by K. T. Tomb
“Look, Adam, I know you’re nervous,” she plunged ahead. “I think I know why, too.”
“You do?” I wasn’t sure how she could possibly know what sort of thought and feelings were assaulting me, but I was certainly willing to listen to her theory on the matter.
“Yes, I saw you checking out my boobs.”
I had been caught. I turned away. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t look again.
“It’s okay.” She laughed softly. “You’re a guy. I’m used to it. Your friends teased you about us going on this trip together didn’t they?”
“A little.”
“A lot,” she laughed. “I’m sure you heard all kinds of crude jokes. I’m sure they all expect that we’ll be hooking up. Am I right?”
“Yeah.”
“Relax. We’re going down there to work. There won’t be any hooking up. This is a professional trip. We’re staying in separate rooms. We’ll be doing our own thing a lot of the time, but we are studying the Mayan culture, the pyramids, the ruins, the temples, pretty much anything that we run across that is connected to the Mayans. To do that, Adam, you’re going to have to open up a little. I know that there is a store of knowledge swimming around in that head of yours that I can benefit from a great deal. So, for the next week, I’m just some regular girl that is interested in the same things as you. Does that help?”
It did help a little bit, though it was pretty difficult for me to entertain the idea that Eva Lunes was just a regular girl. Regular girls simply don’t look like that. Working hard to force the idea into my head that I was on a professional trip with a regular girl that was interested in the same things, I swallowed the lump in my throat and responded, “Sure,” fighting the urge to look down at her ample rack.
“You’re impossible,” she laughed. She pulled the shirt closed and buttoned it. “Does that help?” At the time, the thought didn’t even cross my mind that she was enjoying teasing me and watching me squirm; I was much too wrapped up in my own issues. “So, how about you share your thesis statement with me or at least something about what you’ll be looking for? Maybe that will help us become focused on what we’re doing and help you relax a little bit.”
It was worth a shot, although it would become the record for the number of words that I had spoken to Eva since the day we walked into the same class. It might have even topped the total number of words I’d used up until that point. “Basically, I’m posing the question of what defines Mayan culture, because, unlike the Aztec, they were never united under a single system of government, but were linked more by a unique set of metaphysical beliefs, agricultural techniques, diet, architecture, social and religious structure. So, what I will be looking for are solid, consistent markers within the archeological sites that form the characteristic links. And I’ll be paying specific attention to some of their deities and mythological figures that guided their advanced thinking and technology.”
“That sounds pretty thorough and, believe it or not, almost exactly the same as what I’m working on. I’m most interested in the mythological and metaphysical part. You know, their religious rituals, feasts, sacrifices and that sort of thing.”
“Sounds like we are rolling along on a similar track then.” The discussion about our mutual research interest had actually done the trick. As long as we were talking about our study topic, my mind stayed focused on our true purpose and I started to be able to see her more like a regular girl. It was in those awkward moments – like the one in the taxi from the airport to the hotel – during a long period of silence, when my mind had a tendency to wander back to the fact that she was anything but regular. I mean, really, no regular girl had full lips like those that seemed to always be begging me to kiss them. I shook off the thought and avoided looking at her. There was plenty to see out the window of the cab anyway.
When we arrived at the hotel, we were ushered to our separate rooms, though Eva followed me to mine in order to help translate what the bellhop was telling me. I picked up most of it, but it was nice to have Eva add those little extras. I did notice one thing that threw me off track a little bit. The bellhop eyed her like she was a piece of roasted meat and I felt something rise up inside of me that was a shock. Was it jealousy? That was a completely ridiculous idea, of course.
Chapter Two
We had both been particularly impressed by the pyramid at El Castillo. We were there a few days before the Spring Equinox and were told that at the exact time of the equinox, the effects of the shadows from the sun over the stone figures, made it look as though a giant serpent was descending the pyramid.
“We have to come back on Friday and see it,” I commented.
“It speaks to an enormous understanding of astronomy and the effects of the sun and the shadows that it casts at certain types of the year,” Eva had commented, in an awestruck whisper.
“Not only their understanding of astronomy, but their engineering skills. I wonder how many equinoxes they had to go through in order to get it right? I mean, you don’t erect something like this two days out of the year.” My voice wasn’t as hushed as hers, but I was equally awestruck.
“It is indeed a marvel.” One of the pyramid tour guides interrupted us. He spoke a mixture of English and Spanish, often changing back and forth between the two to highlight certain points to either his Spanish speaking or English speaking audience respectively. “The Mayans believed that it was the great serpent Kukulkan who taught them the arts and sciences and who had taught them of technology.”
“Codes of law, medicine, the four winds, the four elements, yeah, we know. We’re archeology students,” Eva replied.
His eyes did a horrible job of veiling exactly what he was thinking about Eva as he scanned her from head to toe before returning to linger upon her penetrating eyes. He smiled. “Then perhaps you could teach me a thing or two.”
“Actually, Adam is the expert on the subject. We’re in the same class and have similar research projects, so I came with him so that we could work on it together.”
