by Teya Tapler
She smiled and showing off her cropped top spread the letters around. Picking them one by one she checked the senders. “There’s a letter from the lawyers.” She posed with the envelope. “It’s like a work of art, isn’t it?” Amanda sounded and looked like a porcelain doll.
“Stop playing with the mail and tell me what else is in there!” Zull replied, taking a long drink from his cold beer. It was very hot and humid in the Mexican forest, and that wasn’t to his liking. With fair skin and ginger hair, Mort never felt the love of the sun, even on a cloudy winter day. Here, in addition to the almost instant sunburns, he had breathing problems too. The humid, sub-equatorial climate prevented the air circulation in his lungs and he constantly thought he would suffocate. How could his brother select that pathetic location for the fifth pearl? Why couldn’t it be somewhere closer to a casino or at least a five-star hotel with a swimming pool and bikini-clad waitresses?
Amanda talked while browsing through the mail. “If I read this handwriting correctly, you’ve a letter from the professor … then the usual advertising.… Oh and there’re two letters from the miss.” She grabbed one of Evan’s letters and sat on Zull’s lap. He was resting comfortably on a red, extra-strong folding chair.
Amanda tore the envelope and pulled the letter out, throwing the envelope on the floor. She started to read, “Blah, blah, blah … here it is … the Upper region of the Twisted River in Mexico. This is the location where they expect to discover the last of the pearls. Selected members of the local tribe were having the same dreams as people at the other locations…Blah, blah, blah … in their dreams they’re seeing a bright star appearing in front of them, then disappearing to leave behind an iridescent pearl covered with rainbow-colored sparkles. Everyone who’d try to touch it would be stunned by an electric charge. Until the rain.…”
“Albert and Agatha never discussed that with me,” Zull said angrily, pushing Amanda off his lap. “The rain here must be different from ours. It seems that it can change the chemical structure and the intention of the pearls.” He continued talking through the scientific problem, slowly lowering his voice until his conversation became entirely internal. Amanda knew not to disturb him until he stopped walking to and fro and looked at her. When that finally happened, she spoke to him, moving away to a safe distance.
“I haven’t heard that before, either, and I’m his administrative assistant.” She turned her lips in an upside-down smile, like a little kid about to start crying.
“Here! Start writing a response!” Zull ignored her grimace and threw a pen and paper on the table. He pushed one of the folding chairs closer to the table, looked at Amanda and nodded toward the chair.
“But it won’t be Kevin’s handwriting.” Amanda tried to decline.
“Just shut up and start writing!” Mort yelled at her and pointed at the chair. “It wasn’t his handwriting before, either.” He started dictating the letter to Evan. “Dear Evan. Comma. New line.”
Amanda hastily sat down, pulled her chair closer to the table and started writing. Her handwriting had thin and curvy letters as beautiful as she was.
Zull paused, then added pretty annoyed, “What took you so long?”
Amanda wrote down every word as Zull continued. “How long does it take to bring the maps from the car?”
“There were complications,” Kevin had just come in. He was wet all over and had a package in hand. His hair was dripping. His clothes were dripping. He had quickly made a small puddle in the place he was standing.
Amanda realized that Zull wasn’t talking to her anymore and stopped writing. She straightened the writing paper in a neat pile and, like a first-grader expecting anxiously the next task from the beloved teacher and looked at Mort.
“Those Anaconda guys are here.” Kevin headed to the third chair in the room, leaving small puddles like breadcrumbs along the way. “I saw one of them lurking around the pyramid.”
“Was he alone?” Zull asked.
“Yes,” Kevin said. He brushed off some of the water from his clothes and sat down.
Making sure that neither of the two men was looking at her, Amanda secretly pulled the small mirror from her back pocket and checked her makeup.
“Did you take care of him?” Zull asked again, hoping to hear the right answer. Even though Kevin was his biological son, Zull didn’t find him a suitable heir for his work and business. In his eyes, Kevin was disorganized, needed to be constantly told what to do, and was a total waste of space. Many times, like today, Zull wondered if he was Kevin’s real father.
