The River of No Return

by Jon Voelkel

  A toucan croaked in the tree above him.

  “Shhh,” Max hushed it. “I need to think.”

  “Were you calling me?” asked Raul, bringing out a jug of fresh mango juice. “Do you need more waffles?” He took in Max’s untouched plate and frowned. “Is something wrong? I hope you’re not getting sick.”

  “I’m fine. Just not hungry.”

  Raul poured out the juice. “Are you worried about something?” he asked, gently. “Is it your parents?”

  In reality, with everything else that had happened, Max had forgotten to worry about his parents. But not wanting to tell Raul about Lola, he nodded sadly.

  “I am sure they will be back soon. Your uncle called last night, and said to tell you that your parents are in San Xavier City right now, filing paperwork about a suspected looting.” Raul sighed. “I sometimes think this country runs on paperwork.”

  “How is Little Och, did he say?”

  “He is astounding the doctors with the speed of his recovery. Your uncle’s been sleeping at the hospital to keep an eye on things, but he promised to get here tonight to see you and Miss Lola.” Raul looked as excited as a child before a birthday party. “Lady Coco and I are planning a big dinner to celebrate.”

  “Sounds like fun,” said Max, without enthusiasm.

  Lola came out, muttered her good mornings, and slumped in a chair.

  Raul shook his head. “My, my, I hope you’ll both be feeling more energetic at the dinner tonight.” He looked pointedly at Lola. “Jaime Ben is planning to join us.”

  “Who’s he?” asked Max.

  “You probably know him as Lucky Jim,” replied Raul. “That’s your uncle’s nickname for him, but his real name is Jaime Ben. You’ll see quite a change in him—won’t he, Miss Lola?”

  Lola gave a little nod. Something about this exchange set Max on alert. Feeling slightly jealous, he made a mental note to keep an eye on the new, improved Jaime Ben.

  Lady Coco came out with a large tray. “I’ve come to get food for 6-Dog and Lord Hermanjilio. They’ve been up all night, poring over history books and old Maya texts, trying to predict what that evil Ah Pukuh might do next.”

  She loaded up the tray with good things, and Raul carried it out for her.

  Max and Lola sat in silence for a while.

  “So how are you this morning?” he asked her.

  Her face told him how she was. Her eyes were red from crying. She looked like she hadn’t slept. “As well as can be expected,” she said, “given the mess I’ve made of things.”

  “It was my fault, too. I dragged us into that hotel.”

  Lola shrugged. “Whatever.”

  He hesitated. Then, figuring she couldn’t feel much worse than she did right now, he took the plunge. “There was a guest at the hotel … in the beauty salon … he said something.… It was about Chan Kan.”

  “Don’t, Hoop. I know you didn’t like him. But it’s wrong to speak ill of the dead.”

  “This is about you, too. About the day you were found.”

  “You better tell me then,” she said dully.

  So he told her what he’d overheard: how Chan Kan had paid Landa to kidnap her, how he’d arranged for her to be found by Hermanjilio, how he’d said that her real mother was a bad woman.

  While Max talked, Lola stared blankly out to sea.

  “So, that’s it,” Max finished up. “That’s all I know. I’m sorry I couldn’t find out the name of your mom.”

  It was a while before Lola spoke.

  “You know what, Hoop, I’m done with family. I’ve always felt like an outsider, and that’s just how it is. I can’t believe I’ve wasted so much time on even thinking about this stuff.”

  “So you’re okay?” Max was relieved it was over. “Do you want to play a video game or something?”

  “No, it’s such a nice day. I think I’ll sit out here and read.”

  Max went inside to see if the Internet was working.

  As the rest of the day passed, he couldn’t help noticing that, whenever he looked out of the window, Lola’s book lay untouched on the table. And for someone who said she’d already wasted too much time on thinking about stuff, she seemed to be very deep in thought.

  Apart from Lola, who was still subdued, dinner that night was a rumbustious affair. It started late because Raul insisted on waiting for Uncle Ted, who was flying in from San Xavier City. He’d called to say he was bringing a surprise guest with him, which Max assumed would be his father or his mother, or maybe Little Och. But when the front door finally flew open, it was his family’s housekeeper from Boston who walked in with Uncle Ted.

