There were few enslaved Taínos still alive. Those who had married soldiers or settlers, like Guey, had taken a different path to survive, and it shook me to the bone to see this young girl so willing to throw herself to her death.
Rafael's legs were capable of taking longer strides than hers and I shouted, "Yes! Yes!" over and over again as he managed to touch her shoulder just as she skidded across the first slippery rock.
"Wu'a!" He shouted. "No! Don't do this. Datiao. I'm your friend."
The girl's feet wiped out under her, and Rafael himself lost his footing as he grabbed her arm. They crashed hard onto the unforgiving surface. Hearing the thud, I sprinted forward. They were sliding toward the writhing waters and the rocks that were sure to grind them to pieces. Although the girl had been so willing to die just seconds ago, her feet were now equally as busy as Rafael's in trying to find something against which to break their slide.
My next move was an utterly un-thought out panic reaction at seeing Rafael and the girl so close to death. I hurled myself forward, across a branch I couldn't possibly bend with something other than my entire being. It groaned toward their heads and as I hoped, Rafael managed to swing his free arm upward, entangling it enough to halt their descend into the hungry foam. He grimaced from the pain of the sudden jerk and for a moment, none of us moved. The girl clung to his side, his arm wrapped underneath and around her. I remained perfectly still.
"Up," he finally huffed, motioning with his head for the girl to crawl over him to safer ground. She hesitated.
"Han," he encouraged her. "Yes. You can do this."
At last she got enough courage to move her bare feet up Rafael's leg and side, her fingers spreading around the narrowest parts of the wet rocks.
"Han-han," he said. "Yes, like that."
His straining pained me, and I wished I could be more useful than just lying motionless across a branch. But I remained in this position until Rafael managed to crawl back to safety as well. Free of the weight that hung on it, I slowly let the branch rise back to its natural position.
Back on the soft jungle bottom, Rafael scooped the girl into his arms, stroking her disheveled hair while reassuring her that he was a friend. He pulled her face up to look at him, repeating that he too was Taíno.
She was exhausted. Not just from the near plunge into the water, but also from running from the Spaniard and his monstrous dog. Rafael was still breathing heavily as she sank wordless against his chest. I rounded up the horse, then sat by his side.
"You saved her life," I whispered. "I've never seen anyone so scared before. So ready to die." I shuddered at the thought.
"She can't be more than 16 years old," I said. I refused to finish the thought of what the soldier might have done to her, had he captured her.
"We should get going," Rafael said and I couldn't have agreed more.
"I know you probably won't believe this, coming from my mouth," I said, "but I really want us to track down Juan Luis. To make sure he's okay."
"Let's go find Juan Luis, my friend." Rafael said, seconding my feelings. "Our friend. He saved you from the dog," he said to the girl. "You'll like him," he added with a smile. "He's pretty crazy."
He lifted her onto his horse and she watched him from sad eyes. "Daca taíno." The words came pleading and Rafael swallowed hard.
"Yes," he said, nodding. "You are good."
"Na neke?"
"Why you?" Rafael shrugged. "I don't know. Ita'."
Focusing her view on the path we had beaten through the forest, she frowned. "Anki," she said, shivering.
Rafael nodded, mounting the horse so he sat in front of her. "Han," he agreed. "Yes, that was a bad person. But you're safe now. He can't harm you anymore." He reached back and gently placed her hands around his mid-section.
I took my place behind her, leaning protectively over her narrow body.
She placed her head against Rafael's back. "Manicato."
I smiled. "She's right," I agreed. "You are a person with a good heart." I doubted he heard me over the rumbling of the waterfall, but it didn't really matter. I was just relieved that they both were unharmed.
Anacaona was a big name for the young girl, but when Rafael asked what she was called, she beamed with great pride as she told him. No doubt her family had told her that she was named after the most beautiful Taína leader in the Caribbean, a woman who'd ruled with more than 80 leaders under her in Santo Domingo. Although in the end Anacaona was turned in by a Spanish "friend" and hung, she was a great warrior leader, and I could easily see her defiant spirit alive and well in this young girl.
