Tlacotalpan is a small town in the state of Veracruz, in case you didn’t know. (I’ve never heard you mention it, so I don’t know if you do … ) It’s on the banks of a big river, the Papaloapan. Someone there has been sending us the postcards. They have a message for me. Or maybe it’s for both of us—you and me?
I don’t really feel like blogging anymore. I’m too nervous.
32
I wake up on the bus to Tlacotalpan to find Ixchel asleep and slumped against my chest, with my arm around her. I don’t want to move her away, because that might wake her up. On the other hand, it’s hard to get back to sleep now that I know we’re practically cuddling.
How weird is that?
So I stay exactly where I am, trying not to move my hand too much. I try to breathe like I’m asleep. And I try to ignore how nice and cozy this feels—which is the hardest job of all.
It doesn’t last long. Ixchel stirs against me. For about one second she squeezes me tightly. Then she sits bolt upright, staring at me like she’s seen a ghost.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing!”
“Are you trying to … ?”
I gasp. “No way—are you kidding?”
“So what … ?”
“You leaned on me! I just woke up a few seconds ago.”
“You didn’t think to get your hands off me?”
“Hey! I didn’t want to wake you up!”
Ixchel fumes. “Sure. Of course you didn’t.”
She shuffles into the corner of her seat. I sigh. Clearly, I can’t win.
I pull the plastic grocery-store bag from under my seat. It’s stuffed with snacks and drinks that we bought in the bus station at Villahermosa. I open up a carton of pineapple juice. We each take two Gansitos. For the next few minutes we munch on the squishy cream-and-jam-filled chocolate-covered cakes.
“What’s the plan when we get to Tlacotalpan?” asks Ixchel, sucking juice through a straw.
I’ve tried not to think about this all night long. It hasn’t been too hard—there have been other things to distract me. The biggest one—time travel. Did Montoyo actually say that? It was only a couple of days ago, but already the memory feels foggy, distant.
He couldn’t be serious. Could he?
I’ve been trying to think of any other explanation for why the codices are written in English. But I guess anything I come up with, the Mayas in Ek Naab will have thought of.
Itzamna was a time traveler … ?
It sounds too ludicrous. But then I ask myself—what is the Revival Chamber? Is it the time-travel device?
Is Itzamna still floating around somewhere in time?
Ixchel’s voice interrupts my thoughts. “You know what I’m thinking about?” she says.
“Nope.”
“I’m wondering about Chan and Albita. Why do you think they appeared to us in our dream?”
“How should I know? I don’t even really know if that’s what happened.”
“What? You know it did.”
“If they did, then it must have been to show us the way out of there.”
“So we didn’t end up trapped down there, like Albita?”
I nod slowly. “Yeah.”
“And you don’t think there’s maybe another reason?”
I shrug, clueless. What’s she getting at?
Ixchel yawns, begins to speak in a dreamy, faraway voice. “I’ve never been in a haunted place before, you know. We bury the dead of Ek Naab far from the city, in a cemetery on a hill surrounded by an orange grove. They don’t come anywhere near us. We visit them on the Day of the Dead, and that’s it. It seems to keep them happy. They spend all their time in the sun, after all.”
I don’t really know what to say to that. Somehow, telling her that I don’t believe in ghosts seems like a dumb thing to say.
“Are your parents still alive?”
“My father is.”
“But not your mom?”
Ixchel lowers her eyes for a second, and with a tiny movement, shakes her head.
“Oh,” I say, struggling for words. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Is … is that why you ran away? You don’t get along with your dad?”
“It’s more complicated. My mother died years ago. My father has a new wife and we don’t get along so well.”
I think about my own mother. I hadn’t ever really considered that she might marry again.
“I think I’d like it if my mom got married again,” I say. “She gets pretty sad sometimes. It would be good if there was someone else around for her.”
“Sure. That’s how it seems. Until it actually happens to you. Until they marry an evil witch.”