by Linda George
Or maybe he understood that she was just tired from the long flight. Peru was the same as Eastern Time in the U.S., so jet lag wasn’t the answer. Finishing another school year, knowing she’d be teaching history backward next year, and not having the energy to jump into the planning of that new curriculum (even though Sharon thought she’d been as enthusiastic as she always was during the summer) was part of her lethargy, too.
Burnout? Of course not. She loved teaching. But right now, teaching seemed like a job instead of an adventure. She’d come to Peru expecting to recharge her enthusiasm. That obviously wouldn’t happen if she couldn’t climb a pyramid!
It wasn’t long before the others returned. From the looks of exhilaration they displayed, Lynn wished she’d gone with them.
“So, how was it?”
“Wonderful! Are you feeling okay?” Barb held her hand to Lynn’s forehead. “You aren’t warm. Just tired?”
“I was. But I’m feeling better. Thanks.”
Alex urged them back into the van for a short drive to the small museum that displayed artifacts of Pachacamac, which proved to be interesting. Yet, Lynn still had difficulty working up enthusiasm for what she was seeing. Maybe lunch would help her perk up a little.
Alex’s expression included concern. She smiled to let him know she was okay. But was she?
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Alex worried about this lovely turista. How could she be tired already? They had so many more places to go and see! He’d never expected her to stay behind on the first set of ruins. Yet, there seemed to be something other than fatigue causing her to choose not to climb the pyramid. What could it be? He decided he’d sit with her at lunch and see if he couldn’t coax a smile from her.
Chapter 5
When they got to the Larco Museum, Lynn walked along the winding ramp almost in a daze. Flowers surrounded them, yet she couldn’t focus on their beauty. All she could see was the overcast sky, muting the colors until they almost appeared dull and lifeless. Under full sun, they would’ve been spectacular.
They were going to have lunch, then tour the Museum. Diners sat outside on the patio. Several tables had been pushed together to accommodate their group, plus Alex and the driver. The chairs were red, green, and other colors, adding a festive touch. If only the sun would shine! Lynn sat at the end of the table, facing the bougainvillea. Bougainvillea was one of her mother’s favorites. She’d always hung baskets of them on her covered porch during the summer. What would she think about so many different colors? Lynn realized she was almost holding her breath. She closed her eyes, took a long, deep breath, then Sharon, seated beside her, nudged her elbow.
“Are you okay? You look…weird.”
“Thanks. I’m fine. Just wiped out by very little sleep and a morning in a gray-brown environment.”
Sharon’s forehead wrinkled. “You’re right. The whole place was kind of drab. It was beautiful from the top of the pyramid, though. There were all kinds of trees and shrubs down by the river.” Sharon paused. “What’s wrong? Are you thinking about your mother?”
Lynn nodded. “She would’ve loved the flowers.” Tears stung her eyes and she reached for the cloth napkin and dabbed them away. “Nothing I can do for her here.”
“Not even if you were at her house, waiting on her hand and foot, which she’d hate. Parents do what parents do. They don’t usually ask their children if what they decide is okay.”
Lynn smiled at her friend. “I know. Mom will be okay. I just wish the timing had been better.”
At the end of the table, next to Lynn, Alex scraped the chair back and sat down. He smiled at Lynn and Sharon, then frowned. “What’s wrong, Señorita? I see sadness in your beautiful eyes.”
What a charmer he was. Lynn smiled back. “It’s nothing. I’m just ready for some good Peruvian food!”
“It won’t be long.” He studied her expression again. “I hope to see you smile when you taste the ceviche.”
“I promise I will.” Without thinking, she patted his hand, then felt her face flush with embarrassment when he turned his hand and his fingers closed around hers. She hesitated only a moment before placing her hands in her lap. “What are we having for lunch?”
“You have choices for each course. It’s all very delicious, I promise.”
She glanced toward the building, seeking a distraction. “Look at those incredible staghorn ferns trailing down the walls!”
