Ken Hurley
Kushim was a weathered man with calloused hands and skin the color of ochre clay baked by the sun. His life was lived in the open, evidenced by the rounded etched lines around his eyes, deepened by squinting in an effort to focus. A network of scars crisscrossed his arms and legs, signs of his encounters with predators and the unforgiving terrain. His hair was thick and matted, the shade of dried river reeds, often tangled with leaves and twigs. His stature was short and stocky, but his frame was powerfully built. His shoulders were broadened by years of hunting. His shaggy hirsute chest expanded with each deep, deliberate breath. His eyes were his most striking feature. They were a startling shade of deep amber, unnervingly bright, at night even fluorescent, which held a depth of gaze that suggested an innate wisdom far beyond his years — a conscious awareness that pierced time itself.
. Kushim was descended from original members of the Homo sapiens clan, a small, tightly-knit tribe that roamed fertile valleys and arid deserts. However, he was unlike any other member of his tribe. He possessed a gift, a curse, a burden — the ability to see the future, to witness events yet to come. Events came to him in dreams, in flashes of visions that assaulted his waking and sleeping mind. He saw vast swaths of land aflame, metal behemoths roaring across the plains, figures shrouded in strange garments raising weapons that spat fire and death. He saw structures of immense scale, built of stone and shaped with an unbelievable precision. He saw the advent of writing, the wheel, and sophisticated irrigation systems. He saw the effort to govern by democracy. He witnessed the slow, inexorable march of civilizations yet to be. He saw their rise and fall, their triumphs and tragedies, all swirling before his eyes like dust devils in a summer storm.
. His gift (or curse) made him an outcast. He was not fully present in his own time. While others hunted and gathered, he would often wander away, his gaze affixed on an unseen horizon. While the tribe gathered around a communal fire, sharing stories and laughter, Kushim retreated to a solitary space, sketching strange, otherworldly images onto cave walls. Images born from the visions that tormented his mind. His tribe was wary of the unknown and considered him to be touched by spirits. Sometimes Kushim was venerated, but more often he was feared. The tribe relied on his predictions of weather patterns and animal migrations, but they kept a respectful distance, unsure of the totality of his capabilities. Kushim saw a vast, rolling plain, dotted with enormous, grey beasts with ivory tusks. Then, a smaller, yet fearsome creature appeared — a hunter, wielding a spear riding another beast. Kushim knew this was the future. The ability for humans to harness their surroundings. He saw the hunter destroy the mammoth grey beast.
. He returned to his tribe, his heart heavy with the knowledge of what was to come. He warned them of a harsh winter — a severe climate change — when the mammoth beasts would all disappear, when game would become scarce. He told them of a time of great suffering. His tribe scoffed, they always did, but as the seasons changed, the mammoths vanished — a chilling harbinger of future events.
. Years passed. Kushim, now older, his body a bit more withered with the passage of time as his visions continued. His mind watched as civilizations blossomed and collapsed. He saw the rise of Egyptians, their stone pyramids reaching towards the heavens. He witnessed the construction of the Great Wall of China, a serpent of stone winding across the landscape, a monument to the power of empires. He saw the grandeur of the Roman Empire, its legions marching across continents, its aqueducts and roads transforming the world.
. He saw the birth of Christianity, the spread of its teachings across the globe, the doubts, conflicts, and a vibrant Freethought movement that followed. He saw the fall of Rome, the descent into the Dark Ages. He saw fragmented kingdoms, the rise of feudalism, the dominance of the Church, the Crusades, the Black Death, and the creation of the Magna Carta. He predicted a renaissance of classical culture, great artistic works, and intellectual flourishing. He predicted an invention that would revolutionize the dissemination of written knowledge.
. One evening, huddled near a dwindling fire, Kushim felt another powerful wave of visions. This time, they were a particularly chaotic, swirling kaleidoscopic series of unstoppable images. He saw a man, a shepherd named Muhammad, spreading his faith across Arabia, and then the rise of a massive empire that was very close to his home. He knew, with a certainty that chilled his heart, that this Empire would reach the lands of his tribe and bring centuries of conflict and wars.
. The images then became even more startling. Kushim saw ships sailing across vast oceans. He saw them come to the shores of a new world, a world that they would conquer and colonize, and where they would exploit indigenous populations. He saw these ships being used in horrifying but profitable slave trading.
. He saw the construction of immense metal birds that would travel at great speeds across the sky — machines that could destroy cities. He saw the Great War, a terrible conflict that would bring about the death of many.
. Then came a period of peace but with more human hardship. Kushim saw the Great Depression and all of the suffering that it brought.
. Kushim saw the rise of a little mustached man named Charlie that made the world laugh. He saw another little mustached man named Adolf who would instigate the murder of millions and made the world fight. He saw fire rain down on cities, the end of many lives, the end of empires, and the obliteration of two Asian cities with the push of a button.
. He saw the Cold War, a long, tense standoff between two opposing powers. He saw lots of cardigan sweaters, too. He saw the race for space, the invention of computers, the ever-accelerating pace of technological change. He saw the emergence of new diseases, new threats, and new possibilities.
. Kushim’s visions were often too analytical for him to believe. He saw strong similarities between American President 7 and the first American Felon President 47. Both had confrontational, combative, and racist personalities, yet appealed to a populist style. President 7 would use federal force to implement the Indian Removal Act and implement the Nullification Crisis. President 47 would use federal force to disregard laws and oversee illegal deportation of thousands, while delighting in dismantling much of the federal government that served him so well.
. His visions, once fragmented and unclear, were becoming clearer, more intense. The future, once a distant and indistinct prospect, was drawing closer. He knew his time was running out. One day, he sat at the mouth of a cave. He chose a spot that was drenched in sunlight. He then took his flint stone and struggled to scratch images on the stone cave wall.
. He collapsed to the ground, his strength failing, his breath shallow. He saw one final image — a group of people in a strange, advanced place who discovered his drawings and studied them with great interest, in awe of Kushim’s last etching that depicted lots of life elsewhere in a multiverse.
. As the sun set, bathing the cave in a warm, golden light, Kushim drew his last breath. His physical body was gone, but his visions, etched in stone, remained. The stone writer was no more, but his prophetic legacy describing the burdens and joys of the future would live on. Preserved for centuries. Not on a hard drive, not in the cloud — but etched in stones on a cave wall. He was, finally, a part of the history he predicted.
. Kushim — that is his story.
STONES — A History
