Sun on the Rocks - The Marble Toucan
Chapter Seven
The following day, Clarity saw Duldu check an assortment of rails and a cabin that was brought on a large truck to the site of Xuleiha. The items came from a failed Colorado ski resort, which had closed its doors due to lack of profitability. Zephairi instructed Duldu to build an aerial cable car attached to a group of various tall Ceiba trees rising over one hundred and fifty feet tall, and stretching across the village. Some of those trees produced a light and strong fiber, kapok, used to make tapestries, mattresses, and pillows. The seed was used to make soap and fertilizers. The Maya considered Ceiba to be a sacred tree, and Zephairi was convinced that he could use the trees to create an aerial gondola that would allow tourists to see the Mayan site of Xuleiha from the tree line.
Within two weeks of additional work, four sets of aerial cable cars carried soil and stones from one area of Xuleiha to another, as a total of four pyramids were uncovered below the ground of Miradorcito. Duldu was often seen during the day, riding the cable car over Kish’s home and surreptitiously dropping large stones on the craftsman’s garden trying to dissuade him from staying in what was now the former village of Miradorcito. One day, Zephairi found the remains of an ancient Mayan ball game court precisely where Kish’s house was standing. The ball game was allegedly a Mayan blood sport, and was also considered sacred then. The game, known as Pok-a-tok, was part of religious ceremonies and most likely included prisoners, captured in battles from other Mayan cities. These warriors were then pitched in a 'gladiator' battle of Pok-a-Tok, whose goal was to carry a hard rubber ball with elbows, knees or hips, into a ring made of stone.
After the ballgame stadium was unearthed, it was clear that Kish’s home could not stay where it was, because it clashed with the rest of the ancient court found, between two raised temple areas over twenty feet tall. Kish received a visit from Zephairi and Duldu riding the cable car, which was flying unusually low above his thatched roof.
"Are you going to leave your home?" asked Zephairi. "We have a great tent set up for you in the neighboring camp and you can bring your loom inside if you want." Zephairi lowered a set of papers for Kish to sign, which would acknowledge the sale of his land to the Egyptologist's Alabastriah foundation. Looking at the cable car from below, Kish jumped several times to reach the papers, attached to a rope and pulled down by gravity and a small stone underneath the papers.
"No, I'm not selling, you're violating my air space." Zephairi shouted to the craftsman that the presence of the gondola was officially approved.
"The aerial cable car is part of the new resort, it's in the report on the environmental impact of turning Xuleiha into a gambling resort area, that 'Mangrove Barrier Resorts' has written to the governor of Campeche."
Clarity witnessed the scene, sitting with Lanai on the stone fence of Kish's home. They needed that report to make a case against the resort that Fahibian was trying to build. She told Lanai that the dangers of gambling were probably written in that report, but the Malibu librarian belittled and trivialized the dangers, disagreeing with Clarity. Bringing new jobs to Miradorcito was really the important issue, and the resort was a good thing for the village.
"What would you do if I was a problem gambler?" said Clarity, "What if I had lost a large sum of money?"
"I'd spend my money to cover your losses and learn a better way to play."
"That would create two money problems out of one, and two problem gamblers. I can't be friends with someone who likes to gamble large sums."
"Large sums?"
"Like fifty dollars, fifty dollars is a large sum."
Lanai replied that there was nothing wrong with losing a few dollars playing poker, and that she'd be Clarity’s friend regardless of how much money the Malibu teleoperator lost, but that her rigid attitude was making it difficult to be her friend.
"You're not letting me help you with your gambling problem," said Lanai.
"My hypothetical gambling problem. No, you're helping me by worsening my gambling problem, it's different, you should be steering me away from the gaming table." Disappointed by her friend's stubborn belief that gambling was simply a form of entertainment, Clarity withdrew to her tent. Shortly after, Lanai dropped by asking for socks and some underwear. The librarian was short of some clothing and was moving to the palapa of Ms. Morales at the request of the former head of the village.
