"COME BACK!" Dr. Parker wailed.
James switched off the light on his headlamp. It was now pitch black. Breathlessly, they managed to dip the front end of the canoe into the water and it began to float as if it were light as a leaf. They didn't answer Dr. Parker, but they could see the round beam of his headlamp bouncing as he bolted in their direction. They climbed into the canoe, making it sink lower; it seemed just big enough for three large people. It floated slowly down the chasm as Dr. Parker gained on them.
36. Disturbing the Slumber of the Dead
Sunday, 8:34 a.m.
Maya could hear the thrashing of her own heartbeat as she felt the anticipation of the moment building. They sat in the canoe which gave the illusion of being suspended as it bobbed on the surface of the water. They drifted in darkness. Maya couldn’t tell the difference between when her eyes were open or closed. The canoe drifted slower than a child’s trike being pedaled uphill in the stillness. The constant darkness was wearing on her. Paranoia was setting in as she wondered about the whereabouts of Dr. Parker, or anything else that might have been lurking nearby.
"If only we had paddles!" Chantal whispered. "I could make myself useful."
Maya shushed her as she could see the gleam of Dr. Parker’s headlamp moving around the cave like a spotlight in a Broadway theatre. She began paddling with her hands and James and Chantal followed her lead. Dr. Parker switched his headlight off. Now there was no telling where he was, like a ghost. She listened for him, her muscles so full of tension her back and neck ached.
Every sound seemed magnified as the water gurgled by and her cousin’s panicked breathing overpowered it. The canoe rocked gently back and forth. Suddenly, a loud splash came from behind.
The three of them gasped, hoping it wasn’t Dr. Parker. Maya sat up straight, clutching the sides of the canoe. She listened, remembering her grandmother’s saying that when you can’t use your eyes your other senses take over, but Maya couldn’t tell if the sound of the water rolling over rocks was disguising the sound of boots sloshing through the canal behind them. She sat up straight, clutching the sides of the canoe.
Moments later, it felt as if the canoe was no longer drifting. It was too still. Maya sat the furthest to the back of the canoe and thought she felt the distinct washing of breath on her neck. She slowly turned to the side, but there was nothing to see but blackness.
"Boo!"
The three of them shrieked. Dr. Parker was holding onto the canoe behind them. She could feel a shift of weight as he climbed in behind her. His legs were wet and pushed into the back of her shirt.
He turned the headlamp on and placed it under his chin, creating shadows in his eye sockets. "So, you thought you would try to outsmart me?" he asked, leaning to one side. As he did so, water began to trickle into the canoe.
"We're sinking!" Maya said, hoping to distract him, and praying he wouldn’t hurt them.
"You're too heavy!" Chantal said to Dr. Parker, her voice wavering.
"If you ask me, you're the dead weight," he replied. He wrapped his arm around Maya’s neck and whispered, “I knew you wanting to be with me was too good to be true.”
She tried to think up a lie, grabbing at his arm as it tightened. “No, I still want-“
“Save it!” He yelled, choking her with his forearm.
She flinched. She could feel the canoe filling with water by her feet as she was being pulled into his chest and her feet splashed. She pulled at his forearm. "Your backpack is weighing us down.”
"I'll get rid of our problem right now," Dr. Parker said, standing up and reaching over Maya's head to grab Chantal under the arms. He lifted her and tried to throw her over the edge. Maya elbowed him in the ribs. "Ahhh!" he yelped, dropping her. The canoe was beginning to pick up the pace as the water deepened and the canal was starting to angle downward. Dr. Parker sat up straight and the water stopped trickling in.
Maya closed her eyes and saw something move a few feet away. "What was that?" she asked, jerking her head.
Dr. Parker turned on his headlamp. He shifted the light onto a human skeleton. Its yellowed bones were still, but it was as if it were being held up by the strings of a puppet master, though there were no strings visible. It cocked its head, only a few feet from the canoe. The water rippled around its knees where it stood in the water. It lifted its bony fingers towards them. The four of them leaned away from it like a highly infectious disease, splashing more water into the canoe. It was missing an arm and the distinct jagged line where the platelets grew together on its dome-shaped head gave Maya no doubt it was real. She couldn’t breathe or scream as the canoe drifted by. Dr. Parker froze as he gaped at it. She had never imagined he could be afraid of anything by the way he loved to terrorize everyone else. His white button-up shirt snagged on the side of the canoe as his headlamp slipped from his head and splashed by their feet.
The canoe glided past the skeleton and then they heard croaking. All four of them began paddling with their hands. The canoe slowly bobbed farther away from the skeleton.
Maya could hear it speaking in the sacred dialect, but this time she understood, "Lone, lone down this path you roam to the place where we dead keep. Way under earth, gravel, stone, so uneasy so restless we sleep. So long so far, you've become strewn, through the barren canyon deep. Down this path, you walk alone."
