Chapter 17. Riddles and sacred mysteries

Where Max and Itzel try to decipher Luna’s clues

Note: Author commentary at the end of the chapter. This commentary is exclusive to the Cacao Muse; you won’t see it on Amazon, my author site, or printed inside the wrappers of my favorite chocolate bars.

The moon shifted in the sky a little. Max opened his eyes. Itzel and Luna were still deep in meditation. All around them, the rainforest hummed with the calls, chirps and coos of its numerous inhabitants, but up here on the mound the sounds were thinned out a bit. Max could feel the silence of the night above percolate all over his skin as it mixed with the songs of the jungle below. He looked up into the Cacao Tree. The great Jaguar had been silent since they came down from the Tree, and now Max could no longer see his yellow eyes. Perhaps he’d fallen asleep.

Then, Max noticed something on the ground on his right. Four large cacao pods lay scattered among the fallen leaves. He frowned in surprise. Then his heart sank. These were the pods of the Sacred Cacao Tree! Could it be that he knocked them down in his scramble to get off the Tree? He looked over at Itzel. Her eyes were still closed.

Luna, he thought-lined, are these the pods of the sacred Cacao Tree?

Sacred pods, sacred pods, she replied.

Great, he thought to himself. Itzel’s going to kill me. But before he could think another thought, Itzel opened her eyes and looked at him. She followed his gaze to the cacao pods and gasped.

“O Dios,” she whispered. She went over and gathered them up in her arms, cradling them tenderly. They were the most beautiful pods she’d ever seen. Perfectly shaped, full, heavy, and unmarked by the trails of insects, they were each a different color: deep yellow, red, purple, white-green. Their skin felt sprung to the touch.

“I think we broke them off the tree when we came down,” she whispered, terrified. “This is horrible. Only one pod is supposed to be taken at one time. What are we going to do?”

It impressed Max that Itzel included herself instead of blaming only him like most of his peers back home would. He thought hard to come up with a solution.

“Maybe we can bring them back to the village and the Elders can do a ceremony—”

“But then the Elders would know we were here…” Itzel’s voice trailed off, as the full realization of what had happened sank in.

“Or maybe we can do the ceremony!”

“No, eso es impossible. Only the Elders can do ceremonies.”

“But they won’t know! No one will know. You’ve seen them do the ceremonies like thousands of times, right? And one day you will be an Elder too, so maybe you could just… you know, practice.”

Itzel looked at Max and smiled. She had to admit, the eternal optimism of the Americans was infectious. She shook her head.

“I’m sorry Max. We can’t. We are still too young... and I don’t know all the words.”

Thinking a mile a minute, Max couldn’t come up with any rational, scientific solution. Then he had it.

“Okay, well, maybe Luna has an idea. Let me ask her.” He gently took the little bird from his shoulder into his cupped hands, and held her in front of him.