Secrets of the Anasazi

by Sky Whitehorse

  Maya sighed. "We're going to have to swim to the other side. We have to climb to get to the pictograph."

  Just then, two dark figures on the other side of the river drew their attention as they waved. Two beams of light flipped on from headlamps.

  "Hello," a man's voice with an English accent rang out.

  Dr. Parker? Maya froze. Something was off about him and James being there. The fact that they had found this spot before the three of them was more than coincidence. She didn’t want to give away what was there, yet tonight was the only night Maya had to open the door to the underworld.

  "William!" Chantal and Lance yelled with excitement. They plunged into the rushing waters, swimming away from their horses.

  Chantal looked back. "They didn't ditch us after all. C'mon, Maya. They can help us find Ahote."

  Maya felt sick to her stomach but decided to follow her cousin’s lead. She kissed Fearless. “Go back home, boy.” He blinked at her with his big brown eyes. Reluctantly, she jumped in after her cousins. It was deeper than it looked. The cool water pooled around her neck as she swam to the other side, where James and Dr. Parker waited.

  Maya pulled herself out. Her ponytail drizzled down her back.

  "What are you doing out here?" Chantal climbed onto the rock with Dr. Parker and James. She gave Dr. Parker a hug. He recoiled from her wet body, patting her back and smiling.

  His smile faded as she pulled away and his face turned to anguish. "Oh, it's been terrible! We went climbing with the Indian man. He said he'd show us the canyons, but then he climbed up there and left us. I think he led us astray." He pointed at the picture of Kokopelli, overdramatically. "He left James and me to fend for ourselves."

  Lance, Chantal, and Maya’s eyes darted back and forth at each other. Chantal’s eyebrows turned up with pity, while Lance pulled himself out of the water and put his hand over his heart. Maya was behind him, climbing onto the rock.

  "You should have come back to the hotel," Lance said, joining in the hug.

  "Oh!" Dr. Parker exclaimed. "I lost my compass and map and I don't know which way to go. It’s horrible. We are so thirsty. Did you bring anything to drink?"

  Chantal reached into Lance’s backpack, pulling out two bottled waters. "I'm so glad you're okay."

  "Me too," Lance said.

  Maya’s eyebrows narrowed as she met Dr. Parker’s gaze.

  "What is the matter, dear?" He asked.

  She softened her expression and faked a smile. "Nothing. I’m really glad you’re ok."

  "Ahote hasn't returned home," Chantal said, sounding worried. "We’re looking for him."

  Dr. Parker's eyebrows raised and his mouth formed into a perfect O. "Well, that's because he's up there somewhere. Oh, dear!" He looked up at the etching.

  "What?" Chantal asked, her eyes widening.

  "As he climbed up the rock, he seemed to disappear behind that pictograph."

  "You mean Kokopelli?" Lance asked.

  He nodded.

  Maya felt on edge. We can’t let him find the door to the underworld. “It’s just an etching,” she tried to argue, but his expression turned hard with agitation.

  "He said that’s where he went, Maya,” Chantal said, as if Maya shouldn’t be questioning him. “Let's get a closer look." Chantal inspected the face of the rock. “There are holes driven into the rock here.” She looked over her shoulder at them as she placed one hand at the bottom of the historical sight.

  Maya tried to be inconspicuous as she stood beside Chantal, pretending to be interested. Maya whispered, "We're not supposed to give away what we're searching for."

  "He already knows Ahote is up there,” she whispered back, “and we don't know where we're going anyway. We have no light. You want to get what you came for, don’t you?"

  Her words hung in the air as Maya thought about how desperate she was to find the cure for her mother. She nodded.

  Chantal ascended to the hold above her head.

  The wind blew up Maya's neck. Turning to face the current, she noticed Fearless still watching her, as if he was looking after her. The bottom of his mane dipped into the river. His white, lustrous coat shone in the moonlight. Her heart went out to him. She felt guilty, like she was abandoning him.

  "What about the horses?" Maya asked as she followed Chantal's lead.

  "They're trained to find their way back if we don't return," she said, climbing several steps up. “Don’t worry. They’re smarter than you think.”

  Maya gave one last look at her loving companion.

  Hours passed as the group climbed toward the etching. The moon and it’s crater face traveled west, seemingly larger as it hid behind the canyon walls.

  ⭐⭐⭐

  Sunday, 12:33 a.m.

