“Drink this,” said Patli, handing me a mug of iztāc-octli. “Smoke this,” he added, giving me a joint of k’uutz. “This one is very strong, but you need it. It is used only by the Chilans.” I leaned back against the pole, sipping from the mug and smoking the k’uutz. Think only of winning the game. Think only of winning the game.
I sat alone for a while, Patli refilling my mug as soon as I emptied it. He did not bring any more k’uutz and I didn’t ask for any. The trumpeting of the töts announced the beginning of the festivities and, immediately, music came to me from many areas as ah’-cuabs began playing ch’aw-baqs, la’j-tuns, nim-tums, and sochs. Then began the shouts, hoots, the blare of the töts and the war whoops, not in war, but in celebration. After a while Yochi and Zyanya came and sat beside me. Yochi reached and I handed him my mug. He drank and passed it on to Zyanya. Patli brought two more mugs, but we refused them and kept on drinking from the one mug. Patli constantly refilled it and we drank almost continuously.
“Are you going to the festivities?” asked Yochi. “The Warriors are waiting for you.”
“I don’t think I will, Yochi. I’ll just stay here and get drunk. I think I’m already fokin drunk,” I chuckled.
“I think you are, Chiac.” He laughed. “Well, Zyanya and I will go,” he said, getting up. “We will drink and eat your share with them. See you when Kinich Ahau blesses us with his presence, once again.”
I got up and staggered towards one of the baths that had been prepared for me, thinking it was cold. It wasn’t. Patli had kept it warm. There were no torches and I sank myself into the water, submerging my whole body, feeling immediate relief in the darkness. I closed my eyes, savoring the feeling, the iztāc-octli, the k’uutz, and the bath, pushing away all the bad memories that constantly tormented me. Then I felt small hands putting oil in my hair. The hands began rubbing down my body with herbs, feeling every tired muscle. She pulled me and I stood, as she continued rubbing me down, and as she rubbed my hardened Tóolok, I felt that I was going to come right then, but she moved away and continued down my legs. Then she pulled my hand and I stepped out of the water and she led me to a mat and as I brought my body over hers, I felt Tóolok searching for her. I felt him find her and as he started to enter her, I felt the resistance I had felt at the Hidden Valley Falls. I hesitated, but she tightened her hold on me. I heard her give a cry as Tóolok plunged into her, then she hugged me tightly with her legs, whispering in my ear, “Yes, I have flowered already. It is like my taat told you.” Then I knew that it was Coszcatl, Zyanya’s young daughter, and for a very brief moment I reflected that she was just about fourteen or fifteen. But then I was in a different land, a different place, and that was the Way of the Warrior.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
A
SMILE AT LAST
K’iin 38 - The Uinal of Mol
Wednesday, June 6, 1973
When I awoke, the morning was already bright. I closed my eyes, quickly, as it seemed that Kinich Ahau was specifically sending long bate’s of painful light into my head. I pulled myself up and saw Patli sitting in a corner. I made my way over to the tub, hoping for a cold bath to help revive me and get rid of my disorientation, but Patli had already prepared a warm one. Somewhat disappointed, I sank into it, submerging myself to the bottom, staying there as long as I could. Then I remembered how I had survived the passage from Xibalba to the Ja’ Xakanul, and my still clouded mind began to fall asleep responding to the phrase, ‘You must be like the áayin as it sleeps in the chokoh’. Patli’s hands grabbed me, pulling my head out of the water. I recollected another pair of hands, young and delicate hands. Fok! Fok! Fok!” I jumped out of the tub, splashing water all over Patli. “Fok! Fok! Fok!” I shouted. My headache was gone. I stormed up and down. “Fok! Fok! Fok!”
Patli handed me a piece of cloth to dry, looking bewildered, holding a loincloth already stained black. I held my head. What the fok have I done? I wanted to hold out! I tried to hold out! And with Zyanya’s young daughter. She said she did have her … flowering. But Molly! “Fok! Fok! Fok!” Zyanya will cut off my balls. I held on to Tóolok.
Patli walked over to the mat and started rolling it. “What are you doing, Patli?”
“I’m rolling up the mat”
“And why?”
He looked puzzled. He pointed to the blood stain. “The mat carries the blood of her Nabe Patzoj.536 It is to be given to her parents for use in ceremonies later.”
