About Bernard Hanks.

The Next Morning


Linc couldn't help it, he had to laugh at Bernard's dilemma. Bernard
said, "It be funny now, but it weren't when it appened" He went on to
tell Linc how he made a bamboo hut, soaked with the woman in the hot
spring after he cut off most of her long hair, and scrubbed her good
before he took her back to the new hut. He told Linc how he urged the
natives to improve their surroundings Told about all the other
portals he went through, to do as the time masters wanted and to find
lots of new things the village could use. About adventures with the
bee hives, ants, termites and the inevitable cockroaches. The birds
like Kiwis he found, captured and brought back to the village. The
cages they made to keep them in so they would reproduce.
Bernard said that he decided to go back through the main portal and
get some things since the woman he called Portia was going to have a
baby.
He took a few of the diamonds and went to an old family friend who
bought them right off. Rented a truck and bought a garden cart.
And all the equipment they needed to dig up and plant into garden as
well as all the seeds, couple hundred pounds of potatoes, some to
plant. He bought crosscut saws, regular saws, hammers, nails, brace
and bits, screws, an adz and a plane. All the things they would need
to build things with. Books of DIY plans, big pots and pans of cast
iron. Metal plates, and silverware, cooking utensils, a keg of salt
and big containers of various spices. He brought diapers and baby
blankets as well as 60 good heavy wool blankets
They needed a good big first aid kit, And lots of soap, brushes and
combs. He thought of a lots of other things too, then brought it all
down through t portal to the beach. Took the garden cart, filled it
up and took it to the village. Then he had the rest brought down by
the village men.

They cut trees and made the clearing much larger. Dug up the garden
spot and planted. Made tables, benches and other furniture. Made
the loom and got fibers from some old dead hemp stalks that he found
that had exploded, and figured out how to make them into cloth on the
loom He had bought scissors, thread and needles so they could make
the robes they wore.

Bernard told him he went back through the portal and got Fruit trees,
young goats, sheep, a couple dozen baby chicks, rabbits, Wire and a
big ball of heavy twine to make cages with. He had made up his mind
that he would remain here in this time and place.
They had spent most of the day talking. Linc had to laugh at some of
the tales that Bernard told, but he had to give him a lot of credit
for his fortitude. He was a great human being. Linc wondered what he
would have done in the same situation.
There seemed to be a lot of activity at one of the huts. Women going
in and out and quite a bit of moaning and groaning going on. Several
times Bernard left him and went in there too. Linc wandered around
the village, and marveled at all the work that had been done to make
it so livable. All at once he heard a few muffled screams. Back in
the village he asked Bernard what was going on. Bernard told him
That the woman was having a baby, and just like always, if the Hanks
baby was a boy, it died at birth and the mother had a terrible time
giving birth. The screams were getting louder now and Linc could
stand it no longer. He went into the hut and saw immediately what was
wrong. The child was coming breach. He shooed all the women away and
turned the baby as best he could. Good thing the child was small.
He had to almost pull the baby out. It was blue as can be and Linc
wiped its face, places his mouth over the babies face and blew into
it's mouth , He did this a couple of times then it started to howl.
The women started to jabber and point. There was another baby, and it
came head first, but it too, wouldn't breath and Linc had to perform
CPR on it as well. The women took the babies out to clean, and dress
them. Bernard looked at Linc and said, " Gor, what a mess you are".
Linc looked at his sweatshirt and saw what he meant. He took it off,
the Bernard told him to follow and they went to the hot spring. The
spring was all rocked in and was divided into two parts. One deep and
the other shallow. Bernard took off his robe and motioned Linc to get
undressed then the got in the hot spring to soak a bit Bernard said
that one of the women would wash his clothes. In the meantime he
could wear one of his robes.
Bernard was silent for a bit, then said he was very grateful the boys
were alive. Told Linc how he had two other boys. Their remains, down
in the burial cave, already and was very fortunate to have these two
alive, thanks to Linc. "A burial cave". Linc asked? Bernard went
on to tell Linc about the caves. How the old woman told him how , she
and ten others left the Mother cave, walked for days, and came to
this place. The old woman told him that some very large people with
white skin, came to the Mother cave and made the dark skin people
slaves. She said, she and the others slipped away one night and came
here and found the caves. The lived in the caves for a year or so
like the people did in the Mother cave, but these caves were smaller
and darker, so gradually the lived more outside than in. The old
woman told him how two of the men went back to the Mother cave after
they had lived in these caves about three years. The said it was no
longer there. They could see the mountains where the caves were but
now they were barely visible on the distant horizon, and there was now
an ocean between them. None of them could understand how that could
happen. Bernard was at a lost at how to explain plate tectonics to her
so he had to let it drop, with a shrug.
Layer in the day Bernard brought an old battered suitcase out of his
hut. He kept all the DYI books in it as well as a bunch of notebooks.
He took one out and told Linc this one is where he kept records of
names and so forth. Told Linc he was going to name the boys after
him. The eldest he said will be called, Lincoln Bernard Hanks and
the other Joseph Allen Hanks. Linc was feeling very humble at this
gesture and very much surprised.

Since there was little else he could do or find out here he figured
he may as well go back through the portal and tell the times masters
all that had happened, and what he found out. But before he left,
Bernard gave him the rest of the diamonds he had. He knew he would
never have a use for them anymore and they might come in handy for
Linc before he was done with the task the time masters gave him.


To be continued.