The Luck of the Maya. Theodore Brazeau
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less across the border. There is nothing there anyway. It’s not like Brownsville, with a big city on the other side and you can’t even cross right there at Chetumal, there’s no road and there is no town or anything to cross to.”
“I was mostly at home on the rancho with the cows and chickens and pigs. We did the usual country things, weeding gardens, gathering eggs, shoveling stuff, riding horses. The horses I loved, the rest not so much.”
“My grandfather would tell us bedtime stories, mostly old Mayan tales. Some of them were pretty scary.”
“Like what?” Jeb asked. “Tell us one. We’re not busy here.”
“Well…OK,” Lucy said, “but you might not like it.”
“Try us,” Jeb replied.
“All right, get ready. Here goes.”
This was a time with just a little of the beginning of dawn on the face of the earth. There was not even the Sun.
But there was one who thought very highly of himself. This one was called Seven-Macaw, or Vukun-Cakix
The Sky and Earth were already there, but the Sun’s and the Moon’s faces were cloudy. They say that the light was provided by Seven-Macaw.
But now began the defeat of Seven-Macaw by the two boys, the hero-twins Hun-Ahpu and Xbalanque.
The hero-twins were gods and they regarded the self-aggrandizement of Seven-Macaw as evil. So they talked about it.
“Let’s get rid of him. We could make him sick. We could kill him while he’s eating. We could get rid of all his brilliance, his metal, his jade and jewels.”
“So be it,” they said. And so they picked up their blowguns and went off together.
Now, Seven-Macaw had two sons: Zipacna, the builder of mountains, and Cabrakan, or Earthquake, who tore down mountains. Their mother was Chimalmat, the wife of Seven-Macaw
“Here I Am. I am the Sun,” said Seven-Macaw
“Here I am. I am the maker of the Earth,” said Zipacna.
“Here I am. I am the destroyer of mountains,” said Cabrakan.
The twins said this was puffed up evil. And then they planned deaths and disappearances of those who practice self-aggrandizement.
They took up their blowguns and climbed the great nance tree of Seven-Macaw and hid in the leaves and branches. Now Seven-Macaw eats each day of the fruit of the nance tree, and he came there that morning.
Seven-Macaw was eating the nance fruit when he was shot by Hun-Ahpu. The blowgun dart hit him in the jaw, breaking his mouth, and he fell to the ground.
Hun-Ahpu ran to Seven-Macaw to grab him, but Seven-Macaw instead grabbed the arm of Hun-Ahpu and tore it out of his shoulder.
Even so, the twins thought they had done well.
Seven-Macaw, holding his wounded mouth carefully and carrying Hun-Ahpu’s severed arm, went on home.
“What is going on? What have you got there?” asked Chimalmat, his wife.
“The trickster twins shot me in the jaw,” he answered. “All my teeth are loose and they ache. I have Hun-Ahpu’s arm here and I’ll hang it over the fire.”
Meanwhile, Hun-Ahpu and Xbalanque thought about it. They called upon the First Grandfather, named Great White Peccary, and First Grandmother, named Great White Tapir.
They said to them, “please go with us. We’re going to Seven-Macaw’s to get our arm back. We’ll just follow right behind you.”
“You can tell Seven-Macaw, ‘please forgive these children we are bringing with us. Their father and mother are dead. We might give them away because all we seem to do is pull worms from their teeth’.”
They approached Seven-Macaw’s home, where he was out in front yelling loudly because his teeth hurt.
“Where are you going, Grandfather?” asked Seven-Macaw.
“Just going around trying to make a living,” replied the Grandfather.
“Please take pity on me,” cried Seven-Macaw, who’s teeth were very painful. “What medicines can you make? What potions will cure me?”
“We just pull worms out of teeth, and we cure eyes. We set bones, too,” replied the two.
“Good. Please cure my aching teeth. It is horrible. I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. Those two tricksters shot me and my teeth are loose.”
“Very well, sir. There is a worm gnawing at the bone of the teeth. We will merely pull out the teeth and put in a replacement.”
Seven-Macaw thought aloud, “but maybe it wouldn’t be good to take my teeth out, since I am a lord whose finery and brilliance are my teeth.”
“We’ll put in new teeth made of ground bone. All will be fine,” they replied.
“All right, pull them out! I can’t stand the pain!” said Seven-Macaw.
But when they pulled his teeth, instead of ground bone, they replaced them with white corn. Seven-Macaw’s face no longer looked brilliant or handsome. With the last tooth, the jewels of his mouth were no more.
And then they trimmed back the last of the brilliant metal from his eyes, and he was great no more, just as Hun-Ahpu and Xbalanque had planned.
And then Seven-Macaw died, and Chamalmat died also, in despair, and so Hun-Ahpu got back his arm. The arm was reattached and healed.
The two boys went on their way. What they did they had done to obey the word of Heart of Sky.
There was a short silence. Jeb said, “is that it?”
“Yes, that’s it for now. The Hero-twins had other adventures at other times,” replied Lucy.
“Lucy,” Jeb said, “I hate to tell you this, but that story makes no sense at all.”
“Well,” she said, a little defensively. “It has a moral. You shouldn’t be a braggart or arrogant. That’s a good rule.”
“I suppose,” Jeb replied, “but the point could be made without tearing peoples arms off and committing murder. Do you really tell these stories to little tiny kids? To cute little girl-kids like you were, hugging a little doll in your arms?”
“Of course we do,” she huffed. “And don’t get so smarty. What about Hansel and Gretel, witches cooking and eating little children. That’s even worse.”
“What about Goldilocks, bears eating little child thieves. Horrible story. Or Little Red Riding Hood, wolves eating a cute little girl child and her grandmother, too, not to mention the packed lunch.”
“Point taken,” Jeb admitted, “but I still think the story line needs work. Seem to be some gaps there. And who are those other guys, Zapac and Caber or whatever. What happened with them?”
“Zipacna and Cabrakan. Well, that’s another story, but if you are going to be so snotty.”
“Sorry, go ahead, maybe it will end the suspense,” sighed Jeb.
“OK,” Lucy replied, “just hang on.”
“Hanging on every word.” Jeb said, looking out the window.
“Now I’ll tell you the story of Zipacna.”
That didn’t happen.
THE DESERT / EL DESIERTO
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