The First Genesis

by Mark Macpherson

  I said that I did.

  ‘Remembering this location is important but it is not enough.’ He looked back and up the steps, towards the sun that could not be seen. ‘You remember when, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Not that I will have any use to remember.’

  ‘Your descendants will. Each one must be chosen carefully. But, I know you know that,’ he smiled. ‘I do not need to repeat myself.’ Hachakyum laid his hand on my shoulder. It was the first time Hachakyum had intentionally touched me. I did not know if his touch would consume me.

  ‘I have chosen you well,’ he said. ‘You have performed beyond my expectations. Which were high to start with. But you have a continuing task. I know you will perform it well.’

  He let his hand slip from my shoulder. I was relieved. He turned and looked into the dark, down the stairway to the tomb.

  ‘The Twins will be here at the end. This will ensure that they are, and that they know what to do.’ He looked at me again. I thought he was sad, or remorseful. He appeared as I would if I felt those emotions. ‘That will be the end. There will be no further problems.’

  I did not know what he was talking about. I had asked many questions but I had not pursued answers in areas I did not want to know. There are some things best not discovered.

  ‘I will have no problems. I’ll be dead,’ I said.

  For the first time since I had met Hachakyum he laughed out loud. He made the world feel as if it was a joyous thing.

  ‘Yes, you will be dead,’ he repeated slowly as his laughter subsided. ‘That is true. But you will not die until your successor has been accepted.’

  I did not understand his directive that I could not die. He had told me many times and I had to believe the word of a god. However, it made no sense.

  ‘What do you want me to do now?’ I asked Hachakyum.

  As if he was woken from a reverie, he said, ‘Yes. Of course. We have to finish. Will you come with me please?’

  Hachakyum often used the word, please, to complete a request although there was no option but to obey him. I had not known, before I had met Hachakyum, that the gods could be so polite.

  I lit a burning torch and preceded Hachakyum down the steep steps. They turned twice before we reached the chamber at the bottom. It was a large open space. It had been a natural cave and the temple had been constructed over the top of it. The walls had been sealed smooth and were covered with my writing but the floor had been left unaltered. I gazed at the walls, knowing that would be the last time I would see my work. I was proud of what I had achieved.

  I left Hachakyum and went to the wall facing the direction of the heart of heaven, the black place in the sky around which it rotates. I held the torch close to the wall and read part of what I had written. It was the creation story, the plan for the Twins’ return. It was my favourite of all Hachakyum’s stories.

  I said a silent farewell to my creation and walked to where Hachakyum stood, in front of the large sarcophagus in the middle of the cave. It was sealed on top by a stone lid that many men could not have moved. The sarcophagus was plain, it was unadorned and, except for the regularity of the edges, it could have been a natural feature risen from the cave floor.

  It had been a surprise to everyone in the city when Hachakyum came among us and opened the cave. None had known it’s entrance was near the plaza. It was an honour to my brother and our ancestors, that the stories of the god who had created us were proved true by the arrival of that god in our city. He had instructed that a temple be raised over the site, but no-one knew who was buried in the sarcophagus.

  I waited next to Hachakyum and I would have waited with him for as long as he wished.

  He lifted his arm and the lid of the sarcophagus slid to the side. I was excited and thrust my torch before me to better see inside. It was a disappointing sight. Two skeletons lay side by side. One was in the centre, the other was off to one side. There were no burial items at all. I was horrified, even the simplest and poorest farmers buried their dead with some items to help them as they fell down the road to Xibalba, following the path taken by us all after death, kings and commoners alike.

  I had to know who those people were. I asked Hachakyum.

  He turned to look at me and then back at the skeletons as if he had to decide if I was worthy of an answer.

  ‘The one in the centre was a beautiful woman. The greatest human that ever existed. She was from the first creation of this world. I created this world in her image,’ he said. He stared at the centre skeleton for a long time as if he could not trust himself to speak clearly. ‘She was your first ruler.’ He then whispered her name as if he could bring her back to life, ‘K’ul Kelem Pep’Em Ha.’

