Mother Rainbow's Children: The Cave

 “So carpentry have you done,” said Bobcat.

“Indeed, I suppose I have!” Bluff Lily answered, surprised at herself.

“You might consider you to stay here,” said Alder. “Not much do we talk about it, because we want it to stay out of the Speakers Council for now, but aware are we all that Rainbow will need a permanent settlement of some sort. I think me that Bobcat and I will probably stay here. Always has he loved to hunt this area, and always have I been obsessed with the history of it. As of now, aside from Bobcat's hunting, all our food do we get from elsewhere, mostly from New Village. We need us to feed ourselves as much as we can. To do that need we foodies, farmers, and husbands. Jade, know you how much work we need to make Sulfur Springs Trail into a road between here and the Cross Roads. Fuji, it is Georgia's Orchard I want you to see. Restored does it need to be, and you could be the one to do it.”

“Is it that you are saying you want to join our Constellation?” asked Hazel. “Well know you that we all love you. I know me how much you are in love with each other. Join us you could and keep to yourselves inside the Household.”

“Hazel!” said Bluff Lily, “I think me you should talk that over with the rest of us before you make that offer!”

“Right you are,” said Hazel, chagrined, “I apologize to all of you.”

“Now that the idea on the table is,” said Meadow, “I like it. Have you objections, Bluff Lily?”

“No... I love me my sister," Bluff Lily answered slowly. "I think me Bobcat is wonderful. A little put off am I by the suggestion that monogamy is acceptable. I know me that inside a Constellation not everybody has a romantic relationship with everybody else. Sometimes no spark is there, sometimes one spouse likes only partners of the opposite sex or partners of their own sex. I understand me that, but a Constellation about the web of romantic relationships is. Awkward would be a monogamous couple in the midst of that. Not natural monogamy is.”

“Willing would I be,” said Fuji. “I suspect me that their monogamy just a phase is because shy are they both. Never has either been with anyone else. I think me the two of you know not what you really want. If in a marriage you are in a large Constellation, I think me eventually you will find you want us too.”

“I think me it is a great idea!” said Maple. “Both of you do I like. Outside of these five some of my best friends have you been since first I moved into the bunks at the Commons. I also think me that Fuji is right, come around you will. Staying with just one person is not natural.”

“What about you, Jade?” asked Hazel. “What think you?”

“I think me," replied Jade seriously, "that it is horrible that a couple that love each other as obviously and sincerely as Bobcat and Alder do are forced to use a subterfuge like this one. If it allows them to be together, okay am I with that. I would prefer me that they get married to just each other and get a Household to themselves.”

“I cannot believe me what you just said!” said Bluff Lily. “Not in a monogamous marriage will my sister live. Two stars do not a constellation make! It is that my parents would be horrified. Better would it be for them to be hidden in our constellation than to do that! Then, at least, Fuji's prediction might come true.”

“Bobcat, Alder,” said Meadow, “What think you?”

“I think me we have to think about it,” said Bobcat. Need we to talk about it too.”

Grateful am I for the offer,” said Alder. “I think me that Bobcat is right that we must not rush into it. We need us to think it through. A similar offer were we given a season ago, but hardly knew we the people who made it. A lot more attractive is this one to me, but much there is to consider.”

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       Bobcat busied himself with the wood while everyone else sat down in the common room.

“Together have you two been for a while now, Hazel and Meadow. Any prospects for your constellation?” asked Black Oak.

“Maple have we been seeing a lot,” said Meadow. “But I think me she is not quite ready to settle down. Dating several couples is she. She is yet pretty young.”

“Jade does flirt with us a lot, but flirts he with everybody. I think me he would be a good fit for us,” said Hazel. “Meadow and I both foodies are. Good it is to have a variety of professions in a constellation. On the Road Crew is he, but still a lot of interest shows in what we do.”

“That does help,” said Black Oak. “Between us have we a foodie, a woodworker, a weaver, a teacher, and a spark spark. On most issues, one of us does have some expertise. Interesting does it keep the conversation, because different things do we each during the day. The most vital element, however, is a commitment to support each other through thick and thin.”

“What of you two, Alder?” asked Meadow, “Have you any prospects?”

“Spent we some time with a couple in The Orchards during apple harvest,” said Alder, “but nothing really developed.”

“A lot of nice people your age are here in New Village too,” said Black Oak.

“Know that I do dad,” said Bobcat from the kitchen. “Dated have we a lot of them and nothing really sparked.”

