Part 16 (2/2)
”Now tell me again that I'm crazy,” Og invited.
Ug's gasp was a mixture of terror, awe, and incredulity.
”Holy sabre-cats, don't you know that stuff's dangerous? It can take out a whole block of the forest in the dry season. Get rid of it for chrissakes, w.i.l.l.ya!”
”It's okay between those rocks. Anyhow, I don't want to get rid of it. I was wondering if we could figure out how to use it for something.”
”Like what?” Ug continued to stare nervously at the crackling pile and kept himself at a safe distance.
”What could anybody do with it, besides get hurt?”
”I don't know. All kinds of things. . . .” Og frowned and scratched his chin. ”For instance, maybe we wouldn't have to kick people out of the caves and make them trek a half mile down to where the hot springs are whenever they start to smell bad.”
”How else are they gonna clean up?”
”Well, I was thinking . . . maybe we could use this to make our own hot water right there in the caves and save all the ha.s.sle. Think what a difference that would make to the girls. They wouldn't-”
”WHAT!” Ug cut him off with a shout that echoed back from the rocks above. ”You wanna take that stuff inside the caves? You are crazy! Are you trying to get us all killed? Even the mammoths take off like bats outa h.e.l.l if they catch so much as a whiff of that stuff. Anyhow, how could you make water hot with it? It'd burn through the skins.”
”So you don't put it in skins. You put it in something else . . . something that won't burn.”
”Such as what?”
”h.e.l.l, I don't know yet,” Og yelled, at last losing his patience. ”It's a brand new technology. Maybe some kind of stone stuff . . .”
The sounds of running feet and jabbering voices from just around the bend in the trail above interrupted them. A few moments later Ag, the Vice-Chief, rushed into the clearing, closely followed by about twenty of the tribespeople.
”What's going on down here?” Ag demanded. ”We heard shouting . . . ARGH! FIRE! There's fire in the valley. FLEE FOR YOUR LIVES! FIRE IN THE VALLEY!” The rest took up the cry and plunged back into the undergrowth in all directions. The trees all around reverberated with the sounds of colliding bodies and m.u.f.fled curses, while Og continued to stare happily at his creation and Ug watched nervously from a few paces back. Then silence descended. After a while bearded faces began popping one by one out of the greenery on all sides. Ag re-emerged from behind a bush and approached warily.
”What's this?” he enquired, looking from Ug to Og and back again. ”There hasn't been a storm for weeks. Where did that come from?”
”Og made it,” Ug told him.
” 'Made it'? What are you talking about-'made it'? This some kinda joke or sump'n?”
”He made it,” Ug insisted. ”I watched him do it.”
”Why?”
”He's crazy. He says he wants to take it inside the caves and-”
”INSIDE THE CAVES?” Ag clapped his hand to his brow and rolled a pair of wide-staring eyes toward Og. ”Are you outa your mind? What are you trying to do? Haven't you seen what happens to the animals that get caught when the forest goes up? We'd all get roasted in our beds.”
”n.o.body's saying you have to sleep on top of it,” Og said wearily. ”You keep it out of the way someplace. Water pulls up trees when the river floods, but you can still take water inside without having to flood the whole G.o.dd.a.m.n cave. Well, maybe we can make our own fire and learn to live with it in the same sort of way.”
”What's the point?” Ag challenged.
”It could be useful to have around,” Og said. ”The animals don't like it. It might stop the bears from trying to muscle into the caves every time the snow comes. Things like that . . . all kinds of things. . . .”
Ag sniffed and remained unimpressed. ”All the people would have taken off for the hills, too, so it wouldn't do much good,” he pointed out.
”What about the smoke?” a voice called out from the circle of figures that had started to form around the edge of the clearing.
”What about it?” Og asked.
”You can't breathe it. How could people live in a cave full of smoke?”
”You fix it so the smoke goes outside and not inside,” Og shouted in exasperation.
”How?”
”For Pete's sake, I don't know yet. It's a new technology. What do you want-all the angles figured out in one day? I'll think of something.”
”You'd pollute the air,” another voice objected. ”If all the tribes in the valley got into it, there'd be smoke everywhere. It'd black out the sun-G.o.d. Then he'd be mad and we'd all get zapped.”
”How do you know it isn't a she?” a female voice piped up from the back, only to be promptly silenced by a gentle tap on the head from the nearest club.
At that moment the circle of onlookers opened up to make way for Yug-the-Strong, Chief of the tribe, and Yeg-the-Soothsayer, who had come down from the caves to investigate the commotion. Yeg had been a great warrior in his youth and was reputed to have once felled an ox single-handed by talking at it nonstop until it collapsed in the mud from nervous exhaustion; hence Yeg's nickname of 'Oxmire.' For the benefit of the two elders Ag repeated what had been said and Ug confirmed it. Yeg's face darkened as he listened.
”It's not safe,” he p.r.o.nounced when Ag had finished. The tone was final.
”So we learn how to make it safe,” Og insisted.
”That's ridiculous,” Yeg declared flatly. ”If it got loose it would wipe out the whole valley. The kids would fall into it. On top of that, the fallout would foul up the river. Anyhow, you'd need half the tribe to be carrying wood up all the time, and we need the resources for other things. It's a dumb idea whatever way you look at it.”
”You've got no business s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g around with it,” Yug said, to add his official endors.e.m.e.nt.
But Og was persistent and the arguing continued for the next hour. Eventually Yeg had had enough. He climbed onto a rock and raised an arm for silence.
”How this could be made safe and why we should bother is still unclear,” he told them. ”Everything about it is unclear. Anyone who still wants to mess around with unclear energy has to be soft in the head.” He turned a steely gaze toward Og. ”The penalty for that is banishment from the tribe . . . forever.
The law makes no exceptions.” Yug and Ag nodded their mute agreement, while a rising murmur of voices from the tribe signaled a.s.sent to the decision.
”Throw the b.u.m out!”
”I don't want no crazy people collecting free rides outa my taxes.”
”Let the Saps down the end of the valley take care of him. They're all crazy anyway.”
Og lodged a plea with the appeal-court in the form of Ag, who pa.s.sed it on to Yug.
”Beat it,” was Yug's verdict.
An hour later Og had drawn his termination pay in the form of two days supply of raw steak and dried fish, and was all packed up and ready to go.
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