  My mouth opened in surprise. My heartbeat was strong and fast in my chest. I looked from Hachakyum, to the skeleton and back to him again. His stories were of his life with her. The two of them had lived through many creations of this world. The number of times the seasons repeated in his stories were more than my head could comprehend.

  I had another shock that caused me to look around the cave with refreshed eyes.

  ‘Is this the cave from the Story of the Finder of Caves?’ I asked him. I had trouble talking I was so awed by the place in which I stood.

  ‘Yes,’ was all he said.

  ‘This is where you were summoned? Where you began your life together?’ I asked. He did not approve of questions that stated the obvious and he did not reply.

  I knew I had spoken inappropriately and that Hachakyum was disappointed with me.

  ‘And the other skeleton?’ I asked quickly, to try and erase the memory of my lack of thought.

  ‘The other one?’ he said slowly. His eyes moved to look at the other remains.

  He smiled as if he was not going to answer my question. ‘Ha!,’ he said as if he was about to laugh. ‘I think she would have approved.’ He was silent, again, for a long time.

  ‘The other skeleton is mine,’ he said, quickly, as he raised his arm. ‘The Twins placed my body there. After I had died.’

  The lid began to move back over the sarcophagus, but before the lid sealed the opening, the world rippled as if Hachakyum had split the air. There was a loud crack that hurt my ears. Hachakyum held up his hand and two butterflies landed on his finger. I did not know where they had come from. He brought them down to his lips and whispered some words in a language I did not understand. He lifted his hand and the butterflies flapped their wings but did not fly off. Hachakyum smiled. He again brought the butterflies down to his lips and examined the two creatures. He again spoke those words, although a little stronger. He lifted his hand above his head and the butterflies flew off. They circled the god a few times and then flew into the sarcophagus as it was finally sealed.

  Hachakyum stared at the bare stone of the slab covering the sarcophagus. He began talking to me as if I was his confidant. It worried me that I was being told secrets I would not be allowed to keep, that I would necessarily be killed after receiving his confidence.

  ‘I tried to end my life,’ he said. ‘As K’ul Kelem’s life had been ended. Does that surprise you?’ He turned his head to me.

  I did not know how to answer such a question from a god.

  ‘Well, it surprised me. I had not known such sorrow. After she was killed.’ He became very angry, I felt a bitter taste and my mind became confused. It cleared as he began talking again and his anger reduced.

  ‘My skill was insufficient to end my life completely. As you can see,’ he said and touched his chest.

  ‘I could make a body expire,’ he said, ‘but I was unable to end my life.’ He stared at the bare stone slab, in silence, for a long time. The sound of the burning torch, crackling and fizzing, filled the silence in the tomb.

  ‘I was in the void,’ he added, his voice was soft almost pleading for understanding but not from myself. ‘It is a place that’s empty, greater than the blackness of night. I was nothing but I existed. I tried to forget. I fa
iled. Then, I discovered how to create form from nothing. I created this form,’ he waved his hands from his shoulders to his knees as if expecting me to admire his clothes.

  ‘I could have done that for her,’ he said and I felt tears in my eyes, sadness was forced upon me. ‘If I’d known how at the time.’

  He was silent for a long time, I did not dare to interrupt.

  ‘I am the first of my kind to pass through that void, out of which everything began.’

  He stared at the stone slab.

  ‘I will revenge her death,’ he said softly and the world became oppressive again. ‘On those who caused it. The gods will quake now that I am more than the sum of them.’

  I was scared. I had been told of the powers of Hachakyum, they were truly terrible. I could not imagine what powers would scare the gods themselves. I did not ask.

  Chapter 19

  We left the tomb and climbed the stairway and out into the light of the setting sun.

  Artisans had carved a triangular slab of rock to fit and seal the opening to the passageway down to the tomb. It had taken dozens of men to get it to where it lay, on the side ready to be moved into place. Hachakyum moved his arm a little and the stone slab lifted, turned and swung into place. There was a plaintive sound from the air inside the tomb, as the entrance was sealed, as if it knew it would be cut-off and alone for an eternity.

