The Cleft by Doris Lessing

not leave on the shore the toddling child, the New One; unlikely, they knew, that she would be alive when they got back. Maire’s new babe, Astre’s boy, and the New One must all go. The two girls invited some of the younger Clefts who had shown an interest in the valley to come too. Four young women, one holding the New One, walked past the Killing Rock – where no one had been put out to die for a long time now – then on they went up the mountain. When they reached the top there were whoops and yells from the valley floor, and the boys came running up to greet the girls – who had to defend themselves, as otherwise they would have been raped (a word and a concept that would not appear for a considerable time). Fending off the hungry boys, they reached the valley floor and thebig social log. There something happened which illustrated so aptly the new sense that here were new beginnings that it was told in the chronicles of both parties. And reaches us in the crabby faded documents we call histories.
    Maire’s first mating had been with a Squirt whose face she did not particularly notice, and nor did she now, as he approached, knowing her. But the child from that mating was here, and in her arms and as usual making it impossible for anyone to ignore her. And her face, this very young child’s, was the same as the young male’s. Impossible not to notice: everyone did. At first there was silence, which fell suddenly, as they all came near to match the two faces, one a little girl’s or Cleft’s, one the youth’s. The owner of the grown face, Maire’s first mate, did not immediately understand. Mirrors had not been invented or even thought of. People knew how others looked, but not much had been made of a large nose, or eyes too close. But each of them must have seen their faces in the slack lazy by-waters of the river, or even in a big shell standing ready with water for the thirsty. Slowly this young male, once a Monster now a handsome youth, stood fingering his own face, then touching the face of the child, who was pleased with the attention it was getting. Then the father, beginning to realise what these matched faces meant, snatched the child from Maire and ran off to the river bank. All followed,watching as the youth knelt by the river where it made a pool, and looked down at himself and then at the child, mirrored there too. Then he handed the child back to Maire and walked, as it were blindly, certainly unsteadily, to the great log where he sat down. Maire sat by him, with the First One, and he kept looking at her, then at the child, then putting up his hands to touch his face. He was in a fever of wonderment – as they all were.
    These three were a family, as we would know one, but what they made of it we may only guess. When the evening meal was finished and dark was falling over the valley, Maire and this youth and the child went to a shelter by themselves. That there was some sort of communion between them was evident, but what was it? What did it mean?
    The girls who had come to help Astre and Maire entertained the youths, and they all talked of this great mystery, that mating could imprint a grown face on that of a child.
    This visit to the valley, told and then much later written, was not likely to be forgotten, and plenty was said, speculation we would call it: the new people, the old former Monsters, had powers the old Clefts did not. Yes, a baby Cleft might resemble its mother – there were mothers and daughters in the first community – but now the people on the shore looked carefully at every face.
    At that early stage none of the Clefts elected to stay in the valley. There was a suggestion that the valley was very warm, that the shelters were small and uncomfortable. The caves were large and airy, and sea breezes kept them fresh.
    The girls went off to the valley when they had to, and returned knowing that they would in turn give birth. The boys