"What do you want?" Chantal asked with a hitch in her throat.
"Bring back what you’ve stole!" he yelled.
Dr. Parker slid as far down into the canoe as he could. “What did it say?”
“Did you take something?” Chantal asked.
"Gold and jewelry from a few skeletons," Dr. Parker said.
"Throw them back!" Chantal yelled.
"No!" he replied. “This is what I came for, and no curse will stop me from taking it.”
"He'll follow us until you give it back," Chantal shouted. “You’re putting us all at risk.”
Dr. Parker chuckled and sat up as his fears melted away the further distance they were from him. "Do you know how long I've been dying to get my hands on these things? If you’re so worried then it's in your best interest to get paddling."
They drifted on in silence, losing sight of the skeleton. Every now and then, there was the sound of a splish-splash behind them that made Maya’s skin crawl as she imagined it’s creepy dry bones pacing behind them. Dr. Parker shook off his headlamp and put it back on.
The river led into a narrow tunnel. Rocky boulders lined the edges on either side. It looked familiar, and soon Maya knew why. Overhead, she could see the ivory bridge they had crossed above. They drifted under it, entering a tunnel and feeling the bottom of the canoe scrape on rocks in the shallow canal. The flow of the river began to quicken as they entered the winding tunnel. There was a sharp turn to the left and a sharp turn to the right, both spiraling downward.
Maya's stomach lurched as the speed built up. A light at the end of the tunnel illuminated the end of the passage and all at once the canoe shot out of the mouth of the tunnel into a gorgeous green lake. A hole in the roof of the cave shot beams of light into the enormous cavern like rays of sunlight through the clouds at sunrise. Mud houses were floating on small islands that could be paddled or swam to. It reminded her of a history book she had read about the canals in Venice, where people traveled door to door by boat, only this was underground and the houses were pueblos. Dr. Parker began to violently pull at the backpack on Chantal's back.
Chantal twisted around. "What?"
"We need to lose excess weight. Throw your backpack out. We're sinking!" he shouted. He took the backpack and tossed it into the lake.
Maya decided she would jump out and swim for the mud houses nearby, but before she did the one-armed skeleton jumped out of the water to greet her with a chilling croak. She screamed, leaning against Dr. Parker. Dr. Parker grabbed her and held her like she was a shield. For a moment she thought it was going to grab for her, but it lurched over and grabbed Dr. Parker instead.
It’s ribcage pushed against her chest with great strength. She tried to push it off.
Dr. Parker shrieked like a young girl. He batted at the skeleton, knocking off its other arm. Then it leaned over to bite him on the forearm.
Maya plunged into the lake. The water was only waist deep. She turned back to help Chantal.
James flipped himself over the edge of the canoe. Maya and James stood next to Chantal, holding onto the edge and planting their feet in a wide stance. Maya helped lift Chantal onto James's back as Dr. Parker and the skeleton thrashed in the canoe.
Maya tried to run through the lake, her feet hitting the murky floor, but the resistance of the water made her feel like she was trapped in a video that was flipped into slow motion. The backpack Dr. Parker had flung overboard was floating in the water. Maya reached out to rescue it and flung it on her back
Dr. Parker struggled with the angry skeleton. The canoe had almost filled to the brim with lake water. He thrust his heels, splashing water into the air, and then kicked the skeleton's skull off its vertebrate which flew up and made an arc before it sunk into the lake. The canoe went down all at once with Dr. Parker still in it, but the battle continued underwater causing the water to ripple on the surface. The three of them watched as they sat on the shore, not knowing who might resurface. Maya hoped it would be the skeleton. She clasped her hand into Chantal’s as they waited for the victor.
Dr. Parker popped out of the water sputtering and spouting droplets. A flash of disappointment ran through her at the sight of his face. He wiped his eyes and looked toward the trio. Maya felt the rife anxiety in her stomach as a wolfish grimace spread over his reddened face. He plunged into the water and did the breaststroke toward the mud houses where they had huddled.
⭐⭐⭐
Sunday, 5:55 a.m.
Fearless waded into the river towards Warren. The sight of his big brown eyes and white mane was the most beautiful sight. If it were the last face he ever saw, he would be content. Fearless had been one of Warren’s greatest blessings. Some of the time he felt like his only friend in the world, and now here they were, like fate had shown up in the roiling riverbed.
Warren lay on his back. Some of his strength had returned, enough to lift his arms and neck ever so slightly. He attempted to sit up but to no avail. A steady flow of water was funneling out of the Anasazi dirt slide into the river. The flow was much faster and heavier than it had been ten minutes ago. The water level continued to rise as the rain became heavier. Warren started to get the sensation he was drifting away with the pull of the current.