"You're not staying with us anymore, in our tent?" asked Clarity.
"We're figuring out what the various discoveries here mean for the Mayan tradition. Ms. Morales wants to know more about the Book of Decadence, and I can help her with that, and possibly with finding the codex of Xuleiha that Flower and Zephairi are trying to find. I'm also thinking that I may want to experience the feeling of kundalini energy. I might as well move in with her, I'm nearly certain now that she is a shaman." Clarity gave her friend who was standing close to the line of being a former friend, a pair of socks and one of her bikini panties.
"You may be swallowed by the serpent."
"If I don't try it, I'll never know what the serpent is."
Clarity and Lanai walked over to the palapa of Ms. Morales, who ignored Clarity's suggestion to look for the environmental impact report. The woman was busy figuring out how to get rid of the air pollution created by the construction material brought in by Fahibian's crew. Complaining that she was finding Miradorcito, or what was left of it, somewhat noisy. The only artifact that she had managed to bring to her home while Duldu was busy quarreling with Kish over his property was a stone panel with some glyphs. They were addressed to future inhabitants of the area, depicting an expensive version of a toucan sculpture. As a keeper of the Mayan tradition, she was working with Lanai to decipher the meaning of those glyphs, but neither of them knew enough Maya pictogram language to understand them fully.
"Why is it that you dislike what I propose? I think I'm helping you and the village with all of what I'm doing." Ms. Morales placed the stone panel from stela B on the table.
"You're coming in trying to impose your view on us of how the village should look. Your idea of the ecovillage is not feasible here. No one cares about bringing renewable energy technology to this area. It's expensive and difficult to install."
"I think the idea of a sustainable economy is worthwhile. You're not facing the reality dawning on this village."
"We can solve all of our problems on our own."
Lanai sided with Ms. Morales, downplaying her favoring of the gambling resort and replying that preserving Mayan traditions was the direction needed by the village, in addition to re-enacting the Mayan Mysteries. Clarity saw Ms. Morales as a motherly figure, and she resented the fact that somehow, she was landing on the enemy side of the head of Miradorcito.
Kish interrupted their argument, knocking on the door of the palapa. Waving his hands up and down, then left and right, he pointed to all four cardinal points saying that a bus carrying a crew from Unesco's World Heritage Center was interested in the site of Xuleiha, to evaluate whether site met the criteria to become a world heritage site. They walked to the entrance of the village, where Zephairi was blocking the entrance with a two hundred ton payload capacity haul truck. Five people, weary from their trip, stepped out of the World Heritage bus. They were inspectors coming from the International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, a group based in Rome, Italy.
"What's the problem?" asked Ms. Morales.
"I'm in charge here," said Zephairi. He stepped towards the inspector leading the group, Mr. Owenbach.
"We'd like to see what's being discovered here," said the inspector, "someone called us from the governor's office in Campeche saying there was a new Mayan site worthy to be considered a World Heritage Site."
Zephairi shook his head, pointing to another bus, labeled with an ad for Egyptair, the Egyptian airline flag carrier, whose driver was honking relentlessly to drive inside the site and park.
"No, the Egyptian authorities are taking care of
all the excavations. This is not that big of a site, there's nothing that special here. We have a permit from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History."
Zephairi explained his grand project of dismantling one of the pyramids uncovered at Xuleiha, the large one, and of numbering each of its stones with chalk into an enormous pile ready for plane transportation onboard an Egyptair Airbus plane. Zephairi was seriously considering transporting the stones and all of Miradorcito's inhabitants onboard the same plane. In Zephairi's view of the site's urban refurbishing, the villagers would be moving to Egypt without giving their explicit consent, becoming a live tourist attraction there, as authentic descendants of the Mayan culture. Along with the villagers settling in Egypt, the Xuleiha pyramid would be rebuilt there, with the possible add-on of a small sphinx statue at the top, to show that the Egyptian people and its government had adopted the Mayan pyramid.