He gave me a sideways glance, not as interested in my “expertise” as much as he was in Eva’s. I decided to simply back out of the conversation entirely and just observe. What was the point in speaking? He probably wouldn’t hear a word I said anyway.
“So, where are you a student?” His eyes sparkled as he focused on her. He subtly checked out her rack, though he was trying to keep his eyes on hers. I couldn’t say that I blamed him, but I felt a little sick to my stomach as I felt the jealousy start to rise again.
“St. Paul University in Minnesota,” she replied. Her smile seemed to be a little bit flirtatious and my heart sank. That’s all I needed, some Mexican dude moving in on her and pushing me out.
“You’re a long way from home, then. Maybe I could show you around? My name is Enrique, by the way.”
“This is Adam and I’m Eva. It’s good to make your acquaintance. We’re not really here to be tourists. We’re working on our research projects for a class in New World Archeology.”
“Well, I’m a native of the Yucatan and a descendant of the Mayans. I could give you a great deal of insight into things, maybe even show you a few things that your typical tourist doesn’t get to see.”
The idea of getting to see more of the Mayan ruins than the typical tourist gets to see made me perk my ears up. I wasn’t sure that I wanted the guy around constantly hitting on Eva, but to be able to go beyond what we had already been able to read about, study and see, would certainly be worth the discomfort. Besides, Eva had made it pretty clear that we were not going to be hooking up.
She glanced at me before responding. Her eyes reminded me of a dog that was begging for a treat beside the dinner table. How could I say no? I nodded my consent.
“Sure, we’d love that,” she replied. “What do you have in mind?”
“Where are you staying?”
“We’re staying in a hotel in Cancún.”
“That’s perfect. One of the places that I’d
like you to see is an island not too far off of the Yucatan Peninsula. The locals call it Kukulkan’s Island or Snake Island, depending on who you talk to.”
“I’m not sure I like the sound of Snake Island.” Eva wrinkled up her nose in disgust. “I’m not fond of snakes.”
“You’ve heard the legend about Kukulkan leaving on a raft made of snakes, right?”
“Yes.” Her expression hadn’t changed.
“Well, a lot of people like to say that Kukulkan’s Island is that raft and he’s just sitting out there waiting for the End Times. There are a few snakes, but it has some of the most fantastic and least seen ruins of all of the Mayan Culture, perhaps even more significant than El Castillo.”
“That does sound interesting and we both would like to get in deeper than the average tourist.”
I watched Eva, a bit jealous of her friendliness with Enrique, but feeling better because she was at least including me at every turn in the conversation, while I got the distinct impression that Enrique would just as soon push me out of it.
“Then I’ll take you out there,” he chuckled. “Consider it a special favor to such a pretty… a distinguished pair of archeology students who have traveled a very long way. In fact, there is a facility out there that is sometimes used by our company for retreats or for training. I will see if I can get it cleared for you to use it.”
“That would be awesome!” Eva’s beaming smile made me suspicious of her motivation. She was likely just putting a good face on things and trying to be polite for my benefit, but was secretly hoping that she could be alone with Enrique and ditch the dork.
Enrique went on to give directions for meeting up with him at the dock in the morning and then extended his hand to each of us with a toothy smile. “Be there at 6:00 a.m. sharp. I can run you out to the island and get you set up, but I still have to get back here in time to work tomorrow.”
“We’ll be there,” Eva and I replied in unison. My excitement level about the trip had rapidly increased as I realized that Enrique had just made it clear that we would be on our own and he wouldn’t be in the way. Maybe I had been a little bit too hasty in my judgment of what was taking place, though there was still something about Enrique that I didn’t like.
“Are you sure this is the right thing to do?” Eva asked as we were riding the Mayan Odyssey's tour bus back to Cancún from El Castillo.
“What do you mean?” I was a bit confused by the question. Eva had seemed extremely eager to be able to explore ruins that the typical tourist didn’t get to see.
“Well, we don’t really know this guy. I mean, he seems alright and everything, but you know how people from the U.S. come to Latin America and end up being lost, killed or kidnapped. Shouldn’t we check this out a little bit more?”
“We probably should,” I replied. “We’ll check things out on the Internet tonight. Check out the company, the island, the whole works. We’ve got their URL right here: www.mayanodysseys.com.” I pointed to the tour brochure that we had been given when we’d arrived at El Castillo.
“Even if they check out,” Eva began again, “are you sure it is wise to check out of our hotel? I mean, we don’t even know what sorts of facilities are provided on the island. We could be trading a decent hotel room for a shack.”
“You’re right. We’ll check things out thoroughly. If they don’t meet up to our standards or exceed what we already have, we’ll just wave off going in the morning, deal?”
“Deal,” Eva replied, extending her hand as though we had just made a wager.
The discomfort I had been feeling had subsided considerably because of the time that we had been spending together and I had found a fairly extensive vocabulary again, but the moment I touched her hand to shake on our deal, I felt a rush come over me and I blushed.
