A Deep Thing

by A. K. Smith

  The corners of her mouth turned up involuntarily as her eyes widened and she gave him a stern look. “Really?” She leaned back on her palms with her legs crossed out in front. “I don’t believe you.”

  He moved closer and kissed her softly on the lips. “Now do you believe me?”

  Chapter 54

  Kendall woke to the sound of a zipper clicking on the tent. For a moment, she didn’t remember where she was. Ryder left the tent and she could smell burnt coffee grounds wafting through the air and see light green, dark green, and neon green leaves attached to thick brown branches through the opening. Tonight they should make it to the cenote, Tim’s cenote.

  She gave herself a moment. She took out her brush, ran it through her long hair and then put it in a quick braid. Her little makeup kit contained a mirror, refreshing wipes, some BB moisturizing cream with tint and sunscreen, lip moisturizer, deodorant, and vanilla lotion. She may have been in the middle of the jungle but she still had her morning routine. She looked at herself in the mirror not recognizing this woman. Why can’t you be here, why can’t I ask you all the questions I so desperately want to know? She longed for Tim to hold her just one more time; she knew that’s why hugging Scout felt so good last night. He had kissed her and then they held each other for a long embrace; the problem was she wished it were Tim. It wasn’t fair to Scout, she knew this was true but at this moment she had too many other things to deal with.

  Scout, Roberto, and Enrique were crouched at the edge of the clearing, speaking rapidly in Spanish. When she approached the group, they stood up and stopped talking. She smiled. “Buenos dias.”

  Roberto and Enrique answered in unison, “Buenos dias,” and Scout motioned for her to come to the edge of the clearing, where he squatted down and pointed to the ground.

  “Roberto and Enrique heard some movement in the jungle last night; it was coming from over here. They think these are human tracks, not animals, and they’re wondering if somebody could be following us.”

  “Following us from the shore?” Ryder asked. He had walked over and was listening.

  “They’re not really sure,” Scout said, “but the previous night they thought they heard some noises, and now these tracks make them believe someone is following us.”

  Ryder looked around from right to left searching through the trees. “Do you think they’re watching us right now?”

  “If they are, they’re keeping their distance. The guys walked around a pretty large perimeter this morning, but that’s when they noticed subtle signs of somebody following us.” He stood up. “I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but do you think a tracker from up in the States could be following us?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know how I could have been followed. I changed planes twice, the boat ride, then in Caye Caulker I arrived and we left. You said yourself there was never another boat. We were so careful leaving Belize. Maybe we should radio Jorge and Lily and find out if there any boats out by the shoreline.”

  “Yes, I agree, that’s my next step, let’s see if Jorge and Lily have seen any boats or vessels on the radar.” He went to the dry packs and fished out the satellite radio.

  ****

  The humidity now a tight wet blanket wrapped around them. Roberto and Enrique moved with ease. They didn’t seem bothered by the rising heat. The hot air was sticky like a drying wad of chewing gum on the bottom of your shoe, annoying and coated with gnats and mosquitoes, but they pressed forward. Scout slapped the side of his neck.

  Lily and Jorge assured him no boat had been on their radar or in the area for days. If one didn’t come from the shoreline, the only way anyone could be as deep in the jungle as they were, would be to be dropped off by a helicopter. And a plane or helicopter that size, would have been clearly detected in the silence of the skies above the dense tropical jungle.

  Scout prepared to accept the logic it was animals or locals living off the land, shrugged off the uneasiness in his stomach. This particular area of the Yucatán was all private land, according to Tim, who had written documentation allowing him access. Not that they had anyone to show it to. The staggering size of this parcel was thousands and thousands of acres of thick jungle and except for the wildlife appeared uninhabited.

  Scout asked both Kendall and Ryder whether they had any concerns about continuing the journey; he knew before he asked, they were not going to turn back.

