At the End of the World

by Mark Macpherson

  Hamish explained slowly, using arm movements in emphasis, ‘Yes, yes. Just like me. The same. Unfortunately for him.’

  Yax K’in had learned something that pleased him. He silently smoked.

  Arthur returned, followed by two KulWinik women carrying plates of tortillas and dishes of beans, cheese, chillies and sauces.

  ‘Do you want eggs as well?’ Arthur asked Hamish.

  When Hamish said yes, Arthur spoke to the women in their own language.

  ‘Did you understand any of that?’ Arthur asked after the women had left.

  ‘A little. I picked out eggs but I can’t speak it. I was chatting with Yax K’in and I couldn’t think of any of the Mayan words to say. We had a nice talk in English,’ Hamish said.

  ‘Really?’ Arthur smiled. ‘What were you talking about?’

  ‘He thought I had twin sons. I think he understands now that I only have Jim with me,’ Hamish said.

  Arthur conversed with Yax K’in in KulWinik Maya. Hamish understood a few of the words; daughter, grandson and twins. He wondered why he had been unable to remember any words before.

  Yax K’in’s native language speech rolled with a regal cadence that surprised Hamish. The broken, English language conversation had fooled him. Most people are misled when their introduction to someone is in a language foreign to the other person. Hamish had, shamefully, falsely equated intelligence with articulation in an unknown language.

  Yax K’in smiled at Hamish when his conversation with Arthur was over. He said, ‘Adios,’ in a thin voice. He held out his hand and allowed Hamish to shake it.

  As Hamish said goodbye, in stilted Mayan, Yax K’in stopped his forced smiling. Hamish’s face was intently scanned as if it might contain something recognizable, that had been previously hidden. There was clarity in the t’o’ohil’s eyes but deep sadness. Perhaps, Hamish thought, that’s the product of a long life or maybe it was the reflection of Hamish’s own melancholy. He wondered how he would look if he survived his problems with Kate, and with Jim, and lived another thirty or forty years. Hamish felt sorry for himself but then had the unsettling thought that Yax K’in’s unsmiling examination of his face presaged more suffering to come. Hamish did not know who for.

  ‘He’s not having breakfast with us?’ Hamish asked, after Yax K’in had left.

  ‘No. He only came here, this morning, to wait for you.’

  Hamish wondered at the reason for his own, apparent, importance.

  ‘I told Yax K’in about Harry. Just now,’ Arthur said. ‘I didn’t know how to tell him before. He was pretty keen on the twins being here. Now he knows,’ Arthur sighed as if the first in a long line of difficult tasks had been completed. ‘He wants Jim to learn their language and customs. It will keep him occupied while he’s here, so it’s a good idea I think.’

  ‘Jim’s not really a learn-it-from-a-book person. He’s a bit young for that,’ Hamish said.

  ‘Yax K’in knows what young people are like. He’s going to assign his daughter to look after Jim while he’s here. She does speak some English, which will help at the start,’ Arthur said.

  ‘His daughter?’ Hamish asked. He was incredulous. He almost laughed. ‘How old is she?’ Hamish expected the daughter of a centenarian would be near to death herself.

  Arthur smiled. ‘She was the younger one who came with the tortillas. You can have a better look in a minute. She’ll bring your eggs.’

  ‘But she looked only a bit older than Jim?’ Hamish said.

  ‘No. She’s about the same age. Amazing isn’t it? Knowing how old Yax K’in is,’ Arthur said. ‘We should all be so lucky.’

  Hamish did not want to talk about women. He did not want to think about Kate. He quickly asked, ‘Why am I and twins so important?’ but then realized that would mean talking, indirectly, about Jim. That was another subject he did not want to discuss.