“You just turned red!” Her laugh reminded me of a sixth grade girl.
“I did not.” My attempt to save face was made worse by the fact that my face reddened even more because she had pointed out my blushing.
“You most certainly did, señor!” she giggled. “What’s that all about?”
“Nothing.” I was scrambling for an explanation. “I got a bit of a sunburn today, is all.”
“Yeah,” she laughed. “Your sunburn conveniently showed up and then disappeared.”
How could I respond to that? I didn’t. I just sat there and tried to will the blushing to stop. It was next to impossible. Having her sitting beside me, smelling the fresh, floral scent of her perfume, seeing the glistening black hair cascading so near to me, the twinkling delight in her dark eyes and the sound of her delightful laughter all combined to overwhelm me. I was in way too deep already, but worst of all, Eva knew it and I was at her mercy.
“Don’t sweat it, Adam,” she giggled. “I think it’s kind of cute.”
I turned my face downward as a broad smile spread across it and I felt the redness return. The idea that she found anything about me cute excited and terrified me at the same time.
“There it is again!” she squealed. “Your cute little sunburn!”
The tour bus could not arrive at the hotel soon enough to relieve me of the delightful misery that the ride back from El Castillo had caused.
Chapter Three
Five a.m. came awfully early, especially after the night that Eva and I had spent together. It had been a night that had extended my feelings of delight and terror and had left me sleeping fitfully in the few hours that had been left by the time she had left for her room so that we could at least try to sleep a little bit before going to meet Enrique at the docks.
Eva had come to my room after we had both showered and changed into comfortable clothing. She had her laptop with her and was already connected to the hotel’s Wi-Fi server. I got mine out as well and we both began to read about Mayan Odysseys. We took note of the fact that Enrique was listed on their site and had an extensive biography describing his experience and qualifications as a tour guide. He was more than just your run-of-the-mill college kid with a spring break job; he was the real deal.
The background of the company and its integrity helped to relieve some of our doubts about Enrique and our trip to Snake Island, but we still had a question about our accommodations on the island. Checking out of a nice hotel with all of the amenities to hang out in a shack on a deserted island didn’t appeal to either of us much. It took a while to find it, but we eventually discovered the retreat center that the company sometimes used on Snake Island and discovered that it was more than adequate. In fact, from the photos, it looked almost luxurious.
“So, what do you think?” I eventually asked, knowing that Eva had been very nervous about packing up and moving all of our stuff to the island retreat.
“It all checks out and it appears that Enrique is on the level,” she replied.
“But?” The tone that she had used made me ask the question.
“Nothing.” Her response said one thing, but her expression said something else.
“If you’re uncomfortable about it, we can just stick to our plan.” I was giving her a way out.
“No. Let’s go. It’s off the beaten path and it isn’t following the plan. Those things bother me some, but it is an opportunity to look deeper into our subject matter.” She seemed to be warming up to the idea the more she talked about it.
“You don’t like wandering off of a set plan much, do you?”
“How’d you guess?” The way that she pressed her thick lips together made me want to lean in and kiss her. The thought of doing that made my face turn red and I turned away, hoping she wouldn’t see it.
Her smile broadened and I knew that I’d been caught, but she didn’t say anything. “Okay, so, let’s see what we can find out about this Snake Island. What’s there? What are we looking for? That sort of thing. We should lay out a plan.”
After an hour of searching, we hadn’t come up with a great deal more than the brief outline that was given on Mayan Odysseys’ website and a large collect
ion of folklore accounts that added a great deal of intrigue to the island’s origin, but added little hard data to help us make any concrete plans.
“Looks like we’re going to have to be a little bit spontaneous on this one.” I could tell by the look on her face that spontaneity made her a bit uncomfortable. I wondered if all spontaneity made her that way or just when she was on a trip to a different country with someone who was a virtual stranger.
“Yeah.” Yeah, again she pressed her lips together. She raised her eyebrows as well and then shrugged.
“Maybe Enrique will be able to fill us in a little bit during the boat ride out to the island. It doesn’t look like it is very far out. About 30 km, I think.” I’d found the island on Google Maps and zoomed in as close as I could. It wasn’t very large and there was little to no data present. From the satellite view, it simply looked like it was covered with trees. I could make out what was very likely the roof of the retreat center and a small dock, but little else was revealed in that view.
“So, how are you with spontaneity?” she asked.
The question caught me by surprise, not only because I didn’t expect it, but because I was pretty focused on the map, trying to extract even the smallest detail to help give us some sort of clue as to what we might be getting ourselves into. “Um, yeah, I’m okay with it I guess. I haven’t really thought about it.”
“So, what do you think about?” She had closed her laptop and stretched out across the bed on her stomach, looking up at me with her dark eyes.
“I don’t know. The regular stuff. School and that sort of thing.” Her sudden interest in knowing my thoughts started making me nervous again. I looked at the clock on my laptop, hoping that it was late and that I could make an excuse to get out of the conversation. I was having no such luck.