He pulled out his cell phone and popped a speed-dial button. But the woman at the ER nurses’ station said that Dr. Wise had gone home sick. What was it? She didn’t know, and here he heard a little hesitancy, something not quite right. Was it serious? This is her husband. Sorry, Mr. Wise, she had no information on that. He broke the connection and dialed home. Five rings and Amelia’s little voice saying they couldn’t come to the phone right now could you leave a…
He called again with the same result and then dialed Lola’s cell phone, which he knew was like one of her breasts, always in reach and always warm. He got her answering service. Now in something close to panic, he skirted the counter and went into the back room. The two women were at a table, and both looked up, startled, as he entered. He explained the situation. The two exchanged an unreadable look.
“We’re almost done,” his mother said. “Go and wait. We’ll drive over to the school.”
Paz walked out without a word and called Tito Morales, and got another answering service. No one wanted to talk to him today. He was about to call for a cab when Mrs. Paz and Julia emerged, the former holding a small brown paper bag.
“We can go now,” she said. “Everything will be all right.”
“Let me drive,” he said. And he did, with reckless speed.
Amelia is up in the tree, in violation of strict orders not to climb higher than Miss Milliken can reach. Normally she is an obedient child, but this thing in the tree seems outside of normal constraints, like being in a dream. As soon as she reaches the hammock, Moie continues the story where he left off, as if she has not been away for more than a minute.
“So when Rain saw that Caiman would eat the whole world, she went to Sky and mated with him and out of her came Jaguar. She said to him, Jaguar, you are chief of all the beasts now. You must stop Caiman before he eats the whole world that our family has made. So Jaguar attacked Caiman and they fought for many hands of years. But Caiman was too strong. With his mighty tail Caiman threw Jaguar high into the air, up to the moon, so that he crashed into it. This is why you still see his face on the moon. When Jaguar fell back to earth he landed on a field of barren rock, with no food to eat. He was starving. Then came the Hninxa, and she said to him, Jaguar, eat my flesh. I will make you strong enough so that you can defeat Caiman, so he will not eat the whole world. So Jaguar ate the Hninxa…”
“What’s a Hninxa?” asks Amelia.
“No one knows,” says Moie. “There are no animals like that anymore. But this is what we call the little girls we give to Jaguar, so that Caiman does not come back and eat the world again. Now, Jaguar was strengthened so much by the flesh of the Hninxa that he defeated Caiman. He broke off Caiman’s long legs, so that he could not crawl far from River, and he broke off half of his tail, and from this he made all the fishes. He said: Caiman, you will not run on the land now, but crawl and eat only the fish I have made from your tail. And Caiman went to the water. But his spirit flew out into the world and became many hands of demons. Now, these demons are still alive and still wish to eat the world. And Jaguar thought, I will make First Man, and he and his people will help me rule the beasts, and if Caiman attacks me again I will have strong allies. So he did. Now it is many hands of years after that time, as many hands as the leaves in the forest, and the demons of Caiman’s spirit are in the wai’ichuranan, and they want to eat the world again. So Jaguar called me and said, Moie, take me to Miami America so I can fight Caiman as I did long ago. So I came. And Jaguar said also, I will send to you a hninxa of the wai’ichuranan and you will give her to me to eat, and then I will have strength over the wai’ichuranan demons. That is why I am in this tree.”
“Did Jaguar send you a…one of those little girls yet?”
“Yes.”
“Who is it?”
“It is you,” says Moie, and he smiles, showing his sharpened teeth.
Amelia stares at him, then giggles. “That was a good story,” she says. “Would you like to hear a story?”
“Yes, I would.”
But before she is more than halfway through The Little Mermaid she hears shouting from below, Miss Milliken’s voice and her father’s voice.
“I have to go,” she says.
“Wait,” says Moie, and dipping his finger into a small clay pot, he presses a spot of ointment to the back of her neck. It feels warm on her neck for a moment. She scampers down from limb to limb and drops like a warm mango into her father’s arms.
After that she has to endure a stern lecture from the teacher, which her father supports. It is dangerous to climb into the tree. Does she want Miss Milliken to keep her indoors while the other children played? She does not. Well, then.
As parent and child walk away, Paz asks, “What were you doing up there, baby?”
“Nothing. Eating Fritos and watching the bugs. Did you have imaginary friends when you were a kid?”
“Probably, but I don’t remember.”
“I think it’s very babyish. I have a friend named Moie who’s half imaginary and half not imaginary.”
“Really? Like Mary Poppins?”
They have been strolling across the lawn to the parking lot, but now she stops short and looks at him severely, a look he has seen any number of times on her mother’s face. But this fades and is replaced by one more confused. “I forgot what I was going to say.”
“That happens to me all the time. Was it something about your imaginary friend?”
She shrugs. Then the animation returns to her face and she asks, “If God said you should kill me with a big knife, would you?”
“Why do you ask?”
“We had Bible study. They used to kill little boys and girls. It’s a sacrifice. I think Abraham was mean to sacrifice his little boy just ’cause God said.”
“But he didn’t sacrifice him.”
“No, but he was going to. I think God was mean, too.”
“It’s just a story, honey. Abraham had faith that God wouldn’t really make him do anything bad to his little boy.”
Again that dreamy expression crosses her face and clears.
“Isaac. There’s a Isaac in my class. He brought his Game Boy to school and Miss Milliken took it away and gave it back later.”
After a short pause she asks, “Anyway, would you?”
“No,” replies Paz without thought.
“Even if God would be mad at you?”
“Let him be. I still wouldn’t.”
“People who let themselves get sacrificed are martyrs, did you know that? And they get to be angels and fly around in heaven. Oh, look there’s Abuela!”
“Abuela!” she cries and runs across to the car and hoists herself through the window into her grandmother’s lap. The two chatter happily in Spanish for the whole drive to South Miami while Paz tries several times to get his wife to answer her cell phone, and grows increasingly worried.
At the house, after Mrs. Paz departed in her Cadillac, Paz and his daughter went around the back, and Paz noted that Lola’s bike was not in its place. She must have taken a cab home, which did not bode well at all. He paused before the door and said, “Look, kiddo, your mom’s a little sick and I want you to try and be real quiet, okay?”
“Okay. What’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t know. Probably a little flu or something. Just watch cartoons for now, and later you can help me make our dinner.”
“I could make it myself.”
“I’m sure,” he said and opened the door.
“What’s in the bag, Daddy?” the child asked.
“Nothing, just some stuff Abuela gave me.”
