by JL Bryan
“It's amazing here,” Jenny said. “Why is the beach gray like that?”
“Volcanic sand.”
“I've never seen that before. So...how did you get a place like this?”
“Not so hard.” Alexander swept his arm around to indicate the buildings. “This used to be a private retreat of Senator Hector Ramirez, a big gun in the Institutional Revolutionary Party. After the Zapatista uprising in '94, he was too scared to vacation here. The place was abandoned for a decade. Real mess when I moved in.”
“The what uprising?”
“Some of the local revolutionaries took over a big chunk of the state in 1994,” Alexander said. “And in a lot of places, the federal authority still hasn't returned.”
“So this is kind of a dangerous place,” Jenny said, thinking of the broken glass embedded in the walls.
“Only if you go looking for trouble,” he said.
“Why do you live here?”
“Papa Calderòn needed me close to the Sierra Madre,” Alexander said. “The mountains, where we do a lot of work. So he gave me this place.”
“He's your boss?”
“Yep. Everything you see belongs to him.”
“And his name is really Papa...something?”
“That's what everyone calls him.”
Jenny looked down at the ocean again. “Why did you bring me here?”
“You need a place to hide for a while.” He took her hand. “And I need you. I always need you.” He stepped closer, his face overshadowing hers, and Jenny's heart beat faster.
She pulled her hand back. “I don't have all the memories you do,” she said. “I only know you from my dreams. You're still new to me.”
“You'll remember.” Alexander smiled and started back toward the house, where Kisa was setting out Jenny's breakfast on the outdoor dining table.
“When?” Jenny asked.
“I'm already working on it.” Alexander walked away into the house.
Jenny walked back up the gentle slope to the dining table, where Kisa had set out coffee, eggs, and a corn tortilla topped with beans and green chiles. There was also a big sliced mango, probably plucked from one of the trees in the front yard. Kisa smiled and stepped back, pulling out the chair in front of the food.
“That's so much,” Jenny said as she sat down. “You should have some.”
Kisa just smiled. Jenny gestured to the empty chair across from her, but Kisa waved both hands and backed away. Apparently, she intended to just stand and watch while Jenny ate.
Jenny bit into a slice of mango, and sweet juice dribbled down her chin. It tasted like candy.
“Oh, this is so good!” Jenny said to Kisa, who smiled and nodded quickly. Jenny could never be sure how well the girl understood her.
While Jenny ate, Alexander returned and tossed a thick roll of bright Mexican pesos onto the table. Kisa's eyes bulged at the spool of money.
“I have to run out for work,” Alexander told Jenny. “Kisa and one of her brothers will take you into the city.”
“Why?” Jenny asked. She never liked the idea of going into cities. Too many crowds, too many people to avoid touching.
“Shopping, so you can get clothes that fit,” Alexander said. “I don't mind watching Kisa's jeans sliding off you, but you might have a different opinion.” He sat across from her and dropped a pouch made of bright woven fibers onto the table between them. Jenny frowned at him.
“I don't want to go into any city,” Jenny said. “I hate shopping. I can just wear what I have.”
“But you'll want something for the party tonight,” Alexander said.
“What?”
“That's why Iztali and Yochi are getting the grill ready.” Alexander gestured to where the two short, muscular brothers were preparing the large brick-lined pit. “We're having a party to welcome you here.”
“You don't have to,” Jenny said. “I don't like parties.”
“What's not to like? Musicians, wine, pig roast—you can meet some of my friends—”
“I really don't want to,” Jenny said. “I'm serious. I can't be around people.”
“Why not?” Alexander asked.
She scowled at him. “You know why. Nobody can touch me.”
“No touch!” Kisa said, shaking her finger.
“What she said,” Jenny said.
“So you throw on a pair of gloves and something with sleeves,” Alexander said. “Don't get drunk and try to make out with anybody, and you'll be fine.”
“But I have to be so careful with a crowd like that,” Jenny said. “It's really hard to avoid contact, you know? It's the most stressful thing in the world. Can't we just keep things quiet?”
“Wow,” Alexander said. “No cities. No shopping. No parties. Who are you?”