"We're not relocating to Egypt," said Ms. Morales, "the people of Miradorcito are not part of a circus that can be shown around."
"The villagers will relocate because Egypt is a good place, and because there is nothing to do here. In Egypt, there is work for them, we're just waiting for the final approval from the Egyptian government to rebuild the large Mayan pyramid found here in Xuleiha, near Cairo."
While Zephairi and Ms. Morales were arguing, Clarity walked near the second bus and noticed it was empty. The bus with the Egyptair ad was meant for the inhabitants of Miradorcito, who would be driven away from their village to a foreign place, somewhere in Egypt. Zephairi stopped arguing with Ms. Morales when the car of Fahibian approached at slow speed, stopping behind the Egyptair bus. Zephairi walked away from Ms. Morales to meet Fahibian.
Left without anyone to argue, Ms. Morales inquired with Mr. Owenbach about the criteria that Miradorcito had to meet to become a World Heritage Site. Among the requisites, Miradorcito had to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance, representing an example of outstanding biological ecosystems, and be directly or tangibly associated with events, living traditions, beliefs, artistic or literary works of outstanding universal significance.
"There is a codex which meets that criteria, but we're still searching for it," said Ms. Morales.
While Ms. Morales spoke with the representatives of the World Heritage Center, Clarity walked towards Fahibian's car from behind, outside the view of both passengers and of Zephairi. She kneeled down and grabbed the rear bumper of the car, sliding along to the driver's side, to overhear what Fahibian was saying to Zephairi on the other side of the car. In the passenger seat, Fahibian's girlfriend was trying to read a map of the area, making plans to stay for a few days in the Xel Ha sanctuary of marine life, 'the place where the water is born', according to the local Mayan language translation. She wanted to swim naked in one of the lagoons, but the real estate businessman was not too keen, letting her know instead about the selection of cocktails in one of the resorts and the open bar available.
Clarity listened to the conversation taking place with Zephairi. According to Fahibian, within a few days, an Egyptair plane would land in Cancún to take the inhabitants of Miradorcito to Egypt, with the whole move viewed as part of Mexican exports, counting in the calculation of Mexican gross domestic product exported to other countries.
"The governor of Campeche has just approved the license for two hundred fifty gaming machines and thirty table games. Is the site ready to open?" Zephairi stared at him in disbelief.
"Are you kidding, we're still excavating, we found a total of four pyramids, and it took us two weeks to set up the aerial tram and unearth the ball game court. You're bringing in tourists already?"
"Just some high profile people, actors, actresses, sports people and singers. My advisors in Belize are investing a large chunk of their money offshore, and they would like to gamble away some of the rest."
"Well, except for two homes, there is no more village. It's going to feel rural for them, we’d have to put them in tents."
"That's fine, as long as there's gaming here. Drive away these people from the World Heritage Center, will you, they are a pain, and we don't want anyone to oppose the new resort idea, we simply want the pyramids as a side attraction. Drive them to other Mayan sites you've been examining, but not here."
"That stupid employee of the governor of Campeche called on the World Heritage Center after Morales called to plea in favor of keeping the village as it was. He believes in the restoration and preservation of the Mayan identity." Fahibian looked in the distance at the site of Xuleiha in front of him, with all the excavators and haul trucks busily displacing large amounts of soil to reveal the four pyramids found and the new ball game court.
"This place is not that magnificent, it's simply that the land is cheap," said the real estate developer. "Cheaper than around Cancún and the Mayan Riviera."
It could also provide an additional credential as an important Mayan archaeology site, thought Zephairi, who had his mind on becoming the head of the Alabastriah foundation. Fahibian shook hands with Zephairi and got inside the driving seat of his car, not noticing the abounding mud on the side of the road, where Clarity had just enough time to hide by lying horizontally in a small crevasse.