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Another Review

 

LarryPNathenson

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique and hopeful perspective on how society might be restored after a nuclear catastrophe

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2022

This is not your typical post-apocalyptic novel. Some of the usual tropes of global warming and nuclear disaster followed by armed conflict, disease and death are presented as background. But the heart of the novel is the delightful tale of a blossoming romance some three centuries later. As the couple try to find their way in a society that doesn’t accept their relationship (though not for the reasons you might expect), the author deftly explains how their society came to be with the recitation of traditional lore and the journal of the eponymous Mother Rainbow which they discover. Along the way you will be encouraged to think about many aspects of our current society – how technology depends as much on the resources available to a culture as on the skill and innovation of the people, how historical memory is malleable and subject to revision as new evidence comes to light, how so many things we take for granted (our calendar, our language, our patterns of family and marriage) might have evolved differently, and how large a society might grow without formal institutions of law, property, and money. You will be entertained, educated, and challenged as you follow the story to its hopeful conclusion.

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August 18, 2033 – AT 6 Autumn Waxing 9 (6.5.9)

I don't know how to write this, but Raven said I need to get it out. Squirrel is dead. So is Dean. So is another man. I shot him.

I guess he saw us when we were in Ukiah and decided to follow us. We saw him walking up the road from the East when we were at the Goat Farm. I guess he didn't see the Village, it is off the road about a half mile so he might not have noticed it. The Goat Farm is right on the road, the road goes by the open fields for more than a quarter of a mile. Anyway, we saw him, Bruce and I did. I called out to Dean, who went to meet him. He looked pretty scary and crazy. I could hear him from the barn where Dean told me to go.

He said his name was Cody and he was told by god to finish killing all the people, then he pulled out a knife and stuck it in Dean!! Georgia was close and carrying a gun. She shot at Cody but missed him. He ran away, but we were all sure he wasn't really gone. Georgia got her dad into the pickup and drove him up to the Village. The rest of us got guns and set up a watch line around the Goat Farm. I was on the South side, away from the road. I could see Squirrel a ways away from me on top of a rock to my left and I could see Bruce a ways away from me to my right. About a half hour later John and Ronald and Champak came back with guns and extra ammunition. They filled in the watch line. About another two hours later I heard Squirrel scream. I looked over and Cody was leaning over him on the rock. I took aim like Anthony taught me and shot him in the head. Blood spurted everywhere and I puked.

Cody broke Squirrels neck. Raven couldn't save Dean. She said he was bleeding inside and she didn't have the tools to do the surgery he needed. We buried all three of them at the Goat Farm, a little ways past the pond. I asked if I could speak words over them. I wrote them down first and this is what I said.

“Today we lost two of our friends. They both survived the catastrophes and the Long Dark Time and they made it to this, the Fifth year of the After Times. Cody survived all of that too. I did not want to kill him, but I had to. He wanted to kill us all because he was wounded in his soul. I don't hate him, I respect him for surviving. We all know that was not easy and that most people did not survive. We have to go on. I honor Dean, who helped us a lot. He was a good builder and a good farmer and a good dad to Georgia and Robert. I honor Squirrel. He was a little boy but he not only survived he kept his brothers and sisters alive all by themselves. He was always ready to help and he took the responsibility of a much older person. Do not hate Cody. Honor him for surviving, pity him for his soul wounds. We are few and we need more of us if we are to survive for long. We also have to leave behind the war and feuding that destroyed the world in the Before Times.”

Then I cried and we all cried and Bruce and Thomas and Anthony all held me until we were all cried out.

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Mother Rainbow's Children: The Cave

 “The World went to Hell. From greed, from stupidity, from valuing artificial things more than the nature around them, our ancestors destroyed the world. Great cities, larger than we can even imagine; great nations spanning continents; great business enterprises encompassing the whole world; communications that circled the globe and even had equipment in space above us; medical knowledge able to fix broken hearts, broken kidneys, broken lungs, and broken minds; all of it gone because they had to fight, they had to burn oil and coal, they had to make plastics, they had to dam the rivers, they had to cut down the forests, they had to hunt animals to extinction, and all of that was more important than survival. All of that was more important than caring for each other, looking after the troubled, taking care of the natural world, or simply being in it.

