by J
“Same reason as everyone else: to catch the vibe.” He held out his hand over the seat. “I’m Blue Sky, by the way. You can call me Blue. And these are my friends, Phoenix and Rainbow.” Phoenix sat in the passenger seat, with a small drum on his lap, which he tapped from time to time. Rainbow sat behind Blue, braiding yellow flowers into her hair.
“Nice to meet you all,” said Lola politely. “My name is Lola Murphy and this is my cousin, Max.”
“Hi,” said Max, without enthusiasm.
Lord 6-Dog looked at Lola expectantly, waiting to be introduced.
“And this,” she said, “is, um … er … Dog.”
“Dog?” queried Rainbow.
“As in The Dawg,” explained Max. “Because he’s cool.”
Rainbow slowly took in the hairy face, the pajamas, the tail. “The Dawg is, like, a monkey,” she said at last.
“A howler monkey,” agreed Lola.
“Is he, like, tame?” asked Phoenix.
Lord 6-Dog bared his teeth.
“He doesn’t like the word tame. He prefers, um, civilized.”
“He, like, understands what you say?” Rainbow was entranced.
“He’s very intelligent.”
“Wow! Did you, like, train him?” Rainbow asked. “Is he, like, your pet?”
“He’s … um … more of a companion. He comes everywhere with us.”
“I really, like, dig him.” She giggled. “I dig The Dawg.”
Lola patted Lord 6-Dog to remind him to keep calm. “So, tell us about Cahokia,” she said to change the subject. “How many people are there right now?
“Last I heard there were, like, twenty thousand,” said Phoenix.
“That’s as many people as lived in Cahokia when it was built,” added Blue.
“Blue’s, like, our history buff,” said Rainbow.
Max wondered what Blue the history buff would say if he knew he had a real-life Maya king in his van.
As Lola chatted to their hosts about Cahokia, Max leaned his face against the window.
It felt good to be traveling in something that wasn’t powered by ghostly vapors.
He looked down the road, but all he saw were red taillights and the glitter of glass and metal from a line of cars stretching to the horizon. With every junction, more and more vehicles joined the predawn traffic jam. There were walkers, too, and cyclists and motorcyclists.
All of them had a festive air that Max had never before associated with visiting an archaeological site. (And his parents had dragged him to many.) People held hands or linked arms as they walked, car passengers waved, everyone smiled at everyone else. Sellers of jewelry, hats, and bottled water lined the route under battery-powered lights. Food trucks clattered up their shutters and opened for business. Max was tempted to ask if they could stop for a quick bite, but he knew Lola wouldn’t approve.
He forgot all thoughts of food as he saw the flashing lights of police cars ahead. Had New Orleans put out a warrant for their arrest? He and Lola had, after all, skipped town without paying their hotel bill.
He felt for the door handle, ready to make a fast getaway.
An officer in a high-visibility jacket waved them to a stop.
“Parking lots for Cahokia are full,” he barked at Blue. “Follow the signs for overflow parking.”
Blue turned back to Max and Lola. “We’ll let you out here, guys. See you at the sunrise ceremony!”
Max, Lola, and Lord 6-Dog clambered out of the van and looked around for the entrance.
“Which way?” asked Max.
“Follow the crowd,” said Lola.
The throng carried them through a set of park gates where attendants were handing out maps. “Don’t get lost in the lost city,” they chanted robotically.
Once inside, Max found himself in a vast open camp-ground teeming with people.
“Whoa!” exclaimed Lola. “When Phoenix said twenty thousand people, I thought he was exaggerating. But this … it’s incredible.”
Max tried to study his map without getting jostled by the endless stream of people. He looked around for higher ground. “Let’s climb up that hill,” he suggested, “so we can see the whole site.”
“It’s not a hill, it’s a mound,” Lola corrected him.
“Whatever,” said Max.
The view from the top was spectacular.
“Is this a burial mound?” asked Lord 6-Dog.
