Serpent Season

Aclla stood up, her legs as shaky as a newborn cria. Her hands brushed away the bits of earth that clung to the back of her pullira. The wool hung heavily with Amaru’s water and her own blood. He was nowhere to be seen, having disappeared into the brush as quickly as he had ambushed her. 

She searched for the path; the matted earth had been swallowed by darkness while she squeezed her eyes and Amaru panted over her. She fell forward onto her hands and patted the ground until she found where the soil had been molded by her people. There was her lliclla and its spilled contents: Her household’s long-anticipated haul from the lowland market. She piled some lucuma atop the blanket, but stopped when she thought of her family. I’m late! A piece of fruit slipped from her hands and landed with a squish against the heap of mushy produce. The fruit is bruised! The thought of her parents and siblings expressing their disappointment about the quality of their breakfast made her legs shake again. She clapped her hands against her thighs. My legs are bare! She could not go home now, perhaps not ever if she were to say “I’m late” again in a couple weeks-time. She knew the risk, having felt the wont of her middle time before the attack. She admired the faces and voices of most men she encountered that day. Amaru sensed it like an animal. He was as ragged as one too and she couldn’t bear the scent of his sweat on her skin; it was like a sugary fruit gone sour. 

Aclla considered finding her way to the group of women who came up the mountain to talk to her mother after the birth of her youngest brother. They called themselves female health ambassadors and they talked of magic that made women, like her mother, have fewer babies. Aclla’s mother cast them out when the health workers asked her to stop nursing while the boy was still an infant and encouraged her to take a pill to prevent another pregnancy. No one in the highlands trusted that sort of thing. Stories circulated about other health workers who came with needles years ago. After that, some of the women stopped having babies forever, even when they wanted to try again. 

Some young girls had no choice but to go to the female health ambassadors though. Aclla remembered how they visited her friend Suyana after she cried about experiencing a night like this one. It was discovered that she was carrying a child, but that the father already had a wife and other children. When it was time for the birth, they took the young girl to the hospital and cut her open to get the baby out! Aclla never saw Suyana again, but she heard all sorts of stories about what happened to her. It was enough for her to decide that the ambassadors were not an option. She had to do something though. Amaru wasn’t married, but he was a drunk. Not the sort of man with whom she wanted to turn to stone.  

There was only one option. Ayllu, the midwife who had birthed her and everyone else she knew, was the only one who could help now. Aclla made a sharp left turn onto a side path and began a steeper incline up the mountain. She knew the way, having traveled it to fetch Ayllu for the births of each of her siblings. When the soil turned to rock and the wind blew freely because there were no trees, she stopped to stand face-to-face with the stars. Her lungs and stomach began to hurt; she had traveled too quickly to the top of the world. She rolled a couple coca leaves into a ball and positioned the bolus in the side of her cheek. She spotted Ayllu’s home under a few familiar dots in the sky. The midwife’s house glowed in their silver hue, but a yellow light flickering through the holes in the clay façade promised warmth within.

Ayllu stepped outside when Aclla approached the dwelling. The midwife made up for the height she had lost to age with a woven hat that rose several inches above her head. Two braids swung below it; they had grown thinner over the years. Gold studs, pierced in her ears, glistened from her tremor.

“Mach’acuay.” Ayllu pointed up. 

Aclla looked into the dark river in the sky and saw the serpent swimming there. Indeed, it was mid-winter and the snakes, Amaru among them, were rampant in the season’s crisp vegetation. She nodded and walked over to embrace Ayllu, kissing her gently on the cheek. When she pulled away, she presented the midwife with a lucuma. Ayllu acknowledged the fruit, but instead of accepting the offer she pulled at Aclla’s pullira. The girl stared at the ground and continued to look down as the midwife walked her across the threshold of her home. 

Inside, the warm air prickled Aclla’s frigid legs. She had never paid much attention to the inside of Ayllu’s home before. Now she observed every corner for clues about what might happen to her there. First, She spotted a collection of vials on a wood shelf that rested precariously against the wall. Beside it was a table topped with a collection of beverage bottles that were filled with dried herbs. The bed was covered by a colorful alpaca spread; Aclla could tell it had been made by Coni, the most prestigious weaver she knew. Synthetic blankets hung from the ceiling along with an array of clothing. Ayllu yanked down a pair of leggings and a couple pulliras. She held each of them up in front of the shivering girl and chose the one that looked like it would fit her best. Then she pulled the green cardigan from her own body and handed all the clothing she had selected to the girl.

Aclla changed out of her soiled clothes while Ayllu laid out bowls of papas and quwi. When the girl was dressed she walked to the table and picked up a potato. She warmed her hands against the freshly-baked tuber before peeling back the blue skin and taking a bite. Ayllu set a pot of water on the stove and roused the wood beneath it. The smoldering logs spit a few angry sparks into the room and a puff of smoke cleared through the hole in the roof. She made a selection of herbs and dropped them in the pot to boil. When the concoction was ready, she poured it in a cup and placed it in front of Aclla. Ayllu sat down and wrapped some of the unused herbs in a cloth.

“K’ikuy.” Ayllu pushed the cloth in front of her patient. 

Aclla smiled for the first time that evening. The two dined together before retiring for the night. In the morning, they would travel together to return the girl home.