There was a long silence.
‘I miss my brother,’ Jim said. ‘Today especially reminded me. I haven’t really thought about him since I came here. I feel guilty about that. Although, I’m sure Hamish would say it is all part of the natural cycle of things. You know, moving on.’ He said the last phrase in English without knowing he had switched languages. It shocked him when he realized he was thinking in Maya. He wondered at the rapidity of his language success. He tried, as best he could, to translate “moving on”.
‘Although,’ Jim continued. ‘Hamish has no concept of moving on. Not for himself. You know my grandmother left him last year?’
Jim thought how beautiful Pep’Em Ha was as she listened attentively.
‘No. Is he still sad?’ she said.
‘Sad? Not to look at him. But it consumes him. He’s one of those guys that keeps everything to himself. He’s been only worried about me. Before we came here he was trying to get me to talk all the time. He was driving me crazy. I had to tell him to shut up. But, there was no way he would talk about grandma. Not a word. I found that annoying. He wanted me to talk about everything, even things that didn’t bother me, but he would not mention grandma. Or let me mention her,’ Jim said. ‘I mean, what if what was bothering me was grandma leaving him? However, it’s been good since we’ve been here. He’s left me alone with you.’
‘I still feel sorry for him,’ Jim added. ‘It must be hard to lose your family and your wife. Especially when you’re so old. I think me being with him, here, helps him.’
Pep’Em Ha let Jim talk while she picked at blades of grass.
‘I mean,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want to come at the start. To some remote village in the middle of nowhere, knowing no-one, no TV, nothing. Leaving school, my friends, to come and sit in the jungle as my grandfather wandered around in circles hammering on rocks.’
Jim continued quickly. ‘I don’t feel like that now. Back in Boston is another world. Apart from my friends, I don’t really want to go back.’
Jim picked up some fallen leaves and plucked some of the coarse grass. He strongly threw the mixture over the stream as if they were stones. They left his hand slowly and fluttered down, just reaching the edge of the stream where they were consumed and carried away.
‘I miss Mum and Dad,’ Jim said. His voice wobbled as he barely held his emotions in check. He waited and tried to control himself. He didn’t mind crying in front of Pep’Em Ha but he thought of her face, without looking at her next to him, and he was able to continue.
‘But,’ Jim said in a clearer voice. ‘I miss Harry the most. When you’re twins there’s a bond that’s not like you’re just brothers. At least I think so. We were different than our friends who had brothers and sisters. But, then again, their brothers and sisters were older or younger while Harry and I were the same age.’
Jim threw more plucked grass into the stream but that didn’t satisfy him. He twisted as he looked around his body, trying to find a stone he could throw. He had to do something physical while he talked.
‘My brother and I have a bond,’ Pep’Em Ha said. ‘But it’s not like you say. Like you had with your brother. We disagree a lot.’
Jim interrupted. ‘We had some big fights but we never really disagreed. We seemed different than other people.’
‘Our lives are different here,’ Pep’Em Ha said. ‘My brother and I are from the same father and mother but we have many siblings who are older than us who are the children of Yax K’in and other mothers. Some have children older than we are. They’ve left the village. My brother will leave soon. I’m sure of that.’
‘But,’ Jim said. ‘He said he’ll stay with you until, you know, you’re the t’o’ohil.’
She laughed. ‘That’s a wonderful idea, but that’ll be a long time. My brother will not last that long. He’s bored here. You saw him at the balche session. The elders that are left may not allow a woman t’o’ohil. There may be no next t’o’ohil.’
‘My brother won’t stay,’ she said. ‘Once you’ve gone, once there’s no more excitement from Arthur’s Westerners being in the village, he’ll drift off to San Cristobal de las Casas or, to Mexico City. Some of Yax K’in’s sons live there. That’s where he’ll go. He would stop being a KulWinik. He’s smart, he would do something,’ she said.
‘And you’ll stay here?’
‘Of course,’ she said firmly.
Jim moved forward, put his hand into the water, retrieved some stones, sat back again and returned them to the stream by throwing them out to where he had been swimming. He wanted to offer to stay with Pep’Em Ha after her brother had left.
‘Do you want to know what happened to my family?’ Jim asked her while he threw stones. It had been a difficult decision to ask her that question but easier than the offer he was considering.
‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m not like your grandfather. I’m your friend. If you want to tell me, then I’ll listen. I know about normal things Jim. I know about people. I know the rest of the world doesn’t live like us. I know how you live. You can talk to me the same as you would with your friends in Boston or New Zealand.’
Pep’Em Ha leant towards Jim. She used her right hand to steady his face as she kissed him on the lips. She did not prolong it but it lasted longer than a kiss of greeting between familiars.
He didn’t know how to react to Pep’Em Ha’s kiss. He carried on talking and attempted to ignore it. He would have to think it over later. He didn’t know what type of kiss it was. If it was a compassionate kiss, a friendly kiss, a feeling-sorry-for-you kiss or any of the myriad types of non-sexual kisses. Or perhaps it wasn’t a non-sexual kiss.
