Aunt Roslyn squinted at it, then cleared her throat. "Well, it's written on notebook paper, hon.” She patted his shoulder. “It clearly isn't ancient writing."
James pointed at Lance. "He put his hand over it, closed his eyes, and translated it.”
Aunt Roslyn put her hand on her hip and scolded them. "Were the three of you trying to play a joke on James?"
They exchanged glances, feeling the relief as they found their excuse.
"Guilty as charged, " Maya said, lowering her eyes to the floor with a frown.
Chantal nodded.
“Sorry,” Lance said, not sounding sorry in the least.
"No, I don't believe it. They didn't know I was listening when they were decoding the paper," he argued.
"Can I see it?" Dr. Parker asked, holding his hand out to Aunt Roslyn.
She handed it to him. His eyes darted over the paper as he became engrossed in it. "Mind if I keep this for a while?"
"That's fine. We have nothing to hide," Aunt Roslyn said, tilting her head and gently rubbing his arm. She shot daggers at Chantal, Lance, and Maya with her eyes. "I want you to apologize to James for playing that trick. That isn't a nice way to treat him."
"Sorry," Maya, Chantal, and Lance said in chorus.
"I've got a lot of work to do tomorrow,” Roslyn said, rubbing her hand over her tired face. “I'm going to bed. Everyone else needs to get some rest as well."
Chantal swallowed. "Ok, Mom.”
Aunt Roslyn headed down the hall to the rooms, followed by Dr. Parker and James.
An orange glow flickered outside the front doors of the hotel.
"What is that?" Maya asked.
"It's Ahote," Chantal replied. "He dances around the campfire sometimes.”
"It’s such a hot summer night," Maya said.
"Fire wards off evil," Lance replied. "He has ceremonial rituals he practices. Let's go talk to him."
22. The Legend of Kokopelli
Maya, Chantal, and Lance quietly walked shoulder to shoulder in the warm night air. The smell of charred wood filled their senses, and the sound of Ahote's chanting strengthened as they neared the bonfire by the hut.
"I hear the eagle drum," Chantal said, closing her eyes and lifting her chin to the sky. "He's dancing to the beat."
Maya listened. "I don't hear it."
Chantal waved her hands in the air and danced the tribal way as they neared the blazing fire that cast wavering shadows behind the tall rocks in the distance. "Close your eyes.”
Maya tried it for a moment, then opened them. "I still don't hear it." She turned to Chantal, but she was nearly incoherent, as if she was meditating.
"You're not concentrating hard enough," Lance said. He was closing his eyes as well. He made a few solid turns in his steps, the way she could see Ahote doing around the bonfire. They were absorbed in whatever they heard.
Maya tried again, but it wasn’t working for her. "Still nothing." She watched them and wondered if they were making it up.
Chantal let out an exasperated breath. "You should know how to connect by now. Lance and I've been doing it since we were five."
Her words wounded her. Since they were five? She couldn’t help feeling inadequate next to her cousins. Maybe her gift wasn’t as great as theirs, or she was just more feeble-minded.
"What do you do when you're painting?" Lance asked.
Maya shrugged. "I don't know. I just close my eyes and it comes naturally."
"You have to focus so your brain goes into a pre-sleep-like state," Chantal huffed, patronizing her. "The first connection is you and your own personal gift, your puzzles and art. If you concentrate harder, you can connect with anyone else that is using their gift. Do it with us."
Chantal’s demands made Maya’s chest tighten. She wanted to live up to her expectations and be as great as they were. She tried once more, focusing as she closed her eyes. She wanted to connect, but how do you force yourself to enter a pre-sleep-like state? She shook her head and shrugged.
Maya stopped in her tracks, watching her cousins move to a beat she couldn’t hear. It was like being a horse that couldn’t gallop, an eagle that couldn’t soar. Maybe she didn’t have the gift after all, or she was inadequate. A squib.
There’s something wrong with me. I can’t do it. Her throat tightened. "It isn't working for me right now, ok?" She darted away from Chantal and Lance and hurried to take a seat on a tree trunk that laid lengthwise by the bonfire.
Ahote took notice of them, but he continued dancing.
Chantal and Lance sat on either side of her.
"It's ok, " Lance said, rubbing circles on her back. "It will come to you eventually. Just be patient."
"If you would have grown up with Grandma and Ahote, like us, you probably would be able to connect," Chantal said.
