Within the Dead Space

by Hutchens, Gary

  The boy rushed Chaco. Chaco jumped straight up off the ground and with the agility of a samurai crushed the boy’s head with a perfectly placed swing of the rebar.

  Quickly, he rifled through their pockets and took their money. This was not stealing but the spoils of war. He hurried off down the street. Chaco couldn’t figure out where these skills were coming from but he was thankful. One troubling aspect to it all was that in the middle of the battle he enjoyed it.

  Chapter 13

  Chaco used some of the money he had taken from the boys to buy a meal at an all-night diner. He had never been in a diner before and it proved to be a bit awkward for him. He had read about restaurants but this was the real thing. Later on he was able to find a rooming house for tres nuevo sol per day.

  He slept all day and into the next night when he awakened screaming, “Murderers! Kill them! Leave the graves alone. Leave the dead in peace.” Chaco was out of his mind. It took a while to for him to come back to his senses. The next morning it was a forgotten memory.

  ***

  “Do you go to school?” the woman at the front desk of the rooming house asked him.

  Chaco looked around to see who she was talking to. Nobody had ever asked him such a question.

  “I’m talking to you. The government will help pay,” she said. “Go to this office just down the street and talk to them. They have dormitories for kids without any parents.”

  “How did you know I don’t have any parents?”

  “Pretty obvious kid, look at you. You probably had to steal the money to pay for your room last night. Now get down there and get help.” She handed him a paper with an address and a map where the office was located.

  Chaco followed the map to the office. He was very reluctant to go in until he saw several other desolate looking kids enter. The room was large and very bright. There were several large signs in both Quechua and Spanish: Take a number. Take a seat and wait.

  He followed the instructions and got number 102. The sign said that they were helping number 71. An hour later his number was called.

  He went to a desk where an older lady sat. She was friendly and nice.

  “I’m Mrs. Berea. What’s your name?” she asked in Quechua.

  “My name is Chaco,” he answered in Quechua.

  “What is your last name?”

  “I don’t have one.”

  “Do you speak any Spanish?” she asked in Spanish.

  “Si.”

  She handed Chaco a paper with several sentences written on it. “Read these to me.”

  Chaco read it.

  “Good. You’re already a leap above most of these kids,” she said in Spanish.

  “Gracias.”

  “What grade are you in school?”

  “I’ve never been to school.”

  “Now that’s not good. What have you been doing? All of the kids are supposed to be going to school.”

  “There wasn’t any school where I lived.”

  “Where is that?”

  For some reason Chaco didn’t feel comfortable with telling her, so he lied. “I lived many miles out of Cuzco.”

  “That explains it. They haven’t made any effort in that area to provide education for the kids. Now I have a few tests for you to take before we can place you. Have you had anything to eat today?”

  “No.”

  “Go over there,” she pointed across the room, “and down the stairs where they will feed you. Come back to my desk right after you finish eating.”

  Chaco was starved and hurried away. He couldn’t believe that they would give him food. He gobbled down the food and then hurried back.

  “That was quick. Did you get enough to eat?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  “Follow me.”

  She placed him at the end of a long table by himself. All the kids were separated from each other.

  “Answer as many of the questions on these pages as you can. Don’t be concerned if you can’t answer the questions. We use this information to place you in the right grade at the school.”

  “I have never taken a test before. What do you do?”

  “This first part of the test is multiple choice. Read the question and then mark the circle on the side that is the best answer. On this part of the test, read the question and then write your answer below it. You have an hour. Understand?”

  “Yes.”

  She came and got the test an hour later and graded it immediately. It was a mess.

  “Chaco, you don’t seem to understand what a test is. We’ll probably place you in a lower class so you can catch up with the basics of education. Go over there and sit down. I’ll work on your placement and come and get you in a little bit. Over there is some reading material if you want.”

  Chaco looked through the material on the stand. One piece of literature jumped out at him. It was from the American International School in Peru. It was a contest paying twenty five dollars to whoever wrote the best essay describing how the Inca quipus works. “I know that,” exclaimed Chaco under his breath. He borrowed a pencil from the stand and began writing.

  An hour later, Mrs. Berea came to get him. “What are you doing there?”

  “It said that I could win twenty five dollars if I wrote the best essay about the quipus. Just one more second and I’m done.” He quickly finished up. “Do you know where I should send this?”

  “Let me see what you have written.” She was shocked, he had written the entire essay in English and the details and the diagrams were phenomenal. “How do you know this?”

  “I learned it years ago.”

  “Tell you what, go get some lunch and I will check into where we should send this.”

  “Thank you.”

  Mrs. Berea went to her desk and called the American International School in Lima. After a few minutes on the phone describing the essay, Professor Manuel deemed it necessary to come and talk to Chaco. Some of the details that Mrs. Berea explained to him were completely unknown to the educated world. The many uses of the quipus had never been ascertained and it sounded like an uneducated boy from Cuzco had all the answers.