  “Zia?”

  She crushed Max in a bearhug. “I have missed you,” she said. “I have not seen you since Spain.” She looked around. “Where is Lola?”

  “Oh, she’s probably reading a book somewhere. You’ll see her at dinner.”

  Uncle Ted clapped his hands together. “Then let’s eat!”

  Raul had made a special feast of Spanish paella, a rice dish with chicken and shrimp. The table was covered with little side dishes, all fragrant with saffron, rosemary, garlic and the sweet smell of almonds.

  “Viva España!” called Zia, twirling her hands like a flamenco dancer.

  Max laughed. “You were amazing in Spain,” he said. “The way you rescued us in Santiago. Lola and I can never thank you enough.”

  “It was my pleasure.” She turned to Uncle Ted who was sitting next to her. “I know your mother was Spanish, Teo, but did you ever visit Spain? I don’t remember.”

  Teo? She already had a nickname for Uncle Ted?

  “Once or twice,” he replied. “But I’d like to go again with you.” He looked at her lovingly. “Or anywhere.”

  What? Uncle Ted and Zia were a couple? That was insane.

  “So tell me again how you two met up in San Xavier City?” Max asked them.

  “I have been on vacation in San Xavier since I brought Their Majesties home,” explained Zia. “I came here to surprise you, Max, but you’d left for the Black Pyramid with your parents.” She glanced at Uncle Ted.

  “On that occasion,” he said, “we did not click.”

  “But love and hate are two sides of the same coin,” observed Zia.

  “And we flipped the coin,” added Uncle Ted. “But to answer your question, Max, I was in San Xavier City with Little Och.…”

  “And I came to visit your parents.…”

  “And that was the day before yesterday—”

  “And we have been together ever since.”

  Max looked from his housekeeper to his uncle in amazement. Just a few days ago, Uncle Ted had borrowed a plane to get away from Zia. Now they were finishing each other’s sentences like an old married couple.

  He looked down the table to get Lola’s reaction, but she hadn’t heard any of it. She was deep in conversation with Lucky Jim, or Jaime Ben, as Max had to get used to calling him.

  He almost hadn’t recognized Uncle Ted’s former right-hand man. He was wearing a shirt and jeans instead of his usual black business suit. His hair was longer and covered the intimidating scar on his face. He looked younger, thinner, happier.

  And—except for Uncle Ted, who still called him Lucky—everyone in his new life as a student teacher called him Jaime. Max decided to carry on calling him Lucky, too.

  He saw Max looking and smiled. “I was just telling Lola how much my little brothers and sisters have missed her. She babysat for them when I was in Xibalba, and I almost think they’re sorry I got out! They made me promise to ask her to come visit.”

  “I’d love to,” she said, giving Lucky a big smile.

  Max’s invisible antennae were going crazy, trying to analyze the situation. Was there something going on between Lucky and Lola too? Did he just see them exchange a glance? He wished Lady Coco hadn’t put so many candles on the table. The candlelight made even Lord 6-Dog look romantic—until, that is, he took the flowers out of the vase and ate the
m.

  “I am sorry that thy parents could not be here, young lord,” said the howler, spitting petals.

  Zia nodded. “They are sorry, too, Max. They really wanted to be here tonight, but they are having trouble with paperwork—the authorities are making things difficult for them over permits and such. They can’t leave San Xavier City at the moment.”

  “They haven’t been arrested, have they?” asked Max.

  “Perish the thought,” said Uncle Ted—which, Max noted, was not the same as saying no.

  “Hey, Hoop,” called Lola, “let’s go back to San Xavier City with your uncle tomorrow. I could visit Little Och and you could see your parents—”

  “It might not be the best time—,” leapt in Uncle Ted.

  “They are tied up—,” agreed Zia.

  “Are they in jail?” Max asked bluntly.

  “That’s such an ugly word,” said Zia.

  “Let’s just say that they are not allowed visitors at the moment, Max. The situation is a little delicate.”

  Truly, thought Max, they were the worst parents in the world.

