Chapter 8 - Teachers

Jandell stopped the car about twenty spans from the line of defense, stood up, and shouted, “Don’t shoot! No spirits! We Jandell, Meenah, child Konah. Want talk, Theeba, Elder, Priest!”

Just then, the big bear man appeared from the village, saying, “Jandell? Meenah? Is that you? We thought you were dead, drowned! Are these your spirits we see?”

“No spirit, no drown, Meenah Jandell alive. Want talk you, elder, priest,” declared Jandell.

Theeba motioned for the men to put down their weapons, which most did. A few of them kept arrows knocked, but pointed at the ground.  He walked slowly out toward the vehicle, seeing that Meenah and Jandell were smiling to greet him. Jandell stood up, opened some kind of door, and tried to step out. However, his foot caught on a rim, causing him to lunge out toward Theeba, who was just a few spans away at that point. A very nervous young hunter who had not understood the exchange interpreted Jandell’s lunge as an attack, and he reflexively drew his bow and launched an arrow at Jandell.

All of the Moocha men stopped and gasped in amazement as a ray of bright green light emerged from one of the strange disks and evaporated the arrow in mid-flight! As one, they dropped any remaining weapons and bowed their foreheads to the ground – including Theeba.

Jandell stood up from his stumble and shouted, “Theeba, Moocha men, stand! Jandell Meenah no god. We here talk, teach!”

Theeba was the first to recover. He stood up and approached Jandell, grinning broadly and giving him the big bear-man hug, saying, “You two have surprised me ever since I met you … what? Five seasons ago? Now what’s this? You have a cart that goes with no wheels or camel, magical discs in the sky that protect you, some kind of pure white animal skin clothes, and … a darling toddler son!” 

With that, Theeba attempted to lift Konah out of the car, but the little boy cried and grabbed Meenah for protection. Meenah laughed and declared, “Konah shy, no meet people to now.”

Meenah got out of the cart, carrying Konah, and walked over to hug Theeba, who grinned broadly at the toddler. Konah just frowned and looked away – over his mother’s shoulder. The other Moocha men finally relaxed, tucking their weapons into thong belts, but few of them left the scene – they wanted to see what would happen next with this miraculous young family. Women were also beginning to drift from the village to see what was happening, so that soon there was a large crowd forming a crescent around the Ren, but keeping a respectful distance. Theeba kept wanting to speak, to ask questions, but he obviously didn’t know where to start.

The crowd parted at one of the village entrances to let the priest through, accompanied by Oka. The former was wearing his full ceremonial cave lion garb and holding a cross in front of him with outstretched arms, as if to protect him from any evil ray of destruction. Jandell smiled and waved at him, saying, “Father Padro, Oka – we no gods, no evil. Come to talk, teach!”

To prove his point, Jandell bowed down in the Moocha position of subjugation. That emboldened the priest to lower the cross and approach. He asked, “Jandell, Meenah, what magic is this that you bring to our village? How is it that you are alive?”

As Jandell got up to kiss Padro’s hand, it was Meenah who began to speak, “Meenah Jandell no die Father. Meenah Jandell floats taboo place over water. No God spike Meenah Jandell cross. No bad place – good place.”

The priest pointed to the cart, then the disks, asking, “But … but … your clothing … how did you … what are these magical things?”

“Jandell Meenah, meet Machines Father. Machines good – no bad. Machines help Jandell Meenah, teach!” declared Jandell.

“The God Machines are back?” queried the priest. “God be praised!” He held the cross up to the sky, and the crowd of Moocha all held their hands upward in prayer.

“Machines no God,” declared Meenah, “People make Machines long long time. Machines smarter people now. Machines teach Meenah Jandell. Meenah Jandell teach Moocha now.”

Oka, who had been standing next to the priest and Theeba, dumbfounded, finally found her voice, asking, “How can you teach u,s Meenah? You can barely even speak our language.”

“Meenah Jandell have book – teach you read book,” she replied.

“What is a ‘book’?” asked the priest.