“Yes,” Kevin replied. “He won’t be coming here anytime soon.”
“Did he recognize you?”
“No, he didn’t. I came from … behind and hit … him really … hard … on the head.… You should have … seen him rolling … down the pyramid.”
“I asked: did you take care of him?” Zull raised his voice again. He was looking for a simple yes or no answer, not for a description of the landscape.
“The-the animals d-dDId. I-I saw a few jaguars heading t-toward hHIm,” Kevin stuttered the lie.
“You did well, Kevin.” Even though the answer was long, it was to Zull’s liking. ”Now read me the latest letter from your sweetheart, Evan. She turned out to be quite an asset, didn’t she?” Zull handed Kevin the opened letter.
“Dear Kevin, your idea about writing to you every day was great. I feel like we are together, except that it takes you longer to respond. We’re still in the Upper region of the Twisted River in Mexico,” Kevin read carefully.
Making sure that neither of the two men was looking at her, Amanda pulled the small mirror out again.
“You can skip the lines about her feelings. I don’t care about that part. Just read me more about the dreams, and where they’ll be digging next,” Zull ordered. “The professor is highly secretive and avoids answering on the phone any questions related to the possible location of the pearl. The device my brother gave me cannot pinpoint the pearl from our hiding place. We are too far and the result is an area as big as the archeological camp itself.”
“Here it is,” Kevin traced the letter with his index finger then continued. “The only difference in the dreams is the location where the pearls showed up, the time of day, and the season. The rest is the same. No one could touch it until it got wet and then the elders hid it. I’ll skip this part,” Kevin kept on tracing the letter with his index finger.” H-hm.… Okay, here’s some more.… “These are some of the clues pointing to the correct location of the last pearl. Actually, my parents are not sure whether there are more pearls or not.” I’ve got to skip some more.… “But because they had found one pearl in Europe, one in Asia, one in Australia and one in Africa, it made sense that the last one should be found on one of the Americas, as there are only five inhabited continents.” H-hm.… That’s not it…. Oh, yes, here.… “We’re digging the red mound tomorrow. That’s the so-called sanctuary, and my dad thinks that the pearl’s there.”
“Good! They’re getting close to discovering the bloody pearl! Our wait will be over soon!” Zull was content again.
They all heard the thunder but because the room was so deep inside the pyramid they ignored it. It was impossible for the outside rain to penetrate there. The storm was not bothering them in the slightest.
Then they all felt the room tremble as though from an earthquake. The chairs wobbled, and one of the empty beer cans fell off the table. Everyone started searching for the reason behind the tremors and thuds. The sound became louder and then it started raining from the ceiling close to one of the walls. First one drop then another came through a tiny opening. Then the drops became a thin stream as the opening grew. The sound grew louder and louder. It resembled a stampede and, at the height of it, one of the blocks on the ceiling fell in and water gushed into the room. Amanda screamed and ran toward the opposite wall even though the door was in a different direction. Kevin only lifted his feet up, while Zull went closer to the waterfall to investigate.
; The water stopped as abruptly as it had started. The dry and dusty floor soaked it up fast, and now there was a huge, muddy spot on the ground. Zull pulled a flashlight out of his back pocket and looked up into the opening. Its insides resembled a pipe. Mort smiled. He imagined the guys from the Anaconda team lurking inside the pyramid, triggering by accident one of its many traps and then being drowned. His smile widened, resembling a crocodile before eating its lunch. Mort was happy. There was no need to investigate where that tunnel came from or led to. The flooding might have solved all problems. He looked back at Amanda and said, “Let’s continue with the response. Where were we? Read me the last sentence.”
Amanda looked at her writing, read it to herself and scratched out the last two sentences. Then she read aloud what was left. “Dear Evan comma new line.”
“Perfect! Now, write this down. I miss you very, very much. My days are lonely.…” Zull’s good mood showed through the words he was dictating.