  “Come with me anyway,” said Lola. “I am going to report my kidnapping.”

  All eyes were on her.

  “You poor girl,” said Zia. “When did this happen? Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine; it happened years ago. I just found out that Chan Kan paid Antonio de Landa to take me from my mother when I was a baby. I don’t know why or how. But if I press charges, I am hoping that Landa will have to tell the full story.”

  Zia dropped a large serving plate of fruit salad, and Lady Coco ran in to clear up the mess.

  “I hope this is not a joke, Lola,” snapped Uncle Ted angrily, “because it’s not funny.”

  Lola looked confused. “Why would I joke about something like this? Max overheard Landa talking about it in the Grand Hotel Xibalba.”

  “Antonio de Landa?” Uncle Ted’s face filled with hate. “You can’t believe anything he says. I’m sorry, Lola, but he’s just out to make trouble.”

  “I don’t think so, not this time,” said Max. “He didn’t know that I heard him.”

  Lola nodded. “I think it’s true. Chan Kan was acting so strangely when we went to Utsal. He kept apologizing to me. He said he regretted what he’d done and that he wanted to put his life in order. He had something really big on his conscience. But it was like he kept confusing me with someone else. He kept talking about my husband.”

  Uncle Ted put his arm around Zia, and she sobbed against his shoulder. “How can you be so cruel, Lola?”

  “What did I say? What does any of this have to do with Zia?”

  Zia wiped her eyes. “It is okay. You just hit a sore spot.”

  “You don’t have to talk about it,” Ted soothed her. “It’s too painful.”

  “No, it’s time I faced up to it, Teo.” She cleared her throat and looked around the table. “Chan Kan was my father.”

  Max and Lola stared at her uncomprehendingly.

  She continued, “I shut him out of my life many years ago. Fifteen years ago, to be precise. That was when my daughter died. She was twelve months old. Chan Kan came to the funeral, and I never saw him again. Or ever wanted to. And now, now you are telling me that he bought another child to replace his own dead granddaughter? Words fail me. I bear you no ill will, Lola. But I will never forgive Chan Kan. He was an evil man.”

  Lola looked like she’d been slapped. “I’m so sorry.”

  Eventually Hermanjilio broke the silence. He spoke softly. “So, Zia, straight after your daughter died, Chan Kan adopted a girl baby of the same age?”

  Zia nodded.

  “I don’t want to raise your hopes,” continued Hermanjilio, “but there is another possibility. Chan Kan was a skilled medicine man, was he not? I have heard of potions that mimic death.”

  “No.” Zia shook her head vehemently. “I held my baby in my arms till she grew stone cold. She had no pulse.”

  Uncle Ted’s face was ashen. “I know Chan Kan had strong views, but surely he was not capable of that.”

  “Oh yes, he was,” said Zia in a small voice.

  “So what if my hunch is right?” insisted Hermanjilio.

  “There is one way to find out.” Zia looked at Lola and asked gently, “Do you have a birthmark under your right ear?”

  As silent as a sleepwalker, Lola got up from her chair and walked around the table to Zia. Then she crouched down and flicked back her hair.

  “You do! You do! I’ve noticed it before!” yelled Max excitedly.

  Zia stared at Lola’s neck. “I cannot believe it,” she whispered. “Is this really happening? Have you really come back to me?” She burst into tears and hugged Lola close.

  “Wait! I don’t underst—,” squeaked Lola, but Zia was holding her so tightly she couldn’t speak.

  Max tried to clarify the situation. “So Lola is Chan Kan’s real granddaughter? And Zia’s real daughter? But why would Chan Kan have faked his own granddaughter’s death?”

  Zia looked up. “He did not approve of my choice of husband. He wanted me to marry a Maya man, a villager, and stay close to home. He had my life planned out for me.”

  Lola extricated herself from her mother’s embrace. “But, so, wait … I have a father, too? Who is my father?”

  “That would be me,” said Uncle Ted.

  Max literally fell off his chair.

  “I don’t understand,” said Lola.

