“It worked!” I hold up the clay cup, now dried and hardened, for Ehd to see. “
Being close to the fire was enough to make them usable!”
I laugh as Ehd takes the cup in his hand and turns it over and over again, running his fingers across the hard surface. I pick up one of the plates, which has also dried nicely, thinking about how nice it will be to be able to put food on this instead of just pulling meat off the bone with my fingers.
“It will feel like a real meal,” I say, my excitement growing. “I can place it all nicely with barley on one side, the fish over here, and then maybe some berries to make it look pretty. I’ll put all those TV chefs to shame!”
I giggle and hand Ehd the plate as he hands back the cup. He turns the plate over once and then tries to make it bend. The look in his eyes tells me he’s never seen clay made into anything before.
“Imagine what your expression would be if you ever saw an iPad.”
Ehd suddenly taps the plate against one of the stones surrounding the fire, and it cracks into pieces with a surprisingly loud crash, startling Ehd. He leaps backward, grasping me around the waist and pulling me against him as if the broken chips of plate are going to rise up and devour us.
I smile and shake my head and try to untangle myself from his arms. I’m not happy about the plate, but just knowing that I can dry the clay enough to make something useful is enough for me now. Plenty of clay can be found by the lake, and I can always make another plate.
Ehd releases me, and I take a step back toward the fire. As I glance down at the broken pieces, my heart drops into my stomach, and my body goes cold. In the back of my mind, I hear my mother’s voice speaking clearly through a speaker at the side of the museum exhibit.
“The Prehistoric Lovers. The dig, located near Pecs, Hungary, was discovered early in the year though the easy access to the area made extracting the artifacts relatively uncomplicated. Note the clay pieces, far more advanced than is usual for the time period, have rough edges and clearly show a slow baking process as opposed to modern firing…”
I stare down at the broken pieces of plate, knowing full well that I have seen these exact pieces before. I saw them in the museum the day I was suddenly and incredibly hurtled to this place and time. I saw them in my mother’s office weeks before then, when she opened the boxes shipped from Europe.
The jagged edges in a zigzag pattern are identical.
It’s not a coincidence. It’s not happenstance. The pieces on the ground in front of me—the ones Ehd just inadvertently broke—are the exact same pieces from my mother’s find.
My mother’s find, which was believed to have dated back prior to some ancient ice age.
My mother’s find, which included two nearly intact skeletons—one man and one woman—found in the recess of a small cave.
My mother’s find, which was riddled with controversy over the small, metal button found in the cave with the rest of the ancient artifacts. A button that clearly said “JORDACHE” on the front of it.
My father’s notes in his lab said the DNA of the female skeleton was related to him.
“It’s me,” I whisper so quietly I can barely hear my own words. “The skeletons…they’re me and Ehd.”
My legs give out, and I fall to a heap on the ground as a completely incomprehensible wail escapes from my throat. I cover my mouth with my hand as I keep staring at the pieces, willing them to fade into non-existence with my stare, but they’re still there, screaming the truth in my face.
“Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.” I can’t stop mumbling the words as I rock against my heels. I reach out and grab the pieces, holding them to my chest as if the warmth from my body might melt them back together.
I’m going to die in this cave.
Whatever thoughts and hopes and dreams of my father finding me and taking me back home are as shattered as the clay plate.
I jump as Ehd’s hand touches my shoulder. I turn and scream at him.
“You did this! You broke it! You made the pieces like this!” Ehd takes a step back, his eyes wide as tears stream down my face and my nose starts to clog up. “You’re going to die in this cave, and I’m…I’m…I’m going to die here with you!”
My head spins and I shove the pieces away from me. I stand up to face him.
“It’s you and me. Don’t you see that?” My words are ridiculous. He’s never been to the museum, and he hasn’t seen the exhibit. The museum won’t even exist for millennia. “We are going to die here!”
Ehd stares at me, looking terrified, baffled, and ashamed.
“Look at this!” I scream at him as I reach down and grab the button of my Jordache jeans. “This is the button they found! The button from my jeans! The whole reason they called my mom a fraud is because of the button from my jeans!”
I shake the button with both hands, still sobbing. Ehd pulls back in fear with his eyes wide.
“We’re going to die here! We’re going to die here! Oh my God!” I fall back to the ground and grasp at the pieces.