Jandell walked back to the cart, which had a large covered hold in the back like a wagon. He did something with his hand, and the top cover split open – the doors sliding into the sides – revealing stacks of rectangular objects half a span on a side and three fingers thick. Jandell removed one of the objects and handed it to the priest. It was the most beautiful thing Padro had ever seen, with ornate decorations in gold and bright blues and greens. Some large, strange, regular characters seemed to be aligned near the center. Jandell opened the book to reveal a large pile of very thin rectangles stacked like leaves but perfectly aligned. These sheets had many lines of characters marching across them.

“What is this?” cried the astounded priest.

“This ‘book’ Padro. This ‘Book of Truth’,” answered Jandell. “Jandell Meenah teach priest, all Moocha read ‘Book of Truth’. Have many book.”

While the priest and Oka were ogling the book, the circle of Mooch villagers had begun to collapse, and the crowd was now close to them, touching the family’s clothing, the cart, and the books. Meenah and Jandell went to the cargo hold and started handing out the books to whoever wanted one.

“Have many book,” shouted Meenah above the buzz of the crowd. “Meenah Jandell teach Moocha read book!”

Oka looked up from her book at Meenah and asked, “These are beautiful, Meenah, and the regular little images and designs are intriguing – but how can we understand them? What is their message?”

“Meenah teach Oka, teach children,” she claimed. “Little picture make sound, idea – English. Very old speak. Machine speak.”

The priest, who was standing nearby and leafing through his own copy of the book, overheard the conversation and asked, “This … English is the language of the Machines? How can you be sure?”

Meenah replied, “Machine no here, no come back. Machine leave Teach-Man. Meenah Jandell, wake up Teach-Man. Teach-Man teach English, many things Meenah Jandell – make book.”

For the first time since seeing the couple return, the priest looked a bit skeptical. He observed, “Well, this Teach-Man certainly didn’t improve your Moocha language skills.” 

“Teach-Man no speak Moocha, Ren. Meenah, Jandell teach man Ren. Teach-Man teach Meenah, Jandell English. English truth language,” she replied. “Meenah, Jandell learn Moocha, teach English priest.”

The priest's skepticism grew, “Why didn’t this Teach-Man show up here with you?”

Jandell joined the conversation, saying, “Teach-Man, no real man, like man move statue – silver color. Teach-Man afraid scare Moocha. Make books – send Jandell Meenah.”

With that, the priest threw his book to the ground and shouted to the gathered Moocha people. “I thought that if this young couple reached the forbidden land across the water, he would spike them to the cross. I was wrong! He did much worse! He corrupted their minds with these ‘books’ and some magic tricks, and then he sent them back here to corrupt the Moocha! Don’t listen to them! Abandon these pretty but treacherous books! Follow me back to the temple and let’s pray together!”

The priest stormed off back toward the village, and about twenty men and women followed him. The vast majority, however, stayed to continue looking at their books and talking to the Ren family. Many of the people were glancing anxiously between the books and the retreating priest.”

Meenah and Jandell heard Avataro’s voice in the devices in their ear canals: “That reaction is to be expected from the priest and the very devout of his religion. When people are raised from childhood to believe something, it is extremely difficult to overcome those beliefs – even if indisputable contrary evidence is presented. I predict that there will even be attempts at violence against you. I can protect you from most such attempts, but be very careful.”

Jandell put his hand to his mouth so that the villagers would not see him speaking to the air, “but what can we do to convince them, Avataro? How can we change their minds?”

“Your grand entrance, the deflected arrow, and the books have already gone a long way toward convincing the open-minded,’ claimed the avatar, “and I have learned much more of the Moocha language listening to many conversations around you, so just shout out to them what I tell you. Ready?”

Jandell nodded his head and then parroted the voice in his ear,  though he didn’t understand all of the words he was repeating: “My dear fellow Moocha: Please listen to Meenah and me. The Teach-Man is not evil. He was left here by the Machines to teach us the truth. The priest is a good man, but he does not know the truth. The Teach-Man wants to help all Moocha and all people learn the truth. The first truth is: ‘Do not kill each other. Do not kill any other people. To kill another person will cause you great harm.’ This is the same as the priest teaches!”

The people were astounded that Jandell could suddenly speak Moocha so well, but one older man, obviously a farmer by the dirt on his leathers and his hands, asked, “But what about the Ren? The Ren killed my son! May I kill the Ren?”