‘It was just a stupid car crash. A stupid truck. The stupid truck driver hardly knew what happened.’ Jim punctuated each sentence by throwing a stone into the water using all his strength. ‘Just a bump to him and I lost my family. I was in the back seat with Harry. I was hardly scratched and they were all dead. If I’d been on the other side, you’d be talking to Harry now.’ Jim laughed bitterly, but it was over quickly.
‘It happens all the time,’ he continued. ‘Apparently. Although that doesn’t make it easier. It was all over the papers and the magazines. That really made Hamish upset. Grandma had become a celebrity before the accident. She left Hamish and she became famous,’ Jim laughed uneasily. ‘For a little while, that is. So they made a big deal out of it. Hamish said he was so upset because people were making money out of the death of his son and Harry. He yelled at grandma, when she called him, just before we came here. He was really mad with her. He just boiled over. Completely.’
‘He’d been hiding how angry he was,’ Jim said and then laughed at a memory.
‘He tried to hide his anger from me. Then, for no reason, he’d go berserk at random people. Never with me. That was the only thing I found funny at the time,’ Jim said. He looked back over the water and out to where he had been swimming. He wanted to be under water again, hassling the oncoming stream.
‘Hamish insisted I come down here,’ he said. ‘He would have brought me no matter what anyone said. I get that impression. I don’t think he wanted to be alone or maybe he thought the truck would come and get me while he was away. I shouldn’t make fun of him. Should I? He’s the only family I have. Grandma doesn’t count.’
‘You being here has made all the difference. Thanks for that,’ Jim said. ‘And your brother, of course,’ he quickly added, wondering if he sounded too familiar. Pep’Em Ha’s kiss confused him and he didn’t want to presume any special meaning.
‘No problemo,’ Pep’Em Ha said using the same faux Spanish accent Jim used when he spoke those words.
Chapter 29
Trespass and discovery concerned Arthur at the new archaeological site. His first idea was that each morning he would make the other cars in his procession of workers wait on the main road while he and a driver journeyed up the bumpy single lane track. If there was occupation, his flimsy excuse was to be that he was a lost A
merican tourist. He would ask directions to a nearby tourist site and would leave. However, that ruse necessitated that each evening they pack up completely, leaving behind disturbances that hinted at recent occupation but left no physical evidence. Arthur believed he could then repeat his innocence the following morning.
Michelle pointed out the obvious problem with his plan. Daytime discovery was unexplainable. Arthur remained inclined to initiate his plan but Michelle overruled him, refusing to waste time packing and re-packing the equipment.
The huts were empty the first morning of their arrival and Arthur’s team erected an open sided tent, started a small generator, set out water and food and made coffee before they began work.
They dug and shifted rubble like they were roadside maintenance workers, concentrating their efforts immediately below the summit. Arthur was horrified at the destruction he authorized, in his attempt to complete the excavations before his funding finished. He walked to the summit and scanned the countryside, intentionally not watching his team work.
Michelle saw him leave. She knew his concern and assumed his role. When Arthur returned he left her in charge, revoking his power of veto. Michelle organized the teams so they would ring the mound using two groups in tandem. One team dug until she decided there was nothing to find, it would then move to an adjacent location while a second team replaced the removed rubble.
Jim, Pep’Em Ha and her brother worked side by side, sometimes excavating and sometimes returning rubble to its original location. Jim thought about Pep’Em Ha’s kiss every time she smiled at him, which was often. He had never been in love before, although he thought he might have been. Pep’Em Ha was different from every other female peer. He felt stronger about her than he had with any other girl and closer than any friend. She confused him because he was convinced she was a friend and he could not be in love with a friend. He kept an eye on her as if by watching her carefully he could work out his own feelings. He was not successful.
Hamish did not feel obliged to work with the same vigor as the younger people. He helped with some of the digging and he replaced rubble at times but he spent more time sitting enjoying the view. The Southern Highlands’ ridges were oddly familiar although he decided they reminded him of trips to the South Island of New Zealand as a younger man. However, the shapes did trigger a compulsive sadness over and above what he considered his background noise of woe about Kate and his son’s family. He dismissed the feeling, knowing his paranoia could take unusual turns but each time his eyes were drawn to the horizons his extra sadness returned. When it became too much he returned to work removing and replacing rubble.
They finished work after the first day and had found nothing.
The sun had set and it was almost night as Arthur and Michelle prepared to leave in the last car. Michelle waited as he took a flashlight and ranged over the ground where they had set up camp. He flicked the light from side to side then bent over and pick up a piece of plastic wrapper and examined it as if it was proof of a major crime.
Michelle impatiently called to him. ‘Does it have your name and address on it Arthur? If not, then leave it and lets go. I’m hungry and I’m tired. Some of us have been digging all day,’ she said.
Arthur peered at the shape of the car, it had lost distinction in the diminishing light. He put the plastic in his pocket and walked back to the car to sit in the drivers seat.
‘I find it surprising,’ he said on the way back to the village. ‘That there has been absolutely nothing found.’