  Earlier that night, Warren came to. It was dark overhead but a blaze of light was growing by the water’s edge. At first, he didn’t know where he was, but as he laid there he realized he was in the river, deep down into the canyons. The sound of whooshing waters engulfed his ears while the back of his head was on something hard. After laying there a while he figured he was propped on a rock. If it weren’t there to hold him up he would have drowned.

  Ashes fell from the sky like snowflakes into the water around him as he watched the bushes that grew up the canyon walls roar into flames.

  He couldn't move; he could barely even blink. It was like a dream where he was paralyzed. His veins felt like scorching hot blood coursed through them.

  He heard voices he recognized in the distance... Chantal, Maya, and Lance. He couldn't make out their words over the burble of the river, but it was evident that they were in plight. He tried calling to them for help, but he couldn't get the sound to come out. His brain was telling his voice to work, but there was a disconnect between them. His throat was tight and dry. He focused on his voice box, such a simple thing that he had never thought about until now, yet it seemed so difficult at the moment. Seeing the flakes falling down onto him made him feel dizzy.

  Everything was spinning. He couldn’t even blink. An ember drifted over his face. He wanted to sit up or roll away, but for some reason his muscles weren’t listening either. It landed on his cheek, scorching him. He took in a deep breath, but even that was labored.

  He listened for the voices, but the conversation grew distant. They had wandered farther west down the riverbank.

  No. Don’t leave.

  A tear trickled down his cheek as the water flowed by him.

  31. The Entryway

  Sunday, 3:16 a.m.

  Chantal was the first to reach the etching of Kokopelli in the canyon wall. She let out a sigh of exhaustion from the rough climb.

  Maya’s view had been of Chantal’s shoes as she climbed up, and looking down she saw the top of Lance’s tousled blond head. Below him was Dr. Parker, and then James. She looked down at Lance’s head and spotted a large, eight-legged red bug with a pointed tail on top of it.

  Maya gasped but tried to stay calm. "Lance," she gulped, "you have a bug in your hair."

  His eyes rolled upward and he reached for it. The scorpion reared on its hind legs, getting ready to strike.

  "No!" Maya extended her arm and opened the palm of her hand.

  He jerked his hand away.

  "Don't touch it.” Maya reached up. “Chantal, hand me the flute."

  Chantal looked back, wide-eyed, while clinging to the rock by one hand and pulling the flute from around her neck with the other. She passed it down.

  Maya placed the tip onto his head and the scorpion climbed on, scurrying towards her hand. She grabbed the other side of the flute as it reached the opposite end and came to a stop.

  Chantal called down, "Shake it off!"

  "I don't want to fling it right back onto him!" Maya replied. She touched the flute onto the drawing of Kokopelli. The scorpion scrambled onto the rock into the crevasses of the carved figure. Maya pulled herself up next to Chantal to get a better look at the imprint.

  Lance climbed u
p beside them. "What do you think of it?"

  "Shhh!" She looked at the etching and decided to try something new, holding her hand over the front of it like she had seen her cousins do.

  Wind brushed past her face out of a perfectly rounded hole in the pictograph. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, allowing herself to slip into a dream-like state. A vision of light bursting from the hole came to her from around the engraving in the shape of a door. Ahote's flute floated into the hole and suddenly the rock broke away, falling inside the canyon. She could see underneath the exterior where the skeletal remains of a human were. The bones mirrored that of the figure carved above of Kokopelli, with an arched back. Maya’s eyes popped open at the shock of the revelation, the wall still intact. She stared intensely at Chantal. "This is more than just a picture," she whispered.

  "What?" Chantal’s eyes darted from the wall to Maya, and back to the wall again. She brushed her hand over the surface.

  "It's the tombstone that marks the door... to the underworld. Kokopelli is buried here." Chills ran up Maya's spine as she whispered the words.

  "The door to the underworld!" Lance repeated, looking back to the wall in awe. He laid his palm against it, his shoulders drooping.

  Maya shot him a dirty look, then gestured with her head towards Dr. Parker and James whom were staring up at the trio. Lance bit his lip, his eyebrows turning up.

  "Just like Mother of Earth said," Chantal whispered, looking at the artwork in awe.

  Dr. Parker's lips arched into a sinister smile as his pupils dilated. Maya’s stomach turned at the thought of their secret being revealed. I can’t let our tribe, or the Earth Mother, down.

  She turned to the wall as the scorpion scurried around in a loop, made its way up to a hole in the rock, and then disappeared inside.

  "'Scuse me," Dr. Parker said. He pushed his way between Maya and Lance without taking heed as he shoved his way between their perched feet and grasping fingers they had intertwined into the crevasses.