  The canopy of the jungle appeared to be thicker, the closer they came to their destination. Hot and tired, they pushed through the brush, grunting and swearing, until an opening exposed a windy limestone river. The day had been a tough one. Ten long hot hours of hiking on rough uneven rock and shrub growth so dense at times they could not see Enrique and Roberto. Besides numerous bug bites, they suffered scratches, cuts, and stings.

  The humidity had mysteriously disappeared. It was scorching hot, but dry.

  Scout took a sip from his canteen. “In another hour we should be closer to the cenote, and we’ll make camp. Everyone doing okay?”

  Kendall nodded and Ryder kept walking. For the last several miles he and Ryder had been discussing cave diving, talking about the thrill of exploration and the newness of the sport in the Yucatán.

  Ryder stopped to adjust his pack. “So, there are plenty undiscovered caves still out there?”

  “Thousands unmapped, most inaccessible but the local people know about their existence. I’ve surveyed several complete cave systems, but many we have never found where they end.”

  “Have you ever named one?”

  “Yes, Cenote Escondido nicknamed Mayan Blue.” Time rushed by as he explained the surveying expedition to an attentive Ryder.

  All the talk of cenotes and cave diving had Ryder full of excitement to find his father’s cenote—which bore no name on the map. His thirst for the unknown familiar to Scout.

  “Maybe we will be the first ones to explore it.”

  Chapter 55

  “Sir, the resort in Belize states she checked in and unpacked, but they have not seen her since she left for the Lamanai tour she booked.” The young agent handed him a thick folder bulging with documents.

  “This tour your man states she went on, it was to the mainland in Belize?”

  “Yes, she took a boat from the resort in Ambergris Caye to the small airport where she flew to Caye Caulker, for one stop to pick up passengers. Then the plane landed in a sugar cane field where a small group hiked in and then went on small canoes to see the Lamanai ruins. Our man lost her in the tour as he could not get booked on that particular plane.”

  “And he is sure she did not get off the plane at Caye Caulker?” He was holding a map of Belize, pointing to the small island of Caye Caulker, next door to Ambergris Caye.

  “Well, sir, since he was unable to get on the same flight, he was there immediately after and he was assured no one stepped off the plane. She was still on the roster to go on the Lamanai tour.” The young man was speaking rapidly, sweating profusely.

  He was silent for a few minutes. He put the map in the file folder and closed the file. “I’d like to speak to Steve Crawford, and I mean five minutes ago.”

  “Yes sir.” The agent rushed out of the office.

  Chapter 56

  The low setting sun, filtered through the dense jungle leaves, casting a lime-green light and slow-moving shadows. Exhausted, Kendall slowed her pace, wishing she could slump to the jungle floor. Scout, absorbed with figuring out his GPS, was attempting to pinpoint the exact location on Tim’s map. As the light dimmed, an extremely dense barrier of shrubs and trees blocked their path. An impenetrable portion of the jungle, where thick vegetation created a border that continued as far as one could see on the left and on the right. A natural fence spreading in both directions on a parallel line.

  “Well, I think it’s beyond this dense barrier.” Scout took off his hat and looked from east to west. Roberto and Enrique began hacking into a part of the natural barrier, using machetes, barely making an i
mpact

  “Almost looks like it was planted as a fence?” Kendall shaded her eyes.

  “This specific kind of fauna needs a lot of water, so there must be some type of natural water feeding system in this area.” Scout said. He attempted to push his hand through the mass.

  Enrique called for Scout. He seemed excited, pointing toward the ground behind the machete path he had made. There, the remains of limestone rocks were visible, rocks that at one time had formed a wall of some type. It ran the entire length of the tree line on the other side, shielded from the dense vegetation.

  “I’ve seen something like this at the Mayan ruins at Tulum.” Scout said.

  Ryder forced his lean frame through the opening in the shrubbery and got down on his knees clearing dirt and debris away from one area of the rocks.

  “Hey, there’s carving on this rock.” Ryder motioned. Looking down at the rocks, raised symbols were visible, but hard to make out. Immediately Kendall went down on her knees moving dirt and debris away from the tablets. She sat back on her heels. “I bet few people know about this.” She looked back at the enormity of natural fence covering the ground. “I wonder if Tim had ever been here.”