Kevin rolled his eyes and went to sleep on the camping bed while Zull composed a phony heartfelt response to Evan’s sincere letter.
Chapter 12
It was another sunny day with a perfect blue sky. Here on the Mexican dig, everyone was busy doing their small part, contributing to the most important archeological excavation of the century. Evan woke up late and headed to the food area. She was wearing her now-favorite T-shirt with the big smiley face. It best represented the irony of her situation: having to put up with something while longing for something else and keeping up the appearances for the sake of not entirely losing her freedom.
Evan had recently started to use her left foot again. Her ankle had recovered from the injury and was no longer swollen or hurting her. Initially she spent a few days keeping it up on a chair, then two weeks walking around with crutches. Now, wearing both her shoes, she skipped like a little girl after every other step. It felt nice to be fully functional again. The sun was up, the birds were singing. It was going to be another hot and sweaty day at the dig.
The silhouettes of Mr. Mort and her father caught her eye in the distance. It was the first time Mr. Mort was visiting the dig. He would usually call in the middle of the night and yell over the phone, now those two were actively talking: waving their hands, trying to get their points across. Evan had seen them like that many times, especially when her father was charting the location of the next expedition. To her it seemed that was how they best worked with each other and talked about money. Mort was sponsoring her father the way her father was giving her the weekly allowance money. She wondered for a second whether her father’s allowance from Mr. Mort had changed during the years. Hers was still only five dollars a week, the same amount from few years ago. When she asked for a raise, her father simply told her to get a job, and she had to start bagging groceries in the supermarket three times a week.
Oh, money for this, money for that, no wonder people get crazy when they talk about money. She stopped and looked back at Mr. Mort. Kevin should be around. The two of them spent that time of the summer together.
Her eyes darted across the area. People were leaning over the artifacts, carefully dusting them off, or were sifting the dirt from the excavation with the hope for more discoveries. Evan quickly scanned the area for the Kevin’s signature haircut. It shouldn’t be hard to find his blond head but all she saw were the gray or green hats of the people at the dig. Nothing else. Her heart sank and she dragged her feet to the food tent.
Evan poured some coffee into one of the mugs and added cream and sugar substitute. Slowly sipping from the reviving liquid she sat at one of the tables and fell into her thoughts. Her eyes browsed around the camp. Some people were packaging artifacts; others were arranging them in transportation crates. Some were pushing wheelbarrows and emptying them in the special area where another group was carefully sifting the dirt and picking out the smaller findings. When her eyes reached the area with the sleeping tents, she saw Allie and her mother. Allie was not letting her mother comb her hair. That wasn’t interesting, either. It had been Allie's routine for the last few years. First she wanted to wear her hair long and free like a fairy-tale princess. Now she didn't want braids or a ponytail because her favorite pop star didn't have those either. Evan smiled happy to watch the scene from afar. She moved her eyes further to the left. There was nothing there except the rain forest and she had seen it already: it was her 58th day in the middle of nowhere.
“You ready, girl?” She heard her father’s voice from her right.
“Yes, Dad. What’s my task for today?” Evan said. Ever since they’d grounded her, her free days were over and she was given a specific task every single day. She was still using the crutches when she had spent a few days sifting the dirt. There she broke the nail on her left ring finger. When she got better and was allowed to walk without support, she spent a day shoveling, where she broke two nails on her right hand. That pleasure was followed by a day of careful dusting and even a day pushing a wheel barrow. Evan was sore for three days after that but didn’t complain. Being able to secretly write to Kevin after her parents fell asleep was keeping her happy. She was still exchanging letters with him via the Mort Enterprises internal mail.
“We just found an opening at the wall of the sanctuary,” her father pointed to the red mound in the distance. “The team is measuring the oxygen level in the underground area and then we will go in. I want you and Allie to come with us. I think this is our big moment.”
