Chapter 14 You Do That Voodoo That You Do So Well
"Nights through dreams tell the myths forgotten by day." C.G. Jung
"Helena, how?" Myka asked still coming out of the deep sleep HG's dream had pulled her into.
"I think that is what this is all about, Myka. I think her parents are alive,' HG said springing from her bed.
"But we can't tell her, I mean how do we know what's real and what's hallucination?" Myka asked, rubbing her head from the headache that greeted her.
"They are going to release them," HG said grabbing a book to look at a map of the Amazon.
"Right – in exchange for you being at their beck and call. I'm not crazy about that little detail, Helena," Myka said, wondering how her partner was moving around so freely when it made her dizzy just to turn her head.
"We've got to talk to Mrs. Frederic," Helena said pulling Myka from the bed. HG stopped only when she heard Myka whimper.
"Oh darling, I'm sorry. You have that nasty headache, don't you? " HG asked tenderly. "Yes, I feel like I was drinking all night," Myka said slowly sitting back down on the bed. "Oh come here," Helena said slowing pulling Myka over to her and gently rubbing her temple. "There, there, it will go away. Actually, I know the perfect antidote to relieve that kind of pain," HG said slowly leaning Myka down on the bed. She ran her fingers across Myka's throbbing head and down her jaw, to the indentation in her chin. Myka laid there with her eyes closed. Helena's ministrations were the cure for anything that ailed Myka. "Helena?" Myka said, but HG was too busy kissing her collarbone as she deftly opened buttons. "Yes?" HG asked. "Helena, the door….," Myka replied and HG finally heard her name being called ….no screeched …on the other side.
"Helena! He's won't leave me alone…," Emily yelled and then they heard Pete roar like he was a monster. Helena smiled and closed Myka's pajama top before yelling out "Come in". The door swung open and Emily stood there with her hands crossed over her chest. "He totally thinks I'm five," she said as Pete came up behind her trying to scare her. "You need to let him near more children," Emily said rolling her eyes.
"We don't think that would be safe … for them," Myka said, collecting herself and sitting up.
"Helena? Myka? Mrs. Frederic is here to see you," Leena said.
"She scares me a little," Emily said of the Sage.
"It's okay darling. She scares Myka, too," HG laughed as she hugged the girl and kissed her head. HG went into her room to get dressed and Emily sat on the bed with Myka.
"Does anything scare Helena?" she mused. "Not much, Emily, not much," Myka said smiling in spite of the headache. Within minutes the two women joined Mrs. Frederic and Artie in the library.
"Are you okay Agent Bering?" Mrs. Frederic asked.
"Yes, thanks," Myka said. "We think Emily's parents are alive!" she said to her bosses.
"What? Why?" Artie asked, but Mrs. Frederic was already thinking about that statement.
"They have them?" she asked Helena.
"Who has them?" Artie asked, feeling like he had missed a few updates.
"Yes, Myka and I…," HG started.
"Myka?" Mrs. Frederic interrupted HG and looked at Myka. "You went with her?"
"Never go alone," Myka said holding her head.
"Would someone please tell me what is going on?" Artie finally said out of patience.
"Arthur, Agent Wells is somehow being summoned through her dreams by a yet unknown force," his boss explained.
"I think we know what it is," HG said. "The tribe has a shaman, a very powerful medicine man."
"I know what a shaman is, Agent Wells. What I don't know is how are you interacting with him?" Artie said.
"He possesses an artifact or power that allows him to come to me in my dreams," HG said.
"Oh I know that feeling," Artie said under his breath.
"And Helena has agreed to go back in exchange for the release of Emily's parents," Myka added.
"What do you mean go back? You're a US Federal Agent for crying out loud. You're not at the disposal of some tribal group," Artie yelled.
"The Shuar," Helena said, filling in the detail. Myka was the first to notice the look of concern on Mrs. Frederic's face.
"What?" she asked her.
"They were once known for shrinking heads," the Sage said.
"You are so not going back there," Myka said before Artie could get the words out. "Right," he concurred.
"Darling, I don't believe they mean me any harm," Helena tried to calm Myka.