  ‘He saw that picture I took of you and the boys, when they were kids, on the beach near Boston, and was really excited by it. That was years ago. He’s been fixated ever since. Well, as fixated as a KulWinik can be. I mean, he’s mentioned it a few times. He’s very relieved that you and Jim are here now. That’s obvious. It was extraordinary that he waited here this morning. He was here when I arrived. That was well before there was any light. I’ve never seen him time anxious before. That’s not the KulWinik way.’ Arthur laughed.

  Hamish was glad that Arthur had not talked about twins. He had read enough about them in the books he had been sent anyway. He remembered the significance they had in the Mayan beliefs of the creation of this world. How the Hero Twins had avenged the death of their father, the son of Hachakyum. Hamish knew, without further explanation from Arthur, that twins were integral to the Mayan conception of the end of the world.

  The door to the dining hut opened and a young girl entered. She placed a plate of fried eggs on the table. It was nearly sunrise, the light was stronger, and Hamish could see her clearly. She was clear skinned, with regular and angular features characteristic of the Mayans. She had a large roman nose, surprisingly like Hamish’s and Jim’s, black eyes and long, thick, jet-black hair. She was beautiful. She left immediately she had placed the eggs on the table.

  Arthur thanked her but she did not reply.

  ‘I think it best if Yax K’in introduced her. It’s not my place to introduce his family. Do you agree? Amazing isn’t it? He must have been in his eighties, at least, when she was conceived.’

  Arthur retrieved the eggs from the far end of the table. He shook his head slightly as if at an improbable thought.

  ‘You should see her mother,’ Arthur quietly exclaimed.

  Chapter 6

  Jim had been woken when his grandfather tidied their room in the pre-dawn although he marginally remained within his dream. He opened his eyes enough to see shapes as his grandfather moved about. He settled back to sleep when the indistinct blob of his grandfather’s back floated out and through the door for the last time.

  Jim tried to ignore the pleasure of the gentle air movement from the ceiling fan. He did not want to lose the thread of his interrupted dream. A vague memory of the sequence of events remained and he attempted to coax their resumption, to breath life into the dream like it was a fire restarted from embers. However, a restarted dream is never the same dream.

  Jim had dreamed of his brother. Not as a person but as a dull presence. It was a strange sensation that made sense only while asleep. His brother had been like a sleeping spark of life within him that almost reached consciousness but then, realizing it was too early to wake, had fallen back into a deep sleep again. Jim lost his brother’s specter like it was sharing Jim’s own moment of falling back into sleep.

  Jim had wanted to talk to Harry. He wanted to ask him what it was like to die.

  Chapter 7

  Michelle came into the dining hut not long after Yax K’in had left. Arthur stood quickly and took a nervous, shuffling step towards her. Hamish remained seated as he watched her ignore Arthur and sit down next to him. She returned Hamish’s smile. She looked younger than someone over forty, he thought, as he subtracted twenty years from his own, and Arthur’s, age.

  ‘Hamish, do you remember Michelle?’ Arthur said. He sat down next to her.

  Hamish glared at Arthur. ‘You’re an idiot,’ he said, and laughed to hide his annoyance. Hamish had known Michelle well, during the years when Arthur and her were inseparable.

  Michelle smiled again at Hamish as if they shared the burden of Arthur’s idiocy.

  ‘Do you want eggs?’ Arthur asked her.

  ‘No, thanks,’ she said curtly as she gathered tortillas from the piled plate across the table from her.

  ‘Yax K’in was here this morning,’ Arthur announced.

  ‘What? Here?’ she said. Her arm was halted, extended across the tabletop as she looked at Arthur. ‘Whatever for?’

  ‘Hamish.’

  Michelle laughed. ‘I’ve never had to wait for the geologist and his retinue b
efore.’

  ‘He seemed to be in a hurry. For him, at least,’ Arthur said brightly, visibly buoyed by Michelle’s laughter.

  ‘But he hasn’t told you where to excavate yet, has he? Right?’ she said darkly, displeased at Arthur’s optimism.

  ‘No,’ he said. His brightness gone.

