The Man from Earth Page #4

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They thought that I was

Stealing their lives away to stay young.

The prehistoric origin

of the vampire myth.

That is good!

First thousand years,

I didn't know up from sideways.

How do you know the

first thousand years?

An informed guess, based on what

I've learned in my memories.

Most people can scarcely

remember their childhood,

But you have memories of that time?

Like yours, selective.

You know, the high points,

the low points, traumas.

They stick in the mind forever.

Put down at 3 or 35,

you still feel a twinge.

Go on.

I kept getting chased

because I wouldn't die,

So I got the hang of

joining new groups I found.

I also got the idea of

periodically moving on.

We were semi-Nomadic, of course,

Following the weather

and the game we hunted.

The first 2,000 years were cold.

We learned it was warmer

at lower elevations.

Late glacial period, I assume.

What was the terrain like?

Mountainous.

Vast plains to the west.

West--Something you

learned in school.

Towards the setting sun.

I suspect I saw the british isles

From what is now the french coast.

Huge mountains...

on the other side of

an enormous deep valley

That was shadowed by the setting sun.

This is before they were separated

From the continent by rising

seas, as glaciers melted.

That happened?

Yes, the end of the pleistocene.

So far, what he says fits.

Oh, yeah, into any textbook.

And that's where I found it.

How can I have knowledgeable recall

If I didn't have knowledge?

It's all retrospective.

All I can do is

integrate my recollections

With modern findings.

Caveman, you gonna hit me

over the head with a club

And drag me into the bedroom?

You'd be more fun conscious.

Oh, John.

Let me get this straight.

We're not talking about reincarnation.

You're not saying that you remember

Whatever the hell it would be,

And being born again and yada yada?

One lifetime.

Some lifetime.

Wow.

Maybe there is something

to this reincarnation thing.

You're supposed to come back

Again and again, learn and learn,

And somehow, John, you just managed

To bypass all the other bodies.

Well, what's the point?

What about oceans?

Didn't see them till much later.

So how would you know

an ocean from a lake?

Big waves--

Something else

I can only surmise in retrospect.

Were you curious about

where it all came from?

We would look up at the sky and wonder.

"There's gotta be

some big guys up there.

What else made all this down here?"

At first I thought

There was something

wrong with me--

Maybe I was a bad guy for not dying.

Then I began to wonder if I was cursed

Or perhaps blessed.

Then I thought maybe I had a mission.

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