Entry #4

Dear Adan,

The tour was short and enjoyable. Our guide was so entertaining. Seemed that aside from a good smoke, Father Alvarelo indulged in good jokes as well. We explored the tiny church. The rectory was modest with a book shelf buckling under the weight of tomes and other ledgers brought over from Spain and the Yucatan. The rectory led into another courtyard, this once smaller than the first. There was a garden on the far left side, and beyond that garden a small facility where the doctor lived. We made our way there first.

Herbs and vegetables stood guard of the little place, and the smell set my energies at ease. I was already beginning to settle into this new habitat, and who would have thought this garden would have been the cause? Here, out in the middle of a brand new world. Father Alvarelo knocked on the already open door, and was met by a smaller man in glasses. His dark hair was tied behind his head, revealing a face toughened by the sun and before that by maybe forty years.

“Victor,” he clasped our Father in a bear's embrace, and laughed out loud as he pat his back. “Good to see you again.”

“I owe you a drink, that is why you are so happy to see me!”

The man pulled away in mock disgrace. “You have me mistaken for some other devil. Ah,” his twinkling green eyes settled on us. “Are these the sisters we've heard so much about?”

“Yes, in fact.” Father Alvarelo stepped aside, presenting us. “Doctor Basilio P. I would like you to meet Hermana Nieve and Hermana Carmen.”

“What a pleasure,” the doctor took our hands quickly, and shook them. “I am so pleased to finally meet you. The children will be as well.”

“We are just as anxious to meet them,” I said.

There was some rustling behind him, and for the moment I was distracted. A young woman passed by. She had dark hair that fell in curls around her shoulders. As she slid past the doctor, she was pulling her hair up into a knot, and the look she gave us narrowed and measuring. The doctor did not seem to notice, but I certainly felt the sting and flinched as she approached.

“These the new teachers?”

“Yes,” Carmen said, extending her hand. “So nice to meet you.”

She snorted instead. “Likewise,” and trudged off. The doctor seemed more amused than embarrassed, and hooked his thumb once over his shoulder.

“Don't mind Pepita. She takes some getting used to, but she's one of my best nurses.”

“Well,” Father Alvarelo slapped Basilio's back. “We must be getting on. We'll see you for dinner tonight?”

“Of course! Take care. Hermana Nieve, Hermana Carmen, very lovely to meet you.”

“And you, doctor,” I was still mildly distracted by the rude entrance and exit of Pepita. Father Alvarelo touched my shoulder, again bringing me back from my thoughts.

“Are you all right, Hermana Nieve?”

“Yes, Father. Fine. Shall we continue?”

Back through the courtyard, where we entered a modest mess hall boasting two long tables, and a window to a silent kitchen. There were scattered groups of men. Some were having a conversation over liquor, others were smoking and playing cards, daring each other to throw in more coins and more of their time. Father Alvarelo opened his arms up to the room, smiling broadly.

“This is mess. The hours are a little strange, but you’ll get used to them. The cooks are generally friendly.”

“Says who?” A big man stood up from a card game, and draped his arm around Father Alvarelo. His cheeks were rosy, he had a gold piercing through his nostrils like the Tairona men below the hill, but he did not look Tairona. “Oooh, what have we here?”

“The sisters from Seville. They’re to teach the children.”

“Ah! Good luck. Those little whips are trouble,” he waved two large hands to the rest of the mess hall. The men were in leather and linen tunics and trousers. Their boots, though some went bare, were worn in and muddy. Their hair shorn and unkept. They did not look like the soldiers back in the port, but they were military men. Stony figures with strong expressions and hard eyes. “These are my sons. All of them. Maybe you girls could give them lessons in manners, too, eh?”

Carmen and I giggled, averting our gazes as the soldiers began looking up from their card games, books, and drinks. Father Alvarelo pat the cook in stained white clothing on the back and beckoned Carmen and I further into the fort.

We moved down a hall from the mess. Father Alvarelo had not even paused for breath. He was so excited, like you when you were a child, Adan. When you would build sand castles and tug on mother’s skirts until she came to investigate.

“Your presence is appreciated here. I would beg you to think on this decision.”

There were voices in the hall. I could only decipher what they were saying, not who they were coming from. Father Alvarelo had not seemed to notice yet.

“Think? There is nothing left to think or talk about. The position in the Yucatan is an opportunity I am not about to waste.”

“We need you here.”

The hall was intersected by another corridor where we could have traveled left or right. Carmen and Father Alvarelo had rounded the right hand corner, but at this moment I heard the argument off to the left. I broke away from the tour, and tip-toed curiously away.

“You do not need all of us. The Tairona trust you.“

There was an open door at the end of this left corridor, and two men were beyond this. They were standing close and arguing. One was a priest like Father Alvarelo, only much older, and his expression was stern and stubborn.

“This is not a strictly military matter, Captain Alejandro, and I would appreciate your candor in the future.”

The other man was a soldier with bound dark hair. He was unshaved, his eyes were set in a determined glare, and he gnashed his teeth as he spoke.

“You will take my word, or I will take my men.”

The priest was watching me, and I started away from the door. Before the other man could face me, I was off like a bullet. I swept up the corridor after Father Alvarelo and Carmen who had reached the end of the right corridor, and taken one final turn. I arrived just as Father Alvarelo was finishing the tour.

“… Your rooms are located in this wing of the mission.”

My arm was taken. “Where have you been?” Carmen mouthed.

“They are not much, I am afraid.”

I could only stare at her, my mouth open with nothing to say. I flinched from her probing stare. “Father Alvarelo, I am sure these will be perfect quarters for me and Hermana Carmen. We really do appreciate your hospitality.”

Father Alvarelo turned from unlocking a door, and handed me the key. “And we here at the mission are proud to offer it. Dinner will be in a few hours. You will hear the bell at the top of the church sound when it is ready.”

“Thank you, Father,” Carmen bobbed.

“Thank you,” I murmured as well, and Father Alvarelo left me alone with a very livid Carmen. She snatched the key, and strode heavily into our room.