  Scout hesitated wiping the sweat off his brow. “No, he hasn’t been here, at least from what he told me when we met. He stressed the point; he wanted to take Ryder here, a place unexplored, so maybe someone passed down the secret to him.”

  Ryder in manic motions, entranced by the sight of the ruins, continued brushing away ground and clearing off debris and dirt from a large area on the ground. Kendall noticed his fingertips bleeding.

  Scout squeezed through the area Enrique and Roberto hacked holding his GPS. “We are apparently close to the cenote, but I really don’t see any waterhole up ahead.”

  Kendall pushed through, the area in front of Scout a rather large flat expanse, somewhat cleared out. Compared to the dense shrubbery they just hacked their way through, it was sparse.

  “I think we’re less than three miles from the cenote,” he said. “The sun has set, so you have two choices, we can camp here for the night and find the cenote in the morning or we can try to go another hour and see if we can camp beside the water.”

  “How much daylight do you think we have?”

  He looked at his watch and up at the darkening sky. “I think we only have about twenty minutes until it gets dark; we won’t make the three miles by then.”

  She placed her pack on the ground, and stretched pushing her hands above her head. “Well then, I vote let’s stay here for the night. We’ll leave the excitement of seeing the cenote for tomorrow morning.”

  Ryder still on the ground was absorbed in sweeping away the rocks. “Fine with me.”

  Enrique and Roberto both nodded and started putting the tarps down, making camp. Tonight, they had a large clearing to construct a camp; Enrique and Roberto went to work making two fires on opposite ends of the outer ring.

  “We can make a shower over there.” Scout lifted the water they had been carrying from the last river.

  Kendall smiled, overjoyed at the thought of being clean. “Well, that seems like a luxury!”

  Scout nodded. “We’re close to the cenote so we will get clean freshwater tomorrow.”

  Being together 24/7, the group bonded well, especially if they were clean. Besides the earthy jungle smells, body odor was a seasoning Kendall was happy to get rid of. Each had a task in setting up the camp and once completed, the sweat and bugs from the day were washed off. Ryder in a surprisingly civil mood, shared his batteries by turning on a classic rock playlist. Kendall almost felt normal. Scout brought out dry packed food, and each had a choice of pasta, Alfredo, Marinara or Pesto, and relatively fresh bread.

  After a full meal of carbs, the muscle soreness of the day and zapped energy from the heat coated Kendall like a can of spray paint. Ryder, after spending an hour with his flashlight, clearing out earth and shrubs from the limestone ruins, was the first to retire.

  No one discussed what happened earlier that morning; the something or someone being right outside their camp. As the light faded and the jungle noises filled her ears, Kendall couldn’t drive it from her mind. Fear crept into her thoughts. It could be locals living off the land, she convinced herself. She was relieved Enrique and Roberto were keeping watch tonight. They smiled as they headed to the back of the campsite, leaving Kendall and Scout alone.

  “Are you surprised to see the ruins?”

  He cocked his head. “There are ruins all through this land. There were so many Maya at one time it’s hard to imagine areas where they haven’t traveled and made their mark.”

  She was leaning comfortably against a large pack. “I wonder if there are more ruins by the cenote, maybe that’s what Tim wanted Ryder to see, a place the world doesn’t know about.” She could not get Tim off her mind. She studied Scout’s profile from the side. She appreciated his rugged good looks, his kind heart, and the sacrifice he was making for Tim’s birthday adventure for Ryder. She ached for a man’s touch, but deep inside her heart, without a doubt, she still belonged to Tim. She didn’t know how not to be his.

  “We are in a sacred and special place.” Scout placed his hand on top of Kendall’s. “I feel uncommonly lucky to be on this trip with you and Ryder, especially you.” She did not remove her hand. Where his skin touched her there was heat. Desire flowed through her like liquid. She sat in silence, trying to sort through her body’s reaction. A rustling, a quick movement on the other side of the fence interrupted her thoughts.

