POINTS and OTHERWISE

The Cheese got to thinking about supply and demand. He had a pretty good supply of bows and a ton of arrows but the new guys sure were demanding more. Somewhere along the line in his first time he'd read a book about Indian archery and he remembered taking a class in flintknapping, "I guess it's time I put the theory to practice," he said.

Chief Lone Tree was standing next to him. Lone Tree was getting used to the Cheese speaking his thoughts out loud. Most of the Cheeses ideas were pretty good, (except the Beer idea. That one was a drastic bust) so he said, "Ok, let's go practice. What are we practicing?"

"I'm looking forward to the time we run out of arrows. I don't mean I'm looking at it like I'll be happy, but I'm looking at the time we don't have any."

"You mean we won't have these things forever?"

"Yup. We won't have them forever. Every time your hunters go out they bring back meat but fewer arrows. Sometimes someone falls or gets hurt and the hunters leave the injured man's gear behind so he'll be easier to carry. I've never seen anyone go back and pick up his stuff."

"That's because no one can touch the magic of another man. When the hunters get ready to go, each man performs his personal magic with his gear. He paints his arrows and his face. The arrow paint is for that hunt and can't be used again."

"I see," said Cheese. "Well, we're going to have to do something about that. I guess we'd better get started."

"What're you going to do?"

"Have classes on how to make new gear. Or go back to using spears."

"Classes, please. Spears are dangerous to the guy on the blunt end of the stick."

"HEY!"

"Yes Cheese?" answered The Two Voiced One.

"Can I borrow the big sled? I need to go to Wyoming."

"Well....

"Please, I need to get some obsidian...actually, I need a lot of obsidian and the sled is the easiest way to carry it...unless you want me to take the ship?"

"Sure." Two Voices answered, "that's not 'Sure, you can use the ship,' that's 'Sure, I'll drive.'"

"Heck and Shuckydarn."

"You know, Cheese, I'm staying way longer than I'm supposed to. I've been communicating with the other experimenters and they're all staying too. It seems you lab rats are catching. None of us really understand it but it feels right. Gimmie me a minute... Carol!!"

"Hi Two Voices, what do you want?"

"How's Lori doing with her potty training?"

"Ah, she's pretty much got it. She only has accidents in her sleep...and not very often then."

"Is she walking better?"

"Walking is not so pretty good. She's great for a year old but she doesn't see much sense in it when she can fly where she wants to go. Besides, she falls a lot and it hurts."

"I'll have to have a chat with her about that. Can we borrow her for about a week?"

Carol got all squinty eyed and wrinkle browed. "What for?"

"We need to introduce the Goddess to the rest of her flock."

Carol immediately got the hint. "You mean there's other groups! Are there any men? My age? I want to go!"

"Get packed! Carol, see if Jo and Vickie want to go." She sighed" ...and get Bill and Chione. Bill can drive anything so he might as well learn the ship." 'These lab rats are insidious!' She thought, 'I'm going to be in so much trouble!'

While they were on the way north to get material for points, Two Voices had a heart to heart with Lori.

"I need you to be walking like a real kid...you can fly later but I need people to see you're learning to be of the people just like everyone else."

"Well, I am learning to be people but walking hurts. I keep falling down. That's no fun"

"Look into my physical mind, Lori," said Two Voices. "You need to look where my male and female minds join. Can you see it?"

"Oh! I get it. So that's what you want me to be. Wow, that's going to be a lot of work. I'll get started with it as soon as we meet the others. I should practice, though."

"Practice on the Cheese, Jo and Vickie. Worm your way inside and make the necessary changes. Cheese is easy because he could do what you do before he had a problem. Jo is holy so she only needs a tweak. Vickie is going to be hard. She's TOO book smart and you should do her in her sleep.

"Jo IS holy, she's very steeped in the old ways...although, they're the new ways right now. There's been a lot lost thanks to Christianity but you can fix her. Jo is so good! Not the pretend good of her preacher father, but true goodness. I'm surprised she asked for her brother Paul to be here, but he does know horses."

A couple of buzzers buzzed and some lights flashed.

"We're here. The Cheese knows his archaeology. This will be Yellowstone National Park someday...If this doesn't work. Where do you want to look for your material, Cheese?"

"Let's have a look at your map. Thanks. There it is. Looks like there's been a recent fire. Obsidian sparkles when it's fresh. We'll go up top and gather some big chunks. I don't want to disturb the cliff face...just in case."

"That's pretty stuff, Cheese."

"Wait! Don't grab....shit! Two Voices! Can you sew that cut up?"

"That's pretty nasty, Chief. How did you do that? You cut it on this piece of rock? Oh! Shit! That's sharp!"

The Cheese kind of chuckled and said, "Obsidian cuts with a near molecular edge. Steel was never this sharp. Even the sharpest metal knife has a jagged, irregular blade when viewed under a strong enough microscope; when examined even under an electron microscope an obsidian blade is still smooth and even. Let's see about getting you two stitched up."

Jo noticed the HE side of the Two Voiced One is a real baby when it comes to getting hurt. He whined and jerked and moaned...generally carried on... while he/she was getting sewed up. 22 stitches is a bunch in any case, 22 on a finger tip is overkill.

"You won't even notice the cut but you'll have the stitch scars forever. I could have done this better with superglue. I could glue down the nerve and then glue the cut...but, woulda, shoulda coulda don't matter if you don't have the glue. OhHo!! Now you give it to me! Thanks Two Voices...I'll just glue the Chief back together."