Whoever had been playing the flute atop the canyons had disappeared leaving Warren to wonder if they had ever really been there to begin with. The storm was raging at its fullest.
"Go, Fearless," Warren rasped, giving up the fight. "Save yourself."
Fearless came closer, pushing his soft muzzle against Warren's head.
Warren swatted at him. "I'm serious!" he croaked. "If you don't leave now, we'll both die. GET OUT!"
Fearless let out a loud whinny, throwing his head in the air. He nudged Warren harder, looking him in the eye. Warren knew Fearless too well. He could sense his anguish and Warren knew he wasn’t going to leave him.
Warren let out a "no" that sounded like a whimper. "You don't understand," he sobbed, "I can't get on you. There's no hope. I don't want you to die, Fearless," he pleaded. "GO! GET!"
Fearless backed away. Warren had never treated any of the horses like that before. Fearless seemed unsure of what to make of it. He trotted back to the dirt slide and turned to give Warren another look, as if he was taking a double take of him in a new angle.
"Go!" Warren insisted, pointing to the dirt slide. He picked up a stone from the riverbed and tried to hurl it at Fearless, but it barely dropped a foot from his hand. The horse backed away, still watching.
"Go, damn it!"
The current picked up. Warren felt his body lift from the rock as he floated a few feet downstream where he stopped by a taller rock.
Warren breathed heavily. His father's words came to him. Live your life so that the fear of death can never enter your heart. These were the words Warren wanted to live by- to be a true man of his tribe, and to bring honor to his family.
I will die like a man. He rested his head back on the rock, waiting to be swept away, and reflected on his life. He had done his best to be true to his people. Honesty, integrity, and doing right by the Earth Mother had always been his first consideration. Keeping to the sacred ways and caring for the Earth and animals- there wasn’t any other way he would have chosen. By the sweat of his brow, he had given all he had.
He lived like the wildflower in a field that had soaked in the sun, drank up the rain, and danced in the wind. Some are taken by the storm. We don’t know how many moons we will see before we take our call to the afterlife. He remembered his father’s words- If you have anything to give, give it freely, love like it is the last time, and toil like it will be the final harvest.
He wondered how long before anyone would discover what had become of him, or if anyone would ever find his body. He wished he could have lived to watch over his father when he grew old. He wondered what it would have been like to have been loved and had a little family all his own. Life was a mystery and not always fair.
He reached into his pocket and felt the worry stone. He thought he had all the time in the world, and now... it was too late. He wished he had spent more time telling Maya what she meant to him. He could have told her last night when she gave him the picture of his mom. Why didn't I? He closed his eyes and swallowed. All there was to think of now is what could have been.
Thunder rolled, and Warren watched as Fearless turned and headed up the dirt slide. Water was now flushing out of it, up to Fearless's knees. Warren felt relieved that Fearless was headed home. He closed his eyes, ready to accept his destiny in the wrath of the tempest.
37. The Sands That Withstand Time
Sunday, 9:06 a.m.
They made it to the shore where the closest mini island of cave dwellings lay before them like a suburban street of row houses, perfectly straight and tall. Most of them were square or rectangular. Some stretched several stories while others remained one room. All of them had tiny square windows barely large enough to stick a head in, but there were no doors as far as Maya could tell from the side she stood on. Occasionally there were cylinder-shaped structures randomly placed at the end of a house, or all by themselves. There were circular rooms dug into the ground which Maya recognized as kivas.
There were plants of all different kinds that Maya had never seen before sprouting around the buildings. Some were tall with large jungle leaves. Others were flowering or blooming with berries.
Next to them was a totem pole reaching to the second story of the pueblos. At the bottom of the totem was a carved wolf that sat on its haunches. On its head was a coiled snake with a flicking tongue. A songbird was perched on the snake with its wings extended. On the head of the songbird was a bat covering it’s face with its webbed wings. The artwork was breathtaking with its many colors of paint and exquisite design. She wished she had the time to slow down and examine it, but Dr. Parker was not far behind, and there was no telling what he might do now that the skeleton was no longer a threat.
James ran alongside Maya, carrying Chantal. Their footsteps crunched in the glittering sand that looked like tiny pieces of blown glass.
"How is your leg?" Maya asked breathlessly.
"There's no change," she replied, looking at it.
Maya sighed heavily. "This isn't the lake of healing waters." Damn it!
They rounded the side of the building. James looked in both directions. Maya tried to take in her surroundings as she pointed to an ally between the pueblos. They bolted toward the alley and hid behind the shadowed area, standing up straight by the side of the mud wall. Maya panted, grasping at her throat that still throbbed from being choked.
Secrets of the Anasazi Page 33