I glared at Patli, actually moving my head and upper torso forward, towards him. I saw he was becoming uncomfortable. “Give me the fokin mat.” He hesitated a little, but gave it to me. “I took it over to the bath and promptly dropped it in. Don’t tell anyone about this.”
“Don’t tell anyone?”
“Yes! Don’t tell anyone. Not one fokin person!”
He frowned. “But Nabe Nacon. Everyone knows.”
“What the fok do you mean, ‘Everyone knows’.
“Nabe Nimal Nacon Huehue, Ukab Nimal Nacon Teul, and Warrior Xipilli were here in the shed, in the shadows. They were able to confirm that you chakuj-tutuchci. All the Q’eq Warriors of the Raax Ch’ayom Puag have been drinking chukwa’ in celebration of your chakuj-tutuchci. It is the first time you have shown your Warriors that you are a true Warrior. And for it to be Nabe Patzoj! They are not training today. Ukab Nacon Yochi has declared a Chakuj Tutuchci Nima-q’ij537 so that the Warriors can drink as much as they want and do not hurt themselves in training. All the Warriors of Ox Witz Ha are happy and are celebrating.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I raised my hands and shook them. “Give me my loincloth.” He went to the table and brought it. “I will kill those madafokas!”
“Do you …”
“No!” I grunted, loudly. “I’ll do it myself.” Patli looked confused. I glared at him, didn’t know what to say. I wrapped my loincloth around me and took off sprinting as fast as I could go towards the Caana, trying to keep the sun out of my eyes as my head exploded with each step I took. As I rushed to Molly’s room, the Nim-q’ij Guards moved aside and I stepped in. “Lady Batz’ Ek’,” I said, quietly, and nodded my head. I looked across at Molly. She was sitting up, looking away from me.
“I have been told that your training games yesterday were the most spectacular seen on the training grounds of Ox Witz Ha,” said Lady Batz’ Ek’.
Oh fok! “They were intense, My Lady. It is the intensity one has to endure for one to be a Q’eq Warrior of the Raax Ch’ayom Puag.”
She nodded. “I am also told that Ukab Nacon Yochi has declared today a nima-q’ij for all Warriors. And why is that, Ke’kchi? And why is your loincloth just wrapped around you like a short úúk.”
I closed my eyes. Fok! Fok! Fok! What the fok is she up to? And Molly is right here. I looked at Lady Batz’ Ek’ and from a tiny smile at the corner of her mouth I suddenly relaxed, feeling certain that she was teasing me. But she was Lady Batz’ Ek’ and I had been warned about her anger. Perhaps she was gaming me. Choj’s voice came to me, Think only of winning the game. “It is the Way of the Warrior,” I said, without hesitation. She lifted her eyebrows.
“Then that’s that, Nabe Nacon!” She nodded. “Ah-k’inob Coatl says that Xch’úup Xma’ K’aaba’ had a good night and he feels that we may try to give her the Raax Ch’ayom Puag once again. He wants you to do it.”
I looked towards Molly. Coatl stretched out his hand, giving me the Raax Ch’ayom Puag suspended on a leather cord. The priests and the children started to chant and I raised my hand. They stopped, immediately. I walked around to where Molly sat and, as I stood there, she looked up at me. I was ready for the sick smile she had given me the day before, but it was not there. There was just calmness. I kneeled before her and slowly lifted the Raax Ch’ayom Puag toward her. She opened her eyes wide and started to inch her way backward, replacing the calm that was on her face with anxiety and fear. “It’s me, Molly,” I said. “It’s Eutimio. She sto
pped, furrowing her forehead. “It’s me, Molly. It’s Stephen. I’ve come to take you home.” She knitted her forehead. I slowly raised the Raax Ch’ayom Puag again. She didn’t move away, but stared fearfully at it. “It is the symbol of Ix Na Li Kawa … Mother of God,” I said. I heard one of the children cry out and a commotion behind me. One of the Nim-q’ij Guards come in hurriedly and took out the unconscious child, followed by a priest. Another child collapsed.
“Mahanamtz’ enchantments are still with us,” warned Coatl, fearfully. “He will kill us all.”
“Are you saying he’s alive? Mahanamtz is fokin dead,” I stormed at him, trying to assure myself. “He died in Ha’ Yaxha. Didn’t you see him drown in Ha’ Yaxha, Coatl?”