“I'm just me,” Jenny said.
“But you're not.” He studied her eyes. “You're still asleep in there.”
“I'll have more coffee, then.” Jenny held her empty coffee mug toward Alexander. Kisa immediately lifted it from her fingers, and Jenny hurried to pull her arm back to avoid any contact with the girl.
“No touch, no touch,” Kisa repeated, rolling her eyes just a little. She carried the coffee mug inside for a refill.
“She doesn't have to do every little thing for me,” Jenny said. “It's kind of weird.”
“I hoped she would make things easy for you. And you do need clothes. You'll be staying here a while.”
“Unless I change my mind,” Jenny said.
“Well, obviously,” Alexander said. “But the feds are searching for you. They know you killed hundreds of people—”
“Ugh.” Jenny buried her face in her hands. The reminder of her own evil nature was like a punch to the gut.
“—and they want to know how,” he continued. “They'll probably be watching your father. How much does he know?”
“Basically everything,” Jenny said. “He knows what I did. He kind of hates me now, I think.”
“How could anyone hate you?” Alexander said.
“Maybe if I killed your wife and a bunch of people you'd known your whole life, you'd hate me, too,” Jenny said. “I deserve it. He was always too nice to me.”
“Are you feeling any pain?” Alexander asked. “From your injuries?”
“It'll be okay,” Jenny said. “I heal fast.”
“I know you do.”
Kisa placed Jenny's coffee in front of her, and Jenny smiled and thanked her. Alexander opened the woven pouch and took out a few oval-shaped, yellow-green leaves.
“Chew some of these.” He put the leaves in his mouth and smiled as he crunched into them. “Spit them out when you're done. They'll help with the pain.”
“Yeah?” Jenny placed a few of the leaves in her mouth. Her tongue began to turn numb.
“Chew it,” he said.
Jenny chewed, and a pleasant numbness filled her mouth. She felt it spreading slowly through her head.
“What is it?” she asked.
“A little local coca leaf,” Alexander told her, putting another in his mouth.
“You mean chocolate?”
“Nope,” Alexander said. “Kills pain, clears the head, gets you moving. Just the thing for running through mountains. Coca.”
Jenny stopped chewing. “Coca, like cocaine?”
“Don't worry, it's totally organic,” Alexander said.
“Isn't it addictive?”
“There's only a little tiny bit in the leaf. Kisa likes it, too, don't you?” Alexander held the bright little bag out to her. Kisa smiled and took a big handful of the leaves.
“Whoa, leave some for the rest of the class,” Alexander said. He dropped the bag on the table in front of Jenny. Jenny hesitated, then took just a couple more. They really were helping with her pain. She felt energized, too, suddenly in a mood for adventure.
“So,” Jenny said, “My first day here, and you were really going to just send me off shopping somewhere?”
“I do
n't want to, but I have to meet with some people. I've been away for a while, searching for you. Now I have to catch up.”
“Are they running low on zombies?” Jenny asked.
“Very funny.”
“I thought it was a serious question. What are you really going to do?”
“Pick up money from a few people and pay it to a few other people.”
“Sounds pretty easy.”
“It does sound that way,” Alexander said.
“When do I get to see the zombie farm?”
“Zombie farm?”
“You said you use them for agriculture.” Jenny made an exaggerated show of looking around the back yard. “I don't see any zombies working around here. So where are they?”
“Up in the Sierra Madre,” he said. “In the jungle.”
“Cool. Let's go there.” Jenny stood up, feeling a little dazzled. “I'm done eating. My appetite's just, zip, totally gone. Come on, let's do another crazy Jeep ride. That was fun.”
“I wish we could, but I have more boring things to do.”
“Fine. When's the party starting? Soon?”
“Later.” Alexander stood up. “You could go shopping if you want something to do.”
“You're right, I could.” Jenny snagged the roll of money from the table and stuffed it in her pocket. “Okay, have fun working. I'm going down to the beach. You want to go to the beach, Kisa?” Jenny pointed at the girl, who nodded.
“Whatever you want to do,” Alexander said.