We carefully avoided returning all the way to the spot where Juan Luis's horse had trampled the blood-thirsty Bullmastiff to death, veering instead to the west before resuming our northbound route toward San Juan.
Anacaona eagerly devoured the few remaining pieces of dried meat and bread Rafael's horse carried in a small sack and other than a short break near a spring to refill the water pouch, we kept on moving. I don't think Anacaona was aware that we weren't just arbitrarily riding at a gentle pace through the wilderness. Both Rafael and I kept our eyes on the ground, following the tufts of kicked-up dirt left behind by the soldier's and Juan Luis's horses. Only as dusk was pushing out the light of day did I give up staring at the ground with Rafael. I knew he was still able to follow the hoof prints and after what appeared to be just a brief stop to stretch, I noticed that the ground was no longer marred by competing marks, but had reverted to the imprinted steps of only one horse. I should have been able to recognize if they were from Juan Luis's horse, as many times as we had ridden behind him. But I simply trusted Rafael to identify them as though they were breadcrumbs left by his friend to show us where to catch up with him.
The gentle rocking and impending darkness lulled me into a thought-free trance and when Rafael brought the horse to a halt, I almost slid off. With a yell, my arms reached forward.
Chapter 17
My left hand wrapped securely around a slender arm, the other reached into empty space. I pulled back, my eyes flying wide open. Santiago twitched at my grasp, and I relaxed my grip so as not to wake him. Once he recurled into his sleeping position, warm feet pressed against my leg, I found myself staring at the darkness of night which engulfed the room. It was past the pitch black point, hovering in the deep charcoal of maybe three or four in the morning. I scooted into a seated position to get a look at the clock by Santiago's side, but instead noticed that the sofa beyond it was empty.
Tee's silhouette materialized by the table. My heart thumped nervously. No doubt he must've seen me slip back into the present, grabbing his son. Although faint illumination from the walkway light shone through the curtain Tee had pushed apart, I was grateful it didn't reach all the way to the bed and he wasn't able to see the darkening of my cheeks. He didn't move, but I felt his eyes on me, saw his chest rise and fall rhythmically. His torso was bare, shimmering in the lamplight the way Rafael's did under the island moon. One arm hung loosely over Tee's propped up leg, but it was the other that caused my chest to tighten. It was wrapped around my notebook. My open notebook. Which I most certainly hadn't left lying out. I kept my breathing soundless, staring silently as if confronted with a dangerous animal that might react unpredictably if I moved so much as one muscle. Ever so slowly, Tee turned his head, tilted a page of my notes toward the sliver of light.
"You drew my bracelet." He spoke low and steady, like the slow pacing around prey, sizing up the enemy. An enemy with ridiculously-sweaty palms and a heartbeat like a bouncing ping pong ball. Not to mention a lump clogging my windpipe as he looked at me again when speaking. "You drew this before the exhibit."
"I…I had seen it once before," I replied lamely. Lying wasn't my strong suit when I was fully awake and clearly thinking. It was next to impossible when being questioned by Rafael's voice in the middle of the night. His face didn't have to be fully visible for me to know that his jaw was tight, the nostrils flared and the blacken
ed pools of his eyes full of doubt.
"Where?" Tee demanded.
"You yourself said it was an old family design," I said, grasping.
"Which hasn't been replicated in a very long time. And no photos were taken of it after I made it little over a week ago, so where did you supposedly see it?"
How could he be thinking so clearly at this time of night? He must have been awake for quite some time, pondering the issue. Had he even slept? Or just waited until I drifted off into Rafael's world and then gotten busy in ransacking my things?
"Answer my question." The voice was all Tee.
"I dreamed about it, alright?" I blurted out, hoping he wouldn't open the curtain any further or flip the light switch. There was no way I would be able to speak to him if I could see him clearly. His shadowy outline, even if now bent like a panther about to pounce, still had a certain familiarity to it that managed to comfort me while the more rational part of my brain understood it was the same figure that felt threatened by me.
