“My petrified gaze met Cannat’s eloquent and contorted expression.
“ ‘Don’t you ever do something like that in front of Cyr! Do you hear me! Never!’ Shallem yelled.
“But Cannat’s eyes and ears were fixed on me.
“ ‘You see!’ he exclaimed. ‘God finds faults even in his angels...’
The woman stopped speaking and grazed her index finger across her eyebrow. Father DiCaprio tried to pour her a glass of water but his hands shook so much, he spilled the water all over the table.
“I’m sorry,” he said and rose to dry the table with small napkins.
As he meticulously dried the table, the woman stood and walked around the room. The priest sat down again and anxiously waited for her to turn and see that he had finished. She saw he was done and continued:
“Shallem was extremely angry with him. He told Cannat to leave, that he didn’t want to see him. He called him insensitive and irresponsible, and many other things that he didn’t truly believe. Cannat didn’t pay attention to any of this name-calling, but he did leave. Arrogantly and with a false air of having been offended, he left. We didn’t see him again until...”
The woman looked at the ceiling and gave a sudden subtle laugh.
“We didn’t see him until the next night. Shallem felt the presence of those evil spirits and didn’t waste a second calling him. Cannat came immediately, without feigning conceit, arrogance, vanity or resentment. Nor did he appear to be angry or even remember that he should be. He came back with absolute and selfless loyalty and love.
“It was as if they had an agreement with each other that they would both immediately forget their arguments as soon as they were over.”
The priest let out a soft, almost imperceptible sigh. They looked at one another as if they were old friends, relaxed and devoted old friends.
The priest asked, “Shallem knew about the night you were alone with Cannat when your soul left your body. Right?”
“Of course he knew, but he never mentioned it and I had plenty of reasons not to say anything. The first and most logical reason was that it would have been completely absurd to tell Shallem something he already knew and obviously didn’t want to mention. Although, I didn’t know if he had said anything to Cannat. My second reason was that I needed Cannat to be there to protect Cyr. I didn’t want to create an uncomfortable atmosphere that would have made it unpleasant for him to be around us. And my third reason was that I didn’t want to face what I already knew. I knew Cannat was the most important thing on Earth or in heaven for Shallem. I knew Shallem would be completely indifferent to my complaints or accusations and would end up getting angry with me. And my fourth reason, which was by far the strangest and which ruled over all the others, was that I simply didn’t want to lose Cannat. That was how strongly I was attracted to him, like a moth to a flame.
“My desires to spend time alone with Shallem were satisfied for long periods of time while Cannat traveled. In that respect, Cannat wasn’t a hindrance. However, when he returned, my heart beat in such a way that I was ashamed of myself and also scared of what Shallem would end up thinking.”
“Are you telling me you loved Cannat?” the priest asked alarmed.
“I couldn’t help but love him when we were alone, wrapped in a blanket of affection, as we spoke about the love we both felt for Shallem, or when I saw him hug my son or when he cured an injured bird. During those times, his celestial beauty would shine and he looked so much like Shallem! Also, remember what I already told you: he was excessively handsome, all humans were attracted to him; we couldn’t stay away from him. And don’t think that this was something he intentionally provoked. Quite often Cannat was completely indifferent to his appeal.
“Women always approached him and even some men propositioned him. Everyone wanted to meet him. When we ate out, people at neighboring tables invited us to parties but he always declined. He thought meeting humans was boring and tedious and being around them was absolutely unbearable.
“Many young painters and sculptors knocked on our door to ask us to be their models, begging us to pose for them dressed as this or that mythical god. Cannat couldn’t stand them interrupting us at home and, of course, always took it upon himself to make sure they didn’t bother us a second time. But there were exceptions to this rule and I could tell many occasions when Cannat was tolerant, and even more than tolerant, with many of the artists. However, I could never figure out why some humans were worthy of his good will and others weren’t.”
The woman was still standing with her back to the window. She stretched her arms leisurely as she looked at the priest. Then, she turned and looked out the window toward the bright light of day.