  “My brother Frank and I met Zia—or Tooki as we called her back then—at school in Limón. It was soon after our mother had died and our father had sent us away so he could grieve alone. I’ll never know how Tooki persuaded Chan Kan to let her go to school, but once she arrived, she was determined never to go home. She never spoke much about her family, and I guess—with the narcissism of youth—we were never curious enough to drag it out of her. All we knew was that she was Maya, that her father was strict, and that she herself had more progressive views. She became like a sister to us, one of the gang. In fact, she was with us when we found Landa’s journal.…”

  Something clicked in Max’s brain, like an itch being scratched. He recalled Uncle Ted telling the story of the day they found the journal—we were camping with a friend—and he’d always meant to ask the identity of that third person.

  “Then Tooki and I did the one thing Chan Kan could never forgive. We fell in love.”

  “That’s why he called you a bad woman?” Lola asked her mother.

  Zia nodded.

  “What’s so bad about marrying a Murphy?” asked Max indignantly.

  Uncle Ted laughed. “It wasn’t because I was a Murphy, it was because I wasn’t a Maya. Chan Kan believed that he was descended from the Jaguar Kings and he didn’t want to sully the royal bloodline.”

  Max clapped his hands. “So the Monkey Girl is actually a princess! It’s like a fairy tale!”

  “More like a fantasy,” said Zia. “There is no Maya royalty anymore. But Chan Kan refused to let go of the past. After I married Teo, I never saw my father again until, until …”

  “Until our daughter’s funeral,” Uncle Ted finished for her.

  “Had I been ill?” asked Lola. “What did you think I died of?”

  “We thought you’d been murdered.”

  “Murdered? Why would you think that?”

  “You’d been kidnapped. The ransom note said they wouldn’t hurt you as long as we didn’t go to the police. So brave Teo tried to rescue you himself.”

  “It was a stupid idea,” said Uncle Ted. “I took the money to the meeting place in the forest. I had a gun.… There was a shoot-out.… It all went wrong. But I swear I heard Antonio De Landa’s voice. Next day, my daughter’s lifeless body was left at our door.”

  Zia took over the story. “Chan Kan came to Puerto Muerto straightaway. He screamed at me that I had killed my daughter by marrying outside of our community. He said the gods had punished me.” Her face contorted with pain. “And then
, he demanded to be left alone with her little coffin to conduct his rituals.…”

  She folded Lola in her arms again. “And that must have been when he stole you away from me. And he made it so he could legally adopt you, and we would never come looking for you, and you would never know how much we loved you.”

  All around the table, people and howler monkeys were sobbing into their napkins. But not Max. He was still trying to get his head around the details. “Will someone stop crying and tell me how Zia ended up in our house in Boston?”

  “Our marriage could not survive the pain of losing a child,” Zia explained. “There were too many recriminations, too much sorrow. I even blamed Teo for going to the forest that night and trying to be a hero. Our lives were in ruins. I had to get away. Frank and Carla offered me a place in Boston, so I went. And Teo turned to his life of crime.”

  “But that’s awful,” said Max. “You’re like family. And Mom and Dad made you our housekeeper? They enslaved you?”

  “No, no, it wasn’t like that, Max. The job was my idea. I wanted to be helpful. And I wanted to earn my keep. And I wanted never to have to talk to anyone ever again. Your parents threw me a lifeline at a time when I hated the entire human race.”

  That explains Zia’s lethal tamales, thought Max, but he didn’t say it. And then another thought occurred to him. He looked confusedly at Uncle Ted. “I’m sorry, but Lola’s Maya. She can’t be your daughter.”

  Uncle Ted laughed. “You should have seen her when she was born! Her hair was redder than yours. She looked like a Murphy all right. There’s a photo on my office wall—remind me to show you sometime.”

  “I’ve seen it! That’s Lola? I thought that was me!”

  Zia stroked Lola’s hair. “It turned dark almost straightaway.”

  Lola clapped a hand over her mouth. “Hoop—we’re cousins!”

  “We are?” Max wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

  “Your parents are my aunt and uncle! And my parents are your aunt and uncle!”

  Max looked at his former housekeeper, bewildered. “Should I call you Aunt Zia?”

  “You already call me Aunt. Zia is the Italian word. Your mother came up with it because I never liked my Mayan name.”