“Ah! We have our first moral dialog!” claimed the voice in Jandell’s ear. “Would you like to try it solo?”

Jandell spoke softly into his hand, “Not until I speak Moocha better. Please just tell me what to say.” He then repeated the avatar’s articulation aloud: “The Ren attacked according to their code of honor, believing that your village people were harboring their kidnapped daughter, Meenah, and her kidnapper, me. Your son was bravely defending your village, but tragically stepped into a Ren arrow in flight. You cannot replace the life of your son, but you can do something very noble – forgive a good Ren man and ease him of his terrible guilt. If you kill this man or any Ren, your guilt and suffering would be much worse than your present sorrow.”

The farmer was silenced, but did not entirely lose the look of desired revenge on his face. Nonetheless, other villagers nodded their heads in agreement and started studying the book more intensely.

Another man, a hunter, shouted: “Three Moocha defenders were killed during the Ren attack, and one Ren attacker. Four people died because of you two. Why should we believe you or follow your so-called ’Book of Truth?’”

This time, Meenah responded without Avataro’s help. She got real tears in her eyes, and her voice was choked as she proclaimed, “Meenah Jandell very very sorry Moocha Ren fight men die.” She wept softly for a few moments while the crowd was stilled in sympathy. “Meenah Jandell only want together – leave Ren, leave Moocha, go alone, hope no fight …” She cried openly, and half the villagers cried with her. Oka hugged her so that Meenah could cry on her substantial shoulder.

Finally, Kwerni was able to shoulder her way through from the outskirts of the crowd to Meenah’s side. She joined the hug with Oka and proclaimed loudly so that the rest of the crowd could hear, “I will follow you, Meenah! I want to learn your ‘English’ and your ‘Book of Truth’. You are my friend and almost a goddess!”

That broke the emotional moment, and allowed Meenah to shout to the crowd: “Meenah Jandell no god. Learn truth, Teach-Man. Teach truth Moocha!”

The crowd was coming around, but one observant hunter called out: “Why can Jandell suddenly speak fluent Moocha, while you cannot, Meenah?”

Jandell took the question and answered without the avatar’s help at first: “Jandell Meenah hear Teach-Man in ear,” pointing to both ears. “Teach-Man hear Moocha now – learn speak Moocha, Teach-Man tell me in ear say Moocha.” He spoke into his hand and then continued: “I just asked the Teach-Man to help me speak the rest of my thought. I am repeating what he says in my ear, but believe me, it is what I want to say, not him. The Teach-Man’s name is Avataro – he is not really a man, but looks like a man who is painted silver. He was left here by the Machines to teach us about history and the forces of nature. What you see us do is not magic. It is how we can use the forces of nature – the wind, the sun, light, dark, water – to do what we want. Avataro has taught us – Meenah and me – and we can teach you.”

The crowd further polarized. Some of the older men threw down their books in disgust and stormed off toward the temple, but most of the people gathered closer to hear what would be said next.

Kwerni turned to Meenah and asked, “Can you speak good Moocha like Jandell?”

Meenah heard Avataro’s voice in her ear and knew to repeat: “Yes, Kwerni, with Avataro’s help, I can speak acceptable Moocha. I missed you very much! I was so looking forward to our Moocha wedding with you as my companion of honor!” 

That caused more tears and hugging. The remaining crowd had been won over completely.

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At first, there were some attempts at violence by some of the Lion-priest’s devout, but they failed. These attempts were not condoned by the priest, but neither did he go out of his way to discourage them. The hut that was given to Jandell, Meenah, and Konah was set afire one night by torches thrown on the thatched roof, but the fire was mysteriously extinguished, and the young family was awakened only later by concerned neighbors who saw the smoke. A few days later, Meenah noticed a puff of green smoke appear in the air a few meters away, but she was never aware that it had been a blow-dart aimed at her neck from the nearby bushes – thwarted by her protective disk. At a festival a few weeks later, Avataro warned both Meenah and Jandell not to drink the blackberry wine that was poured for them – it was poisoned.

