? She should be helping prepare our evening meal.

I don’t know, Elog admitted.

What do you mean? You’re always together. His mother, Dal, was shocked.

We argued early this morning, and I haven’t seen her since then.

His uncle, Hol, having overheard the words, added, I always said they should have put her aside the day she was born.

Hol, don’t start that again! Dal bitterly insisted. It was settled long ago. Dal realized too late that Elog had heard the words, carelessly tossed out by her