  Michelle railed at Arthur, irritated by delay. Hamish listened like he was the audience in a domestic dispute. Arthur viewed his plate of food without appetite as he accepted unearned punishment.

  ‘I can’t tell you anymore, Michelle,’ Arthur said when she paused for breath.

  She eyed him suspiciously. He knew more about Yax K’in’s plans than he had told her, she was sure.

  Michelle had entered the dining hut angry with Arthur and intending to provoke an argument. She had forgotten Hamish. She remembered his plight with an embarrassing shock.

  ‘I’m so sorry Hamish,’ she turned to him. ‘How are you holding up? And your grandson?’

  She was contrite.

  ‘Jim’s good. I don’t know why he is so good. There were a few problems when he went back to school. And, although I argued with Arthur, I think he may be right. This could be a good place. For awhile. It will let Jim concentrate on something else, totally different.’

  ‘And you?’ Michelle repeated.

  ‘I’m all right. I’m coping.’ Hamish laughed, nervously, to hide that he was lying. ‘For the same reasons, this trip may be good for me too.’

  She knew Hamish must be masking how he felt to some degree. But he was a strong man, she knew, and he was a New Zealander as well. She mistakenly thought he probably could manage.

  Yax K’in’s daughter came in again and placed more tortillas and more beans on the table.

  After she had left, Hamish said, ‘She is beautiful, isn’t she.’

  ‘Has Arthur been going on to you as well, has he?’ Michelle said. ‘About how lucky the sexually active octogenarian was?’

  ‘Yes,’ Hamish laughed.

  Michelle smiled at Arthur without rancor. ‘He’s just jealous,’ she said, as if her anger had been hard work to sustain.

  ‘Are you still teaching, Hamish?’ Michelle asked.

  ‘No, not anymore. I no longer work full time. Those days are, thankfully, over.’

  ‘You don’t enjoy it?’ Michelle asked. ‘I like teaching. As long as it doesn’t take up all my time. I’ve had some great ideas from my graduate students.’

  Michelle ate her breakfast as other members of Arthur’s team came into the hut for theirs. Hamish was introduced as each person joined the group. There were a dozen Westerners and Mexican nationals in Arthur’s team and they had finished their breakfast when Jim opened the door to the dining hut. He spied his grandfather’s back and entered.

  ‘I heard people talking. Can I get breakfast as well?’ Jim asked, as he stood next to Hamish.

  Hamish shot to his feet when he was surprised by his grandson’s voice. He fussed and brought a chair so that Jim could sit next to him. Hamish introduced only Michelle, since Jim already knew Arthur well. Further introductions were left to Arthur.

  Michelle studied Jim as he ate his breakfast and talked with the members of Arthur’s team. He appears confident, she thought. He’s a strong boy although she did not equate size with maturity. She tried to imagine having the responsibility to look after him. She guessed at his suffering, knowing what had happened to him. Still, she thought, there’s so much suffering everywhere. So much more than this boy has endured. However, it’s when suffering becomes personal, when it’s so close it’s touchable, as close as the boy across the table, that it becomes real.

  Michelle pulled her eyes away from the teenager to look outside the hut. She focussed on an area where the road into the village ended, on the other side of the cage of the captive spider monkey. Her marriage had ended in acrimony, on that spot, she remembered.

  Her attention returned inside and rested on Arthur. He noticed and quickly smiled. She returned a distracted half-smile. Michelle had rarely thought of having her own children. Only once did the feeling last long enough for her to be prepared to do anything about it. It had not been with her husband.

  It had been with Arthur.

  Chapter 8

  After breakfast, Hamish and Jim returned to their hut. An hour later, while Hamish was sitting on the veranda reading one of Michelle’s books, Arthur padded across the spongy grass to the tourist hut.

  ‘Where’s Jim?’ Arthur asked, after greeting his friend.

  ‘He’s over at the stream having a swim.’