After that, there were no further such attempts, and the number of disciples who came to sit outside of the Ren’s hut grew daily. 

One day, one of the female followers asked Meenah, “Shouldn’t we have a temple like the priest?”

Meenah, who was now speaking passable Moocha without Avataro’s help, answered, “The temple is designed to put visitors into a state of awe so that they are more susceptible to whatever a ‘holy person’ says without asking questions. Since we are speaking the provable truth, we need no such adornment. Here in the field by our hut is a fine place to learn.”

Another follower, a young man, asked, “But aren’t you doing the same thing with your white garments, camel-free coach, protective flying disks, and miraculous books?”

Meenah emitted a guilty chuckle and claimed, “Well, we did want to make a dramatic entrance – without being killed. But it was just to get your attention so that we could teach you. We can produce more supposed ‘miracles’ if needed, but we would much rather appeal to your logic! The ‘miracles’ that we can produce are just forces of nature that the Machines learned to tame and direct, and that Avataro taught us.”

“Can we meet this ‘Avataro’?” asked another woman.

“He, or rather it, doesn’t think it’s a good idea,” answered Meenah. “We don’t want this religion to turn into an Idol worship of a silver man. We want people to use their brains and realize the truth when they encounter it, because it makes sense – not because some silver robot or lionskin-clad priest proclaims it.”

The reference to the priest caused several people to gasp, and Meenah realized that she had crossed some unacceptable line, despite the fact that she had been gaining ground on the old religion. The Moocha had grown up revering the priest, and that reverence would not be easily displaced. He was already campaigning vigorously against the newcomers, their black magic, and their silver idol.

______

After another year and a half,  the young couple had become well-established in the Moocha village. Their followers had built them a larger hut next to a field. They had also arrayed rows of log benches in the field, covering the first six rows with a reed roof for shade and some protection from occasional rains. The covered benches served as a school, with Meenah holding classes for children in the mornings (Konah was one of the fastest learners); and late in the afternoons, when the farming, tool-making, and other chores were done, a few hundred adults would gather to learn to speak, read, and write late-English. Avataro had provided them with a large, flat board of slate-like material upon which they could write with pieces of chalk found near the village. Of course, it could have given them something much more sophisticated – like an electronic display screen, but part of the long-term strategy was to introduce as little new technology as possible so that societies could mature before attaining technical capabilities (especially weapons).

One technology that they decided to introduce was paper-making. With their crude methods, the villagers were unable to produce anything like the smooth, white pages in the Book of Truth, but they could make reasonable (albeit chunky and sepia-colored) paper of a uniform size and thickness for writing. The Moocha had no real written language of their own, but they had developed a system of writing numbers, which were surprisingly close to Arabic numerals – probably because of the many artifacts from past ages they had found with numbers inscribed on them. The numbers were used to record trades, debts, inventories of supplies, etc. Meenah and Jandell had debated about whether to develop a writing system for the Moocha language, but decided that it would be better to just teach English writing. That would hasten the acceptance and adoption of a universal language.

With Avataro’s help, Jandell developed a process for making pencils. The process involved melting beeswax and adding pigments to it for color. For example, charcoal dust was used for black. He then cut thin, hard reeds into sticks about 20 centimeters long and poured the melted wax into the hollow center of the reed sticks. When the wax cooled and hardened, this “pencil” could be sharpened with a knife blade. Jandell led a group of teenagers in the fun project of finding different pigments and additives to the wax, which would produce multiple colors and various hardnesses of the pencils.

Every sixth day (the traditional Moocha day of rest and worship), Meenah and Jandell would read passages from the Book of Truth and discuss them with an ever-growing group of followers. They didn’t pray to any God, but they did offer thanks to the Machines that had left behind this knowledge. The crowds going to pray at the temple under the priest’s guidance shrank accordingly and consisted mostly of very old people.

On feast days, even Meenah and Jandell joined the village population under the temple and did not interfere with or object to the priest’s leadership of the festivities. When a woman asked Jandell about this situation, he said, “These festivals are fine traditions and bring people together to have fun and celebrate. Giving thanks to Mother Earth for the food she provides and the lives we have is wonderful, as long as we don’t really believe that she is some sort of super-being that helps us win a game of chuck-sticks or cures a sick child if we pray hard enough.”