"Mrs. Frederic, if this isn't all a hallucination and that man is using some kind of voodoo to transcend space and time, then we don't really know the dangers to Agent Wells," Myka pointed out.
"He holds a stick covered with the skin and head of a boa constrictor. Perhaps that is the source of his power," HG suggested.
"Is there a way for us to verify that the girl's parents are alive?" Artie asked because his boss hadn't yet put a stop to all of this.
"We saw them. Well, we think we saw them," Myka said, still grimacing with the headache.
"The fact that Agent Wells has a tattoo means that whatever is going on is real and if you saw them, the possibility exists that they are alive. You must go back," Mrs. Frederic said, turning to Helena.
"Hell no!" Myka said, raising her voice as well as herself. "I'm sorry, but this is too dangerous. We're sending her back unarmed. Suppose this guy decides to keep her there? Suppose it's like HG's time machine and she misses the time limit and her body is here, but her mind ….," Myka said, but the words stuck in her throat. The very thought of having Helena split apart again was too much to bear.
Helena grabbed Myka's shoulder and pulled her in. "I will go back one more time and find out where they are. This way, if her parents are really alive, we can send help," HG said calmly.
"And if they're not alive and he's using you?" Myka said more for her bosses' benefit than HG's.
"Agent Bering, I will make sure that she is protected. Agent Wells, you will present the shaman with a rakhi bracelet. It is the same one that Alexander the Great's wife presented to Porus when Alexander invaded India in 326 BC. It prevented Porus from bringing any harm to Alexander when they met in battle," the Sage said. "I will bring it to you tonight."
"Agent Bering," Mrs. Frederic said before placing her hand on her forehead and relieving the pain.
When Myka had Helena alone upstairs, she pleaded with her to think this through. "Helena, we don't know what we're dealing with here. I want the girl's parents back safe and sound, too but …," Myka stopped talking.
"Myka, the shaman might be in control of my voyage there, but he is not controlling me. Darling, we will take every precaution and I will return, I promise," HG said holding onto Myka tightly.
The Shuar people were one of the few Amazonian tribes left that did not interact with outsiders. Each year, poachers and deforestation crept closer and closer, but for the most part, they left the outside world alone. What threatened them a few months ago were the rapid waters descending from the mountains and the tributaries. In one fell swoop, the raging waters decimated part of their village. What upset the shaman the most about the angry waters was that they took many of the village's ancestor's artifacts away. The Shuar are a proud people, who believed the spirits of their ancestors inhabited those artifacts. If they were lost, so was the connection with their past.
When Bill and Kathleen Andrews were asked by the Archaeology Institute of America to head up a team to South America, they jumped at the chance. The institute's invitation to aid the Shuar tribe affected by the floods was twofold; this was a rare acceptance by a tribe that had little to do with outsiders and it would give them a look at artifacts that otherwise would be inaccessible to the field. Kathleen and Bill knew what a wonderful opportunity this was. Their concern was for Emily, who was in high school now and couldn't go with them so easily. It was only supposed to be a two-week excursion. They were going to go into the Amazon, recover the artifacts, and then allow the team members to work with the tribe's elders. Emily was sorry she could not go, but she was willing to stay with friends for the two weeks as long as she could keep in touch via Skype and texting. The first couple of days were fine – and communication between Emily and her family was great, but something happened that would change everything. Poachers thought the team was there to prevent them from their activities and attacked the group. Bill grabbed Kathleen and pushed her under a large hallowed tree trunk, but not before one of the men saw them. He was about to attack with his machete when a jaguar came out of nowhere and pounced on him.
In the end, the only members of the team that survived where Bill and Kathleen. What equipment they had was stolen by the poachers who got away. Lost in the Amazon, without any equipment, they made their way in what they hoped was the right direction. Three days later, they both collapsed onto the jungle floor; Bill infected with malaria and Kathleen with dengue fever. This is how the Shuar tribesmen found them and brought them back to the village. The shaman realized that the strangers were from the outside world, but decided that because they had survived the jaguar infested jungle, they must be sent by the spirits. The couple was set up in his tent and he tended them with herbs and special remedies that had been handed down to him through the ages.
