Chapter 10
On one of the upper ledges, a house with a singular room had candles, large and grotesque; along with glass jars with semi translucent liquid lining the edges of its walls, a room that was warm and sticky, mostly, from body heat. Work was in progress. Six girls around the same age were sitting in a semi circle within which a girl was sleeping. They were lazily looking at her with soft, bored eyes as they were chewing and doing so with increasing difficulty. What they had trouble chewing was a cassava root, cooked, but which they had to break down with their teeth in order to make yuca, a drink only allowed to the young girl who was sleeping and the priest, who no doubt was sleeping elsewhere too.
The root was tough and difficult to grind with human jaws. But these girls were trained for the activity, the ritualistic nature of the practice also giving the girls fortification; and with painstaking obstinacy, so that the saliva mixed with the cassava plant, they grounded the root in their mouths to liquidise it. It took some time but once they achieved it, they would spit it out into a jar that went around. It was to be passed in rhythm where every girl would finish grinding the root at around the same time and then smoothly spit it out into the jar and pass it to the next girl in the semi circle.
The whole room was filled with near silent chewing, like they were well bred girls on a romantic date observing the proper decorum - one mustn't be heard to eat! - with a little help from their lovers who would mask the chewing with social guile and witticisms. But there were no lovers here, no guile, no wit, so one did hear the occasional pop and crackle but as quietly as possible…until came the silence of completion, their mouths full with liquid waiting for the singular jar to spit the yuca in. All except one, a new girl, who was in complete desperation trying to keep up, the jar of bubbling liquid soon coming her way.
It was now with the girl second from the beginning who was halfway finished spitting the yuca into a jar. The new girl was in panic mode. This was only the first jar of the day but the length and duress of mastication stunned her. She didn't realise how strenuous it was going to be and regretted volunteering for it. With trembling hands she accepted the jar now presented to her, still furiously chewing on the root making loud noises of effort. A stirring was heard of someone being woken up.
The girl next to her in the semi circle was now angrily glaring at the one holding up traffic honking the horn no less while sloppily chewing the root; grounding and grounding, loudly, using all her force to break it down until she felt no more snaps in her mouth. Eyes watering with joy she spit the yuca into the jar. What came out was thick and yellowish and she had to wait a few seconds until everything had flowed out.
These were precious seconds of respite for the new girl, whose name was Pisco, and a couple tears mixed in with the liquid out of gratitude. The girl next to her then took the jar from her, shaking her head in censure, for her own liquid had been in her mouth unnecessarily long.
The way Pisco had been grounding the root had started to wake the person they were doing this for, and moaning, trying to blink away unconsciousness, the barely pubescent girl came out of her drunken stupor.
Chapter 11
Pisco's exceptionally round face had the permanent look of discovery on it, like everything she saw was new, unexpected and baffling. She, who was constantly unsure, watched as the girl awakened and looked around her as her mild toxication began to wear off. Pisco had never seen her awake, in this room anyway, as she had come in when she was asleep. For a moment she was spellbound and gripped by the beautiful girl in front of her, who she knew as everyone who lives in a village knows everyone else, but whom she hadn't had much interaction with. Pisco hadn't had much interaction with anyone and this social excision she was determined to change, beginning with volunteering for this position.
Supay, the half drunken girl, was looking at each girl in turn with a mildly stupefied gaze before she reached the centre of the semi circle where Pisco was. Supay then yawned and rubbed her eyes and let her palm stroke her face. Her eyes landed directly on Pisco.
'My face feels fat,' Supay said in a mumble and giggled.
Pisco felt ice in her veins.
'Who was she talking to?' asked Pisco to herself as she made her eyes dart from left to right to express non alignment.
'Is that what it looks like?' added Supay.
Pisco took a chopped Cassava root and put it in her mouth, her pupils still darting from left to right. Supay looked at Pisco stupidly as she engaged in her theatrics.
'What is this -' she had started to say when another girl from the semi circle spoke up.
'Your face doesn't look fat at all. It probably just feels puffy.'
Supay continued to look at Pisco who still didn't wish to make eye contact. Was this rudeness or shyness to the point of offensiveness? She decided the latter, considering her own position.
'You're so sweet,' said Supay to Pisco in a changed, cooing tone, as she smiled, accepting the homage, and turned to the girl who had answered her. She replied 'Maybe', and took a sip out of a jar that had fermented yuca in it and drank a little. After drinking the fiery liquid she added: 'I don't know what hunger feels like, what thirst feels like, what weariness feels like. I feel like the soft life is getting to me. That's all I've been doing these past months. Eating, drinking, sleeping.'
These girls who made yuca had been around Supay for months now for the most part and as such they had to develop a system. When she was asleep, they would make yuca and when she was awake they would stop chewing cassava and make things pleasant. They were all the same age so things flowed.
'You know your sister just got born?' one of the girls told Supay, moving her jaws after her spoken words to get used to something other than grinding roots down with her teeth. She was Pisco's cousin.
'Oh ! I forgot my mother was pregnant! I keep forgetting for some reason.'
'It's a girl.'
'Haha. You didn't even need to tell me. All of us are girls and the same type of girl.' Her face flushed with pride. Not so much because she had a sister of the same type but because her baby sister reminded her of her present situation. She laughed again.
'Yeah. Uncle Lana saw them and said they were in good health.'
'Lana?' A shy sweetness came over her. 'What did he say?'
'He said they were fine, healthy. He's been acting funny lately.'
'Oh yeah? How?' Supay asked eagerly.
'He's been talking a lot. Asking questions. He's obsessed with mushrooms.'
'Oh ..I wish he would talk to me more. Soon we won't have the chance. I swear it will be soon. When is it? I lose constant track of time here.'
'Day after tomorrow.'
Supay let out a squeal of delight, clapping her hands, looking from one girl to the next, till she got to Pisco who was the only one chewing cassava root.
'Hey spit that out!' commanded Supay sternly. 'Can't you see we're trying to talk here? These are my last days on earth! Don't you want to talk to me before I go? You've always been this way, so...UNLIKEABLE.'
Pisco stopped chewing. She took a jar and spit out the half broken down cassava, thick, viscous, slimy. It came out her mouth slowly - a metaphor for how much she wanted to talk to Supay. She wasn't rushing to do so.
'You can leave that for later. Lana is your uncle too right? Tell me what he has been like.'
Pisco wiped her mouth to look upon Supay, feeling a sensation of dread and curiosity. It was the strangest thing to see a sacrifice talk and ask about her crush a few days before she's due to be buried alive.
