The Empty Hammock

by Barrett, Brenda

  Juan smiled slightly and watched his friend leave. For the first time in his life he could not do that. He could not stop thinking about a woman.

  CHAPTER TWENTY- EIGHT

  “Ana,” Orocobix stood behind her as she stared out at Juan’s ship. He had stormed off to his ship after Basila had found them sitting under the trees. Basila had given Ana a sad look as if she knew all the thoughts that were floating around her head.

  Ana looked at Orocobix for a long while, he was still her handsome Cacique: bronzed, tall, gentle and yet she sensed defeat in his stance.

  “What’s wrong?” Ana asked stealing herself against the answer.

  “You,” Orocobix’s long eyelashes lowered over his eyes and he squeezed Ana’s hand.

  Ana moved closer to him and hugged him. She didn’t need to say anything; she knew that he must have heard that she was alone on the beach with the white man. His body stiffened and he released a shuddering sigh.

  “I love you,” he whispered in her hair, “I loved you even when I thought you were not right in the head.”

  Ana looked up into his eyes, “I love you too.”

  He stared at her intently, until Ana felt uncomfortable. “Don’t you believe me Chief?” Ana asked playfully.

  Orocobix smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Yes I think so, but I think you are too friendly with the pale men. Especially the one you were seen with on the beach.”

  Ana stepped away from her husband, “he wants to take me to Spain with him.”

  “Never,” Orocobix said savagely. His eyes blazed with a vicious light and he tightened his fist. “I will never let you go.”

  Ana quivered at his determined stance.

  “I am going to ask my men to keep a watch on you.”

  Ana frowned. “Orocobix, you do not have to be so jealous. They will be gone soon anyway and will not return for many summers.”

  Orocobix stood straighter. “You are mine. That pale duck-smelling man, who seems as though he wants to eat you alive, will not touch you. Neither will Guani, the young pup.”

  “Are you going to be joined with Tanama?”

  “No,” Orocobix said abruptly. “My mother was pressuring me and I merely said I will see.”

  Ana nodded.

  They stood together in silence.

  Orocobix felt out of control, the strange men were tramping all over the village enquiring about the yellow stones that they put around their necks. That was the only thing they were interested in.

  The pale one with the mosquito bites and very light eyes, who seemed to be the leader, had left looking at Ana as if she was from the spirit world. He seemed eager to leave the island.

  The one whom he did not trust, who looked at Ana with such intensity was still here. Orocobix felt the stirrings of war in his heart. He must be half Carib.

  He smiled at his thoughts and Ana leaned toward him relieved.

  She could not believe that she was in the middle of history in the making. She wanted to find out more from Juan about the present century but she couldn’t speak to him and not create a stir among the Spanish men. They would either fear her or treat her like a performer in a three-ring circus.

  She was beginning to trust Juan and was on the verge of speaking to him, when Basila had interrupted them; he had seemed so earnest, as if he really wanted to get to know her.

  She was going to see him tonight to do some historical investigating.

  ******

  Juan swung in his hammock on the deck of the ship; the night air was really cool. He could see the stars and hear the lapping of the sea on the side of the ship. He could smell the pungent smoke of the substance that the natives smoked all the time. It wafted in the breeze from their campfire on the hill. They were having some kind of ceremony, their silhouettes could be seen in the night and they were laughing and gesturing to some of the men who chose to join them.

  Juan felt bereft. Just yesterday his heart was his and today it belonged to her. He could not bear to sit around the campfire with the rest of his men and communicate by hand gestures to the natives. He could not bear to see her sitting beside the chief, laughing happily while the lights flickered in her chocolate brown eyes.

  He was jealous of a native chief. He laughed softly in the night. This man in the primitive wildness of the world had something that he wanted and he was not sure what to do. Should he kidnap her and take her to Spain, the scandal would be fierce. He could just see his mother swooning when he carried her home.

  Somehow he did not care, he was going to bring her to Spain and marry her. He would give anything right now just to smell a lock of her hair, and gaze into her sloe shaped eyes.

  He trembled, as he saw her approaching, she crept toward him in the dark her slim body encased in nothing but that ridiculous cloth that was not a skirt, her proud breasts a lovely silhouette in the night.

  He inhaled sharply.

  She sat beside his hammock and he looked across at her. Might be he was dreaming and she was not really here.

  “Ana,” he whispered, he got up and sat beside her, he touched her face.

  Ana jumped, this was now or never, she was going to talk to Juan Perez.

  “I can’t stay for long,” Ana whispered to him in the dark. “I did not see you at the camp fire and I wanted to ask you something.”

  Juan stiffened beside her. Her Spanish was flawless, her pronunciations were a little different from his but otherwise he understood her quite well.

  “I knew it,” he grabbed her hand, “I knew we spoke the same language.”

  Ana tightened her grip on their clasped hands, “promise me you won’t tell anyone else.”

  Juan swallowed slightly dazed. “I promise. Where…how… he cleared his throat. What are you?”

  Ana chuckled, “I am a girl.”

  “I can see that,” Juan’s voice got husky, “but how can you speak Spanish?”

