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Jixticka was busy using a stick to fish her bundle of now cooked roots and nuts out of the coals, unwrapping them from the charred leaves that had both protected and steamed them, and setting them out on the same stone that she used to make her flour. In moments, they were all neatly mashed together to form a nutritious paste. Jixticka spread her paste into our tortillas and then her own. After taking a good bite, chewing and swallowing, Jixticka asked, “Do you mean all of those measurements that you took of my bones? The ones that you said only matched that ancient skeleton, what did you call him? The Kenniwick man?”
Jimena had to swallow some of her tortilla before answering, “This is good, Jixticka, thank you. No, while those measurements were an important consideration because of being unique, what convinced us more than anything were the things that you do not know. In every culture there are many things that are so basic that you don't even have to think about them. They are a part of you. Many of the things basic to our culture are completely absent from your knowledge.
“Conversely, there are many things about your culture that we cannot comprehend or only understand imperfectly. Your certainty about life after death being a commonplace thing where the dead continue to live alongside you in this life is one.”
Jixticka looked puzzled as she unrolled blankets that she had carried as a roll on her back. “Why should that be any problem at all? Even Msgr. Francesco agreed that many of your people believe in reincarnation. You have said so too.”
Jimena pursed her lips as she thought. At last she said, “We regard reincarnation as a rare event, usually happening only as partial memories of the past life. It is not like what you have described to us. For you, reincarnation seems to be something that people do routinely with their memories and personalities intact.”
Jixticka furrowed her brow as she tried to understand what Jimena was saying. It was obviously difficult. Finally, completely confused, she asked, “Why would anybody want to return to the cage of bones if they were not whole? The only other sensible things that you can do are become Almua, like I wish to do, or cease to exist. I do not speak for your people but most of my people do not want to come to an end. They like living in Stickapec's Face of the World. They choose to do that either as Almua or through returning to the cage of bones. It is a simple choice, isn't it?”
I nodded thoughtfully while I unrolled my sleeping bag and pointed out, “The choice is a simple one, yes, Jixticka. The problem that our people have is more basic. We do not know how to do those things. A choice that you cannot take is not really a choice, is it?”
Jixticka bit her lip to hold back tears as she replied, “I so much hope that you are wrong, Friar Issac. I cannot return to Stickapec because that whole Face of the World is now turned away from me by the Almua. In spite of that, I desperately want to return to my home. I should never have argued with Eketet Almua. I do not know how to unsay the hurtful things that I said to her but if it is possible for me to return, I will try.
“I turned my back on my friend and teacher. Friar Issac, never turn your back on one that you love. In my pride and anger I left Stickapec. Sut Almua found me at the Gate Stones and warned me that if I left, the Face of Stickapec would be closed to me. In my anger and pride, I did not listen. I left.
“When I saw what your Face of the World is like, I did try to return. As wise Sut Almua warned me, all that was there for me was the desolation that the valley of Stickapec shows to your Face of the World.”
Jimena was making more carefully written notes. She looked up from her work and asked, “Jixticka, I do not really understand this thing that you call Faces of the World. As wise as he is in many ways, Msgr. Francesco kept interrupting you with questions about Heaven, Earth and Hell while you tried to explain the idea. Can you help me to understand the Faces of the World better?”
The intellectual question seemed to help center our guide and friend. Jixticka gazed at the embers of her fire for a moment and nodded her head. “I think so, Jimena. Will you loan me your notebook for a few minutes? I think that I can show you what is hard to explain.”
Taking Jimena's notebook in her hand, Jixticka folded it shut. Holding it out, she said, “Here is the whole of the World. Now, I open it near the middle. This half is your Face of the World and this half is Stickapec's Face of the World. Both Faces are parts of a whole but they are separate things. See the lines? They are nearly the same but not quite alike. Here is your writing. From a distance it also seems the same but it is not really. That is how the Faces of the World are. They are almost the same but each one is different. If you close the book, the Faces are close, even touching, but the lines and words on one Face do not cross to the other. So it is with the Faces of the World. They are so close that they do touch but nothing usually crosses from one Face to the other.
“The Almua can not only see the Faces of the World, they can even go between the Faces and take a person or something else if there is a need. I want to become Almua myself someday but not for traveling to this Face or that. I want to do as much good as I can for my people, like the other Almua. I do not like it here at all. I was such a fool!”
I looked at the unhappy young woman kneeling across the fire from me and I recalled the disputes that we had in Msgr. Francesco's book lined office. The Bishop was sure that the Almua that Jixticka kept referring to were some sort of ancestral spirits or ghosts that should be exorcised. I had my doubts about that. I knew that Jimena did too.
I leaned back against a stone and asked Jixticka, “Would you explain what the Almua are again? Here, we do not have a Bishop, as good a man as he is, trying to make assumptions about them. He was so sure that they were ancestor ghosts or something of the sort that he kept interrupting while you were trying to explain them.”
In the glow of the campfire, Jixticka smiled at that and shook her head. “How could Msgr. Francesco become an important man when he will not listen to the answers to his questions? I noticed that he is not alone in that problem. I do not understand why your people choose such leaders.
“As for your question, Friar Issac, the Almua are simply people. When they left the cage of bones they did not choose to return and reincarnate in another cage of bones. In spite of that, they have chosen to stay and live with the people that they care about but they do it in a different way. Because they are no longer in the cage of bones, they do not die or change unless they choose to. That is why some who are ancient like Sut Almua look like ordinary people and others who are also old may look young like Eketet Almua does. They are all wise. None of them is a fool like I was. I miss them so!”
Jimena looked up from more notes and asked, “How can the Almua come back if they are not reincarnated in another body?”
Jixticka looked puzzled. “They are in a sort of body, I think. They feel solid and warm like us but it is simply not the cage of bones. I do not understand that part of being Almua well enough to explain it, Jimena. I am sorry.”
Jimena flipped back through her notes and asked Jixticka, “You know when Friar Issac is having a vision. You can tell from over twenty meters away and with your back turned. I've seen that happen. What I want to know is why neither of you mentioned Friar Issac's visions while we were back in Mexico City?”
I smiled at that and answered for Jixticka, “It was caution, Jimena. I've had my visions since I was young. No good ever came of telling anybody about them. Jixticka found me in a park near to Our Lady of Goodness because she could tell that I was having a vision. I do not know how Jixticka knows when I have one but it is certain that she does know. When she saw that I was having a vision, she asked me about it. That happened on several occasions.
“In only a few conversations with Jixticka, I learned that she is very different from most people. Combined with her misery and confusion about our ways, it all convinced me to try and help her to find her way home. She agreed to keep my visions a secret from Msgr. Francesco.”
About ALMUA : Part 6 of 9 : a tale of the Bizarre Borderland
@mordenheim READ, LIKED and REBLOGGED
ALMUA : Part 6 of 9
a tale of the Bizarre Borderland to
@nevermord who pointed out hopefully:
Thank you. I tried to get a reasonably unusual way for an ancient being to see the passage of time. I can see Victor sharing that issue. As for the Faces of the World, you are absolutely spot on. Since it is not a major issue as such, I do not think that it is a spoiler to confirm your notion.
