Entry #21

Adan!

One of the children is gone! The boy who brought me Mama Gondu's pendant, he is missing, we cannot find him anywhere. We have looked all over the mission for hours, and down beneath the hill in the village. Lope has just entered the jungle with Mama Gondu to comb the wilderness for the disappeared child, but he has not returned. Father Alvarelo insisted I rest, but I have been in this room for an hour now – sleepless and sick with worry. I have set to writing in hopes that I
can retrace the events, and perhaps discover the nature (or cause) of the boy's relocation.

His name is Set, and I have mentioned him before. The one who gifted me the butterfly. From that day on I have grown a fondness to him. He is quiet, gentle, and very clever. He has picked up the Spanish language much faster than some of the others, and what I teach him he remembers with a remarkable clarity. I wish I had known, as I took that small trinket from him, that he would go missing later on in the semester. I wish I had known, I would have embraced him there and then and told him never to return, to stay with his family, to tell Mama Gondu thank you, but he would prefer to stay with his family just a few months longer.

I wish I had known.

Me and the children, with the help of the Fathers, had been preparing for this celebration for week. I had learned so much about their festivals and their traditions, more than I ever knew before. They seemed to really enjoy learning about their teacher’s holidays as well, especially Easter. They were particularly intrigued with this one. Once we had covered one another’s “holidays” we set about planning the celebration.

One group was assigned to the kitchen, and their parents could enter the mission to help them prepare the menu for the big feast we would have at the holiday festival. Another group had split into two; one would put on a small play, the others would be dancing for us. The last group was in charge of games to be played that day. The morning of the celebration, which we had decided to hold on a day the soldiers were out training for the better part of the morning and afternoon, I was in the mission’s kitchen with some of the Tairona.

Some of their parents were there, teaching them how to use a metate for the first time, or helping them pit fruit. Conch, shrimps, and fish had been brought up from the coastal tribe, a group of which were going to stay to help and partake in the festivities that would follow. Game from the forest such as peccary and fowl were being prepared as well. I was stationed with a mother at a metate, and what a funny woman she was. She was pregnant, ready to pop at any moment it seemed! How quickly she spoke, life fire dancing down a fuse line. Still, I managed to keep up with her, and what jokes I did pick from her rapid fire parlance made me drop my metate stone to hold my sides laughing.

This had to be the happiest I had been since Carmen’s disappearance. The children and I were playing in the kitchen, throwing bits of pit and left over scraps of raw dough at each other, but some mothers were more stern than others and we soon were back to work, giggling under our breaths.

“You have a way with the Tairona, you know that?” Father Alvarelo had stepped up next to me to snag an avocado.

“Why would I not? They are a charming people. I have never met any like them.” I slapped his hand, which recoiled to accompany a playfully sour look he shot me.

“Here now? Not even a small snack?”

I chuckled, “No, Father Alvarelo, I need those.”

“Well, not every one can get along with Tairona. Some are rather intimidated by them. Sure, they are earth loving people, but their passions are sometimes misplaced to those unprepared.”

“I read every document you sent to Seville, you and Father Leoncio. They have proven very helpful. Look, if you really want that avocado.”
“Yes?”

“Pit them, save the shells, and when you are done start mashing. If a few slivers happen to go missing, I am sure the meal will not be ruined.

Father Alvarelo smirked, and began slide a knife around the fall belly of the avocado. He split the green apart, and began to spoon it into a bowl, reserving the shells. I continued to work on the metate, hardly noticing the burn in my arms from working the stone up and down to make the appropriate flat bread. We worked silently, but on occasion I looked at him, and on some of those occasions… I saw him look at me.

In no time, the festival was under way! The coastal Tairona were already drinking and chewing coca with the jungle brothers, enjoying one of the few times they managed to see each other beyond their trading businesses. The children had put on a nativity play to celebrate their Christmas assignment, and then the next few children were dancing around a crude, small fire that, once the dance was over, would be built into a bigger bonfire for us to eat around. The flames were crackling and popping, so warm and comforting here at the base of the mountains looming beyond the jungle.

Father Alvarelo and I were seated by the fire, he had been indulging in some of the liquor the coastal Tairona had brought up from the port, and his cheeks were rosy and appealing. I was keeping a cup of tea nice and warm between my cupped palms. The children had made Tairona masks, and roping them around the back of their heads. Their faces were colorful and twisted, and from behind the crudely painted wooden masks they were giggling and shrieking, and trying to scare one another. Some danced around the fire with their parents.

“It is such a shame you wish to enter the church as an anchorite.”

“Why, Father Alvarelo?”

“Look what you are seeing right now! You have seen a half of the world that some may never see, that some will only hear about upon our return… if we return.”

I smiled. “You really do love it here. Will you truly not return to Spain?”

“Maybe if you truly will not be an anchoress, will I truly return to Spain.”

“What could my - ”

“Herrrrmana Nieve!” Set ambushed me in a blue and green mask, throwing his arms around my neck. He was being followed by a few of his friends, they were also wearing masks. They set upon Father Alvarelo, knocking him off the stool he was occupying.

“Look at you!” I cried, and pushed Set’s mask up onto his head. “You sneaky little monkey, you nearly made the tea jump right out of my cup.” I glanced over my shoulder, the children were tickling Father Alvarelo. “And it looks like the lot of you have scared Father Alvarelo right out of his chair.”

“I am hardly frightened, you cannot frighten a giant!” Father Alvarelo roared and was to his feet, walking away with children laughing and clinging to his back and legs.

Overcome with laughter, I looked back at Set and kissed his brow as he looked up at me with sparkling dark eyes that reminded me of fading embers. “You, Signor Set, go have fun with your friends. We will call you when dessert is ready to be served.” I pulled his mask over his head, and we both roared at one another before he went scampering off to help his friends maul Father Alvarelo.

But, Adan, when dessert finally came I must admit I was unable to find Set anywhere at the table. The boy has an insistent sweet tooth that will often convince him to sneak sweets into class. That he would not be the first at the table for sweet cream, cakes, and candies is beyond me. I searched the children’s faces, but none of them were Set. Just beyond the fire, there were still some children playing in their masks. Perhaps Set was still among them.

“Children,” I called on my way to them, “come along! We are all having desserts together.”

None of the faces that rushed by me were the ones painted in blue and greens like Set’s. No wait, there! I snagged one of the children, desperate that this be Set, and I pushed the mask back. A little girl peered up at me, perplexed. I apologized with a smile, and let her go to run to the table with her friends where they began to tear into their desserts. I turned in place, searching and seeking that blue and green mask, or maybe even Set’s face in case he had abandoned his disguise.

“Hermana Nieve,” came Father Leoncio’s voice behind me, startling me. “What is it you are looking for?”

“Father Leoncio,” I drew close, and he frowned upon recognizing the worry imprinted upon my features. “Set. He is missing. I cannot find him anywhere. I do not want to cause a disturbance.” But much to my chagrin, a disturbance was caused. Father Leoncio and I stole away to search the mission, and we even employed Doctor Gil and Pepita. Still, when we met up again the dessert was almost over, the child was unfound, and his parents in attendance began to worry. They approached us, and after we told them we could not find him, the party erupted. Soon, ever Tairona and every mission worker was scouring the grounds and the jungle beyond.

We have found no Set, and before I even began to write to you, Adan, I was approached by Father Alvarelo. He had emerged from the jungle, climbed the hill, and found me still searching the mission with Pepita. He had Set’s mask in his hands. The flimsy wood had been split and splintered, the rope that kept the mask on Set’s little face… torn apart.