“We need to invoke the gods,” he insisted, not answering my question, not looking very convinced that Mahanamtz was dead. “We have to cast out his enchantments and keep them out of the room … out of Ox Witz Ha.”
“Go ahead,” ordered Lady Batz’ Ek’. “Do what you have to do.”
The room was immediately suffused with chanting and the smell of the Holy Pom grew to a stifling level. That time, they were also burning k’uutz.
I looked at Molly. She was becoming calm again, but I saw her lips trembling. “You have to fight, Molly. You have to fight to come back to us … to me.” But every time I brought the Raax Ch’ayom Puag closer to her, she began to move away.
“Perhaps we should wait another day,” suggested Lady Batz’ Ek’.
No one answered. I looked at Molly, trying to look deep into her eyes. “What must I do, Molly. Tell me what to do.”
She looked at me and I saw her trying to form a word. “Come on Molly. Fight him. He’s dead but his enchantments are still within you. Fight him. Tell me what to do.” Then faintly, on her lips, I saw her form the word, “Pray!”.
I held my Green Scapular tightly with one hand and the Raax Ch’ayom Puag with the other. I bent my head, closed my eyes, and I started to pray the prayer that Molly had taught me, Immaculate heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death. The priests and the remaining children also raised their voices saying their own prayers.
I said the prayer over and over, and then I felt a soft hand touching my head. I looked up and she looked puzzled, but there was a smile on her lips.
“Tristan”, she said. “My Tristan.”
I nodded and relived the night by the Hidden Valley Falls when we first fuc … made love. She had called me Tristan. Tristan was good enough for me and I slowly put out the Raax Ch’ayom Puag. She stared at it and I slowly rose from my kneeling position and began placing the Raax Ch’ayom Puag around her neck. Her body began to twitch, I heard the priests draw in their breaths, but I continued looking directly at her and placed it on her chest. I removed her hands. She stared at me. “Eutimio,” she said softly. “My Stephen!” Then the twitching turned into convulsions and she fell backward.
“Get out” shouted Coatl. “I have to put her to sleep quickly and he brought one of the burners placing it by her nose. The chanting of the priests and remaining children grew louder and the bouquet of building smoke and incense proliferated throughout the room. I remained still, helpless
“Let’s leave, Ke’kchi,” I heard Lady Batz Ek’ say. I rose without thinking and made it to the doorway. Then I could go no more. I knelt in the doorway, placed my face in my hands and howled like a ch’u’j tz’i’, not knowing, not caring, if it was guilt, fear, exhaustion, anguish . . . whatever else it could be. After a while, I sat up. Lady Batz’ Ek’ was still beside me. I looked up at her and saw deep concern in her eyes. “Is that the Way of the Q’eq Warriors of the Raax Ch‘ayom Puag?”
I smiled, sighed, then stood. “My Lady. That is the Way of the Q’eq Warriors of the Raax Ch‘ayom Puag. We fight, we kill, we chakuj-tutuchci, we pray, we love, and we … we cry; and, one day, we fokin die.”
Illustration 24: Bas, Choco, and Teul playing a friendly game of Pitz after the battles.
Illustration 25: The Ch’ajch’oj Chiyul: The Hidden Valley Falls.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
RETURN TO THE CH’AJCH’OJ CHIYUL:
SACRED WATERFALL
K’iin 68 - The Uinal of Yax
Monday, July 2, 1973
One Uinal and a half (30 days) later
I stood in the jungle, just outside the entrance of the tunnel where I had first met K’an II. Choj and Bo were beside me. Molly sat on a rock not far from me, Teyacapan beside her. Huehue was cross-legged on the jungle floor, blowing his ch’aw-baq, bringing forth a beautiful melody, one of the sweetest I had ever heard. Slowly, I began to realize that some parts of it were familiar. Then I knew that it was some kind of variation on the song Teul sung that night on the mountain after escaping from Naj Tunich. My heart swelled and my eyes watered. Oh fok! I sighed.
