“What is it, ma chérie?” Jacques asked.
“I’m just worried,” Jessie said. “What if we don’t make it?”
“I think he flies well, and if not, I can be the wind beneath your wings, oui? Jessie chuckled a little bit. “I was talking about the stick the sword in the stone and save the world part of the whole thing. She looked out the window again. “What if we don’t make it in time?”
“I marked our destination on a map, and Jonathan is landing at an airstrip close by,” Jacques said as if it were a go to the store, pick up some groceries, get gas, and be back by lunch outing.
“It should only be a few hours by boats from there,” Jacques added.
“Boats?” Jessie asked.
“The way is mostly across a huge lake hidden by dense jungle.”
“Great!” Jessie said. “Did I ever tell you I was afraid of deep dark water?”
“You would have never made it as a sailor,” Jacques said. “It took me days to get there. I sailed around the continent battling elements and disease.”
“Jacques, are you trying to comfort or scare me to death?” Jessie asked.
“Comfort, of course,” Jacques said. “It will be fine.”
“Has anyone ever made it out?”
“Moi!” Jacques said.
“Now I am scared,” Jessie said, looking at him.
“Of what?” Jacques said. “I have booked you girls at a four star hotel and day spa until Jonathan and I get back.”
“It is you I am worried about,” Jessie said.
“Jessie, I am already dead,” Jacques said matter-of-factly. “We’re good.”
“Well, what if it takes your soul next?” Jessie asked.
“It cannot have it.” He smiled. “It belongs to you.”
“I’m serious.”
“What is that?” he said, craning his neck to look out the window. “Is that a bird?”
Jessie turned her head to look out the window and saw Jacques outside flying like Superman . . . until, that is, he was sucked straight into the engine.
She shook her head and laughed at his antics. He was next to her in a heartbeat.
“That is better, oui?” Jacques said, lifting her chin. “Your laughter heals my heart,” he said seriously. “Jessie, I need you to dream with me.”
“You and your dreams.”
“Oui.” Jacques said. “I need you to believe that all will be well. For me.” When she still looked undecided he said, “If not that, may I ask that you believe in me?”
She looked into his eyes. “Yes.” She nodded. “I can believe in you.”
He smiled and kissed the end of her nose.
Chapter 16
The plane dropped and jerked, losing some altitude. Jessie awoke with a start. She blinked, focusing on the sleeping form of Jonathan who was sprawled across the seats opposite her.
“Who is flying the plane?” Jessie asked as she unbuckled herself and stumbled up the aisle until she stood in the doorway of the cockpit.
“You’re flying the plane?” Jessie asked.
“Good morning,” Jacques said as he sat in the captain’s chair with his feet on the dash.
“Do you know how to fly a plane? Jessie asked. “Is that somewhere in the ghost manual?”
“Non, I can’t, but I also cannot take the credit,” Jacques said. “It is on auto-pilot.”
Jessie peeked out the window. She could see the Pacific Ocean far off in the distance. “Are we there?”
“We are close,” Jacques said as he moved his feet and sat up. Something happened and an alarm went off.
Whoop-whoop! Pull up! Whoop-whoop! Pull up!
Little yellow and black barber poles at the top of the window started swirling.
Jonathan came stumbling up the aisle and Jessie moved to the navigator’s chair to let him pass. “What happened?” he asked.
“I think we won the lottery,” Jacques said as the alarm continued to Whoop- whoop!
Jonathan pulled a switch on the side panel and the alarm stopped. “Sorry, still have to fix that.”
“Merciful heavens.” Gloria came in next.” What is happening?”
“False alarm,” Jacques said.
“Pull up?” Gloria asked. “What kind of alarm says that?”
“It’s the crash kind,” Jonathan said. “But we’re okay. Everything’s fine. In fact it looks like we are only a half-hour from our destination.
