Caveman Existential Crisis

[Tingz0r]

Please enjoy if you desire a short story I wrote tonight instead of working on my novel.

https://mcbadluck.wordpress.com/2026/01 ... al-crisis/

Caveman Existential Crisis (working title)

An early man, colloquially known as a caveman, possibly a neanderthal, is seen burying his recently deceased family members. He solemnly looks over their graves, and after a moment of thought, he kneels down to dig into a separate grave, uncovering another person’s bones. He picks up the skull and fondles it contemplatively, then he sets it down and buries it again.

He retires to his cave dwelling that night and sadly looks over the emptiness. He crouches next to a bonfire and stokes the flame. He then sits down on a bed and runs his hand across it. He looks at the wall next to the bed and sees cave paintings of his family.

He uncovers a bowl filled with paint and begins to draw on the wall. First, he makes a baby crawling, and above it he paints a small dot. Then, he paints a child standing upright, and paints a small circle above it. He paints a man next to it, with an even larger circle above his head. Then, he paints a slouched man, stricken with age, with a larger but less round shape above it. Finally, he paints a pile of bones, and stares at the empty space above it.

He looks across the row of paintings, and his eyes stop once again at the empty space above the bones. He covers the bowl of paint and lies down to rest. His eyes remain open for a while, but he eventually shuts them and falls asleep.

He dreams of hunting deer. He throws a spear at a doe, but it lands in front of a juvenile fawn, surprising it and blocking its path. It calls out as it panics in place. The man leaps on top of it and forces its head down as he stabs its neck. He looks up to search for the other one, but instead finds a woman looking back at him, screaming. He looks down at what he’s killed and sees the pale face of a child.

He wakes up, stiffened with fear, in the middle of the night. He slowly rolls over and looks at his paintings again. Then, he looks at the various hides around his dwelling. He looks down at his clothes and rubs them between his fingers. He looks back at the paintings.

He gets out of bed and picks up the paint. He looks at the child and the man. Underneath the child, he paints a small deer, and underneath the man, he paints a larger deer. He looks back at the baby, and the dot above its head. Then, he paints a small rodent under the baby. Underneath the slouched man, he paints a mammoth. And once again, he stares at the space above the pile of bones. He sets the paint down and goes back to sleep.

This time, he dreams that he’s in his cave, and his family is there with him, alive. He holds them lovingly, and then they go about their day. He watches them do the things they would do, but then he notices his paintings on the wall. He worriedly approaches them, and slowly looks them over until he comes across a figure of a sleeping man where the bones should be. His family then goes out into the sunlight, and he follows them. He’s shocked to see them walk to their own graves. As he approaches, they smile reassuringly at him, and he wakes up.

As the sun begins to rise, he gets out of bed and leaves to visit the graves. He sits and waits expectantly for a moment, but when nothing happens, he gets up and returns to his cave. He looks at the paintings and sees the pile of bones where they should be. He stares at them in thought, and his eyes widen with inspiration. He stokes the fire, and picks up the paint.

At last, above the bones he paints an upward stroke into a large, billowing cloud that surrounds the rest of the paintings. He excitedly swirls the cloud over and over, and then, he splashes the rest of the paint on it and smears it around with his hand as he laughs out loud. He steps back to admire his work, and with a smile, he rubs paint on his face, then presses his hand against the cloud. He stares contentedly at the painting, and the story ends with the sun fully risen above the horizon.