  “I am not from here,” Ana said quickly, “I am from the future.”

  “Which island is that?” Juan asked puzzled.

  “This one.” Ana gazed at him steadily. “There are things you may not understand.”

  Juan was shaking his head; he was dazed. The future?

  Ana sensed his tension and sighed, “Technically I am older than you by over five hundred years; I am from the year 2007.”

  Juan gasped.

  “I think this is a dream but it seems so real,” Ana whispered. “I was always fascinated with the past and now I am here, I don’t think it’s as exotic as I always thought.”

  Juan was silent for a long time. His head could not digest the information and he had a sudden urge to laugh out loud, but he was compelled to ask more.

  Ana told him as simply as she could that she fell asleep and woke up in the past.

  “What is the future like?” Juan asked.

  “Much different, this island is fully populated; your people were overthrown by the English in 1660. The French will attack the island in 1694 but will fail. The people of Jamaica will be a mixture of most races. People from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America will come here. Some of them by choice, some by force. But the sad thing is the original people will be lost forever.”

  “What about Spain?” Juan asked excitedly, “will she be a world power?”

  Ana shook her head. “Hardly. These will be her glory days. The unity of Castile and Aragon and the chasing of the Moors from Granada and of course the so-called discovery of the Indies.

  Juan shook his head, his mind was racing, he realized he was trembling and he released her hand. Was she telling the truth?

  “What did you say to Colón today?” He asked curiously

  “Oh, that he would be famous throughout history,” Ana bit her lips. “I also wanted to clear up some misconceptions.”

  Juan nodded.

  “You do know that this is not a shorter route to the Indies, don’t you?”

  Juan looked at her peering in the dark; Ana was much more than
gold now. “I can’t take in all of these things at once.”

  “I understand,” Ana got up and stood beside him and they gazed out at the inky black sea, fireflies were glowing in the night. She could hear the noise at the campfire site and smell the salty smell of the sea on the air.

  “Tell me more about Spain,” Juan asked hoarsely, “Wars? Famine? Death?”

  Ana sighed. “I am not much of a European history person, but I faintly remember that Isabella will die in 1504 and Mad Juana was named her heir.”

  Juan gasped; he tightened his hands on the railing of the deck. “Are you a witch? That is nonsense. Juan, her beloved son, will be Isabella’s heir.”

  “Juan will die in 1497.”

  “What about Catherine?”

  “Will marry the King of England.”

  “Don’t you want to know what will become of the natives here, Juan?”

  Juan paused. Up until now he thought they were just an oddity. These islands, beautiful though they were, did not hold that much fascination for him, until Ana.

  “What will happen to them, I mean your people?” He asked politely.

  Ana grimaced. Was it too much to think that at least he would be different. But how could he? He was just a product of his environment.

  She turned to Juan, “they will die, your people will treat the natives like dirt, they will beat them, starve them and then…”

  Juan held up his hand in denial, “that is not true.” Then he remembered the pregnant girl and Dante’s snaring look, as he was about to kick her.

  “Yes it is, beginning with Colón. He will send back the natives as slaves to Spain. How could he be that cruel?”

  “I can’t stop him,” Juan said seriously, “but I…”

  “Two hundred of them will die on their way and those that arrive in Spain will be sent back by Isabella, more will die on the journey back.”

  Juan felt his head growing in the night, wasn’t that the exact thing he had said to Pablo today, that Isabella would not want slaves. He was right then. He felt slightly fearful of the girl standing before him.

  If she were in Spain she would be beaten and probably hung for being a witch. She was from the future; she knew when Isabella would die and Prince Juan, who Catherine would marry. She was probably right about the natives though. After all, the men were getting slightly annoyed that they were not finding as much gold as Colón had promised and they had started to become ill at the settlement of Isabella.

  Juan grabbed Ana’s hand. “I am sorry about what my country men will do and are already doing. I would never harm a native and neither would my men, them I can vouch for. But alas, I am afraid that not even Colón can control his men and the natives that he is sending back are those man-eating people that your people are afraid of.”

  Ana dragged her hand from his, he pulled her harder and she was in his arms.

  “Tell me more about the future Ana.” His lips were so close to hers as he tried to drown himself in her eyes

  “No,” Ana said heavily, “knowledge is a burden. Besides those man eating people, as you call them, were not the ones Colón sent to Spain, he sent the Taino.”

  “I want to know what will happen next.” Juan said excitedly.

  “I really can’t remember what happened to Spain,” Ana said sulkily, “I was fascinated with women in history so that’s why I remembered Isabella and her children and Joan of Arc but that’s France not Spain.”

  Juan inhaled deeply again, “you know about her?”

  “In my time we know many things about the past.”

  Juan felt the trembling coming back into his hands. This was really serious. He eased himself away from Ana.

  “Do you know anything about me?”

  “You,” Ana said and squinted one eye. “Can’t say I do. Juan Perez…er…no.”

  “I want you to remember me,” Juan said huffily.

  “You didn’t discover anywhere or start a war,” Ana laughed, “or ruled the world. But you could defend the rights of the natives to be treated as human beings. I have to go now.” She glanced at the campfire at Orocobix’s profile in the distance as he drank fermented cassava juice. He would probably not even realize that she had gone.