  One of Maya's hands slipped from his carelessness. Her arm flailed and she held tight with the other hand until she regained her balance and found a new hold. She narrowed her eyes at him as he pulled himself to eye level with the perfectly circular hole where the scorpion had taken shelter.

  He pushed a finger inside and brushed out grains of sand. Closing one eye, he looked inside. He pulled his face away and rubbed his eye. "There's air blowing out of the hole."

  James pulled himself closer to their feet. He was withdrawn, like he wasn’t really interested, but pretended to be for his uncle’s sake. Maya could tell since they had bumped into them that he was unhappy about something. "How can air blow out from the inside, Uncle?" His tone was unenthusiastic.

  Maya tilted her head as she tried to figure him out. It was out of character for him to be withdrawn and unsocial. Maybe he’s decided we’re on opposite sides.

  "There's a current coming from the inside which can only mean it’s hollow inside, and there is another opening where the wind is coming from," Dr. Parker replied.

  James looked at the petroglyph critically. "How do we get in? Where?"

  "I don't know, but these three do." He grimaced.

  The cousins exchanged startled glances, then shook their heads.

  "We don't know," Maya said.

  "Maya," Dr. Parker said, "you're a good girl. Don't toy with me. You know something. I can see it in your eyes."

  She felt the guilt rising and shook her head.

  "Very well." He grabbed the back of Lance's neck, digging his fingers in. "I'll give you two minutes to deliberate before I throw your beloved cousin off the face of this canyon wall."

  Their mouths fell open. "You wouldn't hurt him!" Chantal said in disbelief.

  "Oh, but I would," he said with a smirk.

  "Take your hands off!" Maya demanded as she tried to pry Dr. Parker’s dirty fingers from around his neck.

  Dr. Parker's face crumpled into a devilish scowl. "Don't test me!" His voice was deeper and, now that his face was inches away from Maya’s. His eyes were bloodshot making him appear delusional.

  "No," Lance said, breathing heavily, "she doesn't know anything!"

  "Maya, if you know something, tell him," Chantal pleaded, placing her hand on her shoulder.

  "Do it, Maya," James demanded, his face turning red.

  Maya deliberated for a moment tapping her fingers on the flute, then jammed it into the hole. The wind that blew through the other side afforded a high-pitched whistle through it.

  Suddenly the basaltic tombstone lowered into the rocky canyon. Maya and Chantal toppled onto their stomachs into a dark passage with a thud. Cold wind burst past them. Maya tightened her grip as she thought she might be blown back out of the mouth of the cave entrance. Chantal's hair whipped in her face.

  Maya looked at the flute with a new understanding. It's the key of dual uses.

  Dr. Parker climbed in with his bright headlamp and revealed a path leading downward and to the right, which was just wide enough for two people to walk side by side. To the left, there was a rock wall and to the right, nothing but a dark pit.

  "I knew it!" Dr. Parker exclaimed with a laugh, throwing his hands up. "There was a secret."

  The cave was full of purple stalactites and stalagmites glimmering from the ceiling and floors. "Look at the bones!" he exclaimed, pointing and holding his flashlight onto the human remains of Kokopelli. "They're fossilized right into the slate."

  Each gray vertebrate curved in a line and was half-immersed into the rock, along with the skull, arms, hands, legs, and feet.

  Lance came in rubbing his neck where Dr. Parker had clamped onto him.

  James followed him with a vacant expression, not making eye contact with them. "Uncle, wait up!" He ran into the cave, his footsteps echoing.

  "Maybe we should leave," Lance suggested, looking after Dr. Parker.

  “You should definitely leave,” Chantal replied. She pushed herself off the floor and put her hand around his shoulders, walking him back to the opening.

  "Oh, no!" Dr. Parker raised his eyebrows.

  They both looked back at him with ashen faces.

  "You're going to lead the way," he said with a jutting chin.

  Chantal leaned down and pulled the flute back out of the rock without making a sound. She closed her eyes and cocked her head toward the ceiling. "Do you hear that?"

  "Hear what?" Maya asked, looking up. She wondered if Chantal was trying to create a diversion, or maybe she really heard something.

  "The beat of the drums," she replied.

  Maya listened but heard nothing.

  "Drums?" Dr. Parker sneered.

  "It's just the wind," Lance said, covering for her.

  All at once, the wind stopped. Maya rubbed her arms over the stubble of goosebumps that had raised on her skin.

  James turned back to face them. "What do you hear, Chantal?"