Moocha villagers were no longer shocked to see the camel-free and driverless cart arrive occasionally, floating across the fields and up to Jandell and Meenah’s hut. It brought supplies the couple had requested from the avatar, including more books for recruits and white cloth to make outfits for new acolytes.

Yes, the Ren couple had recruited for and found four young people – two men and two women – to become their apostles, to learn as much as they could and spread the words of the Book of Truth to new generations and possibly other peoples. Many young people had applied, but Jandell and Meenah had decided that it would be best to spread the word geometrically. The couples chosen had to be married or willing to marry, and they would travel and teach together like Jandell and Meenah.  In their teachings, the Ren couple had revealed the avatar’s discovery that there were some 475 tribes or communities of other people around the world, and proclaimed that they would leave the Moocha village when the time was right to try to convert and educate some of them. 

Each newly anointed Teacher would receive a protective drone disk and devices embedded in his/her ear canals with which they could communicate with Avataro and all of the other teachers. Avataro would provide them with floating carriages to transport them to the next village, stacks of the Book of Truth, and anything else they needed for their teaching. The challenging part for the novices would be introducing themselves and their message with no bloodshed, without being able to speak the language. Of course, they would be protected and well-advised by the avatar. The rule of thumb was to start building a following with as few “miracles” as possible.

The master plan was to try to get the word to nearly all human populations within four or five generations. It was an ambitious plan, considering that any promoter of “The Book”  would probably need two to four years to achieve any significant conversion ratio from previous beliefs, and each village would have its unique problems to solve. For example, Avataro reported to them that some tribes had devolved to the point of practicing human sacrifice and even cannibalism. And there was a situation in the Amazon Basin where two villages, separated by a two-day walk, were in a perpetual state of ritual feud or war with each other; trading a life for a life annually in a never-ending cycle of rule-based revenge.

Konah had grown into a smart and healthy six-year-old and made plenty of friends among the village children, who were now quite used to seeing the protective disc-drone hovering 10 meters above his head. The drone didn’t interfere much with good-natured horseplay and wrestling, but it did flash a warning occasionally if the play got too rough or serious – to Konah as well as to his playmate. For example, when one older boy shoved Konah to the ground for some perceived insult, he suddenly yelled: “OW!” as green rays of light stung both of his hands (producing no damage, of course). The would-be bully then stood in shock and fear, looking up agape at the disc. Konah, upset from the shove, thought he would take advantage of his “invincible” status by getting up to strike or shove the older boy, but just as he was about to do so, he received painful green warning snaps on both of his hands. Both boys then ran crying to their respective huts.

As the winter rains began to subside and spring came into full bloom, the Ren couple began to talk about leaving. As usual, it was Meenah who began the dialogue.

“Our acolytes are pretty much ready, Jandell,” she declared. “They all speak, read, and write late-English very well now, as well as we do. And they have memorized the entire Book of Truth.

Jandell looked pensive for a few moments before finally replying: “You know what you and I and Konah must do, right?”

Meenah answered: “Yes, of course, my dear husband, we need to approach our families and friends in the Ren village. I’m ready.”

“I’ve more trepidations,” averred Jandell. “Drigga and the other hunters still have their ‘bravado’ and may not welcome our entrance. Perhaps we should send an acolyte couple instead. Avataro can teach them to speak passable Rennish.”

“My darling Jandell,” began Meenah. “As little more than children, you and I ran headlong into the wilderness, not knowing if we would starve, or be eaten by long-tooth cats, or if there were really any other people, or if so, where they were. As mature adults, we can certainly muster the courage to go back and to face our families and childhood friends, especially with the protection of Avataro’s drones! Plus, the drones report that Greb is now happily coupled with another woman and has a male child, so he’s unlikely to carry the grudge.”

After a long sigh, Jandell replied, “Of course you’re right as usual, dear. Let’s begin making the preparations. We’ll have another very powerful religion to overcome.”

“I can help you to make a good start,” said the voice of Avataro in their ears.

“How is that?” asked both Meenah and Jandell simultaneously.

“I can open the door in the bowl.”

The End

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