Factoring Humanity

“No,” continued Stone, “it was always pretty facile reasoning — this idea that if someone had brow ridges, he must have Neanderthal blood. Brow ridges are just a normal part of the variation among Homo sapiens — like eye color, or prominent webbing between the thumb and index finger. When you look at the more subtle details of Neanderthal anatomy — such as the nasal cavity, which contains two triangular projections jutting in from either side, or the muscle-attachment scars on the limbs, or even the complete lack of a chin — you can see that they are clearly unlike modern humans.” He took a swig of beer. “Neanderthals are wholly and completely extinct. They were lords of creation for maybe a hundred thousand years, but we supplanted them.”

“That’s too bad, in a way,” said Kyle. “I’d always liked the idea that we incorporated them into us.”

“It just doesn’t work like that. Oh, maybe within the same species, it sometimes happens; by the end of this century, there’ll doubtless be more mixed-race people on this planet than there are pure-race people. But most of the time, there’s no peaceful handing over of the baton, no incorporating of the past into the present. You wipe out those who were there before.”

Kyle thought about the beggars he’d seen on Queen Street. “Do you have any Native Canadian students?”

Stone shook his head. “Not a one. Not anymore.”

“Me neither. I don’t think there are even any Natives on faculty, are there?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Not even in Native Studies?”

Stone shook his head.

Kyle took a sip of his drink. “Maybe you’re right.”

“I am right,” said Stone. “ ’Course, Natives still exist, but they’re extremely marginalized. For decades, they’ve had the highest suicide rate, the highest alcoholism rate, the highest poverty rate, the highest infant-mortality rate, and the highest unemployment rate of any demographic group in the country.”

“But I remember when I was going to school here twenty years ago,” said Kyle. “There were a few Natives in the classes.”

“Sure. But it was government money that was doing it — and neither Ottawa nor the provinces spends money like that anymore, unless there are a lot of votes to be had — and, sadly, there aren’t. Hell, there are far more Ukrainians in Canada than Natives, you know.” He paused. “Anyway, government programs like the one that put those students in your class never succeed; I did some work years ago for the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, before they killed it. The Natives didn’t want our culture. And when we decided that their culture was irrelevant to our way of life, we stopped settling their land claims and now we’re letting them die as a people. We Europeans took North America over from the Natives lock, stock, and barrel.”

Kyle was quiet for a moment, then: “Well, no one’s going to take over from us.”

Stone took a sip of beer. “Not unless your wife’s aliens come down to Earth,” he said, dead serious.

What a rush! Spectacular and vibrant, like the acid she’d tried along with so many other things when she’d first arrived in the big city.

Another human mind!

It was disorienting, intoxicating, frightening, exhilarating.

She fought the excitement and surprise, fought to bring rationality to the fore.

But the other was so alien.

He was male — that was part of it. A man’s mind.

But there was more that was incongruous.

The images were colored incorrectly. All browns and yellows and grays, and -

Ah, of course. Heather’s cousin Bob had the same problem. This man — whoever he was — was color-blind.

But there was more that was amiss. She could — well, hear was as good a metaphor as any — she could hear his thoughts, a silent babble, a voice without breath, a sound without vibration, words cascading left and right like dominoes falling.

But they were gibberish, incomprehensible -

Because they weren’t in English.

Heather strained harder, trying to make them out. They were indeed words, but without aspiration or accent, it was hard to determine which language they were in.

Vowels. Consonants.

No — no. Consonants, then vowels, always in alteration. No consonants abutting.

Most of Japanese worked that way.

Yes. A Japanese speaker. A Japanese thinker.

Why not? Perhaps three-quarters of a billion people spoke-thought — in English most of the time. Americans, Canadians, Brits, Aussies, a smattering of smaller populations. Oh, perhaps half the world’s inhabitants spoke some English, but it was the native tongue for only a tenth of the total.

Should she try again? Disconnect? Select another key on the wall of humanity?

Yes. But not yet. Not yet.

It was fascinating.

She was in contact with another mind.

Was he aware of it? If so, there was no sign that Heather could detect.