“Hi, sis.” Allie sat at the other side of the table and flashed a golden bracelet in front of her sister. “Look what I’ve go-ot.” Her hair was loose—she had won the morning fight. Evan looked at the bracelet. It reminded her of one of the artifacts she had cleaned the other day.
“Give that to me! Quickly!” Their father tried grabbing the bracelet from Allie. “I was looking for that. It’s one of our most important findings. As expected, we’ve discovered an ancient burial ground.” Professor Shtuttgart started divulging the details around the bracelet’s discovery.
Nice, let’s see if Allie could get in trouble now and be grounded. There’s no more room in my parents’ tent, so I’ll have to leave. Evan hoped.
“Allie! Listen to your father!” Their mother stood behind Allie who had no choice but to comply. She reluctantly took off the golden bracelet, gave it to their father and grinned. He smiled back to her.
Bummer! Evan thought.
“I came to tell you that we have the all clear and can go in at any time,” Agatha Shtuttgart said, looking at her husband. “Oxygen masks will not be needed. Flashlights, cameras, artifact collection bags and gloves are waiting for us.”
“Let’s go, girls!” Evan’s father was so happy to share this moment with his family that he was almost jumping of joy as he left. Allie was excited, too. Being 12 made the whole world exciting. She followed her parents, skipping from foot to foot.
Evan stood up slowly and lugged herself after them. It was going to be another exciting day on the dig. Oh, how she hated being dirty and sweaty.
When she reached the opening, her father and sister were already in.
“Allie was too excited,” her mother said. “Here, these are yours.” She gave Evan her share of items to carry inside. “If the light goes off, crank the flashlight like that for a while and it will light up again.” She showed Evan how to use the no-battery-required torch then went into the opening.
Evan looked around and put on the vinyl gloves.
Good-bye sunshine! After the pyramid adventure, she wasn’t feeling too comfortable in tight and dark spaces like the one in front of her. She looked up then bent her head to go in moving closer to peek inside. Her parents and sister were walking around a big room, moving their torches from left to right. It was hard to distinguish anything else from that distance.
“Careful miss! There’s a ladder,” the guy at the opening warned her.
She saw the ladder, put a piece of chewing gum in her mouth and carefully went down the stairs into the big, b
ig room.
“H-i-i!” Evan said when she reached the floor. The room responded, “Hi, hi, hi.”
“You really are a Shtuttgart.” Her mother smiled. “Both of them did the same thing.” She pointed to Allie and the professor.
“Whatever!” Evan said. She twirled on her heels and moved away, showing off her bad mood. Upset that her sister didn’t get grounded and annoyed by her father’s request to explore the space. Coming down here was a good way to keep her parents off her back for the rest of the day: she was with them, wasn’t she. It didn't mean that she had to talk to them. Being in the same room should suffice.
Evan walked slowly: chewing her gum, popping bubbles one after another, her flashlight making round spots on the floor and the walls. She started to move the torch from left to right and up and down to see bigger sections. It was impossible to tell what the room had been used for. It was even impossible to tell if it had always been one room or whether it had been a room at all. There were stones that looked like pieces of pillars and stones from various shapes, sizes, and colors all around her.
Evan moved slowly, leaving flower-covered footprints in the dirt. She had black sneakers with sole markings that resembled flowers. Throwing out, with heavy heart, her favorite pink tennis shoes after the pyramid adventure, was turning out to be a good decision. Those sneakers were more comfortable for the unpredictable terrain here at the dig and their black color made them somewhat stain resistant. Simply dusting them at the end of the day was enough to make them look good.
Away from the burning sun and the sweaty work, Evan lost track of time. She was now in another room. Walking and thinking of her life, she didn’t remember seeing any doorways or arches; she didn’t realize how far she had gone from her family.
Today was day 58 since she last saw Kevin and that felt like an eternity. An eternity during which she was happy being with her family, and yet she wasn’t. No one understood her. Her parents drove her crazy and her sister was too perky and too annoying. Everyone else at the dig was too dry and had different interests than her.