Maya sat forward, trying to tune them out.
Red and orange embers glowed inside the fire pit. The flames shot out taller than Ahote. He stopped chanting and dancing and thrust a tomahawk into a nearby log. "Ha," he shouted, before pulling it back out. One more chop and the log split in half. He cast the pieces into the crackling inferno, making it roar and grow. Sparks zipped around him and simmered out. He turned his back to the fire and sat on the ground, crossing his legs. He closed his eyes and began to speak in another tongue.
Lance closed his eyes and Maya knew he understood what was being said.
The words came from Ahote's lips slowly at first, and then faster and faster before coming to an abrupt stop. His eyes popped open. "Tonight, I will tell you the legend of Kokopelli." With a stick in one hand, he drew the figure of a man in the sand, with a hunchback, playing a flute. He appeared to have a mohawk, or he wore a headdress. "Kokopelli was the Anasazi spiritual leader, a shaman, when the first people emerged into the fourth world. He had a curvature of the spine. He always produced a great harvest. He was a trickster and master of magic.” Ahote held his hand out as if he were holding something. He opened his hand and he held a handful of flaming twigs.
Maya gasped.
He clasped his fist around it, turned his wrist, and released it as sand in the breeze.
Maya gaped.
The glow of the fire on Ahote made his skin shine as sweat rolled down his face and chest. His black and silver streaked hair draped over his shoulders. “After his people entered the new world, the gatekeeper to the underworld, Skeleton Man, made a hidden door with a lock and key to keep the worlds separated. Skeleton Man entrusted the first key to Kokopelli as the only means to return to the underworld."
Maya was distracted as a log in the fire rolled off another and fell to the ground inside the pit, crackling. Ahote stoked the fire with a long branch. Smoke wafted overhead. He met eyes with Maya, speaking with influence, drawing them into the story. "Kokopelli was known to possess a powerful, musical gift."
"Like me," Chantal whispered. She sat straight and alert. "You've never told us this legend before."
He gave a nod, and picked up pebbles from the ground. "He carried a pack full of seeds and traveled to distant lands spreading prosperity to all.” Ahote dropped the pebbles randomly into the dirt. “The music he played made the seeds grow rapidly, and an abundant amount of food was harvested. He made peace with the tribes of all the Earth and it was believed he was responsible for the increase in the number of our tribe, a crucial element to the survival of our people."
A log popped and shifted in the bonfire. Maya, Chantal, and Lance jumped. Ahote threw kindling into the pit, prodding it with the stick as ashes flaked off into the air. He looked back at them.
"Some of the people knew Kokopelli had the only key to the underworld, and they strategized to take it. They chased him between the entrance to the third and fourth world where he went into hiding. He waited for them to leave until his flesh became dirt. His bones still rest there, but his spirit lives on. He is a staple to the Pueblo people."
Ahote was quiet for a moment. He clutched the flute around his neck and ga
zed at the night sky. "As a boy, I heard the sound of such a flute before the rains came, after the snake dance ceremony." He paused, then motioned for them to come closer.
They leaned in and he whispered, "It was then that he left me a gift in a box.” He turned away, speaking normally again. “A few days from now, the snake dance ritual will be repeated, followed by the rain of the Kachinas. Time for the harvest."
Chantal cleared her throat. "Will you be leaving for the tribal celebration?"
He faced them again. "Hototo and I will set out the morning before the full moon."
"You're leaving?" Maya didn’t like the idea of him being gone. She felt safe knowing he was there if her nightmares came back. She tried to think up an excuse for him to stay. "Who will take the guests on their tours?"
"There won’t be anyone to watch over the canyons," Chantal added.
"Warren and Roy will take charge while I'm gone,” he said.
Maya felt saddened when she remembered her stay would be coming to an end in the near future. “Will I see you again before I leave?”
His lips flattened into a straight line as he looked at his feet. “I’m afraid I may not be back before you leave.”
Maya knew this meant he would have to teach her what she would need to do when she went home to bring back balance, and help her mother.
"Promise you'll say goodbye," Chantal said, “and you won’t stay long.”
“Yes,” Maya nodded.
"I promise." Ahote winked. "It is late.”
Maya would miss feeling the peace Ahote brought to her heart every time she saw him, like the uncle she never had. He was always outside when she needed someone to talk to during the months she had been there. He was a stronghold in the storm of life, and his storytelling was an inspiration to her.