Sharon exclaimed and pointed them out to the others. Lynn stole a glance at Alex, who was still smiling at her.
“Did you see the Indian Paintbrush?” He pointed.
“Beautiful.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “Very beautiful.”
The waiters brought drinks to everyone. Alex spoke up so everyone could hear. “This is a Peruvian drink I know you all will love. It’s called a Pisco Sour.”
Lynn sipped, then smiled and sipped again. “It tastes a little like a margarita, only sharper. Is it made with tequila?”
Alex laughed. “No, it’s made with Pisco, which is made from white grapes. It’s a type of brandy.”
“I love it!” Vicki said, and the others agreed. They gave their food orders to the waiters, then returned to conversation. Sharon chattered enough for Lynn, too, which she appreciated. Dorothy, sitting across from Lynn, questioned Alex more about the Pyramid of the Sun. Lynn tried to pay attention, but her mind wandered to New Mexico, then back to when Alex had briefly held her hand.
When the waiters arrived with their food, Alex got everyone’s attention and pointed to a large spoon on each plate, containing vegetables and what appeared to be fish and shrimp. “This is ceviche. See if you like it.”
Lynn tasted it. There was a strong taste of lime. “It’s delicious. Not at all what I expected.”
“It’s made with several kinds of raw seafood, marinated in lime juice.”
“The lime cooks the seafood, right?”
“Yes. I love it.”
Lynn noticed that his plate was half-covered in ceviche. Lynn had ordered several different foods, including a type of potatoes in sauce. She enjoyed everything and began to feel more awake and energetic. She hadn’t had a lot of breakfast this morning—only what was on the buffet at the hotel—so she suspected she just needed food.
After lunch, with her head swimming a little from the Pisco Sour—which she’d definitely want to try again—they wandered through the courtyard, marveling at the flowers, then back up the ramp to the Museo de Larco. A museum guide took over and showed them through the incredible collection of pre-Inca artifacts, including thousands of vessels made by the Moche.
The guide explained, “The Inca did not have a written language, but archeologists have learned a great deal about how they lived from the drawings painted on the pots, bowls, and other vessels they used.”
Lynn couldn’t believe how many vessels had survived the conquest of the Spanish. Seeing the Inca as pagan people, the Spanish had done everything they could to destroy the Inca civilization and all traces of their religion. Yet, here, recorded on their pottery, were depictions of their daily life as vivid and detailed as any written record might have been. What a treasure! There were several large rooms filled with glass shelves holding this miraculous record. The Inca had survived the conquest of their country in spite of everything the Spanish had done to obliterate it.
Lynn could’ve spent a full day in the Larco Museum, studying each vessel more carefully, trying to imagine what it must have been like to be an Inca woman. She also wished she could take a closer look at the magnificent kipus. An astonishing creation of knotted strings hanging side by side from a cross string, each kipu’s knots had been tied in specific ways. No two were the same. Lynn had read about these forms of keeping records of livestock, food supplies, people—whatever needed to be counted—but she’d never seen a real one. It resembled an intricate necklace. Perhaps she’d be able to buy a kipu necklace at one of the markets.
Unfortunately, their time at the museum w
as brief. Before she was anywhere near ready to leave, it was time to get back on the bus to speed off to their next destination.
Lynn and Sharon were last to board.
“Did you enjoy the museum?” Alex asked Lynn.
“Extremely. The Inca are still alive in their pottery and in the kipus.”
“Yes. And there are still millions of Inca alive today. Including me.”
“You’re Inca?”
“Partly. The Mestizo Indians are descended from the Inca.” He turned his head. “Don’t you love my beautiful Inca nose?”
Lynn and the others who heard him laughed and agreed that it was, indeed, a beautiful nose.
When Alex took her hand to guide her onto the bus, he said, quietly, “I am happy you are feeling better.” Lynn turned to thank him. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her fingers.