"It happens sometimes," I added, understating the facts. "I dream of … things that exist. Or have existed. Believe me, I didn't expect to be seeing the bracelet the very next day at the exhibit."
Tee slowly sank back into the chair. The prey perhaps not completely free to escape, but in a better position to avoid being harmed.
"What about my father?" he asked.
"What about him?"
Tee lifted the page of my notebook into the light. "Julián Jagua Guardán Loreto," he read. "Born in 1936, died in 2005. You're not going to tell me you happened to dream his name and birth and death dates perfectly, are you?"
I shook my head. "No." Gnawing on my lip, not quite sure how to explain my way out of this one. "It's. His name. Jagua. I was surprised to find it when I happened to be walking around the cemetery. I found it a few times. You can check the entries. I wrote the other names and dates down as well."
I watched him expectantly, but he made no attempt to review the page. Probably had already studied it long and hard and knew that there were two more name entries. Too far back perhaps for him to care.
"It's a name that runs in my family," he said.
Okay. So he did know. "It's unusual," is the best I could think of to say.
There was a humorless laugh. "Is that why you are hounding my family? You have a thing for unusual names?"
"I'm not hounding your family," I shot back. It was a painful word, hounding. Making the love I carried with me for so many decades sound like a bad, evil thing. I had never pursued anyone until this trip. On the contrary. Rafael had been part of my life, had occupied my dreams and my nights. If anyone needed to apologize for anything, it might as well be Tee on behalf of his spitting image ancestor, who thanks to handing down his genes now was messing with my waking hours as well. "The name…popped around in a few dreams," I continued. "It was intriguing enough that I remembered it when I saw it on a few headstones in San Juan. I jot down notes about all kinds of things. This just happened to be one of them."
"You dream a lot about Puerto Rico then?" Tee sounded irritated and sarcastic, and I felt my back stiffen. "How exactly was the hurricane of October 4th, 1526? Is that when you saw my bracelet? You drew it right under that note."
I hated Tee at this moment. Hated that he had gone through my notes and invaded space that was mine and Rafael's. "The hurricane sucked," I hissed. "Killed a lot of people and livestock and flattened a good part of San Juan, which by the way, wasn't even known as San Juan yet. It was still called Puerto Rico. Feel free to look it up online sometime." I ignored his question about the bracelet.
"Who's Rafael?"
My heart stopped. I stared at Tee with lips pressed together.
"You wrote his name rather dramatically by the date of the exhibit," Tee said. "If you're not working with Valentín, mind enlightening me who this is?"
I couldn't help but let out a laugh. It was like puncturing a wound to alleviate the pressure. "You think I am working with Rafael to kidnap your son and ask you for your jewelry in return?"
"Tell me I'm wrong."
"You're wrong," I replied without hesitation. "You couldn't be any more mistaken." I wanted to say that Rafael had nothing to do with any of this, but I couldn't. Of course he had everything to do with it. He was the reason I was here. Just like he had been the reason I was in the hurricane of 1526, and in a jail cell in El Morro before the gigantic fort was ever built and in the rainforest and on the trail leading to a yucca plantation near Utuado.
"Rafael is a generous, kind man," I said instead. "He'd give his life for his friends. His hands are steady and strong and create beautiful things. They don't kidnap or attack or hurt anyone." And yes, they did design the bracelet you so beautifully recreated. The one that makes me feel as though it had been made just for me. I clamped my mouth shut, willing the words to only rumble around in my head. "Don't worry," I added softly. "You have nothing to fear from Rafael. He's too far away to do anything anyhow."
I gasped as Tee tore the pages from my notebook, sinking them deep into the pocket of the pants he'd draped over the edge of the couch to which he now returned.
"He doesn't seem to be as far away as you'd like me to believe," Tee said. "You cried out his name when you grabbed Santi's arm."
I didn't dare breathe, staring at Tee's outstretched body. "It was just a dream," I muttered.
"You don't find it strange that your dreams seem to be connected to one another?"
