"Nicola Griffith - Yaguara" - читать интересную книгу автора (Griffith Nicola)

trying to catch the intensity that seemed to burn at the womanтАЩs
center. They stopped when the light faded.
At dusk the air tasted like hot metal. Jane sat on the step
outside their shack and sipped at a battered tin cup: rum, lime juice,
and well water. Night light, Cleis called it. From inside, the
galvanized pail clanked as the epigrapher flushed the toilet. Jane
heard the laughter of children float up from the village.
тАЬNot one child in that village has ever seen the inside of a
school.тАЭ Cleis filled her cup, sat next to Jane. тАЬIf only Ixbalum
were willing to talk, the lack of education could be invaluable to
meтАжтАЭ
Jane was glad to keep the conversation impersonal. тАЬIn what
way?тАЭ
тАЬVirtually all the schooling in Belize is done by missionaries:
Catholics, Methodists, Seventh Day Adventists, the Assembly of
GodтАФyou name it, theyтАЩre here.тАЭ She sipped meditatively. тАЬThere
are probably three million people around today who still speak
various Mayan tongues, hut none of them can read these glyphs.
The rituals that gave meaning to all these things were destroyed
and discredited by the missionaries.тАЭ
 тАЬBut not here?тАЭ
тАЬNot here. They probably still tell each other bedtime stories
about Queen Jaguar Claw and how she ruled over Mommy and
DaddyтАЩs great-great-great-to-the-nth-degree grandparents, and how
she gave their children jade beads forтАж I donтАЩt knowтАж maize
productivity or something. But they wonтАЩt talk to me. Ixbalum
wonтАЩt let them.тАЭ
тАЬI wonder what IxbalumтАЩs afraid of.тАЭ
Cleis was quiet for a long time. Plum-purple shadows
gathered under her cheekbones and in the hollows of her neck.
тАЬThat IтАЩll make them famous.тАЭ
Jane nodded slowly in the gathering dark. They had evaded
notice for a long time. тАЬHow was Kuchil Balum discovered?тАЭ
тАЬThree years ago a logger was tracking a jaguar. Came across
some funny-looking stones. He didnтАЩt think much of them at the
time. Apparently he never did find the jaguar, but on the way back,
he was bitten by a fer-de-lance. By the time his friends got him to
the clinic at Benque Viejo, he was bleeding from the eyes and
babbling about a city of stone. He died a few hours later. But one
of the nurses remembered what heтАЩd said and told her friend. The
friend knew someone who worked for the State Archaeology
Department. They sent someone down, some idiot who took a
cursory look, labeled it тАШMinor Ceremonial Center,тАЩ and forgot
about it. It was listed, of course, but these sites turn up all the time.
Still, I was curious, IтАЩm always curious, so when one of my grad
students told me he was planning to spend the summer at Caracol,
I asked him to check out this place. He brought back a Polaroid of
those jaguar figures I showed you this afternoon. And I knew
someone had made a big mistake.тАЭ
Jane was still thinking about the logger. тАЬIt was lucky, for the