“In spite of the numerous trips we took outside of Florence, we soon became bored.
“Cannat always spoke about places in the Americas which Europeans were yet to discover and in which he was known among the natives as a living god.
“Cannat was fed up with the hordes of people that filled the streets in our small city and it wasn’t hard for Shallem to convince him to leave. Nor was it hard for him to convince me.
“We left Florence five years after Cyr’s birth and I only missed one thing: Leonardo.”
PART FOUR
–I–
“It’s difficult to describe how I felt in this new world we had gone to. I couldn’t have imagined a more strange or disturbing place.
“It was a world full of constant dangers for the common mortal. But I wasn’t a common mortal and as soon as we arrived, Cannat gave to Cyr what Shallem had given to me. That is, a piece of his own soul. He justified himself by saying the illnesses in that world could kill him. By sharing his soul with Cyr, he became more his father than Cannat had ever been.
“Everything was so exotic, so astonishing; everything surprised me. Open spaces did not exist, it was as if we had been submerged in a sea of green. In a sea of tree trunks and leaves and gigantic roots that sprouted like powerful anchors from the humid, russet earth. Everywhere you looked, you would see climbing reeds and all types of epiphytes and parasitic plants with beautiful blossoms that adorned the trunks of trees like multicolored medallions.
“The abundant vegetation created an almost impenetrable wall that forced many small animals to live in the treetops. They ate leaves and fruits and drank water trapped in crevices and holes without ever having to venture to the ground.
“Snakes had such an affinity for the taste of my flesh that I couldn’t go to sleep at night without having suffered one of their bites. However, their venom couldn’t affect. Nor was I affected by the bites and stings of the multiple varieties of infectious insects that would constantly attack me while I slept.
“But it wasn’t just the jungle in itself that made me feel like I had breached the border of reality and entered an imaginary world. A glorious world of cultured prosperity, wise in its grandeur and development, but, at the same time, barbaric and cruel, superstitious and fanatical, ignorant and obscure. The gods last bastion. Cannat’s private sanctuary.
“One night we found ourselves on top of a hill overlooking an immense area of land. Thousands of stars pulsated across heaven’s dark curtain. A shroud of blackness with silver-plated lights. A natural observatory.
“ ‘Night. Night is the best time for a god to turn into a ball of fire and fall from the sky. I always make an appearance,’ Cannat told me with all sincerity.
“Suddenly, a ball of fire fell from the sky and burst into small fragments that were brighter than the stars themselves. Smoldering pieces that still burned fell onto every corner in the large city we observed. I could barely breathe due to the amazing spectacle my eyes had just beheld.
“ ‘Stay here,’ Cannat ordered. ‘I need to fulfill my duties as their god.’
“He left us in the darkness. We were at the most northern tip of Teotihuacan. Today, this area is known as the Avenue of the Dead. It’s a place where the jungle seemed to intentionally stop and make
way for mankind’s creations. A place where only serpents dared to visit at night. What a magnificent sight! The Avenue of the Dead: at least a kilometer long and a hundred meters wide. It was an immense area of land. Short and graded pyramids flanked both sides of the Avenue, like an ever present and vigilant army, which, for centuries, made sure their rulers sleep went undisturbed. At the end of a line of smaller pyramids, exactly in the center of the Avenue, stood an enormous man-made pond filled with beautiful aquatic flowers. We called this area the isle of flowers.
“Unusual stone sculptures representing seemingly human creatures were erected between each pyramid. Some were bizarre human heads with unnatural fangs that stood two meters tall. Others were entire naked bodies that were either masculine, feminine or sexless. In some places, they were clustered into heterogeneous groups.
“A huge circular square opened at the southern end of the Avenue. In the center of the square stood a extremely tall pyramid which was very well illuminated by torches and which presided over the endless line of smaller pyramids that ran the length of the Avenue.
