Cave Paintings

a History of Us story

The man stopped at the cave entrance and bowed his head to the
painted animals on the wall just inside.  He lowered the bison
thigh from his shoulder and dragged it into the cave. Near the
back of the cave a small fire burned, and the woman and the child
waited.  They started up when they heard him enter.  The woman
exclaimed over the bison thigh, and she began to scrape fur from
the leg with sharpened stones.

The man picked up the child and hugged him, and the child put his
little arms around his neck and cooed to him.  The man ran his
hand over the child's tangled hair and set him on his feet again,
and sat himself near the fire to warm his hands and feet.  The
child embraced him again, and the man held him on his lap to keep
the child warm. There would be another little one soon, for the
woman's belly was growing round as the moon.

Soon the woman had worked the fur off the bison thigh, and put
the meat on sticks to cook over the fire.  The little cave filled
with the scent of cooking meat, and the sizzle of fat dripping
into the fire.  The man's stomach growled, and the woman handed
him dried berries from the warm season.  He smiled at her as he
took them, and she returned the smile with a caress on his
shoulder.  He shared the berries with the child, and the child
leaned his head sleepily against his chest.

When they had eaten and disposed of the bones, the woman took the
animal's skin and sinews and stretched them out on sticks.  The
man made an arrow head, showing the child how to strike the
stones together.  The child bruised his finger and went crying to
the woman, who cooed and nuzzled him and held him until his tears
stopped.

The fire burned low, and outside the caves wolves began to howl. 
The child whimpered in fear and the woman murmured to him.  The
man got more wood from their supply and set it at the cave's
entrance, and set the logs on fire.  There would be no invaders
into their home that night.

The man and the woman lay beside each other, with the child in
the woman's arms, near the fire and between layers of bear skins.
The man rubbed his nose against the woman's neck and licked the
side of her face gently, and finally she put the child aside and
turned to the man.  They rubbed noses and licked each other's
faces, and mated looking into each other's eyes.  He held onto
her tightly while she slept.  When the sun rose again the man
embraced the woman and the child, and joined the other men of the
clan to hunt.

Every day was much like the ones before and the ones to come.
There were children and great hunts, clan members died and were
buried.  Sometimes they followed the herds to warmer climes, and
wherever they went the man painted on the cave walls his woman,
so her beauty would live forever.