Mario Reading - The Mayan Codex

Calque looked at her strangely – then he shook his head, as if trying to rid himself of the presence of an intrusive fly. ‘The site at Kabah won’t be open until eight o’clock this morning at the earliest. We might as well get as close as we can and then pull over down a track. Get a little sleep in the car. Anyone have any better suggestions?’

Lamia and Sabir glanced at each other. Then they both shook their heads.

Calque threw himself back onto his seat. ‘Like Sabir always persists in saying, in that curious American way of his – I’ll take that as a yes, then, shall I?’

You had not expected the Maya man with the rifle to come back. Maybe, you thought, his pursuit of the pheasants had taken him far away – too far, perhaps, to consider returning? Or else his iguana had proved more elusive than expected? Maybe he had found no firewood? Your head sank lower on your chest.

Soon, you knew, you would simply curl up on the spot and fall asleep. The road between where you were and Villahermosa had been particularly difficult to accomplish. First you had been lucky. A market trader, his truck empty, had agreed for you to go in the back. Later, as was his right, he had taken on others. By the end of the journey, you were hanging out over the road, scared that you would fall off and burst your head on the highway. But somehow you had held on, your fingers turning into claws.

Then you had waited many hours for your next lift. But this man had taken you all the way to Campeche in his air-conditioned white car. The air had been so cold in the car that you had started to shiver. You would even have asked him to let you out if you had not been so sure that, after him, no more cars would stop for you. This man was a miracle in himself. A rich man. From Sinaloa. A man of substance.

At first you had been scared you would dirty his car, but later he told you that his father, too, had been a campesino, and that this was why he always offered lifts to those who needed them.

Campeche had been endless. You had walked and walked. After much time you had signalled a colectivo bus. You knew this was unwise, since you only had fifty pesos left to your name, but otherwise you knew you would collapse, and they would take you to the Cruz Roja, and you would lose your belongings, if not your soul.

When you looked up again from your thoughts, the Maya man was watching you. When he knew he had your attention he held up two iguanas. Two.

‘You see? You have brought me luck. Climb onto the front of my triciclo. I shall take you home. Can you cook?’

You shook your head. Your mother still cooked for you, and, in consequence, you had never learned how, as it would have been insulting to her.

‘No problem. I can cook. Can you make a fire at least?’

You nodded.

‘Bring yourself, then. We can make a space for you in here, by the firewood.’

Both Calque and Sabir were too wound up to sleep. Lamia had no such reservations. She drifted off right away, curled up on the back seat, like she always did, with her ankles drawn up beneath her, and her arms cradling her shoulders. But this time she was using Sabir’s jacket as a pillow.

The two men finally gave up the uneven struggle of the front seats. Without even discussing the issue, they both went outside to watch the sunrise.

‘You know what I love best in this world, Calque?’

Calque snorted in a lungful of fresh air. ‘No. But I suspect that you are going to tell me.’

Sabir closed his eyes ecstatically. ‘The way girls’ bottoms stick out when they walk.’

Calque pinched the bridge of his nose with his forefingers, as if he had acquired a sudden headache. ‘ Putain. But you’ve got it bad.’

‘So you were awake, huh? I thought you might have been. Being a police officer and all that. Trained to spy on people.’

Calque shrugged. ‘What did you want me to do? Pipe up and spoil your moment? There are things called Chinese walls, you know. You must have known I was awake because I wasn’t snoring for once. At least according to your theory.’

‘No. You did right. And I thank you for it. You called it, but I was too dumb to listen. If Lamia hadn’t taken the initiative, I’d probably be sitting in some bar in twenty years’ time, wallowing in regret.’

‘What? Like me, you mean?’

‘I didn’t say that.’

‘But you thought it.’

‘Haven’t you ever thought of remarrying, Calque? Starting another family? As you made so clear to me the other day, you’re not too old to begin again. Have another kid. You’ll only be seventy-five or thereabouts when she waltzes off with a serial-killing truck driver.’

‘Thank you. That’s very encouraging. I’ll definitely consider your proposition. Any particular woman in mind? Lamia, excepted, of course.’

‘Of course. Give me a little time to think about it. I’ll come up with something.’

‘Ah, what joys and sudden enhancements to confidence the unexpected possession of a woman can bring. You’ve changed, Sabir. Within the space of twelve hours you’ve become a human being again.’ Calque’s attention began to wander. ‘But not an American, eh? This woman you are proposing for me? You wouldn’t suggest that, would you?’

‘No. Never that. I’m not a sadist. You being a Frenchman and all.’

‘Thank you.’

Sabir snapped his fingers together. ‘How about a Mexican woman? Mexican women value men. They know how to treat them properly. Not slice off their balls and serve them back with a topping of vanilla sauce.’

Calque looked at Sabir, his face aghast. ‘Now you may really be on to something. Apart from the testicular analogy, that is.’ He appeared to be lost in thought for a moment or two, as if he were pondering some great, but as yet little-known, truth. ‘You do realize, Sabir, that no woman in the history of this earth knows what she really wants? She only knows when she gets it.’

Sabir was preparing to respond to Calque’s apercu when Lamia emerged from the back seat of the Cherokee, stretching.

‘What are you two talking about? You woke me up.’ She looked suspiciously at both men, weighing up their mood. ‘At least you’re not arguing again.’

Calque put on his most innocent smile. ‘We were talking about women.’

Lamia flushed.

‘Not specific women, you understand. Just women in general. Except in one particular respect.’

‘And what respect is that?’

‘Sabir tells me he particularly likes how your bottom sticks out when you walk.’

Sabir aimed a pretend cuff at the back of Calque’s head. ‘Damn it, Calque. What are you trying to do to me?’

‘Did you really say that, Adam?’

‘He really did.’ Calque was grinning from ear to ear.

‘And you like that? That part of me? How it moves?’

Sabir hesitated, sensing a trap. Then he threw caution to the winds. ‘I love it.’ He glanced up at her, gauging her reaction.

‘I like your saying it, then.’

‘You do?’

‘Yes. No one ever talked to me like that before. I like it.’ She turned back to the car, amused by their open-mouthed response to her statement. ‘Are you both coming? We could stop off for some breakfast before Kabah opens.’

‘No. We’ll just sit here and watch you, thanks.’

Lamia reached down and picked up a stick, which she brandished at them. ‘I don’t like it that much.’

‘Okay. Okay. We’ll go first. That suit you?’

‘No. I’ll go first. I think I’ve just decided I enjoy being admired.’

Acan Teul had been spending the entirety of every day at Kabah since the news about the eruption of the Pico de Orizaba volcano had reached the Halach Uinic.