“Time to turn in for the night. I have other matters that need my attention." He wiped his hands on his jeans.
“Like what?” Lance asked.
“Nothing you should be worried about, young one.” He turned to the door of his hut.
Maya hurried to his side and gave him a hug. He smelled of campfire smoke, and his midsection was solid. “Goodnight.”
He seemed surprised at first, then wrapped his arms around her. “Goodnight.”
Chantal and Lance gave him hugs as well.
"Do not worry about the fire. I will keep an eye on it." He pulled the screen door shut behind him.
As they headed back to the hotel, Maya saw the silhouette of someone running from behind the stables into the shadows. Tall, thin, and male. "James?"
"Where?" Chantal and Lance whispered looking around.
"Well, I saw someone," Maya said. “It could have been anyone.”
The sound of a revving engine behind them diverted their attention. A rusty pickup truck with three men inside pulled up beside the stables.
"Ahote's brothers," Chantal said. "Let's get back."
"No, wait," Maya said. "We should find out what they want. Last time they were here, their conversation was heated. Let's hide in here." She opened the pen to the stall closest to the stables.
“I don’t know,” Lance said. “I don’t feel right about spying.”
“Fine,” Chantal said. “Don’t complain about not being included when I go somewhere, goody goody.”
His eyes darted to the hotel, but he turned into the stall, and the three of them crouched in the straw.
Fearless came up behind Maya who was the furthest to the back. His warm breath on her neck tickled.
The men exited their truck and walked into the storage room. The screen door slammed shut behind them.
One of the brothers spoke. "Little brother, have you found it?"
"No," Ahote said. He began to speak in the dialect Maya had heard the first time they had come.
"What are they saying?" Chantal asked.
"Shhh!" Lance’s ear was as close as he could get it to the edge of the stable without showing himself.
The brothers started speaking and their voices became louder as the conversation escalated. Before long, they were shouting over each other.
Fearless nudged Maya. She reached back to rub his snout.
The screen door opened and one of the brothers yelled as he went and got into the truck and started the engine. The other two brothers followed him out and got in, and the truck pulled away.
"What did they say?" Maya whispered.
"Someone on the reservation was tricked into selling the stone tablet to a guest that is staying at our hotel," Lance said.
"Tricked how?" Chantal asked.
Lance balanced his elbows on his knees and shifted his weight. "They said their blind elder thought he was selling him another gift of similar weight and shape at the gift shop they run on the reservation. The man who bought the tablet switched it with what he was supposed to buy. They want Ahote to get it back, but so far Ahote hasn't been able to confront the guest about it."
"It's got to be the same one Dr. Parker had when we followed him into the canyon," Maya said. "Maybe we could take it into our own hands–"
"Young ones!" Ahote's voice rang out.
The three of them flinched. They stood up, gaping at him.
"We weren't spying," Chantal lied, clasping her hands together and looking down at them.
Ahote arched an eyebrow and folded his arms.
"No, we were... we were making sure the horses don't get lonely." Maya petted Fearless, while looking back at Ahote to see if he was buying her story. Lance and Chantal copied her, combing their fingers through his mane.
"I heard you talking about what happened at the reservation," Ahote said. He turned his chin up, clenching his square jaw.
The three of them exchanged glances. "Oh," they replied, looking at their feet.
"Do not attempt to take the tablet from William Parker," Ahote said.
"But it isn't right," Lance said, holding his palms up.
Chantal took a step forward. "Yes, the tablet belongs to our people.”
"I have a plan to get it before I leave for the snake dance ceremony," Ahote said. "I'll make sure to say goodbye, and Maya, I will see you before I go. This matter isn't for children and I appreciate that you want to help, but I will handle it."
The three of them nodded.
Maya knew he would do whatever it took to handle the tablet situation.
⭐⭐⭐
Maya had grown close to her extended family over the two months of vacation. It was almost like she had known them her entire life. Her feelings had grown stronger for Warren as well. She had been sneaking around with him, which had become a regular occurrence after their fourth of July event. Sometimes they walked the property or rode horses together while talking about everything imaginable. Their dreams, desires, aspirations, and fears. It was tricky hiding from Roy, but he had Paris on his mind. Sometimes he left with the car, thinking they didn’t notice when he left. Roy had gotten much faster at his job which freed up more time for him and Warren to take breaks.
Secrets of the Anasazi Page 20