  “Don’t go,” Juan said urgently.

  “I must,” Ana whispered. Her breath was fanning his cheeks as he pulled her closer to him.

  “I don’t care where you are from,” Juan whispered, “I came to this place for you. I felt it even when I was in Cádiz, this certainty that I needed to be here at this time.”

  Ana swallowed, the night air was suddenly thick and overbearing, her heart swelled in her chest and her nipples were hardening.

  Juan touched her lips with his, her lips were soft and he felt a shiver through his body. He had been too long without a woman.

  He had lived his life too long without this woman. He kissed her and her lips opened against his, he held her tightly wanting to absorb her into him.

  He caressed her breasts and her thighs, a groan tore itself from his throat. “I need you,” he whispered raggedly in her ear. She clung to him and nodded slightly, that was all the consent he needed as he staked his claim on Ana.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  She was floating in thin air; little wisps of her hair were blowing across her face. Ana struggled to open her eyes as she tried to make out the familiar interior of the hut but she was not in the hut. She was staring at the ground from a height. Was this yet another dream where she was now flying?

  Juan’s boat looked perilously close to her line of vision and then she heard a strange voice say, “I hope this is the right one Captain.”

  Juan chuckled. He had not slept last night after Ana left him. He was aroused both in mind and body, and was determined that he was not going to leave this place called Yamaye without her. If he closed his eyes he could still see the passion in hers as he took her. The utter completeness he felt as he joined his body to hers.

  They had so many things to do and talk about that a lifetime would not suffice.

  “Juan?” Ana asked groggily.

  The man whose shoulder she was riding on deposited her unceremoniously in the hammock that Juan was swinging in last night.

  Ana shrieked. She was not taking this callous treatment kindly.

  Juan chuckled heartily and ran his fingers over the growth from his overnight beard.

  “Ana, you are coming to Spain with me. I can’t leave you behind now, especially after what we shared…”

  Ana swallowed convulsively; she was still feeling guilty about the night before. The heat, the passion, the need…She had never felt that way before.

  “Juan,” she squealed, “I can’t…”

  The men on the ship stopped working when they heard her voice. Ana swore under her breath as the one who had carried her stumbled and whispered, “You were right Juan, she is different.”

  Juan guffawed and turned his attention to his startled men. “Ship ahoy. We are on our way to the settlement at Isabella and then on to Spain. Pablo, take Ana to my cabin.”

  Pablo obediently dragged a struggling Ana to Juan’s cabin.

  “I trusted you Juan Perez!” Ana screamed, “how could you do this to me?”

  Pablo locked the door behind him, his expression still shell-shocked as he left the room.

  Ana looked around her: there was a bunk bed, a desk, four large chests and a small one.

  She gasped for breath, the small one had on the initials JP. It looked new, the iron shone brightly in the early morning. Ana went over and ran her hand over it. This was the chest that her mother had found in her garden. she just knew it. Years of erosion had changed it somewhat, but not that much. The JP was still there. She opened the chest and looked in, it was empty. He hadn’t even used it yet.

  “That’s where I will keep my most treasured possessions,” Juan said, from behind her. “The other four are filled with gold, two each for Pablo and I.”

  Ana spun around; she was
so lost in thought that she hadn’t heard him come in.

  “Orocobix will not allow you to steal me,” Ana said angrily, looking at Juan. He seemed tired and his eyes were bloodshot.

  “You don’t belong with Orocobix,” Juan said shortly, “you belong with me, in Spain. You will have my children and we will grow old together.”

  “I married the man,” Ana said confidently, “I can’t just leave him, I still love him, though what happened between us has me muddled.”

  Juan stiffened; his jaw ticked angrily. “No…you will love me.”

  “You can’t command somebody to love you,” Ana blurted out, “besides, I need to be in Jamaica to wake up from this dream which is turning into a nightmare.”

  I have the morals of an alley cat in this dream, she said under her breath.

  “You are going nowhere,” Juan retorted, “you are going to stay with me and when we reach Spain we will marry.”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “Because I am crazy about you,” Juan said simply, “and I can’t wait to make you mine.”

  Ana grimaced. Her life was rapidly turning into a historical novel. Hapless heroine…on boat…forceful man built like someone’s fantasy, both surrounded with romance and controversy.

  Ana looked at his blazing eyes and tightly clenched fist. He was angry. “Juan listen to me, your countrymen will scorn you for marrying a native.”

  Juan gave her a half smile and raised his brow sarcastically, “then I’ll stay in the new world and marry you.”

  “You don’t like it here,” Ana said waspishly, “and besides, half your men will soon be sick from all manner of unfamiliar ailments…probably you will soon be ill too!”

  Juan unclenched his hand slowly. “It’s already happening; some of the men on Isabella had stomach trouble.”

  “Told you,” Ana said exasperatedly, “six hundred will return to Spain after this trip.”

  “I am returning now,” he leaned over her and lightly touched the tip of her breast, “with you,” His voice turned husky and he touched her cheek, “no cat and mouse games.”