فصل 03

CHAPTER THREE

Education

In the morning Moon-Watcher and his group had no memories of what had happened the night before. When they went out to find food, they hardly looked at the new rock as they passed it. They could not eat it and it could not eat them, so it was not important.

But that night the noise from the new rock started again, and once again the group went to sit around it. This time it seemed only interested in a few of the man-apes, and one of them was Moon-Watcher. Once again he felt the thing exploring his mind, and then he began to see things. He saw a group of man-apes resting near the entrance to a cave. The male, female and two young ones were obviously eating well. They were quite fat and their hair was shiny. He put his hand on his own thin body and thought about the difference between himself and the picture in his mind.

Later, as he sat outside the cave. Moon-Watcher felt the beginnings of a new emotion. For the first time, he felt unhappy with his life and he wanted to change it. He had taken one small step towards being human.

Night after night the rock showed him the four man-apes who were eating so well, and this made him feel even hungrier. The rock was helping this feeling to grow, because it was changing the patterns in his brain. If he lived, these changes would be passed on to his children.

It was slow work, but the rock was patient. If it failed, there were other similar rocks doing the same thing across half of the world. A hundred failures would not matter if one success could change history.

As the line of wild pigs crossed the path, Moon-Watcher stopped suddenly. Pigs and man-apes had always ignored each other, because they did not compete for the same food.

But now Moon-Watcher stood looking at them. Something was happening in his mind which he did not understand. He started to search the ground. He did not know what he was looking for, but he would know it when he found it.

It was a heavy pointed stone about fifteen centimeters long. As he swung his hand round, puzzled by the increased weight, he felt a new sense of power. He started to move towards the nearest pig.

It was a young and foolish animal, and it felt no fear until much too late. It went on looking for food in the grass until Moon-Watcber’s hammer ended its life. The other pigs continued to feed, because the murder had been quick and silent.

The man-apes gathered round. One of them picked up the wet stone and began to hit the dead pig. Others helped with sticks and stones until the pig was a broken mess.

Then they became bored. Some walked away, others stood around the body, and the future of the world waited on their decision. It was quite a long time before one of the young mothers began to taste the stone she was holding.

And it was even longer before Moon-Watcher, despite all he had been shown, really understood that he need never be hungry again.