She made her way to the back and sat down beside Sharon, who grinned at her. “Well, well. For someone who wasn’t interested in a fling, you seem to have attracted the attention of our most handsome Peruvian guide.”
“You’re being silly. He’s just nice, that’s all.”
“He didn’t kiss my hand when he helped me onto the bus.”
Lynn didn’t have an answer for that, so she gazed out the windows to see what Alex was describing. Then she realized he’d stopped narrating for a moment and was quiet for a change. She leaned over just enough to look between the seats and saw him sitting in the front passenger seat, turned around, smiling at her.
Time to break the trance. “Where are we going next?” she called.
Alex stood and launched into a description of the next place on their itinerary.
Lynn tried to keep her mind on what he was saying, but thoughts of home and her parents interfered with her concentration, along with their guide’s kind eyes and gentle touch. She had to nip this in the bud. She’d promised Sharon—and herself—no romantic flings on this trip. They were in another country, on another continent—and in a different hemisphere, for goodness sake. After this tour, they’d be back in Virginia. Alex would be in Peru! Long-distance relationships simply didn’t work. Talk about long-distance! How many thousand miles was it from Virginia to Peru? She’d have to look it up so she could tell her students next year when they studied the Inca.
They arrived at a cathedral and wandered through the enormous building, with statues of saints and the Virgin Mary in alcoves along the sides and benches for worshipers in the center. A hallway along the side of the huge room had more alcoves and benches for people who wanted to sit and pray.
Since Lynn wasn’t Catholic, she felt no real connection to this cathedral that meant so much to the people who had come here for exactly that reason—closeness and connection. That thought triggered another. Tremendous distances were possible between two people sitting in the same room together, just as closeness was possible between two people who were physically far apart.
Her parents, for example, had often shared a home, yet never stayed in the same room for longer than a meal. Her father had his office and her mother had hers, and that’s where they went after having supper in the kitchen, reading or going through notes for lectures at the table instead of having a conversation about the day’s activities. What had her mother said? They’d grown apart. While living in the same house.
Lynn watched Alex’s expressions while he talked quietly, not wanting to intrude on those who were there to worship. From what Sharon had told her, he usually didn’t conduct tours in Lima, but Barb had requested he be their guide throughout their tour. He specialized in tours of Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu. Didn’t she remember something about him taking groups to Nazca to see the enormous outlines of animals and figures on the Nazca Plains? She’d always wanted to see them. Maybe the next time they came— She shook her head. The next time? She was hardly paying attention this time!
She had come to experience the land of the Inca, to tour the Incan capital city of Cusco, and to see the Inca city that had captured the imagination of anyone who’d ever seen the classic photograph of Machu Picchu.
It was clearly time for her to wake up, physically and mentally, and remember why she was here! If she couldn’t pay attention to Alex’s expert explanations of what they were seeing through the windows of the bus, then she had no business being here. Being here was a once-in-a-lifetime gift to herself! It was time to savor every minute of this miraculous experience, and that included enjoying her new friendship with Alex Vereau. Not a fling! A friendship. Just because he’d kissed her hand didn’t mean they were more than friends. Right?
Chapter 6
They got back to the hotel, went upstairs, then gathered in the lobby about an hour later. While they were waiting for the bus to take them to dinner, Lynn was called to the Front Desk for a phone call.
“Dad? Has something happened?”
“Everything is fine. I just wanted you to know that I’m home with your mother now, full time. She had another…episode. She decided to go to lunch today and ended up in Albuquerque. She had no idea where she was or how she’d gotten there.”
“How did you find her?”
“She wandered into a restaurant, then tried to leave without paying for her meal. She told them her husband was supposed to meet her and he’d pay for lunch, and that she had a migraine that was blinding her. The owner called the police. They found my contact information in her purse and called me. Sam went with me to get her. She was quiet all the way home. By then, the migraine had eased off, and she’d realized what had happened.”