“Well that’s a relief! I thought one of Patricia’s bras had become possessed and started talking.” Gloria sighed as she headed for the galley. “I’m going to make a pot of coffee. We can’t crash until I’ve had my first cup of coffee,” she muttered as she went.
“We’re not crashing!” Jonathan called out again.
“What’s happening?” A very disheveled Patricia stumbled down the aisle next. “We’re going to crash?” she asked in a panic.
“This is like a bad game of grapevine,” Jonathan groaned. “No, honey. It’s fine,” he called over his shoulder.
“I’m going to go help make coffee,” Jessie said, leaving the pilot and co-pilot to deal with the diva.
An hour later, after they had landed, Jessie found herself with a curling iron in one hand and comb in the other. Her mother was pasting glue on a false eyelash.
“Okay.” Gloria smiled. “One more time,” she said as she stuck it to Patricia’s right eye.
Jessie pulled out the iron when the steam stopped. She was getting better at it, although the aroma of burnt hair still lingered in the air. A perfect spiral curl unwound from the iron. Only one maybe two more sections and she’d be done.
“Can you blink normally this time?” her mother asked. “Perfect!” her mother announced. “A little lipstick, and I think we’re done here.”
“The report is fascinating, Jessie,” Patricia said. “What are the camera angles going to be?”
“Ah-that’s Jonathan’s department,” Jessie said as she unwound another curl.
“I just want to make sure to have my best side visible.” She spoke around the lip liner and brush as Gloria tried to apply them.
“There!” Gloria said, sitting back. The diva leaned forward to see her image in the mirror. Jessie had to follow her head with the large curler.
“Are you about ready ladies?” Jonathan asked. “We’ve got the transportation to the boats arranged.”
Jessie looked at him like she’d like to kill him as she unwound another curl. This one’s end was crimped. Jessie tried to hide it in the others, but it kept springing to the front.
“You know what?” Jessie said “Why don’t we go for a ponytail and cap? That’s a nice look.”
Patricia pouted. “But this looks so good.”
Jessie went for the water to start the process over, but when Jonathan tapped his watch, she set the cup back down and snipped the uncooperative curl off with a pair of scissors. “Done!” she said. It was only an inch, and it was pretty well fried anyway, Jessie told her guilty conscience.
Jonathan looked like he was going to be keeping a closer eye on her until the diva stood up and turned around for him.
“Oh, babe,” Jonathan nodded appreciatively. “You’ve never looked better. What did I tell you? Aren’t they the best?”
Patricia looked into the mirror that came with the suitcase and nodded. “You were right!”
“Very nice.” Gloria nodded.
“Thank you, ladies.” Patricia was positively giddy as she went to stand by her man. “Jessie also prepared the most amazing report.”
“That’s my job,” Jessie said.
“I thought you were kidding when you said she was a zoologist.” Patricia went on as if she hadn’t said anything.
“Actually that’s pronounced like Zoh, not Zoo,” Jessie said.
“What?” the busy bee asked.
“Never mind.” Jessie shook her head.
“Ready to go, Doc?” Jonathan asked.
Jessie looked in the mirror at
her own reflection. She’d spent half the night reading up on everything and writing the report and the last hour perfecting Patricia’s every hair and eyelash. . . . Jessie was already tired. “Yeah, I’ll be right there.”
She pulled her hair back in a ponytail and put a ball cap over her head. “Done!” she said. “In three seconds flat.” I’m not going to fret over the sporty look . . . I have a world to save.
“You look beautiful!” Jacques stood looking at her from the corner.
“I agree.” Her mom had chosen a sensible jogging suit and sneakers.
“Thanks,” Jessie said. “I call it my jeans and T-shirt look.”
Gloria laughed. “You know that was actually kind of fun. I always wanted to do hair and makeup,” she said as she climbed down the ladder. “Maybe I could get a license and open a salon or something.”
Jessie looked at her for a moment with new eyes. She hadn’t really considered what dreams her mother had given up through the years. She actually was like a flower blooming, albeit a late one.