  Hachakyum looked at his raised arm. ‘I don’t know why I keep doing that.’ He spoke as if he expected me to know. ‘Habits are hard to break,’ he said.

  ‘We could have saved many days of labour if you had done that in the plaza, Hachakyum,’ I said.

  ‘Why would I help with things you can do for yourself?’ he asked. He did not expect an answer.

  He took my wrist and pushed my hand against the slab of stone that sealed the entrance. My hand sunk into the rock until it disappeared. My hand and my arm were in excruciating pain but I did not question Hachakyum. He did what was necessary. He pulled my hand out of the rock and the indentation my hand had formed faded and filled. And irregular shape had been burned permanently in to the doorway.

  ‘Only you will know that. Look closely,’ he ordered me. ‘That must be remembered. You must be able to describe that shape. Do not make an image, that would be lost. Use words only.’

  I did not understand but that was not required.

  Hachakyum was concerned that I understood the obvious. He sometimes suffered from the fault he disliked in others. ‘Place your hand there, to open it,’ he said firmly.

  ‘My hand?’ I asked.

  ‘No.’ He smiled. ‘Not your hand. A hand in the line of hands that begins with yours. Come. It is time we went.’

  He led me down the stairs to the bottom of the temple. We walked a distance away then halted in the plaza and watched the last light of the sun fade from the top of the temple. We were alone. Dozens of free-standing stela, carved to commemorate the exploits of my brother, my father and our ancestors, dotted the area. We were surrounded by many beautiful pyramids and the structures of the noble’s residences. The ball court was beside us, set up in all its ceremonial splendour. My city was the most beautiful of cities.

  Hachakyum looked at me as if he was about to speak, but said nothing then turned his head back to gaze on the beauty of the temple we had finished constructing. It was the most beautiful structure I had seen in all the cities of our world.

  The world was silent as if it was waiting for him. There was no movement anywhere. Hachakyum raised his arm to shoulder level and moved his hand as if he was tracing a line along the tops of the mountain ridges that surrounded our city. I watched in horror as the mountains moved and changed shape. The lines the lower ridges made against higher ones and the lines the highest ones made against the darkening sky shuffled and moved until they came together as if to point the way to the temple before us. The world bowed down before the strength of Hachakyum. I could not believe my eyes. I had not believed that Hachakyum could destroy the world with his power before that moment. I no longer doubted his strength.

  ‘Remember these lines,’ he said. ‘How they point to the place of the temple.’

  He touched my forehead and the inside of my skull burned as if he had placed a flaming torch inside me. He was branding the image into my brain like after staring at the sun. He removed his hand. I took deep breaths as the pain in my head subsided.

  ‘Hachakyum?’ I asked him, gasping a little from the residual pain. ‘It’s not necessary. Our city will proclaim this temple’s location for countless generations. Until the end of the world it will be a beacon, a place of pilgrimage and ritual for all people.’

  He looked at me for a long time.

  ‘No.’

  That was the last word Hachakyum spoke to me.

  He did not raise his arm but, as I stood in that silence in the centre of our most beautiful city, it quietly disappeared. The city was erased, as if it had never existed, and was replaced with sparse jungle. The temple was all that remained but it had been reduced to ruins. I could not see the stairway we had just walked down. The temple was a pile of rubble that may not have been formed by human hands. The jungle trees grew a short way up the slope as they would have done naturally after generations of neglect.

  I was distraught at the damage Hachakyum had caused. The commemorations of my ancestors had been lost to the world. I looked to him, to ask for guidance. But he stared at the mound of stones. I was no longer required and I had been forgotten. I turned away from him and ran to where my family lived. I did not know if they still, or had ever, existed.”

  Chapter 20

  Yax K’in finished his story telling. His audience dared not move or speak. The sun had risen and a sliver of sunlight found it’s filtered way through the jungle trees and ended it’s journey in the centre of the table on the kerosene lamp. The morning’s sunbeam swamped the small, flickering light. Yax K’in placed his hand-made cigar in his mouth, drew on it and then exhaled. He leant forward and turned the control on the lamp to extinguish the flame.

  The night of story telling was over.

  END

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