“I’m not sure,” said Lola. “Blue said they found bodies in some of them. Evidence of human sacrifice, too.”
Lord 6-Dog lay down on his back and stared up at the fading stars.
“What are you doing?” asked Max.
“I’m communing with the mound.”
“Why?”
“It gives me a sense of who lived here if I see the night sky through their eyes.”
Lola threw out her arms and spun around. “It’s awesome up here. I love this place!”
“You said you loved New Orleans until they tried to dig our graves,” Max pointed out.
Lola ignored him. “To be standing here, on this ancient site, and the lights of St. Louis just across the river! Why didn’t you tell me there were places like this in North America, Hoop?”
“I had no idea,” said Max.
He looked down at Old Cahokia, trying to take it all in.
The huge park was split by a highway, which had been closed off for the festival. On one side, beyond some low mounds, a large area of flat, grassy parkland housed a makeshift city of RVs, buses, caravans, tents, yurts, teepees, geodesic domes, art installations, campfires, market stalls, food vendors, and people. There were people everywhere—dancing, sleeping, doing yoga, rocking babies, painting each other’s faces by lantern light.
On the other side of the road rose an enormous earthen pyramid. It was too dark to make out the details, but there seemed to be steps up the front and a tall structure on the very top. The pyramid was blocked off from the rest of the site by barriers and security lights and NO ACCESS signs and guards mumbling into walkie-talkies.
Lola was reading the notes on the back of the map. “That’s one of the biggest pyramids in the whole of North and South America! Why isn’t it famous?”
Max tried to look interested, but he was actually more curious to know where the smell of fried onions was coming from.
“And look,” said Lola, pointing beyond the pyramid to where a group of people danced inside a circle of tall wooden poles. “That’s a prehistoric sundial. They call it Woodhenge.”
Lord 6-Dog sat up and looked around. “Those pennants,” he said to Lola, pointing at the yellow flags that marked the pathways throughout the site. “They have a figure on them. Who is it? Dost thou know?”
“It’s the Birdman of Cahokia. Weren’t you listening to Blue?” Lola chided him.
“I was fully occupied in trying not to bite him,” said Lord 6-Dog.
“He told us the story. The guy on the flags was a king, like you. They found him buried in a mound like this one, with hundreds of seashells arranged around him in the shape of a bird.”
Lord 6-Dog looked relieved. “I had thought it was Lord Kuy.”
Max’s attention had been caught by a different feature of the site. “The food stands are opening down there,” he observed. “Let’s get some breakfast before the show.”
“Good idea,” agreed Lola. She pointed to a little dreadlocked figure at the bottom of the mound. “Look! There’s Blue!”
They ran down to meet him.
“Hi, guys,” he said. “We found a parking spot right away. Good karma for giving you a lift, I guess.”
“Thanks again for that,” said Lola.
“No problem. It’s not every day you get to meet a real, live howler monkey.” Blue reached out to Lord 6-Dog. “You said he’s tame, right?”
“I wouldn’t—” began Lola.
Too late, Blue tried to pat Lord 6-Dog on the head.
“Keep thy peasant hands to thyself!” spat Lord 6
-Dog before leaping into the nearest tree.
Blue stepped back, his eyes wide in amazement. “Did you hear that?”
“What?” Lola and Max tried to look innocent.
“The Dawg! He spoke to me!”
“I don’t think so,” said Lola gently. “Monkeys can’t talk.”
Blue stared at her for a moment. Then a look of understanding spread across his face. “You’re right,” he said in hushed tones. “Monkeys can’t talk. The Dawg must have communicated with me, mind to mind, on a different plane.”
“I don’t think—” began Lola, but Blue was on a roll.
“I heard his voice in my head. It’s like he’s a spiritual being and he chose me to convey his message.” Blue’s blue eyes shone with excitement. “Wait till I tell Phoenix and Rainbow! This is huge! I have to go—but I’ll see you at the Sunrise Ceremony!”