“Hell began with a storm. The storms were stronger because they burned so much coal and oil that the air was full of carbon and soaked up the sun's' heat. This storm struck the heart of The United States, at the great city that ruled the country of which we were once a part. The storm struck and rained havoc on that city and all the countryside around it. The government was crippled. When the volcano erupted in our state and started all the woods to flame, the government could not respond. When another storm struck the huge cities on the Great River, the government could not respond. When states in the center of the north declared their independence, the government could not respond. When wars broke out across the seas, threatening all that existed, The United States government could not respond.

“The weapons they used were terrible. Whole cities were gone in a flash of light, searing heat, and a blast that turned rubble into glass. The United States had the most such weapons, but they were not in the wars because they were collapsed. There were still enough weapons to end civilization. They filled the skies with darkness, a poison darkness that killed silently. The Long Darkness lasted for years. Only survived those who found shelter from the darkness, with food that was sheltered and water that was sheltered. Each survivor huddled in their own cave, their own womb, awaiting the rebirth of the world.

“Mother Rainbow and Uncle waited along Calm Tree Road. They read books from the Before Time. They played games from the Before Time. They made tools and they ate their stores. All alone they waited. In Rainbow Cave they waited with a spring of clean water and a store of clean food. Then, one day, they looked out of the cave and it was Dark no more. They walked out of the cave and looked to the sky and it was clear. They fell to their knees and thanked the Spirit for the Clear Day. Each year we also fall to our knees and thank the Spirit for that Clear Day and for every one since.”

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I just got another review!

Thank you Mr. Weibel

Jan 19, 2022

What a delight. The best post apocalyptic garden of Eden tale you will read this year. A pleasant rendition of classic taboos and ‘new’ social mores… all while canning peaches and hunting boar. A banned book instant classic. Enjoy.

by Derek WeibelReport this review

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September 6, 2033 – AT 6 Autumn Waxing 27 (6.5.27)

This is one of the news stories I found in the Willits Library:

[pasted in the book]

Hurricane Maria Stuns Chesapeake Bay

August 25, 2025

AP – Raleigh, NC

On Sunday about 3:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time Hurricane Maria made landfall at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. At the point of landfall Maria was rated by the National Hurricane Center as Category 5 with wind speeds recorded as high as 163 MPH. Communications with the affected area have been poor all day but reports of major damage are coming through hard line internet connections. Storm surges in excess of 30 feet have been reported along tributary rivers of Chesapeake Bay including the Potomac, which flows by Washington, DC and the Patapsco River on which the City of Baltimore is situated. Many residents of Washington and Baltimore had moved inland due to warnings from the National Hurricane Center but both cities still have significant residents in the way of the storm. The US Senate voted against adjourning as the Republican Filibuster of the Budget moved into day 31. No communication from Capitol Hill has been made since about one hour after Maria made landfall, at which time the Senate was still in session as Senator Louis Arbuckle (R Kansas) read the 2012 White Pages from Kansas City, Kansas into the Congressional Record..

Scattered reports indicate that a ship has foundered near the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Station, 40 miles east of Washington, DC. Those reports indicate that the ship may have somehow damaged the power plant. No reliable reports of the damage have been confirmed.

This is when the Hurricane hit. They didn't know all the stuff that had happened, just bits and pieces. The Senators were being so stubborn in their arguments they couldn't get themselves out of the way of the storm. Ronald says a lot of them may have died that day. They were so STUPID!

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Mother Rainbow's Children: The Cave

 "Before the Tribulation driving up Highway 5 from Grants Pass to Roseburg was about an hour's drive. Good road, rest stops, a little windy, a lot of up and down. Now it was an obstacle course. Cars abandoned or crashed into each other. Road trains mangled and blocking the road across all the lanes. Human remains in many of the vehicles. It was a nightmare. If we weren't fleeing from the nightmare in Grants Pass it would have dissuaded us from our trek, but we knew that there was no reprieve behind us. It took us about 10 hours to go 68 miles. It was dark by the time we got to Roseburg. I think it was late May, so that had to be after 9. We couldn't see much. Naturally, there were no city lights. We found an abandoned church and slept inside, feeling somehow safer in a House of God."