‘It’s only the first day, Arthur. Don’t be impatient.’
‘But there have been no ceramics, no shards of pottery, there’ve been no markings on any of the rubble, and the rubble does not look like worked stone at all,’ he said. ‘I’ve never seen a Mayan site where there was nothing,’ he said. ‘Paths made out of the excavated rubble at tourist sites have more interesting artifacts. It’s strange.’
‘I’m tired,’ Michelle said. She was also exasperated. ‘I don’t want to think at the moment. But if you are forcing me to, then I would say it could be a natural, small hill with some occupation traces. It may not be anything to do with ancient Mayans. It may not be cultural,’ she said.
They were silent for the rest of the trip back to the village.
Michelle walked from the car and disappeared in the darkness. He waited until he saw a light burn inside her hut. He desperately wanted to join her.
Arthur entered Yax K’in’s hut without ceremony and sat heavily on the floor. Yax K’in thought his friend was distressed but then his eyes relaxed and he laughed out loud when he saw only weariness in Arthur.
‘You’ve spent too many years away from the milpa, my old friend,’ Yax K’in said.
Arthur agreed with a single wordless sound.
‘I have confidence,’ Yax K’in said. ‘Your skill will find what’s there.’
‘I have my doubts. It is not like any other site I’ve worked on.’
‘It is unique.’
‘Unique? How do you know that? Can you tell me more now? I’ve waited for ten years Yax K’in.’
‘It is still not the time,’ Yax K’in said quickly and firmly.
Arthur laughed. ‘It will have to be the time within a few days because that’s all that’s left. I have financial constraints. I could keep digging on my own, if that will help, but my team and everyone else will be gone in less than a week.’
‘Then Pep’Em Ha and I must pray to Hachakyum,’ Yax K’in said as a matter-of-fact.
‘Pray?’ Arthur knew that KulWinik prayer was a long and involved procedure. He did not want to lose Pep’Em Ha. She was a strong and willing worker. ‘If I lose her it will slow us down. Now is the time for work not for guidance.’
Yax K’in was pensive for a long while. ‘I have missed my father’s guidance since his death. Do not laugh my friend,’ Yax K’in waved his finger at Arthur who had not laughed. ‘Even us old men, beyond the years when we should also be dead, still miss the wisdom of those older than ourselves. That’s why we should look to Hachakyum. To discover our own wisdom, from the quietness of prayer and ritual.’
‘That won’t help, Yax K’in. It may help you but not us with the labour of digging. That’s all that’s left. There’re no gods involved in this, just shovels and younger people’s muscles,’ Arthur grimaced as he felt his stiff neck.
Yax K’in smiled. ‘You are almost a KulWinik, Arthur. I have missed your friendship since you left us. I enjoyed those years. I enjoyed the talks, all the balche we have drunk together.’
‘What’s there, my friend?’ Arthur asked quietly. ‘Should we save everyone the trouble and stop now?’
‘You Westerners are always pressed for time. Perhaps I should meet you part way,’ Yax K’in said. ‘It is a tomb,’ Yax K’in announced. ‘It is the most important tomb in the world.’
Yax K’in drew his body up straight. ‘It is the resting place of the consort of Hachakyum. The first human.’
Chapter 30
Arthur stared at his watch in the early light. The sun had yet to rise above the trees surrounding the village. The cars were lined up ready to go to the excavation site and people milled around them. As if he was the starter in a race, he gave the OK to leave.
Pep’Em Ha was not there. Her brother called to Jim that their car was leaving.
‘Where’s Pep’Em Ha?’ Jim asked.
‘She’s not coming this morning. She’s with Yax K’in. She may come out later, I don’t know.’
‘Where is she? Is she in Yax Kin’s hut?’ Jim said. He set off away from the cars before receiving an answer.
Pep’Em Ha’s brother watched Jim for a moment before he yelled out to him. ‘She’s not that way. She’s not in the village.’
Jim ran back. ‘What do you mean?’
Pep’Em Ha’s brother looked around him to confirm that only Westerners were nearby before he said quietly, in Maya, ‘She left with Yax K’in during the night. She’s gone to the place
that you’re not supposed to know about. There is nothing you can do to find her. You’d get lost and the jaguars would eat you,’ he said, with an attempted smile.
Jim stared angrily at Pep’Em Ha’s brother as if he had stolen Pep’Em Ha from him. He walked away without a word, got into the car, shut the door and stared fixedly out the side window like someone on their way to a punishment.
Chapter 31
Jim was especially surly that morning with Hamish. He wanted to know why Jim was upset but knew the reaction he would get if he asked. Michelle agreed to talk to Jim. By lunchtime she had not done so.
Jim excused himself from the lunch table, with food remaining on his plate. He ignored his grandfather. Hamish prompted Michelle again.
‘Hamish!’ she said. ‘Let him rest. I’m sure he’s just tired and grumpy and missing the comforts of home.’ She looked pointedly at Arthur. ‘We all feel like that.’
At the End of the World Page 13
