Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot
By Erik John Bertel
Copyright 2005, 2012
Publisher
Millennium Writing
64 Bellewood Avenue
Centereach, NY 11720
Published 2008
ISBN: 0-9822576-0-0, 78-0-9822576-0-9
Copyright 2005, 2012 by Erik John Bertel
Edited by Katrina Robinson, Calliope Writing Services, LLC
No part of this novel shall be copied, broadcast, or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author Erik John Bertel or Millennium Publishing.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. This is purely a work for entertainment, and any similarity to any real or fictional person or event is purely coincidental.
Version 1.c
The Cost of Weakness
With Sarah's full recovery, the team quickly returned to the daily routine of research and surviving on a desolate tropical island. Sarah would get up early with Rudy to set up the video equipment before the Ebu could get back to their usual daytime encampment. She would then spend the day watching every detail of the Ebu's day, taking care to document the tenuous bonds of friendships and alliances that defined the small troop.
Besides observing the normal social intercourse of the Ebu, Sarah observed their tool use and was careful to document the tools they used that wouldn't normally be part of the fossil record. Tools constructed from wood and animal hide wouldn't survive the ravages of time, yet Sarah found that these tools were a big part of their daily kit. For Sarah, it was a classic example of the old axiom about "the absence of evidence not being evidence for absence". Most importantly, their fire-making gear was always nearby and jealously guarded by the dominant males of the tribe.
She also found that her concerns regarding cultural contamination were not unfounded, but completely beyond her control. Like Richard said, she began noticing that the Ebu regularly collected debris from the beach for either practical use or personal ornamentation. Plastic bags were very popular with the Ebu and were used for containing food and other key supplies. Shiny metal objects and even plastic tampon dispensers found a second life as personal ordainments for the Ebu. The cultural contamination was difficult to watch, yet it once again proved to Sarah the resourcefulness of these tiny, isolated people.
One aspect of normal primate social behavior, one that was more a physical manifestation of social intercourse, continued to elude Sarah. Much to her chagrin, observing the Ebu mating rituals proved to be a strangely elusive task. She caught an occasional glimpse of them having sexual intercourse, apparently with the male mounting the female from behind, but overall, there wasn't much sexual activity at the Ebu camp. In fact, Sarah didn't observe any permanent pair bonds among the male and female Ebu. What she did observe was a strict male-female division of labor: the mature males hunted, and the females gathered food while rearing the infants alone. They had babies; however, Sarah wasn't sure of the mating rituals or of the mechanics on how the females became pregnant.
Back at the camp, Sarah decided to share her embarrassing plight with Richard. She was uncomfortable, not because of the sexual nature of her work, but because as an experienced field naturalist, this should be a routine matter of observation. Besides, she was hanging around Richard too much to be embarrassed about anything around him. Anything was fair game for his juvenile humor, and Sarah finally accepted, with a certain resigned grace, her lot in life as the straight man in Richard's bad comedy act.
