Chapter 28
Lucky for Pisco she was having a bad dream. It was a dream that she usually had - or tried to have, tried to pursue rather. She was diving into a deep spring but usually never reached far, never lower than chest level, for something was always blocking her path. This time however nothing blocked her way and down she went, deeper, deeper into the bad dream.
The spring of her dreams was not bigger than fourteen feet on the surface level but the darkness around her made it seem that it had no walls, no limits. No matter, for she wasn't interested in the width of the spring but its depth, for all she wanted to go was deeper. The deeper she went, the less she could see, she wanted to see nothing. It got to a point where was not able to see beyond half the length of her arm. But what she was able to see for some reason was as bright as if the sun shone in front of her. She realised that she was phosphorescent. A thrill rapidly moved through her at this realisation. She was made of light.
Slowly she moved deeper and deeper, thinking that this could go on forever jubilantly hoping that it would. It was so peaceful and she was alone but then a fish whizzed by, a fish with red scales.
'Here!' she commanded, soundlessly, and the fish returned. 'Go!' she then said, and the fish left once again. 'So I'm master of this spring.' she said to herself delightedly, and dived deeper.
She started to hear something, some kind of noise that she couldn't make out. She thought at first that the water pressure was getting to her. This however did not disturb her and with the phosphorescent light that shone from her she went lower. The noise got louder. She asked herself what was going on. If the pressure was troubling her ear, how come she felt no pain? And why did it seem like it came from without? One shouldn't be able to hear noise under the water…
She dived further and further until she concluded that the noise indeed was being made by someone else or - by other people, as she began to hear it all around her. What's more, the sound was becoming familiar to her. 'Come,' ordered Pisco again. The red fish appeared almost instantly. She raised her hand slowly. 'Go there and come back.' The fish flew in that direction, out of sight.
Pisco began to waving her arms around, scooping the water, making circles that turned into semi circles, and then circles again. 'Where are the bubbles? Am I not breathing…am I still alive?' She stopped making circles, unable to see the bubbles. 'Why can I hear something when I'm dead? Is it possible to hear underwater at all even if you're alive?' The red fish stopped her musings as it returned. She stared at it momentarily. It had blue eyes…'Go,' she then ordered. The fish left. Pisco swam towards where the fish had come from.
The noise increased but it wasn't thumping. It was something rhythmic and she could tell all those who were doing it, whatever they were, were doing it in the same way. The noise was giving her angst, not the noise itself, but the familiarity of it. She continued course but slowed as the angst was building. Suddenly she came across something sticking out, and noticed that it was the top of a hard surface, something made of stone. Something made of stone inside the water? For a moment she stared blindly at it, and then slowly swam past it and turned to get a good look at what it was. The noise was coming from a statue. There was a statue, a stone statue, in the spring! She marvelled to herself. 'Oh, my, what…' Pisco turned around and vaguely saw another statue not too far. She dived lower, trying to find the face of the statue, but had to swim around to see it. Her phosphorescence didn't have much reach, so she had to be close to see what she was looking for. The face quickly became apparent to her but once she saw it, she quickly swam backwards. The statue was in the shape of their candles, moving its mouth. Frightened, she moved back more so that the dark water could cover the sight of a moving statue. But her phosphorescence seemed to increase. 'Stop!' she ordered soundlessly still; but master no more the light did not obey. The entire spring was beginning to get illuminated. All around her were stone statues chewing, the light's brilliance taking away the water itself. 'Why am I seeing this? Why am I seeing stone statues underwater like they're; stone statues moving under water like they're… the only things that should move underwater are… - what do they have in their mouths?' She did not want to see what they were chewing in their mouths. 'Please…I don't want to see,' she pleaded. Helplessly, she looked in the mouth of one of the statues. She saw a human limb being tossed around in its mouth. This one was chewing a leg, a severed leg, of flesh and blood, while the others...reflexively, morbidly, despite knowing what she would find, she looked at the mouths of the other statues and without fail of them were chewing different parts of a human body. She saw an arm in one, a foot in another, a finger in the next…the sight of something one doesn't wish to see sharpens the eyes like nothing else: there was even an ear in one of these stone mouths. Some intense force of pursuit was making her look at all these stone statues, searching for identification. Yet still, she knew who it was, dreadful though the realisation would be. 'No,' she whimpered. 'Not before the sacrifice!' She looked up thinking catastrophe had split Heaven's Bridge and then swept her gaze back to the mouths of the countless stone statues. Pisco had noticed something. They had been chewing for some time and though it was slow, under water, the limbs still remained as any human limbs were. None of them had even a scratch as far as she could tell, besides the initial severing, and despite them being in the process of mastication. 'Where is the head?' she asked herself. As soon as she asked, the statue near her lifted up its arm and she looked down, dread inexpressible making her a prisoner. 'What…but I don't -' she saw bubbles come out her mouth, her mouth enlarging to grotesque proportions as a head came out of her mouth, along with a thick liquid creating a slipstream. It stopped when it got to its nose, leaving only the eyes of the head poking out of Pisco's mouth.