“People seemed to come from everywhere; they were wearing multicolored clothes marked with geometric designs. Enraptured by happiness, they yelled at each other and frantically pointed toward the pyramid. And there, at its peak, stood Cannat’s prodigious and unmistakable body, standing out in the darkness like a dragonfly. “God has arrived!” they screamed. “God has returned! Kueb is here!” Cannat spread his arms and greeted his devotees.
“In a few minutes, the fevered clamor of a thousand voices were heard screaming “Kueb” at the foot of the pyramid. I couldn’t see the expression on Cannat’s face from where we stood. His loyal admirers kept coming from everywhere and were dangerously approaching our location. Cry was sitting on Shallem’s shoulders. Both of their expressions, and mine, were no different from the native’s expressions.
“I could barely see anything but I did see a figure attired in lavish clothes emerge from a door in the middle of the temple. His clothes were as golden as the hair on Cannat’s head. He lifted his arms and everyone instantly grew silent. Suddenly, the entire city fell to their knees, their heads bowed and their arms crossed over their chests. As a sign of absolute respect, they all remained silent and still. The priest himself had turned around to show his reverence in the same manner.
“ ‘Should I go up there?’ Shallem asked.
“ ‘Don’t go Shallem,’ I begged. ‘I don’t want to see you up there playing along with that horrible masquerade.’
“ ‘But there’s a good view.’ He joked and placed Cyr, who was asking to go, on the ground.
“I had just taken Cyr’s hand when I saw not one but two figures on top of the pyramid. As soon as the followers noticed the second figure, a loud clamor of excited confusion burst forth. The same confusion I myself felt.
“Cannat had grabbed Shallem’s hand and you could hear an obvious uproar of joy coming from the crown. They jumped, they screamed, they hugged each other; it was a true eruption of happiness.
“ ‘Look at Dad! Look at Dad!’ Cyr yelled and pulled my arm excitedly. The deafening clamor mad me uneasy.
“ ‘Kueb, Oman! Kueb, Oman!’ they chanted.
“ ‘Mom, I want to see them up close!’ To my dismay, Cyr pulled me toward the horde.
“The people looked frightful to me. They were very short, dark skinned and were malformed and uncomely. Their noses were very flat and their facial features seemed sunken. Their foreheads were short and their ears were not in proportion with their other features. Their dark eyes were the only beautiful feature on their faces.
“As impossible as it may have seemed, their clamor grew louder. An undeterminable amount of minutes passed by as more and more people ran from among the pyramids to praise their gods. The crowd in front of us had grown so large that I, absorbed in the scene, carelessly allowed them to drift closer to Cyr and I. We were only a couple of meters behind them and some of them, without me even realizing, had noticed our bizarre presence. My long blond hair, illuminated by a puddle of moon light, could not go unnoticed.
“Suddenly, Cyr and I became the new center of attention. All heads turned toward us and began crying out unintelligible phrases. Confused, scared, but very curious, some of them began carefully approaching, and the voices of those less bold grew louder than the uproar coming from the pyramid. Like a wave, alarm began to spread toward the pyramid. Multiple heads turned and tried to look at us from above the heads of others. Around us, shouts of praise turned into a confused buzz. Cyr, noticeably frightened, grabbed onto me and I, even more frightened by that strange race’s puzzled expressions, could only think of Shallem.
“A murmur of admiration broke out when their god Oman appeared next to me.
“ ‘Are you frightened?’ he asked, his eyes radiant.
“ ‘No. I... they are so strange,’ I stammered.
“ ‘How about you, son? Are you scared?’
“ ‘They are so ugly, Dad,’ he responded and gave a cute grimace of displeasure. Shallem laughed like everything was normal. The crowd had grown disconcerted and completely silent due to Cannat’s appearance beside us.
“ ‘Come with me,’ Shallem ordered.
“We took his hands and immediately found ourselves standing next to Cannat on top of the pyramid.