We had left Ox Witz Ha three k’iins ago, taking the route Molly and I had used before, the one K’an II used for his hunting trips in that area of his kingdom. Firstly, we journeyed on the sacbeob that led us to the Table Mountain where we spent our first night. The mountain was filled with memories. It was from there that I watched flames over Ox Witz Ha. It was there Bo and Choj and I became brothers, achalals, by doing the blood-letting ceremony. It was there that I had howled, seeing them leave and knowing that I would always have an unquenchable desire to return.
The servants and slaves had quickly set up camp and after eating, a little iztāc-octli, some high-spirited conversation, and stationing guards, we were soon asleep.
The next morning, we ran southeast, using a trail through the jungle until we came to the river where canoes were hidden. We paddled upriver until dark, stopping when we came upon a sani-bay. The servants and slaves quickly set up camp and, once again, after eating, a little iztāc-octli, some high-spirited conversation, and stationing guards, we were soon asleep.
The next k’iin we continued upriver until we reached the bank where the entrance to the tunnel that led to the Hidden Valley Falls, the Ch’ajch’oj Chiyul, was. We ran through the tunnel and had not stopped at the Ch’ajch’oj Chiyul, but continue to the end where the jungle began. I had run close to Molly as we crossed the ledge behind the falls, knowing that terrible memories would be provoked. I was not mistaken for there was terror in her eyes as she relived the horror of our encounters with Mahanamtz, his Kechelaj Komon, and his Kechelaj Jupuq. I was a Warrior and although the memories of what happened there just a year ago sent koal seed all over my body, I had come to accept the incident as just another battle, one, fortunately, that I had survived. Once again, I was there and the time had come for me to say goodbye to my friends and to a land I had come to regard as my home.
After almost a month of Coatl’s and the physicians’ treatments, Molly was much better; yet, there were occasions when she would stare and I had to call to her several times for her to respond; there were still moments when I saw fleeting glimpses of terror in her eyes. I tried to look after her as best as I could, that was when Lady Batz’ Ek’ allowed me to, but it was difficult for me as I kept remembering the girl I was marrying in Santa Cruz before all fok broke lose. Molly was not the same. I spent a lot of my time training with the Q’eq Warriors, I still preferred the short name. Our troop had grown as many Warriors wanted to enlist. Since I was leaving, and with K’an II’s approval, I had named Yochi as Nabe Kaloonte’, and Zyanya as Ukab Kaloonte’. They had reorganized, establish new platoons and sections, appointed new Nacons and Nimal Nacons. It was traumatic for me to leave the Q’eq Warriors as it reinforced the fact that I was giving up a world that had become my home; I was returning to a world I would find difficult to become a part of again. But it was Molly’s world and I had to look after her. Yochi had come with us to say farewell, but Zyanya remained at Ox Witz Ha to continue the training of the Q’eq Warriors and to ensure the protection of Ox Witz Ha.
As Molly got better, Lady Batz’ Ek’ spent a lot of time with her. The Lady was always carefu
l not to exhaust Molly, but Molly seemed to enjoy the discussions. I didn’t ask Molly what they spoke about, or how she understood the language so well. As an explanation to myself, I simply accepted that Hunahpu and Xbalanque had something to do with it. I had not seen them again, but often wondered what had become of them, what would happen to them.
With respect to Molly and Lady Batz’ Ek’’s conversations, I believed it was about the happenings on Tepeyac Hill, the Green Scapular, and the stories of the Mother Of God, Her Son and His death on the cross. I had to chide myself once for wondering if Molly told the Lady about my Saint Stephen. I guessed it really didn’t matter as I didn’t use that name anymore.
I looked at Teyacapan. He, the remaining children from Naj Tunich, Coatl and his priests, the physicians, they were all very faithful to Molly and I was extremely grateful. I had not seen Coszcatl again after that night in the Barracks. When I was brave enough to ask Teyacapan about her, he simply answered that she was learning the ways of a woman and the ways of a Healer from Chalchiuitl. He did not show any animosity towards me for the happenings that night in the Barracks. Neither did Zyanya. I thought about in many times, sometimes feeling regret that it happened. Then I decided that I would just accept it as something Coszcatl wanted and as something that just happened. I would suffer no more guilt. Yet, I was not going to regard it as meaningless. That would be dishonorable to Coszcatl. She was ready to become a woman and she wanted me to do it. I would not let my personal regret overshadow what was an important step in her life. So, eventually, 1 put the whole incident behind me.
Sisimito III--Topoxte Page 68