“I know,” Jenny said. She grabbed the bag of coca leaves from the table. “And we're taking these with us. Kisa, how do we get to the beach?” Jenny pointed over the edge of the cliff.
“Beach?” Kisa smiled. She motioned for Jenny to follow.
“We're going to the beach,” Jenny said, stuffing a few more leaves in her mouth as she walked. “See you at my party.”
Kisa led her into the old adobe barn, where the Jeep and a couple of banged-up old trucks were parked.
“We're driving?” Jenny asked.
Kisa opened a doorway at the back of the garage, into a small, dark room.
“Um, this is the way to the beach?” Jenny asked.
Kisa nodded.
Jenny stepped into the doorway. Kisa raised a large trapdoor in the floor of the room, revealing a rocky hole beneath the floor. Jenny peered down into the opening. It was a sloping cave chimney, with steep steps carved into the rock. A spot of sunlight glowed far below.
“Hey, nice shortcut,” Jenny said.
Kisa took a kerosene lamp from a hook on the wall and ignited it. She started down the steps, holding the lamp high. Jenny followed her down.
The cavern took them most of the way down, and then they stepped out of a small nook in the rocky cliff. There were more steps here, but they were harder to find among the thick weeds, and sometimes at strange angles to each other, as if someone had wanted them to blend with the cliff side.
Kisa removed her sandals before stepping onto the sand, so Jenny stopped and took hers off, too. The gray volcanic sand was soft under her feet.
They walked out to the edge of the ocean, letting the clear water flow around their ankles. Jenny gaped out at the endless blue ahead of her. She'd never seen so much emptiness.
“What ocean is this?” Jenny asked Kisa. “The Atlantic? Pacific?”
Kisa gave her an amused smile. “Pacific.”
“Okay.” That gave Jenny a slightly better idea of where she was. Somewhere in the southwest of Mexico. She opened the woven bag and took out a few more leaves. “And this is what they do? Alexander, and his boss, Papa Calzone or whatever? They grow cocaine. And they use zombies to do the work.”
Kisa took the leaves from Jenny's hand, placed them in her mouth, and smiled. “Thank you.”
“Oh...I guess you missed my point.” The leaves inside Jenny's mouth were turning dry and bitter, so she spat them out.
Kisa pointed to Jenny's gloved hand. “Why no touching?”
“Oh...that's hard to explain,” Jenny said. Thinking fast, she removed one of her gloves. Then she pressed her fingertip to the inside of her forearm. She concentrated on sending the pox to that spot in her arm, until a diseased blister opened. Then she removed her fingertip and showed Kisa the damage. The girl's eyebrows raised and her mouth dropped.
“My skin is very sensitive,” Jenny said. She pointed to the damage. “Weak. My skin is very weak.”
Kisa nodded slowly. She looked Jenny in the eyes. “You are witch?”
“No. What? I'm telling you, I have this disease where my skin breaks and bleeds very easily.” Jenny didn't like hearing the word witch. People who called her that usually ended up trying to lynch her in front of a courthouse.
“La Bruja,” Kisa said. “The witch. For Alexander, for Papa Calderòn. For the dead.”
Jenny knelt and rinsed her arm in the salt water. “No, not a witch.”
“It's good,” Kisa said. “Papa Calderòn...has many...cómo se dice? Witches? Los astrólogos? Las psíquicas?” She grew visibly frustrated, then spoke rapidly in the unfamiliar tongue Alexander used with Kisa and her family.
“I'm sorry, I don't know Spanish,” Jenny said. “Je parle...je parle un peu...français,” Jenny attempted.
Kisa laughed. “I know...” She held her fingers a pinch apart. “English.” She widened them as much as she could. “Español.” Then she pointed to herself. “Maya.”
“Maya? That's what you speak?”
Kisa tapped her chest and smiled wide. “Maya.”
“Mayan? Like the people who built the pyramids?” Jenny tried to make a pyramid shape with her hands.”
Kisa nodded and copied the gesture, seeming to understand Jenny. “Maya.”
“I read about Mayans in ninth grade Social Studies, but I though they were ancient. I didn't know there were still Mayans in the modern day,” Jenny said.