  Chapter 14

  Professor Manuel arrived at the assistance center a short while later and read Chaco’s description of a quipus. He was shocked at the understanding and detail shown in the paper. He was excited to talk with Chaco.

  Mrs. Berea and Chaco waited in a side room for the professor. It was a great honor for her to have such a distinguished man coming to see them. In Peru, professors were at the top of the social order.

  The professor entered the room, “Mrs. Berea…..and this must be Chaco. Hi there, young man. I understand that you don’t have a last name. Is that correct?”

  “Yes.” Chaco felt intimidated by this man.

  “Where did you learn English?”

  “I taught myself.”

  “Really, pretty impressive. Do you also know Spanish and Quechua?”

  “Yes.”

  “We have a very talkative individual here, Mrs. Berea. Chaco, let’s get right to the point of why I’m here. I was very impressed with your knowledge of the quipus. Where did you learn so much about it?”

  “I don’t know. I just understand it.”

  The professor reached into his briefcase and brought out a quipus. “As you know Chaco, this was how the Inca sent secret messages across their entire empire. Only a few people could understand what the quipus was saying. We found this quipus in our diggings near Cuzco. We are still unable to decode the message that is written here.” The quipus had a main string that was about two feet long with several additional colored strings tied to it. Each of these strings had many knots tied in it. “Apparently the distance between knots and the color of the strings held the secrets to the messages. Can you understand the message that is written here?”

  “Yes,” Chaco responded.

  Professor Manuel became very excited. “Please, tell me what it says.”

  “It is a very
long message.” And Chaco began. “There has been a shortage of grain near Cuzco and Coyllas. The procurator is requesting an immediate shipment to be transferred within days to Cuzco.” Chaco examines another colored string. “There has been a death in the Inca family. A small boy named Savri Pascac.” Chaco read several other strings before the professor interrupted him.

  “I have never heard or seen anyone who could read the strings like this. I need you to put this in writing. Can you do it?”

  “Yes, it will take a few hours.”

  “Please, if you would, work on this the rest of the day and I will be back tomorrow morning at ten and we can go over it. Is that alright?”

  “Yes, I can do that.”

  “Mrs. Berea, you take extra care of this young man. We have someone very important here.”

  “I will, Professor. He will stay at my house tonight.”

  Chapter 15

  Chaco spent the rest of the afternoon writing a paper on the quipus. There were enormous details and he tried to write everything down except for one particular string. It dealt with moving a large amount of gold from Cuzco to a site near Lima. The new location was spelled out in explicit detail. This was the riches of his ancestors and he refused to tell Professor Manuel. Most of the information pertained to commerce. It took four sheets of paper, front and back, to write all of the information.

  The next morning Professor Manuel was on time. Chaco handed the professor the four sheets of paper.

  “You’ve written this in Quechua, and it’s a dialect I have never seen. Where did you learn this?”

  “I don’t know.”

  The professor looked closer at the language. “If I had to guess I would say that this is how Quechua was spoken hundreds of years ago. There are words in here that don’t even translate to Spanish. Are there more people near Cuzco like you?”

  “I think I am an orphan and many years ago I was left in a small village to take care of myself. I assume I must have already known Quechua then because I never learned it like I did English and Spanish.”

  “Later today could you translate this into Spanish?”

  “Yes, I will.”

  “For now, maybe you can read this to me and we will discuss it.”

  They discussed the information from the quipus in great detail.

  “Did you write down everything that was on the quipus?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right then. Mrs. Berea, tomorrow morning, I want you to bring Chaco to the American School at nine o’clock. Can you do that?”

  “I think so. If there is any problem I will call you later today.”

  “Thank you. I have to go now, and I’ll see you in the morning Chaco.”

  Chaco nodded his head as Professor Manuel walked away.

  With a second thought Chaco called out, “Professor Manuel, what about the twenty five dollars?”

  The professor laughed out loud. “You’ll get the twenty five dollars, don’t you worry.”

  Chaco had never had twenty five dollars before and was very excited. If he would have thought for a second, the gold that was referred to in the quipus was probably worth several million dollars.

  Mrs. Berea had Chaco at the school right on time. They were both amazed at the size and beauty of the school. Professor Manuel introduced Chaco to Dr. Ortiz who was the Cultural Minister of Peru and one of the leading experts on the Inca civilization.

  For the rest of the morning Chaco was questioned in depth about the quipus and his use of the Quechua language by both men.

  At the end of the discussion Chaco was caught off guard when Dr. Ortiz lifted up one of the strings on the quipus and said, “You don’t mention anything about where the gold is.”

  “What gold?” asked Chaco. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” Chaco knew that he was sounding like a liar.

  “We are pretty sure that this gold colored string usually references gold. Our analysis over the years is pretty solid on this. Tell me exactly what you think this string is saying.”

  Chaco was quickly getting his bearings about him and looked closely at the string and said, “You’re right. This string almost always references gold and in this case it is discussing gold, but only in a secondary manner. They are talking about how much gold would be required to pay for the workers to complete one of the roadways.”