"Just before dawn we were woken by a gunshot as one of our sentries died near a smashed window. We all grabbed rifles and took positions where we could shoot back. There were about 40 men outside. They were in worse shape than we were. I could see signs of radiation poisoning in several of them (I recognized it because I had seen a lot of it first hand very recently). They all looked starving and desperate. We started shooting back and my focus just became what was in front of me. Fire, duck, shoot again, look out for the guy sneaking behind the shed over there, shoot again, pull the trigger and curse because the magazine is empty. Reload, shoot again. I don't know how long the fire-fight lasted. It might have been 10 minutes. It might have been an hour. It felt like days. Eventually they ran away, realizing we had numbers and fire-power, I guess. I know that two bullets I fired killed men I didn't know. I know that two of my friends were dead and several more were wounded. The women patched them up as well as they could. We took a look outside. Fred took a team on the west side of the church, I took a team on the east side. I heard one gunshot from the west and we went running. Fred said that one of the attackers was still alive and tried to shoot him, so he killed him. The other boys with him looked pretty scared, of Fred. They didn't say anything, but I got the idea that Fred didn't wait for the guy to pick up a gun."

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Mother Rainbow's Children: The Cave

 February 3, 2033.

My 9th Birthday, 5 years to the day from when the sky was clear and blue. I suppose I ought to say who I am and why I have this journal. My name is Sarah. My parents died during the Nuclear Winter (that's what Uncle Ronald called the Dark Time), along with pretty much every one else we knew. I don't have a lot of memories of all that. Uncle Ronald isn't really my Uncle, but he knew my parents pretty well. We lived in a cabin on Ronald's parents property here, near Comptche. Ronald used to visit from Sacramento because he was working on some sort of project for the Mendocino County Museum. That's when he met my parents and helped them move to his parent's place. Anyway, when the bad times started, Ronald moved here to stay near his folks and to get away from the city. When people started dying of the Poisons, Ronald and I were the only ones left. Ronald was staying in this stone cabin and he took me in. We have our own spring in the cave in back and Ronald brought all of the canned food and well packaged food stores he could find here. We had a toilet, water, food, mini-hydro for lights and the hot plate. We just stayed inside for a couple of years until the sky was blue again. Today Ronald gave me this journal. He found a stack of them down in Mendocino Village. He wants me to start recording history. He says that what I say will be important years from now, cause things are starting over and he says I'll be one of the founders. He said to write as well as I know (he's pretty fussy about that, being a professor and all). I guess that's enough for starters.

Bobcat read it again, and then again. If he remembered right, Mother Rainbow's name was Sarah before she changed it. He was sitting in a cave, reading a journal by a little girl named Sarah who survived the Dark Times with her Uncle. Could this indeed be Rainbow Cave!? Could this be the very journal of Mother Rainbow's!? Bobcat kept reading. He could not stop himself.

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Mother Rainbow's Children: The Cave

 The World went to hell. A perfect storm and stubborn politicians set up the world for catastrophe. In one small corner of California, in Mendocino county, on Comptche Road, a man and a young girl survived the long darkness in a cave. They found other survivors and gradually built a village. The girl, who came to be known as Mother Rainbow, also came to be their leader.

Now, three hundred years later, a young woman named Alder wants to find that cave. She and her young man, Bobcat, find the truth and overcome the obstacles to their own romance.

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“The World went to Hell. From greed, from stupidity, from valuing artificial things more than the nature around them, our ancestors destroyed the world. Great cities, larger than we can even imagine; great nations spanning continents; great business enterprises encompassing the whole world; communications that circled the globe and even had equipment in space above us; medical knowledge able to fix broken hearts, broken kidneys, broken lungs, and broken minds; all of it gone because they had to fight, they had to burn oil and coal, they had to make plastics, they had to dam the rivers, they had to cut down the forests, they had to hunt animals to extinction, and all of that was more important than survival. All of that was more important than caring for each other, looking after the troubled, taking care of the natural world, or simply being in it...” Three hundred years later Alder is seeking the true story of how their ancestors survived. She meets a young man named Bobcat and together they find the answers.

https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/liam-uicearbhaill-and-daniel-blair-stewart/mother-rainbows-children-the-cave/paperback/product-vnzyd6.html?page=1&pageSize=4

MacAmergin's Tales on KLLG-LP 97.9 Willits, California
January 3, 2017

January 3, 2017 MacAmergin's Tales

Here is the pilot for my new radio show, MacAmergin's Tales on KLLG-LP 97.9 Willits Hometown Radio. I hope to post the new one each week. I have 5 more to get up after this one. Many thanks to Les Tarr for making this work!

MacAmergin's Tales Pilot Show 2016

The Warning - A poem by Liam UiCearbhaill

In 1997 I woke up one night in September and wrote this poem in about 15 minutes. It has had a deep impact on my life ever since.