Jessie smiled as she joined her mom on the strip of hard packed earth that served as a runway. “You can do anything you set your mind to, Mom!” Jessie said, linking her hand in hers as they walked toward the vehicles.
~*~
The drive was the longest of Jessie’s life! She sat with her mom in the back of a cramped Jeep as it bounced down the road. . . . The diva had called shotgun, of course. Jessie learned from the driver they were going deep into the jungle where not many white people had traveled before. Sadly, she also learned that the last film crew doing a documentary had brought disease and several of the natives had died.
She also discovered that the Quechua guides they had contracted to help them guaranteed to get them to the river, but no one had guaranteed the condition of the roads.
Jonathan took advantage of the times they had to stop to make the way passable and shot footage along the way. He also picked up intel where he could, discovering that Earl Hebert, a.k.a. the snake, had already passed through the area.
“We are hot on the trail,” Jonathan said to Jessie when he passed her as she stood stretching her legs at one stop. Patricia, who had been standing nearby, winked at her as if this corroborated what she already knew.
When they did finally reach the small village they’d been traveling to reach all day, it was at the diva’s prompting that Jonathan took advantage of the fading light to film her near the water’s edge.
Jessie stood by with a light reflector to illuminate the starlet’s face for the perfect shot. Her mom held the mike aloft while the guides started to unload their equipment.
“He’s a Renaissance man, oui?” Jacques said with obvious pride as he watched Jonathan play the camera man.
Jessie nodded. “A Jack of all trades.” She smiled.
“Oui.” He laughed.
Jacques looked over at the village. “It looks almost like it did the last time I was here. Although, there were more people. I wonder where they all are?”
Jessie was slightly surprised when a group of men finally did come out of the main building to meet them. Her eyes widened. They weren’t wearing much.
“I guess you weren’t kidding,” Jessie said. “This is the ancient dress I’m guessing.
She watched as the men spoke with the guide. The one in front lifted his arm, pointing in the direction from which they had come. His voice was raised and angry.
“I wonder what that is about,” Jessie said.
Their guide walked the short distance over to them. “They say to go back, you no stay here.”
“What?” Jonathan asked. “Let me talk to them.”
Patricia sighed over the intrusion. “I’m going to freshen up while you deal with this. She went to sit in the car while the rest of them walked closer to the village.
“No-no,” the guide said. “It is bad.”
“How bad?” Jonathan said. “We’ve had our vaccinations.”
“It is not disease they are worried about this time,” the guide said.
“What is it then?” Jonathan asked as he moved toward the much smaller men.
The eyes of the small men of the village grew large as the towering white man advanced toward them.
“No, stop.” The guide walked up beside Jonathan, telling him the story that the native man had told him. “He said a group of men arrived not long ago. They wanted to go into the forbidden land and demanded a guide, but the headman told them to leave. They shot him and took one of the men anyway.”
“Tell him we come in peace then,” Jonathan said and smiled at the man.
The guide spoke with the man again, then said, “It is bad, the headman lies dying. They are afraid of evil spirits.”
“Do they have a doctor?” Jessie asked.
“The seripegari is who they took,” the guide said.
“Is the seripegari their medicine man?” Jonathan turned to ask Jessie.
Jessie looked to her phone to google, but there was no service. She gave him a little shrug and a, how would I know that, wide-eyed look.
“He is the shaman to these people.” The guide nodded.
“Can we take the headman to the hospital?” Jonathan asked the guide.
“The hospital is back where we came from.” The guide shook his head. “Besides these are Macheguena people. They will not go. They have powerful medicine of their own. . . . Just not for the white man’s diseases or bullets.”
Jessie looked at Jacques and asked, “Can you see him?”
Jacques vanished briefly before coming back to her side. “He has lost a lot of blood.”
“I am a doctor of veterinary medicine,” Jessie said. “Can I see his wounds?”
The guide went back to talk with the man from the tribe. It took a few minutes longer than Jessie had expected it to.