“Is she on any medication that could’ve caused this?”
“Not that I know of. We’ll see the doctor tomorrow. I talked to my boss and told him I had to take my accumulated vacation and sick leave time immediately. I have about three months’ worth. At that point, I’ll retire. So I’m home now, full time. If this should happen again, I’ll be here.”
“I’m so sorry you had to give up your job.”
“It’s okay. It’s a relief not to have to leave her each morning, wondering what she’ll do during the day. Our doctor is looking for other explanations for her confusion and memory loss. We’ll get through this. I’ll help your mother get through it.”
“The bus is leaving, so I have to go. I’m getting e-mail on Sharon’s laptop. That’s probably better than calling, unless it’s an emergency. I love you!”
Lynn hurried out to the bus and explained everything to Sharon. She was shaken by her father’s call, but she also felt relief that he’d be with her mother every day.
A fairly short drive took them to the restaurant. There were long tables with chairs pushed close together, to get the maximum number of people seated. Musicians playing guitars and other instruments sat near an oval-shaped stage area near the side wall. The excessive volume made conversation difficult. Tables for the buffet were at the end of the room, with salads on the left and entrees on the right.
She spooned small portions of the various salads onto her plate, then moved to the entrees. A woman standing behind the table told her, in Spanish, that she was allowed only one plate. She realized she’d spread the salads over half the plate, so she used her fork to push them together, leaving room for the entrees.
She went to the table where Alex sat flanked by Cathi and Barb, with Dorothy and the others across the table. Lynn sat down next to Cathi. Alex was in full “guide mode.” Lynn had gotten used to having him sit next to her, to translate and provide information and explanations. Her feelings, seeing him completely engrossed in conversation with the others, surprised her. She felt neglect—almost jealousy, even though she’d never been a jealous person. So, she took a deep breath and tried to dismiss what she considered an utterly inappropriate response to their guide paying equal attention to the others. He wasn’t only her guide on this tour. He was everyone’s guide. Still, with the chairs so close together, if they’d sat next to each other, their knees might’ve touched. She realized suddenly that the restaurant w
as rather warm.
She focused on the food, which was quite good and different from what she’d expected. In temperature, everything was about the same—neither hot nor cold. The flavors blended so well, she often couldn’t tell the difference between something new and what she’d tasted before. She’d have to admit that she’d expected unique flavors, but almost everything had a sauce. Some of the meats had no sauce, but they weren’t plain, either. Some looked like they’d been barbecued, while others were roasted. Nothing seemed to be fried, but could’ve been beneath the sauces. She enjoyed getting to make comparisons between Peruvian food and what she was used to eating in Virginia.
She had a Pisco Sour with her meal, while a couple of the ladies had opted for Inka Cola, which was yellow instead of brown, like colas at home. Sharon offered her a taste. It was exceptionally sweet, almost syrupy. She noticed that Alex was drinking Inka Cola, too.
While she was looking at him, he turned and winked at her! Instead of blushing and turning away, which seemed silly for a woman her age, she raised her glass to him in a toast. He did the same, and they sipped their drinks still looking at each other. Then he turned away to answer another question from Dorothy and Barb.
Lynn’s feelings of jealousy evaporated completely. She’d have to remember that she was one of the group from now on. The next time he smiled at her, she nodded to let him know she understood.
Sharon nudged her. “Look at those dancers!”
Entertainment provided by musicians and dancers from the coast, then from the highlands, included vigorous music. Shouting from the dancers and diners continued to drown all attempts at conversation. The dance that drew the most laughter and shouting came at the end of the performance. The women attached a cloth “tail” to the backs of their short skirts that stood out over crinolines, then did a Peruvian version of the hula, circling their hips while the men, with lighted candles, tried to set the tails on fire. Only a couple of the men succeeded. The dancers pulled diners onto the stage to participate—women and men—which produced even more laugher from on that side of the large room.