This poem is in the collection Poetry's Purpose

Available for Kindle download at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YX2VZ78

Available in Printed version at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/uicearbhaill

Available for purchase at The Book Juggler http://www.thebookjuggler.com/store.php

=======================================================

The Warning

In days of yore, in depths of time

When all the world was wholly mine

The beasts and birds, the rolling grass

The vales and streams, the mountain pass

The sky above, the sea below

The arctic ice where blizzards blow

T’was then, in joy in all that was

I clear conceived a wondrous cause

To know a creature who could see

All the things that came from me

A sunset’s glow and waterfalls

A stormy night and lightning balls

Who’d wonder at the evening star

And question what those night lights are

Who’d gasp with joy at canyons grand

And seek the peace of seashore sand

I molded him from primate clay

And shaped her spirit for the day

When moved by beauty seen without

Her soul within would leap to shout

And he, from urgings deep inside

Sung music that his soul had cried

I gave them minds to grasp a thought

And hands to grasp the things they wrought

For forty thousand years or more

On tundra steppe and forest floor

They lived as part of what I’d made

In cave and hut, with chipped stone blade

Their lives were hard, but still were good

I gave them joy, I gave them food

I gave them beauty in the land

They gave me thanks with both their hands

They hunted for the bison strong

And gathered grains from grasses long

They saw my moon hung in the sky

And watched the eagle circling high

They learned the way of beast and bug

Of mastodon and trout and slug

They learned which plants would heal their woes

The willow’s bark, the hips of rose

In gratefulness they slew their prey

Then, thankful for their food that day

Expressed their thanks in art and dance

Or mimicked there the elk-herd prance

Or left the earth some pretty gift

Upon some seaward facing cliff

They knew that all the things they ate

Were gifts to them from Heaven’s gate

Then once, ten thousand years ago

A bag of seed was somehow sowed

Upon a patch of broken dirt

As hunters did with farming flirt

And someone caught a baby cow

And raised it to adult somehow

And ever after changed the face

Of how did live the human race

No longer did you hunt and seek

To find the things that you would eat

But rather did you farm and herd

Taming tree and beast and bird

You owned the things that once were mine

The hillock high, the vale sublime

You chained the streams and rivers too

Built dam, canal, and lock, and slough

You carved my land for highways long

Bored tunnels deep through mountains strong

You killed my bison for their hides

And filled my streams with pesticides

You filled my sky with stench and smoke

And caused my creatures all to choke

You spilled my oil upon my sea

And killed my whales, so huge and free

To fill your pockets with my gold

You tore down mountains tall and bold

And scarred my earth to dig my coal

With piles of slag and gaping holes

You claimed that all you saw was thine

To kill and maim, to dig and mine

You set yourselves apart from me

And o’er my world claimed sovereignty

How patiently I watched you grow

Who once did hunt and now did sow

I spoke to you by prophets bold

Who for your wayward ways did scold

You built up temples large and grand

And slaughtered for me beast and man

And by these things you sickened me

Bu still I left you growing free

So then you found creative ways

To send each other to the grave

With sword and spear and bomb and gun

With gas and germs, you’ve had your fun

You filled my sky with birds of war

You filled my ears with cannons' roar

With chemicals you killed my trees

That snipers you might better see

My patience now draws to an end

No longer can I call you friend

You threaten all that I have made

The tidal pool, the forest glade

And with that worst monstrosity

You threaten all that you can see

For on that fateful Summer day

When Hiroshima went away

You told me that I could not trust

The human race and that I must

Protect my world from what you are

A cancer and a source of war

The end is near, do not delude

Yourselves or cop an attitude

But if you seek to still survive

Then turn to me to live your lives

You share the rock on which you stand

You do not own the sea or land

The air about you is not thine

Nor rivers as they sea-ward wind

You do not own the grass and trees

The birds and beasts belong to me

The mountains high, the valleys low

Are mine to tend the things they grow

My anger grows with every puff

Of factory smoke or toxic stuff

Dumped in rivers dammed and stopped

With dirt and slag, with muck and glop

With every tree that’s sacrificed

To print an ad for PC mice

Or jungle burned for farming land

Or dolphin killed for tuna canned

The end is near, be not deceived

Despite what some of you believe

I can defend what is my own

Your self-defense is overblown

Catastrophes will come from me

Your scientists will never see

And when the human terror ends

I will begin my world to mend