The question came out so gently that I wondered if Tee considered me a lunatic to be pitied or a danger that needed to be soothed.
"I hadn't given it much thought," I answered, surprised that my suddenly keen sense of self-preservation made it easier than expected to utter a full-blown lie rather casually.
Tee let out a soft laugh. "Yeah, right."
"You don't believe me?"
"No, I don't." Tee turned to face me, propped his head on his arm so he could look at me over Santiago's sleeping body. "You're a lousy liar, Melissa."
The sound of my name being carried on Rafael's voice sent a chill down my spine. "So you don't believe any of what I said?"
"I believe the parts that I think are true," Tee answered. "You said what you wanted from me was trust. It's hard to give you that when you hold back so much."
He returned to lying on his back, but I continued to stare in his direction, wondering what he thought was true and what wasn't of what I had told him. And before I could fully contemplate how he would take what I would say, I found myself speaking into the silence. "The bracelet took my breath away the first time I saw it. You recreated it perfectly. You should be very proud of it." I knew Rafael would be.
Tee didn't answer, but I knew he heard me. I curled my body around Santiago, his small hand wrapping itself around two of my fingers. I worried that the approaching morning might keep me awake, but somewhere in the middle of replaying my conversation with Tee, my mind let me rest peacefully for a few more hours.
Chapter 18
I was alone when I woke up. A quick scan of the room showed all of Santiago's things still on the table, along with my violated notebook. I slipped on the robe, opened the door to the smell of forest and sunshine and to the laughter of father and son splashing around in the pool. If I weren't aware of our situation, I would have thought I was truly just witnessing a vacation scene. Tee threw Santiago over his shoulder into the water behind him, noticing me as he looked up.
"Oye, m' hijo." Easily wrapping his arm around the squiggly boy and lifting him into the air. "Time to get dressed, we have to get going."
"Sorry," I apologized as they came up the stairs, "I didn't mean to interrupt your time in the pool."
"Buenos, Mel," Santiago chimed. "Papi, I can dry my underwear myself. Mel showed me how." Without waiting for a reply, he darted past us into the bathroom.
"That's great," Tee shouted after him. He shook the water out of his hair, smoothing it with his hands and fastening the trapped curls at the nape
of his neck. I wished he wouldn't have. It made him look more like Rafael. That always messed with my concentration and to keep a clear head, I had decided to focus on their differences as much as possible.
"No need to apologize," Tee said. "We had plenty of time." He slipped on his T-shirt without drying off. "Thanks by the way."
I smirked. "What? For telling you things that sound mildly insane in the middle of the night?"
He contemplated me, his mouth bending upward, crooked. "For making sure my son got through this as normal as possible so far. That's not easy. I know."
"Does this mean you finally trust me?"
His burst of laughter caught me off guard. "After the highly aloof explanations you gave me last night? To be honest, I don't know what to make of you." The laugh lines on Tee's face smoothed out again. He reached for my phone, programming a number. "I do know that for whatever reason, my son feels safe with you. If anything happens to me, promise me you will contact my mother and make sure she gets Santiago." He handed me the phone, but I hesitated to take it.
"Nothing will happen to you," I said. Stubborn refusal to accept even the possibility.
"Take the phone. Please."
The seriousness in his eyes scared the living daylights out of me. "Nothing can happen to you," I said again. "How would I ever explain to Santiago...?" I swallowed hard.
Tee smiled weakly. "If anyone can, it's probably you. You're Wonder Woman, remember?"
I shook my head, staring at his still-outstretched hand. My fingers were cold when I finally wrapped them around the phone, hanging on to it as tightly as a drowning man to a piece of plank. Without another word Tee went into the bathroom to help Santiago get showered and dressed.
I sat down at the edge of the bed. There was only one other time when I had felt the way I did right now. It had been at night, and reliving the emotion while fully awake sent my body into a trembling I was incapable of stopping. Rafael had lifted the veil off Luz's face, leaned in and kissed her as they were declared husband and wife. Their brightest moment had been my darkest, and the word unbearable had taken on new meaning for me that day.
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