Page 38 of Planet Zero
“It is Hunlath you need to speak to. He makes stone tools around here. I will take you to him once the men return from the hunt. His mate Oma will be grateful to have the jerky now. She just had a baby, but he was born dead. Oma is faring poorly.”
“What is wrong with Oma?”
“Birth fever and bleeding.”
“Was there a… complication?”
Chele shrugged with fatalistic acceptance. “Who can tell? Births are like that. Strong women can die, and yet others, who are weaker, survive just fine. Nature alone decides.”
Subdued, Addie selected several pieces and handed them to Chele. “These are for Oh’na. And for you, too.”
“We are grateful.” Chele accepted the gift. “What is wrong with your hand?”
Addie glanced at the raw blistering skin on the back of her hand. “My skin is too thin for the leaves of the Qom bush.” She smiled a little. “I was clumsy.”
“Everyone’s skin is too thin for the Qom bush, but yours especially so.”
Surprising Addie, Chele gently grasped her hand and leaned down to inspect it. “It hurts?”
It effing does. Addie wanted to express the sentiment very badly, but she didn’t know any For curse words.
“Yes,” she said. “And itches. I tried to apply Nipi bark powder but I think it only made it worse. It dried my skin and made it peel.”
“What else did you try?”
“Amra leaves soaked in Nipi berries juice. It didn’t help very much, and that’s when I resorted to the Nipi bark.”
Chele hesitated as if weighing the wisdom of talking to Addie.
“Let me give you something.” She flipped off furs that lined the floor of her teepee, revealing a cavity in the dirt floor filled with small pouches lined up in an orderly fashion. Addie glimpsed two small bowls with stone sticks - mortars and pestles. “Now, it won’t do for the others to know, you understand?”
Chele selected one pouch and shook out some powder into one of the mortars. “Nature will heal your hand, Addie. But some things can be done to take away the suffering while you wait. As a healer, you know that, don’t you?”
“Yes, Chele,” Addie answered quietly. “Where I come from, we call it medicine. My people use it to help bodies heal. Nurses and doctors, healers like me, we are celebrated. I learned and learned to become one, but here I’m useless. Everything is different. I can’t even help myself.”
Chele looked up at Addie with awe and envy. “I wish I lived in a world like yours, Addie-woman, where what little I know can be celebrated.”
She tore off a small piece from a large yellow fruit suspended from the beam and used the pestle to mash the pulpy flesh with the powder to make a paste. Taking Addie’s hand, she spread a thin layer of it onto the angry red spot, and immediately cooling relief spread, numbing the pain and calming the itch.
“What is it?”
Chele named the fruit and explained where to find it.
“And the powder?” Addie prodded.
Chele mentioned several plants it was composed of. Ironically, buds of young Qom leaves were one of the ingredients. “Qom leaves have calming properties. They help with stomach pains, but only the very young leaves, buds before they are fully open. Did you remember the rest?” She packed the rest of the paste in a small cup and handed it to Addie.
Addie accepted the medicine. “How do you know this, Chele?”
“My pawi knew, and she passed the knowledge to me. She had learned from her pawi. And I was teaching my own girl… Now I hope to live long enough for Oh’na to come of age. Our knowledge is dwindling.”
“I thought For didn’t engage in treating ailments.”
Chele chuckled. “They say they don’t. But when people are hurt, they look for help, and they find me. They always do.” She selected a different pouch and sprinkled its contents onto the two pieces of jerky she had laid out to the side.
“What is this?” Addie craned her neck to see better.
“This is for Oma. To help stop the bleeding. She’s sad, not in her right mind. Birthing a dead baby is bad. Two days have passed, and she has not recovered. Not good.”