“What is the Sunrise Ceremony exactly?”
“That’s the big deal here. Sunrise and Sunset at the great pyramid. Let’s hang out in between!”
“Wait, don’t tell—” called Lola, but he was gone. They watched Blue’s dreadlocks bobbing behind him as he ran across the grounds looking for his friends.
“Great,” said Lola glumly. “Now he’s going to tell everyone that Lord 6-Dog is some kind of monkey god.”
“To be fair,” said Max, “the monkey did talk to him.”
“It’s a disaster,” said Lola. “The last thing we need is word getting out about a telepathic monkey.”
“Maybe no one will believe him.”
“Don’t get your hopes up. They seem to be a gullible crowd.”
“Well, nothing we can do about it now. Let’s get breakfast.”
“Too late, Hoop. Everyone’s headed to the Sunrise Ceremony.” She cupped her hands around her mouth and grunted loudly.
“Talk about not drawing attention to ourselves. What was that about?”
“I was telling Lord 6-Dog to stay hidden. I don’t think he has the temperament for this place. He’s better off staying in the trees.”
“You said all that in a few grunts?”
“I’ll teach you to speak howler one day, if you want.”
“Will it count as my high school language requirement?”
“Definitely,” said Lola.
They found a place far enough away from the great pyramid to be able to see to the top.
“I can’t believe the size of that thing,” said Max. “The base is huge. What do you think? Three football fields? Four?”
“If by football you mean American football, I haven’t got a clue.” Lola consulted the notes on the back of her map again. “It says here that it’s as big as the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. So how big is that?”
“Who knows?” Max shook his head in wonder. “I can’t believe that we didn’t study this place in school. I had no idea that Native Americans built cities.”
“Maybe because it doesn’t fit the story,” said Lola.
“What story?”
“That before the Europeans arrived, the natives were uncivilized savages. It makes it easier to justify wiping them out. It was the same with the Maya and the Spanish conquest.”
Max shuffled his feet. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” Lola shrugged. “The conquerors get to rewrite history. That’s how it’s always been.”
People all around them had fallen to their knees.
“We are ready,” they chanted. “We are ready.”
“What are you ready for?” Lola asked a friendly looking girl in a knitted poncho.
“We are ready to go home.”
“Already? Have we missed the ceremony?”
“We are ready to go home to the stars.”
“You have a home in the stars?”
“We all do. Great Sun has told us so.”
“The sun speaks to you?”
“You must be new here,” said the girl, smiling. “Great Sun is the king of Old Cahokia.”
As the sky began to lighten, a sense of expectation built in the park. Some people knelt while others swayed and held their hands in the air. As the first rays of the sunrise bounced off the pyramid, the people whooped with joy.
Now Max saw the shape of the pyramid clearly. There were steps up the front and a terrace halfway up. On the top platform was a smaller pyramid made out of stretched canvas over metal scaffolding. It was open at the front like a stage at a rock concert and stacked with banks of speakers and video screens. Above it all soared a modern sculpture, a figure made out of wood and metal cable, with massive canvas wings. As the highest point for miles around, the sculpture seemed to attract and channel solar energy, reflecting it back onto the onlookers so that their faces glowed pink in the sunrise.
“That sculpture is amazing,” Lola said to the girl in the poncho.
“It’s the Birdman. He symbolizes our connection between the earth and the heavens. You know he was an old king of Cahokia, right?”
Lola nodded.
“And you know he was buried on a bed of seashells shaped like a bird?”
Lola nodded again.
“But do you know why?”
She shook her head.
“He was a space traveler! An extraterrestrial!”
Lola gaped at her.
“I know, right!” The girl hugged herself. “The shells are the ocean and the bird is the air and we are the earth. Great Sun says that one day soon the Birdman will come back for us. He says the Maya predicted it.”
Lola looked confused. “The Maya? What have the Maya got to do with it?”
The girl took Lola’s hand. “Pyramids. We’re connected by them. You, me, everyone. We all came from another world and, wherever we landed, our masters built pyramids.”
