At the End of the World

by Mark Macpherson

  Then Pep’Em Ha hung her head and tears formed in her eyes. The glorious second of hope was demolished. She understood the fault in Jim’s idea.

  ‘No,’ she said and almost cried. ‘It’s too late.’ She steadied herself, lifted her head and stared Jim in the face. ‘It’s too late, Jim,’ she said.

  ‘It’s never too late,’ Jim said, and smiled at her.

  ‘In this case it is,’ she whispered. ‘That Mexican man was erased.’

  Jim refused to understand.

  ‘The gods will know that you are here,’ she said.

  Jim stared vacantly at her. Tears formed in his eyes as well. It was too late. Their option of choice had vanished as if the Roberto’s erasure had been meant to force their hand.

  Yax K’in had been listening to his daughter. He was proud of her. She was wise. She will be a great t’o’ohil, he knew. She could be the greatest t’o’ohil. Hachakyum had been correct to wait for the life of his daughter, the namesake of the first modern human.

  ‘Arthur,’ he said quietly to his old friend. ‘You have waited these ten years. Your patience deserves reward. It’s time you heard the stories only the t’o’ohil has kept since the last time Hachakyum lived among us. The stories of the first humans, and the woman in whose image we have all been made.’

  Michelle turned to Arthur. ‘Ten years? What does he mean ten years?’ she asked.

  He took her hand and gently squeezed it.

  ‘What happened ten years ago was not by choice,’ Arthur said.

  ‘What do you mean?’ She angrily withdrew her hand from his. ‘It was premeditated?’

  ‘I never knew why Michelle. I did as I was asked,’ he said.

  Yax K’in turned away and walked up the steps to the ledge overlooking the cavern. He halted there and his eyes passed from one person to another, in turn, as if he was completing an inventory. The t’o’ohil who could not die had brought them to that place, at that pivotal moment. But, Yax K’in was mortal again. His life would end with his next illness, or after an injury while working in his milpa. He smiled grimly, satisfied and relieved. But the t’o’ohil, his daughter, could not die.

  And, he thought with pride, the gods again lived among the KulWinik.

  Yax K’in left the tomb that contained the remains of K’ul Kelem Pep’Em Ha, the god’s template for modern humans.

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