Читать книгу I am Earthman онлайн | страница 24

– And, where are your parents and the rest of the people?

–They are no longer alive, they are all dead.

After being silent for a while, she continued with a sad tone;

–My mother's name was Elena, my father's name was uncle Kolya. I got the name Eva in honor of my grandmother, who died shortly before I was born. Our tribe was small, I never counted the number of people. Everyone knew everyone by sight and by name. This is not the main thing, the main thing is that people were close, lived together, got food together, children were friends, played together, rejoiced, had fun. It seemed to me that this would go on forever, because my parents were there, many children and their parents, other people. But there was a disaster. It was a long time ago. Once, when I was still a little girl, that is, I just learned how to collect worms and herbs, I got sick. My mother said that it was a cold and would pass quickly, I just needed to lie down. That's why they left me alone in the cave that day. The others all went to get food. It was everyone's daily work. The children also went to help the elders, collect worms and herbs. The mothers took the infants with them. The male hunters also did not go hunting that day, but left together with everyone. As usual, when everyone left to get food, in the evening, and sometimes even earlier, but they always returned to the cave. But none of them came back that day. I was terribly scared and that night I did not close my eyes, waiting for the return of my mother, father and other people. Three more days and three nights passed, but they did not return. I was very hungry, because I had already eaten the food that my mother left me the day they left. Then, although I was very ashamed of my actions at that time, I fed on the leftovers and food supplies of others, drank water, no longer fresh, but unpleasant-smelling, from the water supply, stored in special leather bags just in case. All this time, although I was afraid to stay alone in the cave, I was also very afraid to leave the cave. I was afraid I wouldn't find them and would get lost like them. And I was also very afraid of losing the fire, my only protection from the dark forces, and I supported it in every possible way day and night. In those distant times, when I was left alone, there were still enough coal reserves collected by our fathers, and therefore I did not present any special difficulties for me as now. Although I was still a little girl, I remember well the day when all our people left and never came back. The day was sunny, bright and warm, but after a while after they left, a strong hurricane wind suddenly blew, dark clouds suddenly appeared in the sky, it quickly darkened around, and then a heavy downpour poured. I went to the exit of the cave and saw how the earth boiled during a downpour. The old people said that earlier, too, sometimes, once every two years, there were such rains, after which the worms and herbs died out, and then after a while they reappeared. Such times, and not only such times, and sometimes as needed, as our grandfathers, old men and our grandmothers told us, that is, children, male hunters went down into the depths of the cave and extracted terribly smelling animals from the lake and we fed on them. Our mothers made bags for collecting food and clothes from the skin of these creatures. And the fat of these animals, for cooking in winter and for a torch, was stored in a stone pit covered with a blanket made from their own skin. I will show you this pit later, there is still a lot of fat stored there and the fat has not yet deteriorated. So, since then I have been living alone. As I have already said, at first, that is, the first time when I was left alone, I was very afraid to leave the cave, and then, gradually, the fear was replaced by the need to find food, feed and survive, and I began, at first fearfully, and then more and more boldly, coming to the spring. This is the spring you saw where we collected food. The spring comes out directly from the belly of the mountain, slightly deepened inside, and perhaps that is why, even in winter, despite the fierce frosts, it does not freeze. The water was clean then, as clean as it is now. I drank only water from the spring every day and chewed skin flaps with an unpleasant smell, there was no other food. Sitting by the spring for a long time, I cried every day and waited for my parents, my friends and other people, but they were not there, as if they all fell through the ground at once. Coming to the spring in the morning and spending days at the spring, I returned to the cave every day in the evening, and then putting pieces of coal in the fire so that it would not go out, I hid between the stones and fell asleep there. I was so scared and lonely, but none of them ever came back. Especially at night, I was afraid of the dark part of the cave, as if dark forces from my mother's fairy tales were about to come out of there and take me deep into the cave, then to take over my soul. But this did not happen, and the fear gradually also passed. The worms appeared quickly. Maybe not all the worms died out, and I started feeding on them. After a while, herbs appeared around the spring. So the days passed, and I gradually, although it was very difficult for me to accept the fate that fell to my lot, but I got used to being alone and to surviving in these difficult conditions. When I became an adult, I went around everything and then I found out that when that bad day began a strong bitter downpour, all the people of my tribe were hiding in a small cave located just below, not far from the spring. But there they were all covered by a dirty mudflow formed after that bitter rain and they all died there. None of them escaped. When I went into this cave, I saw their bones there. That's how I've been living alone ever since. To this day, as if it were yesterday, I remember the last, tender look of my mother before leaving and as if I hear her, soothing my soul, tender words. I also remember my friend Sissy. She wanted to stay with me so much that day, but her mother took her with her, telling her "you will play with Eva in the evening when we return". Here, the Sissy would have stayed with me that day, even if she had also been alive.