Pisco's shock forced her awake. She quickly sat up and spat on the floor next to the straw floor bed, and instead of inhaling she caught her breath in suspense, staring hard to see what had come out of her mouth this time. She released her breath in relief. She hadn't collapsed Heaven's Bridge. Not yet anyway. The sacrifice would happen as it was supposed to.
Chapter 29
Lana, like Pisco, also slept through the night. Something he was used to of late and this day he woke refreshed, his whole body suffused with oversleep. Late in the morning, he walked up the stairs of Heaven's Bridge and did so with a smile of somnolence - an air of peace, fresh from the indulgence of a sybarite; and even as he ascended the stairs he breathed slowly, deeply: the breath of sleep, despite his exertions which took no toll on him. All because he had overslept three nights in a row. He was thinking about his future self that he had most recently experienced. Lana was sure that it concerned pain. 'And I slept so well after that,' he said to himself with surprise. 'Why would the pain of others make me sleep so well?' After considering it momentarily he laughed softly to himself.
He was about to pass a ledge when he noticed a woman coming out of a house. As soon as she saw him, she stopped, made as if to make a rapid turn, but decided against it. She made her way to the staircase. Lana stopped and watched her come towards him.
Lana had always been someone who was well liked, by both sexes, and this love had been reciprocal. But it was platonic, never romantic. For some reason Lana had never felt any romantic feeling for anyone, despite him being in his late twenties. At first he thought it might have something to do with his sleeplessness but even in his early teens he had felt no inclination for women or men. When the sleeping problems began the disinterest deepened further. He was curious to find out if his asexuality would continue now that he had found the greatest sleep of his life. After all, his mother said it was a good time to have a baby.
'Where is my virility?' he asked himself mockingly. 'Are you there?' Smiling at his internal question, Lana felt the warmth of repressed laughter and made it seem like his delight was for the approaching Cui.
'Hello, Cui,' he began, smiling away from her; and then, scratching his chin, with his eyes still averted, Lana asked, 'Are you happy?'
'Ye- sorry?' she asked, startled, moving forward as one does when one thinks one has misheard something.
Her confusion and blush made the asexual man smile and he let the silent moment linger a little.
'I said how are you? Are you happy?'
'Oh. Yes. I'm fine, thank you. Happy?' she repeated, frowning while eying him wondering if he was mocking her. 'I'm happy. Where are you - which way are you going?' she asked him.
'Well, I was going up but seeing -' Cui had a small basket in her hand, 'my timing, my mind has been changed.'
'Oh?'
'Would you like to teach me something?'
'Teach you?' repeated Cui. 'Teach you what?'
'You know something that a lot of people don't.'
'What's that?'
'Walk down with me.'
They started their descent.
'What is that I know that other people don't? Everyone here knows how to do what everyone else knows how to do.'
'Really? What's that in your hand? Only a couple people know how to do that.'
'You mean carry a basket?'
She had thin lips and a lot of tongue was visible when she smiled. She also pushed her neck out in mischief, coquetry.
'I mean what you put into that basket.'
'Oh. I really don't know what I was supposed to have learned,' Cui answered, in a darkened tone, turning away. 'I can't remember the last time I found more than two mushrooms. It's either I'm losing my eyes or I'm losing my learning.'
