2 Men, 2 Stories
We sit with suitcases and day packs in the waiting area. The bus for Palenque leaves in an hour. Presently, a man enters the area. For some reason we both watch him. He looks and moves weirdly and emits a vibe that stirs the central nervous system in the wrong kind of way. He walks past us, looks at Mary Kaye a little too long and sits a few seats away. My mind says, “probably no big deal but keep him on the radar.” Waiting, we space in and space out, share an observation here or there, wait some more until we hear this guy talking loudly on his cellphone. Long winded and annoying he manages to up the ante. With a loud hack and smack he heaves a wad of phlegm on the floor in front of him. Moments later, he repeats.
It reminded me of an experience I had a long time ago. It was in Popayan, Colombia. Late in the day I had entered a large, beautiful, colonial cathedral. It was silent and completely empty. After some time an old man, a campesino, dressed coming from the fields, entered and sat and then kneeled not far from me. I could see his feet, he had no shoes, and judging by the depth of the ravines in his calloused feet he probably never had a pair. There was a story in his feet that spoke to my heart. He got off his knees, sat a bit and upon standing he too delivered a huge gob onto one of the flagstone slabs from which the church floor was made.
Like roadkill in the distance, the phlegm on the floor of the bus station caught my curiosity. Walking past it on my way to the bus, I decided to look. Lodged in the center of the glob of phlegm, like the yoke of an egg was a huge hunk of coagulated blood. Abruptly, my curiosity disappeared and my disgust turned to concern. We climbed on our bus, my concern short-lived. Palenque was 2 hours away and the next morning we would be in the magnificent Mayan ruins set in the jungle of Chiapas, Mexico. Perhaps, in retrospect, and especially considering that this was a vacation, it was best to consider the red glob of egg yolk as a bit of foreshadowing. Maya……..blood rituals……. that’s not a huge stretch.