Some of the bodies of the archaeological team were discovered a week later and all were presumed killed. The news was devastating to Emily and she was uprooted from the home she knew to stay with her only living relative, an aunt she had known only through stories. She was told that they would continue the search for her parents, but there was little hope that even if they had survived the poacher attack, that they would survive in the jaguar territory.
While her parents' lives hung in the balance overseen by the medicine man, Emily started her life over in South Dakota. "Stupid profession," is how her aunt conveyed her sympathies.
Kathleen was the first to regain consciousness. Slowly she put together the pieces of what happened. She thanked the tribe's leader, but told them she had to leave with her husband to find their daughter. It was impossible he told her in his native tongue, but she argued with him. She had been sent, he reasoned, to save his ancestors' artifacts and could not leave until that was done. Otherwise, he would cease treatment of her husband. Kathleen had no choice, but she wasn't giving in without a fight. She explained in pictures and hand movements that she had a daughter and that she had no way of reaching her now and was worried. He told her if she stayed and helped the village retrieve their sacred objects, he would see to it that her offspring was protected.
She prayed to her own God every night and day that Emily was being cared for and that somehow his magic would work in a world where there was little magic left.
Emily made the best of her situation, making friends and learning to stay away from her aunt. As the trouble increased for Emily, the shaman sensed it across the distance and began his search for another person to intervene. That is how he searched for Emily's Arutam – her protector. The shaman called on his ancestors to help him find the Arutam in the outside world to protect the young girl. He ate the jungle plant that induced visions and allowed him to cross over in the dream world to see the protector. She was strong and very brave and he knew she was the right choice.
The trouble did not go away for Emily, so he called upon the animal spirits to provide Emily with a means of escape. He dreamt that she could go down a hole undetected and be safe at the same time that she discovered the entrance to the Warehouse. He sensed the trouble increasing and when the time was right, he called forth Emily's Arutam to protect her, and she did. He was amazed at the strength of the woman and believed she was possessed by an animal spirit. He decided that this Arutam had to come to his village – to bring those qualities to his tribe. He commanded it and made it so.
He was a good shaman and a great leader. He was convinced that what he was doing was for the good of the village. He knew that his enemies who killed the animals for their skins and the ones who chopped down the trees would be back and decided that what he wanted in exchange for letting the couple go – was the Arutam. He marked her with the fiercest animal they knew – the jaguar. He made her promise to return when they needed her, and for this he would help the white couple return to their offspring.
Kathleen doubted the medicine man's story when he told her, but refused to give up hope. Bill had recovered now and they worked with the tribesmen to recover the artifacts from the mudslide. When the work was done, they returned to the shaman's hut. He told them it was almost time for them to leave. Their daughter's protector was to return to him and if she agreed to stay, they could leave. His men would bring them to the river and give them safe passage to the place where they would be found.
The one thing that truly concerned the couple was that – they had never seen another outsider in all the time they were there.
Emily spent the day at school and looked forward to returning to the B&B. Gloria was there at dismissal to pick her up. She ran up the stairs to the bedroom and finished her homework so she could spend time with Helena when she got home from work. She wondered if they would ever let her back into the library again. As soon as the agents returned, Emily flew down the steps to greet them. She grabbed Helena the tightest and told her all about her day, without a pause between sentences. Myka's smile seemed permanent as she watched the pair talk and interact. How happy Helena seemed to her. Not just on the outside where her face glowed, but on the inside too, Myka felt. It was as if every cell in HG was renewed again – with happiness.
After dinner, Mrs. Frederic returned with rakhi bracelet. "Present this to him," she instructed Helena. "I do not wish you to go with her Agent Bering. I'm not sure that you could even if you tried," Mrs. Frederic said, thinking that the shaman might prevent her return. She was absolutely right about that. The liquid that the tribesmen sprinkled on Myka made it impossible for her to cross back. Helena put the bracelet on her wrist before she went to sleep that night.
"Myka, if they come for me, I promise I will come back. Do you hear me, Myka?" HG said as tears fell down Myka's face. "I will come back, I promise."
Thank you for waiting ...
And a very Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate it.