“Shallem was right. From there, the view was spectacular. Not only due to the thousands of bewildered followers that stared at their new family of gods from below, but also because we had a panoramic view of the entire city. All the buildings were miraculously constructed of stone and extended on both sides of the Avenue of the Dead. All the streets in the city had been carefully planned to converge on the Avenue. There was a large and open rectangular space behind the pyramid we were standing on. Within the rectangle stood a large and lavish building and a spectral light flowed through all of its windows. That ghostly light shined through all the windows in the city. That large building was, undoubtedly, the royal palace. It was surrounded by smaller, but equally lavish constructions, which must have been used for commerce and administration. I also saw a very large market sheltered beneath porticos. However, there was no sign of life in that large area; all of the city’s inhabitants were directly below us on the Avenue, on the amazing, spectacular Avenue.
“Many meters below us, the priest watched Cyr and I with a troubled and confused expression. Surely, he was wondering who we were and what kind of explanation he could invent to adequately manipulate, for his own benefit, his naive followers.
“I was completely distressed when I realized what was happening. I had just been turned into a goddess. What would the priest tell them about me? What name would they give me? The people cheered fervently, violently shaking their fists in the air.
“I started to feel completely intoxicated and dazed by that dehumanizing situation.
“I looked at Cannat. What a cold expression on his face! What a stiff expression, so discordant with that proud moment. I would have thought, at least, he would’ve been excited and smiling for being received in such a grand manner and by such an abundant group of admirers. Cannat was watching Shallem as he gazed at the stars. It seemed like only Cyr and I were aware of where we were, and that thousands of screaming fanatics were possibly asking their gods for a gift, or were just happy they had returned.
“Fascinated, Cyr waved and smiled at the crowd. He repeatedly kept screaming, as loud as he could, ‘I’m the god Cyr!’ Suddenly, the uproar started to lessen. First, it turned into a distant buzz and then a fading murmur until all the natives fell into a respectful silence. The child god had spoken.
“ ‘I’m the god Cyr!’ he cried out into the silent stillness of night.
“The city remained silent, attentive, and anxious.
“ ‘I’m the god Cyr, son of the god Oman and the goddess Ishtar!’ he added with complete confidence as if he had spent his whole life rehearsing for the role.
“ ‘Cyr!’ I scolded in a wh
isper. ‘What are you saying? Be quiet, right now!’
“But Shallem and Cannat laughed as though they were tremendously proud.
“ ‘Cyr, you don’t have to speak to them,’ Cannat said in a fatherly tone.
“ ‘Why not?’ he asked.
“ ‘You’ll ruin the game if you do. Gods are supposed to be silent, distant, and mysterious. We must remain mysterious. They shouldn’t know anything about you, not your faults nor weaknesses. And more importantly, they should never know the limits or extent of your powers. Let them use their imaginations; don’t show or tell them anything about yourself. If they were to find out everything about you, they would come to know you as well as they know each other and if that were to happen, they would stop thinking of you as a perfect and invincible god. They would think you were as approachable, friendly and common as one of their own family members. They would treat you like this unless you constantly demonstrated your powers and having to do that becomes bothersome. Do you understand? What I just told you explains why your mother, who should also be kneeling at my feet along with the rest of them, is here with us, here among the gods.’
“ ‘Enough, Cannat.’ Shallem cut him off when he saw his malicious smile.
“ ‘What?’ he asked innocently. ‘I just want Cyr to understand. She knows her place. I myself told her where she belongs. You haven’t forgotten? Have you, Juliette?’
“ ‘No, I haven’t forgotten, you knave.’
“And the so-called Kueb, unperturbed, just laughed.
“ ‘You chose a very appropriate name for your mother, Cyr,’ Cannat commented. ‘Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love. Well, are you going to tell them anything else, god Cyr?’
“Cyr bit his bottom lip, deep in thought. Then his eyes shown bright with excitement and with no hint of malice or arrogance. He realized it wasn’t a game. He WAS the god Cyr. Why not since his father and uncle were gods?
“ ‘No. I shouldn’t say anything else,’ he responded with innocent regret.
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