'You're still fresh. How long have you been doing this?'
'One year.'
'Hmm. Not that fresh. Strange,' Lana added chuckling. 'Maybe it's just…you need someone to look up to you. To sharpen things. Some people need a student to truly understand their art and express themselves.'
'Are you even allowed to learn that?' she asked with a questioning glance. 'I would have thought that if so you would have known it by now.'
'They don't need so many people to know it. It's basically only for one person. So really they need only one person to pick these mushrooms.'
'I think maybe that I'll be the only one to do it soon. Huayta keeps talking about us needing a new midwife. Seems like she wants to do that.'
'You don't want to be a midwife?'
'I don't like seeing people in pain.'
'Seems I do,' he said musingly.
'It makes me shiver thinking of all the dead babies she'll be around.'
Lana slowed to let the words sink in and then replied, while measuring her:
'I'd say she'll be dealing with more live ones than dead ones. How many have died here? It's just a handful I recall - and all of them have been hers. Crazy coincidence; and I can see why she would want to see a new midwife. It's only three people in the room and every time, it's the third person that dies, the baby. Of course you'll blame the only other person with you every time. It's hard to see any child dead, let alone your own child - it hollows the soul. She's still got pep however for all that she's gone through. You're going to see the sacrifice tomorrow?'
Lana was beginning to lose his deep, even breath and was once again breathing the short, sharp breaths of agitation, the delicious drowsiness of before completely clearing out. He noted this with curiosity. What was it about this instance that caused it?
'Of course. Everyone's going.'
They reached the outer ring of the forest.
'It'll be the second one I've seen. I wonder if it will be a day like this. A good day for mushroom hunting is a good day for sacrifice. It's so bright.'
She looked up at the sun, squinting her eyes, shielding her eyes with one hand and then turned to Lana, whose face arrested her.
'Why do you look so young today? What's different?'
'Do I look young…I don't know. Maybe it's the eyes…your eyes I mean.'
She looked away while saying:
'I didn't say that was a good thing. Your dark circles are lightening. You're starting to look like that priest and he's...'
'Is there something there,' he asked himself, looking down at Cui. 'Maybe there is.'
'Is Huayta coming ?' Lana asked, not hearing what she thought the priest was like.
'No, she has something to do today. I don't know,' she sighed. 'I hope I can find like three today.'
'I'm telling you that you're going to find five!' he said with sudden alacrity. 'You have to impress me.'
She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. She put her basket down and scanned the forest floor.
'Did you call it hunting mushrooms? Hunting?'
'Yeah. It's like hunting for an animal. Like some small, wily animal. You think it's here or there and then it's somewhere else. Once you spot it you have to rush for it, or else your eyes will lose its exact location because it blends so well with the forest floor.' She stopped suddenly, crouched down and reached for something and pulled it up. Without lifting up from her crouching position she put the mushroom up to her face. 'I can't believe this. Maybe I did need a student. Haha!'
For the next two hours Lana was closely watching as Cui focused on hunting down mushrooms with quick, lightning-like movements, herself like a small, wily animal, the sparse canopy of forest tops providing her good light. However, her first fortuitous find proved to be a false alarm. As time passed she would only have two to show for her labour.
Frustrated, she finally said, now in the interest of self defence:
'Huayta was also starting to have problems finding them. It might really be that they're being over harvested or just disappearing.
'She said that?' Lana said quickly but with a low, breaking voice.
'They might be going extinct. Maybe it's the soil itself…' she said musingly as she patted the ground.
'Is this really...it can't be. What are you saying?' He thought back about the sleeplessness that he just now was getting rid off, about how good he felt, how cleared of all that was clogging his senses, his being. These mushrooms, something about them or the experience, whatever it was, he had to...
'These may be the last ones ? Ever ? Is that what you're telling me? So sudden! Surely not…haha.' A more feeble, painful laugh would be hard to find.
She shrugged.
'Maybe it is. I don't see why we need a priest and a sacrifice anyway. Why do we need both? If we can't have a priest that supposedly transcends for our benefit, we still have the sacrifice. Maybe we should have two of them to make up for not having a priest.'
Lana wasn't listening.
