Free Bonesetter 2 -Winter- by Laurence E Dahners

didn’t finish her thought, so Pell said, “You think… what?”
    Her voice croaked, “Mostly, I think it’s been luck. It’s not that I’ve had many illnesses and recovered from them, it’s that I haven’t even had the sicknesses that kill. When my knees got so bad that I could no longer gather food for myself…” She paused and wiped at an eye, “the people of my tribe were kind enough to feed me anyway. When the flood came, they’d already moved me to the high cave.” She shook her head and said bitterly, “They should’ve let me drown and saved some of the others.”
    Gia knelt to put her arms around her great-grandmother and lean their heads together, “Your wisdom has saved us so many times Agan, of course your tribe takes care of you.”
    Pell felt a lump in his throat. He’d merely been curious about how old Agan was and had no idea of the distress his question might cause. He wanted to apologize, but didn’t really know how to say he was sorry for asking a question.
    Gia quickly improved their moods by beginning to tell Agan, Panute, and Falin about the trip to the Aldans’ cave.
    Surreptitiously, Pell studied Panute’s leg which he thought was much less swollen. It looked pretty straight with only a slight bow. The foot was turned out to the side a little bit, but Pell thought she’d be able to walk pretty well on it. The amazing thing was the way she used her thumb and the remaining two fingers on her hand to deftly weave the reeds in her basket.
    Panute was making a deep basket. Pell stared at it as she twined the weaver around the “stakes.” There was something about the un-woven pointed ends of the stakes sticking out of the top of the partially finished basket that reminded him of something, but he couldn’t think what it was.
    Suddenly Pell realized everyone was staring at him, “What?”
    An awed tone in his voice, Falin said, “You chased away a lion?!”
    Embarrassed, Pell said, “With fire.” He shrugged, “They’re afraid of fire. That’s why we’re usually safe at night next to a fire.” He said a little contritely, “It probably wasn’t very smart to chase a lion with it though.”
    “I can’t wait to tell Manute and Deltin!”
    Pell looked around, “Where are they?” He frowned, “And where’s my mother?”
    “Donte said she found some grapes! She said they were damaged by the cold when it snowed, but she’s gone to get as many as she can. She hopes she can dry them like the apple slices. Deltin’s looking for wood for spearshafts. I’m pretty sure Boro and Manute went with him.”
    “Did Donte say where the grapes were?” Pell asked, “I could go help her.”
    Falin was able to describe the location of the grapes in relation to one of the ‘escape sites’ where they’d stored some food. Pell went in to get a basket to carry grapes. The first basket on their stack was so loosely woven that grapes would fall through. The next one was tight enough. He picked it up and started on his way to help Donte, but found himself thinking about the loosely woven basket. It was as if something was tickling his mind, but he couldn’t think what it was.
    As Pell walked up the ravine towards his mother’s location, he realized that he was alone for a change. Making good on his resolution, he picked up some stones and began throwing. To his surprise, even though he hadn’t been practicing, he suddenly found himself to be much better than he’d been in the past. He hit close to his marks every time and actually struck what he’d been throwing at a good third of the time.
    This was such a huge improvement that Pell could hardly believe it. He wondered what had happened. It certainly wasn’t because he’d been putting in effort, he hadn’t. He remembered being told when he was younger that he’d become more coordinated when he got to a certain age. He’d always thought people were just trying to make him feel better, but now he wondered if it might be