“You’re saying that aliens built all the pyramids?”
The girl nodded, her eyes shining. “Cahokia, Central America, Egypt … They built pyramids all over the world.”
“I’m sorry,” said Lola, “but that’s not right. I know for sure that the Maya built the Maya pyramids.”
The girl snickered. “Yeah, right! Like a bunch of savages could build those amazing pyramids! They’re astronomically correct, you know.”
Lola looked like she might explode with anger.
Max stepped in to give her time to calm down. “That’s interesting,” he said to the girl. “We came here to find out about Great Sun. What else can you tell us?”
“You should look on the Internet,” she said. “There are whole Web sites about this stuff.”
“Wow.” Max pretended to be impressed. “It must be true, then!”
“No, I’m sorry,” Lola burst out. “I can’t listen to this. My ancestors built those pyramids with brains and brute strength. How dare you give the credit to some spacemen?”
“You’re Maya?” The girl looked surprised. “I thought the Maya had all vanished in spaceships already.”
“No,” said Lola. “There are still quite a few of us actually.”
“That’s great,” said the girl unenthusiastically. “You should do a workshop while you’re here. You could learn a lot.”
Lola made a noise like a teakettle coming to a boil.
Max pulled her away. “You’re as bad as Lord 6-Dog. You have to hide your emotions or we’ll never learn anything.”
“But it’s so insulting. How can she believe everything she reads on the Internet? Her logic defeats me.”
“Nothing defeats you, Monkey Girl.”
Lola groaned. “What’s happened to me? We’ve swapped roles. You’re supposed to be the hothead and I’m supposed to be the sensible one.”
“You’re always so touchy about Maya stuff. It’s your Achilles’ heel.”
“Wrong mythology.”
“Yeah, well.” He looked toward the stage. “Now what’s happening?”
As the audience shielded their eyes from the dazzling sunrise, there was a fanfare of conch shell trumpets and Great Sun made his entrance.
He was carried in on a litter held by four men in jaguar-patterned Lycra loincloths. Great Sun was dressed as a Maya king. His features were obscured by his black-and-white face paint and the shadow cast by his magnificent black-and-white-feathered headdress.
“It’s Tzelek,” gasped Max.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE CHILDREN OF THE STARS
“What do you mean, Great Sun is Tzelek?” hissed Lola.
“That’s exactly what he looked like the night the monsters came. We need to get out of here. I’m not fighting Tzelek, not for anyone. We don’t stand a chance.”
“I don’t think it’s him,” said Lola.
“I’m telling you, it is him.”
“Even if it is, he can’t see us in this crowd. Let’s hear what he has to say.”
Max pulled his baseball cap lower over his face.
The crowd fell silent as Great Sun raised his arms.
Giant video screens flickered into life all over the site so that everyone could see.
Great Sun boomed a greeting in Mayan.
“What’s he saying?” asked Max. “Do you understand him?”
“No, it doesn’t even sound like Mayan to me. But there are nearly thirty Mayan languages. Maybe it’s one I’ve never heard.”
A woman in traditional Maya dress stepped forward to translate, and Great Sun’s microphone was shut off. They could see his lips moving on the video screen but, sound-wise, the interpreter forged on alone.
“Hail to the sunrise,” intoned the translator. “Hail to the Jaguar Sun as he starts his journey across the sky. May we take this new day to prepare for our own journey across the sky. In the first rays of the rising sun, let us signal to the Birdman with the sacred stones to tell him that we’re ready to go home.”
There was another blast of conch shell trumpets and a rough-hewn Maya stone altar rose slowly through a trapdoor behind Great Sun. Lola nudged Max. It wasn’t the altar, but what was on it, that excited her. For there, shining in the early morning light, were five carved jaguar heads.
One white as alabaster.
One red as Mexican fire opal.
One green as jadeite.
One yellow as amber.
One black as obsidian.
The crowd went crazy.