'What are you going to do with those mushrooms? Lemme get one.'
He crouched down beside her, reached into the basket, grabbed a mushroom.
'But the priest -'
'He's dying anyways. If these mushrooms are finished, let the practice itself finish with this priest. Isn't that better rather than the new priest starting something and then a few days - no more mushrooms? I want to keep this as a…memento.'
'But we still need enough while he's still alive. These priests die the strangest deaths! Their dying takes such turns.'
'Don't worry. We've finished his tomb,' said Lana coolly, but with a troubled mien. He was nearly crushing the mushroom hard in his fist. 'Once your tomb is finished, there's not much time left for you.'
Cui froze as something arrested her; one could tell she tried with all her being to focus on it and then like a snake struck out towards the ground. She then, carefully and purposefully, started spreading the twigs, woodland anemone, little white flowers; fallen leaves and other forest paraphernalia. Lana watched with elation and hope. Soon, however, she stopped doing it and Lana, crestfallen, watched as she admitted defeat, brushing the forest floor with nothing more than derision. He started to think that she was right, that the mushrooms were done for, and with dread started to think of a return to the frustration he was used to. If only he could think of why they couldn't sleep in Heaven's Bridge then he would be fine, he would be able to fix the issue at its roots. But for now he had a mushroom in his hand and didn't need to. At the very least the sleep it would allow would give him time to think. Soon however there would be no escape.
Chapter 30
Huayta, unlike Lana and Pisco, did not sleep well at all, and as such, was furious, despite it being a regular occurrence. Yet she had heard good news. The boy was recovering from his encounter with the stonefish. Huayta grabbed a bowl and made her way to the river.
Huayta had had a partner with whom she had three stillborn children and many miscarriages over time and who had long since left her, seeing as all her children died in childbirth or in the womb and he wanted to raise his children and not see them dead before he had a chance to. But there were times where they would still be together for the sake of nostalgia. They had had partaken in this nostalgia not that long ago and now she felt that she was pregnant again.
'That midwife better not show her face anywhere near me this time, wriggling her way into the room. She has an uncanny ability to be there when you're giving birth,' Huayta added with vexed perplexity. 'And at that point I can't do anything about her being there, being in full labour. How can I make sure she isn't anywhere near me when I give birth?' She was close to the bottom of the stairs, mumbling, 'Have to save my baby…have to save their baby. Ridiculous!'
In an almost manic state she made her way to the river, which was beginning to have more visitors now that the boy was recovering. Her state was attracting some attention.
'What is this? How can…what is the reason? Why do I keep getting pregnant if they are not allowed to live past childbirth? I've never heard a single one of my babies cry with life, not once! Three times!'
She was trying to hold in the wracking sobs, sitting by the river, looking into the river in search. But she could not stop her tears from coming.
'Three times! And now no doubt there will be a fourth time. Constantly pregnant, constantly my breasts are filled with milk and for what?'
Huayta scooped in the river water and filled the ceramic bowl. She then rose and made her way back to the stairs with her face undergoing dreadful convulsions. The people who saw her were stunned to witness such visible pain and turmoil, and in fear stayed away.
'How many of my own sacrifices are enough, to be allowed something to myself? One wasn't enough. Neither was two. Will three be enough of a sacrifice?' she almost cried out. 'To give something dearest to you just as you…the universe knows how much I wanted these children and, and…and took them as - tribute. That was no sacrifice, that was tributary in fact - murder. Murder it was murder! That sepulchral, execrable midwife! My own personal Fury! I need to put stones in front of my door to block her, on the night of childbirth. I relinquish, accede, give, give and give! To the point where it is a gift no longer but extraction, a theft. What belongs to me, me only? Is everything subject to be parted with, and what are the limits? Sick! and that agent !' Huayta nearly screamed, as she entered the house of Maita and Amaru.
Both of them were transfixed watching their sleeping baby as if they were in an opium dream, hooked on its slumber. The bowl in Huayta's hands was held more tightly now. 'That agent exists only to take from me! And every time I have to give more? Enough!'
'Watch out!' Huayta hissed.
The parents started and reflexively leaned backwards. Huayta splashed the stone fish on the baby's face.