“I’m not really good at understanding the Arawakan language,” Jacques said, “but I think they are afraid of the white man’s magic. They are debating it now.”
“Give me some good news,” Jonathan said.
“They are jaguar people.” Jacques grinned at the warriors who had red painted masks on their faces, large disks in their ears, and tattooed spots on their hands and feet . . . and very little else.
One of their number left, returning to the big hut. An old woman wearing a red cushmas style tunic walked out from the large hut with the warriors who’d met them. She eyed Jessie for a moment.
“This is the coya, the headman’s mother,” the guide said.
The old woman raised her hand and spoke for herself in English. “Why have you come?”
“I am a healer,” Jessie said.
“A veterinarian,” the woman said, having been briefed on this part. “You heal the animal spirit?”
“Say, yes,” Jacques whispered in her ear.
“Yes.”
The woman nodded as if this was a good thing. “What do you seek?” The woman looked at her as though her answer would decide her trust.
“I seek nothing but to heal,” Jessie said.
“What did you come to heal?”
“The stone,” Jessie said after a moment.
The old woman’s eyes went to Jonathan, then she looked around. I see the great white lord, Quetzalcoatl. Where is Tezcatlipoca the black?”
“Tell her I am here,” Jacques once again whispered in her ear.
“He is here,” Jessie said, “beside me.”
Jacques stirred the dust at her feet until it rose up. As he stepped into the particles they settled on him for a moment just like the flocking had as he then transformed into the jaguar before their eyes.
The guide at their side stepped back in fear as the dust settled to the Earth once again. The warriors held their ground but looked fearful. The old woman, however, stepped forward and took Jessie’s hand. “Please come.”
“I am the doctor’s mother and assistant,” Gloria who stood behind her daughter said. The old woman looked at her and nodded.
; Jonathan looked at Jacques and nodded, watching as he followed the women into the big hut.
“What did I miss?” Patricia asked as she walked up to Jonathan who stood watching the ladies go.
“Nothing.” He smiled.
“Where are they going?” Patricia asked irritably.
“Can we go too?” Jonathan asked the guide who was still shaken.
The guide looked at Jonathan with great fear and respect as did the warriors that still barred the way to the hut. “No, great white lord Quetzalcoatl,” the guide said. “Only the doctor and her mother.”
“When will they be back?” Patricia asked, slightly perturbed over the inconvenience. “How can we finish the shot now?”
“We will make you comfortable out here.” The guide spoke reverently as he bowed.
“Well, that is at least more like it,” Patricia said. “What did they call you?”
Jonathan sighed as he considered the busy bee in his care. He cast a brief glance back to the hut that the other women had disappeared into.
Jessie and her mother followed the woman to a cot where a man lay. A woman was silently weeping in the corner nearby. She started keening as Jessie inspected the chieftain’s wound. He’d been gut shot. Jessie was going to have to operate. She checked his vitals and asked if they had any pain killer or surgical equipment.
“Jessie,” Jacques said. “I can take his pain away and slow his heart rate to help stop his blood loss.”
“You can?” Jessie whispered, somewhat amazed by that revelation.
He tapped his head. “It’s all in the mind, and I’ve had many years to learn.”
“Please,” she nodded, “but are you sure it won’t hurt?”
He winked at her. “We won’t feel a thing.”
She watched as he lay down over the man and faded into him. The man’s breath became even as the jaguar spirit took over. Jessie pulled the very small scissors from her pocket. “Do you have anything bigger?” Jessie asked the old woman.
Her mother had a pot of water boiling and fresh strips of linen cooking away in no time. Jessie sterilized the small pair of scissors, her own tweezers, and a knife that the chief’s wife had given them. The first aid kit in the vehicles had provided some more items, most importantly a needle and thread for sutures, a flashlight, and antiseptic.
Treasure of the Jaguar Warrior - Mystery of the Mayan Calendar Page 17