  Scout stood; Roberto and Enrique walked toward the dense trees and bushes that served as a natural perimeter.

  Roberto lifted his finger to his lips and Enrique stealthily squeezed through the opening with Roberto close behind. Scout motioned to her as if to say “stay” and walked over to the opening. In seconds, she was alone, focused on the spindly bushes and towering jungle trees and beyond. She held her breath and her body rigid, frozen in place, with her ear cocked in the direction of the fence listening. The jungle sounds became amplified—the chirping of the bugs, the humming of the locusts, even the buzzing of the insects. Her senses heightened. What did she think she was doing? She worked at a college, and here she was crippled with fear in a primitive jungle in the Yucatán.

  She let out a sigh of relief when they returned to the camp area. It had seemed they were gone for a long time, but in actuality, it had only been ten minutes.

  “Did you see anyone?” she whispered, trying to slow her heartbeat.

  Scout was standing next to her breathing heavily. “It was probably just an animal. In the dark we were unable to see any tracks; if someone’s out there, they’re gone now. Roberto and Enrique are going to take turns on watch tonight and then wake me up before dawn. It’s probably best if we all try to get some sleep, morning will be here before we know it.” Scout’s tenderness had faded; he was back to being guide leader.

  “Okay then, I’ll see you in the morning.” She pasted a smile on her face, clenching her hands together so he would not see them shaking.

  ****

  Kendall woke up with knots in her stomach. Ryder was still sleeping, so she crept quietly out of the tent.

  Nature was rising, the birds were singing against the buzz of insect noises creating an excited pulsing sound in the air. She tipped her head and looked straight up to the sky. Scout, Roberto, and Enrique were nowhere to be seen.

  Scout’s tent was unzipped and she tried to look inside to see whether she could catch him sleeping. Then a movement caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She froze in place, adrenaline pumping and stared into the thickness of the green jungle, trying to focus on what she heard or glimpsed.

  Nothing, and then she heard a crack behind her. She turned to see Scout, Enrique, and Roberto in the dense thicket of trees.

  “You’re up?” Scout walked toward her. “Did you sleep okay?”

  She smiled, inhaling a deep breath. “I’ve had better. What were you
guys doing?”

  Scout forced a half smile. “We were just checking the perimeter, and you know, taking care of business.”

  “So, did you see any animal tracks?”

  He hesitated. “We need to talk. Enrique and Roberto think someone has been following us, or watching us.” He paused. “I really don’t know what to conclude, but here are our options. Check out the cenote today, make tonight the last night of camp and haul it out of here as quick as we can first thing in the morning, or pack up and head back to the boat right now.”

  Her eyes widened, she gestured in agitation and demanded, “You are saying, just turn around now? We are less than three miles from the cenote and you just want to turn around now and head back because you think somebody’s watching us?”

  “That’s one option, and then the other would be we came this far, no one seems to be threatening us in any way, so we spend the day exploring and we can head back tomorrow morning.”

  Ryder walked up behind her. “Well, I didn’t come all this way, sweated, scratched and eaten alive…just to turn around and leave. My father wanted me to see the cenote; hell, it sounds like everyone wants to see it, I’m going to see it.” He marched toward his tent, adding loudly, “With or without you I’m doing some diving today.”

  It was settled. She didn’t know if she was alarmed or relieved. Just do it.

  Enrique would stay at camp, and Roberto would accompany them to the cenote.

  Chapter 57

  Wild organic beauty erased the panic Kendall carried in her chest from last night. The water, mixed in with the rich dark soil and the right measure of sun and moisture, created a surreal vision. A land so pristine, so abundant and displaying every color of green imaginable, shadowed by deep browns and taupe. The closer to their destination, the splendor of the land magnified. The sky reflected off the deep greens, appearing turquoise in contrast to the leaves. Spectacular.