  “I see,” responded Dr. Ortiz.

  Chaco was sent to the lunchroom while Professor Manuel and Dr. Ortiz continued their discussion.

  “I have no idea where this kid picked up the old Quechua language. I don’t think he really knows. His understanding of the quipus far exceeds all current knowledge. We can learn a lot from him,” said Dr. Ortiz.

  “I plan to keep him at the school. I’ll set up a program of study for him and we’ll see what we can learn,” Professor Manuel said.

  Dr. Ortiz’s met his driver at the front of the school. “Get Sanchez on the phone.”

  A few seconds later, “He’s on the phone, sir.”

  “Sanchez, we have the break we have been looking for. Meet me for lunch in an hour and line up another man for some afterhours work,” then he hung up the phone.

  That kid knows where the gold is, Ortiz thought to himself. We’ve been working on that quipus for months. He’ll either give it to us freely or we will beat it out of him.

  Chapter 16

  Later in the day, Professor Manuel was meeting with a delegation from the United States that represented Harvard University. The delegation had been in Peru for several months studying the Native American peoples who were direct descendants of the Inca when Chaco’s name was mentioned by Professor Manuel in regards to his language abilities. The professor showed them the four pages that Chaco had written in old Quechua. The Harvard professor examined the papers.

  “This is like taking a step back in time. I think this boy is using the secret language of the Inca elite. It is a dialect of Quechua that only the privileged knew. It hasn’t been spoken in hundreds of years,” the Harvard professor excitedly explained. “I have to meet him. Would you mind Professor Manuel?”

  “Of course, I’ll send for him. As you know he speaks Quechua, as well as Spanish and English that he taught himself. He hasn’t had any formal training and I just met him a couple of days ago. He just showed up in Lima and he is a complete mystery.”

  A short time later Chaco entered the room. Dr. Branston from Harvard greeted him in his native language. “Hello young man, it is nice to meet you.”

  Chaco responded back in Quechua, “Thank you, sir.” The conversation continued for a few minutes longer in Quechua.

  Dr. Branston turned to Professor Manuel and said, “I have studied this language for years and I have never heard the style and nuances that this boy uses with the language. The fact is, he uses words that I have never heard of. Words that must have fallen out of use hundreds of years ago. How is this possible? We’ll need to go to his home and talk with others in the area. We haven’t time on this trip but we will be back in two months’ time. Also, might I ask him a couple more questions?”

  “Please do.”

  “Chaco, do you know any of the history of the Inca people?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, tell me what you know about Pachacuti?”

  “I know a lot about Pachacuti. Do you want to know everything?”

  “Please, go ahead. We’ll stop you if we need to.”

  “Pachacuti was the Sapa Inca,” began Chaco speaking in Quechua.

  “Sorry son, can you speak in English?”

  “Yes sir. Pachacuti which means earth-shaker was the Sapa Inca, the paramount leader. He came to power in 1438.” Chaco started with a general history and then went into a day by day and then an hour by hour history of this man.

  Everybody was enthralled with what they were being told. The details were unbelievable. Only someone who was there could have such knowledge.

  He talked for two hours before Dr. Branston interrupted him. �
��I have never heard anything like this. Did you read it in a book?”

  “I must have. How else would I know it? There’s a lot more. Do you want me to continue?”

  “Not right now. We appreciate what you are telling us and I’m sure there will be many more conversations in the future. We will need to get everything written down. Thanks Chaco. You can take a break for now, if that is alright with Professor Manuel.”

  “Go ahead Chaco, they will be serving dinner downstairs in a little while.”

  After Chaco left the Harvard delegation and Professor Manuel all broke into robust conversations. The general consensus was that Chaco was a walking encyclopedia.

  In a lull in the conversation, Dr. Branston asked, “Aren’t you coming to Harvard in two weeks, Professor Manuel?”

  “Yes, I am. Why do you ask?”

  “What would you think about bringing Chaco with you? I am sure that I could get the funding to cover his costs. How long will you be up there?”

  “I’ll be in the states for three months, but I’ll only be in Boston for a couple of weeks. Could you provide lodging and a chaperon for him when I’m not there?”

  “I’m sure of it.”

  “We will need to go slow with him. Until a few days ago, this boy had never been in a city before. Yes, I’ll bring Chaco with me.”

  Chapter 17

  “Chaco, I’ve had discussions with Dr. Branston and he is very interested in having you come with me to the United States two weeks from now. Would you like to do that?”

  “Why?”

  “You sure get to the point quickly. You have shown a great knowledge of Inca history that few possess and he would like to have many more conversations with you.”

  “And you say that you will be going with me?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Okay, I will go.”

  “This will be a great experience for you, Chaco. We will be leaving in about two weeks. In a couple days I will send over one of my assistants to help you buy a few things that you will need. You will have lots of free time until we leave, and have a place to eat and sleep at the school.”