Kisa just smiled—Jenny might have exceeded her English.
“Well, that's cool,” Jenny said. She looked up and down the deserted beach. “Can we go swimming?” She pointed to the ocean and mimed swimming.
Kisa shrugged, looked up and down the beach, then smiled and nodded.
Jenny set her shoes, jeans and shirt on a boulder and waded out into the ocean in her underwear. The water was like a hot, salty bath.
Kisa glanced around again, then removed her dress and followed Jenny into the water.
“La bruja,” Kisa said, pointing at Jenny's forearm.
Jenny looked at her inner forearm, where she'd created the bloody blister, supposedly evidence that she had some skin disorder. The blister had already healed itself, leaving no trace.
“You caught me.” Jenny pointed to herself. “I am a witch.”
Kisa laughed and dove into the water, swimming out and away from her. Jenny floated on her back, looking up at the expansive blue sky, the puffy white mountains of the clouds radiant with golden afternoon sunlight. Kisa seemed to understand that Jenny had strange powers, and to be perfectly okay with that.
“I'm really starting to like it here, Kisa,” Jenny said. “I think I could really like it here.”
CHAPTER NINE
The party began at nightfall, while the sun sank into the Pacific, filling the house and grounds of the walled compound with rich red and orange light. The burning hues of sunset lingered for an hour, and Jenny was beginning to understand why this place was called La Casa del Fuego—the house of fire.
Men had spent the whole day decorating the back yard with rows of potted bushes full of bright flowers, interspersed with large sculptures of skulls painted with cheerful floral designs. Candles burned everywhere, planted in neat lines along all the flower beds, or tied to the plants themselves, to light the lawn.
“What are those skulls?” Jenny asked.
“Day of the Dead decorations,” Alexander said.
“Oh, I've seen that on TV,” Jenny said. “It's like Halloween, right?”
“The day afte
r,” Alexander said. “The first of November. But I brought them out tonight because I knew you would like them.”
“I really do,” Jenny said. “They're so...scary and pretty at the same time.”
Alexander sat at the head of the outdoor dining table, facing the setting sun. Jenny sat at his right hand. Kisa stood near Jenny's elbow to wait on her, and she refused Jenny's invitations to sit down and relax. Kisa also helped the elderly Noonsa, as well a couple of Mayan girls hired for the occasion, bring out wine and food from the kitchen.
Yochi and some of his cousins roasted piles of fish and shrimp over the firepit. Women brought out corn tortillas and a dark chopped-vegetable sauce that roasted the roof of Jenny's mouth, though it was delicious. Jenny sipped dark wine to cool the burning, then tried the hearts of palm in a cooler, vinegar-tasting sauce. The food was all unusual but very, very good.
“Have your dessert first. Life is short,” Alexander said, sliding her a glass tray full of tiny, delicate sugar skulls decorated with shells of bright candy and circles of dark, strong chocolate, richer and thicker than any Jenny had ever tasted before. She could have eaten a hundred of the chocolates.
Alexander introduced Jenny to the headman of the nearest Mayan community, a fishing village a few miles away, and his entourage, who took some of the empty seats at the table and conversed with Alexander in their local language, which Alexander seemed to speak fluently. They all laughed, and Jenny felt a little awkward. They went on speaking in Mayan for a few minutes, occasionally looking at Jenny, occasionally laughing.
Jenny elbowed Alexander. “What are you talking about?”
“I apologize for talking business at dinner,” Alexander said. “We're in the middle of building a network of clinics to serve the local villages. Some are in desperate need of basic care. They will be free to the poor, cheap to those who can afford it, donations welcome.” He smiled.
“What's your part in that?” Jenny asked.
“I'm paying for it.”
“Oh. That's really nice of you.”
“Wait until you hear about the new village schools,” Alexander said. “The plan is to bring in the best of Western education, specifically science and math, languages and history, and I have some ideas about how to do this cheaply. The curriculum will also integrate detailed study of Mayan history and culture. I believe in helping to strengthen the local people in their struggle against the rule of Mexico City.”