  ‘Yax K’in wants to meet him.’

  Hamish and Arthur walked across the close mowed tropical grass and then through a short patch of jungle to the bank of a creek.

  The water looked cool and refreshing to the older men, it was swift flowing but was no more than knee deep. Jim swam breaststroke against the flow of water trying to not touch the rocky bottom. He swam vigorously but remained in the same position as if the water and Jim had fought to a standstill. When he could no longer resist the swift flow he rested his hands on the bottom and the water stopped its battle, seemingly ignored him and flowed over and around his body.

  Jim greeted the men casually when he noticed Arthur and Hamish watching. He waded across the stream looking like a short legged god walking on water.

  Yax K’in’s hut was dark and smoky. The three Western men could not see clearly at first in the gloom and haze. A small fire smoldered, contained by three stones arranged at the points of a triangle.

  Yax K’in sat next to the fire smoking a hand-made cigar. Jim looked self-consciously at the ceiling of the hut, affecting a nonchalance, embarrassed being in the company of the older men. He noticed indistinct objects hanging from the frame of the hut and thought they may be items of witchcraft.

  Arthur formally re-introduced Hamish first. Hamish’s handshake was again not returned by the limp hand Yax K’in presented, however when Arthur presented Jim, his hand was captured in a firm grip. Yax K’in stared through the pall of cigar smoke as if testing the strength of the young man. Jim was forced into an uncomfortable, hunched-over position. When Yax K’in released Jim he backed away and stumbled over someone seated on the floor.

  ‘Sorry. I’m so sorry.’

  Jim was mortified. He turned and backed away towards Yax K’in again. Arthur took Jim by the elbow and sat him on the floor. Once Jim’s eyes became used to the low light, he saw that the other person was a girl his own age. His embarrassment at being manhandled by Arthur was intensified.

  Hamish and Arthur sat cross-legged next to Jim while Yax K’in smoked in silence as if waiting for the memory of Jim’s embarrassment to fade, or so Jim hoped. Hamish became impatient as they waited, he believed Jim would prefer to be elsewhere, and he began to speak. Arthur stopped him. Jim wrenched his eyes away from Yax K’in’s critical gaze. His sight was clearer and he was relieved to see that the indistinct objects above him were tobacco leaves hanging to dry.

  Yax K’in spoke in Maya while Arthur translated.

  ‘Yax K’in thanks you both for coming,’ Arthur said.

  Yax K’in began again before Arthur had finished translating.

  ‘Well, Michelle won’t be happy at the delay,’ Arthur said. ‘Hamish, Yax K’in would like to invite you to participate in a balche session and its ceremonies. I assume you’ll agree. Just say yes.’

  Hamish nodded his head and said yes.

  Arthur and Yax K’in had a long conversation during which Yax K’in appeared uneasy and reluctant to answer. They both looked at the girl sitting on the floor.

  ’What?’ Hamish asked.

  ‘I’ll explain later. Yax K’in’s daughter will be there. In a different capacity. Michelle will be very interested in that.’

  ‘What about Jim? What will he do while we’re drinking?’

  Arthur said two words to Yax K’in. One of them was Jim.

  Yax K’in replied in a commanding voice.

  ‘We’
ll talk about this later, Hamish. Jim has to be there too. But, now,’ Arthur turned to Jim, ignoring Hamish. ‘He’s going to introduce you to his daughter. She’ll teach you their language and some of their culture. It will give you a lot to do while your grandfather and I are busy working. It should be fun. No-one apart from Michelle and I have had an opportunity to get this close to the KulWinik. Will you do it?’ Arthur asked Jim.

  Jim nodded to Yax Kin, not to Arthur. ‘Yes, OK.’

  Yax K’in inclined his head towards Hamish, then spoke to Arthur.

  ‘Is that acceptable to you?’ Arthur asked Hamish. ‘He’s asking your permission.’