Ekeko

“Don’t step there!” Meg said.

“C’mon, Meg,” Jess said. When they started the dig, Jess didn’t mind Meg’s attention to detail. But now, three weeks in, Meg’s meticulousness was working Jess’s nerves. 

“We have to do this right,” Meg said. 

Jess paused and chose her words wisely. “Ok,” she said. Sometimes Meg had a point. They were high in the Andes and deep in a cave with a large drop off into what looked like a bottomless abyss below. Meg had placed safety ropes along the edge of the chasm. Every morning, Jess threw a quarter into the void. Sometimes she heard the coin clink on a rock here and there, but she never heard it hit the bottom. 

Meg carried another shovel full of dirt out of the excavation area. As Meg tip toed, Jess remembered the egg and spoon races she and Meg used to win back in elementary school. Meg balanced the dirt on the shovel with care as she delivered it to the sieve. 

“Look!” Meg said, slinging the box sieve around, pointing at the trinket she had just found.

“It’s a little clay bag of money,” Jess said. “Cute.”

“I knew we’d find it,” Meg said. 

“Of course,” Jess mumbled. Meg was always right. Meg the perfect. Meg the beautiful. Even after three weeks of digging, her skin showed no blemishes and her hair seemed to be immune to the hat head habit Jess picked up.  

“How much do you think it’s worth?” Jess said.

“Not now, Jess,” Meg said, fighting derision. 

Jess didn’t become an archeologist for the sake of preserving the lost past. She didn’t care about tenure at the university. She didn’t give two shits about getting published or being respected by her colleagues. What she wanted was to find something priceless here in the dirt and sell it to the highest bidder. Money was her thing. She loved it. She worshiped it. In, out, move on. Jess stabbed a shovel into the dirt.

“Careful!” Meg said.

Jess rolled her eyes while carrying the dirt to the sieve. She shook the sieve and something shiny remained.

“Is it a ring?” Meg said, looking over Jess’s shoulder. 

“No, it’s a circle,” Jess said, holding up the silver trinket that looked like a medium sized hoop earring. 

“The doll is probably close. Please be careful, Jess,” Meg said.

“I am being careful!” Jess said. 

Meg and Jess continued to dig, but rather than using utility shovels, they switched to wire brushes to free up the dirt and then used their bare hands to carefully remove it. 

“I’ve got something,” Jess said. 

Meg scooted in with an airbrush and blew away the dirt that held their find. 

“It’s him!” Meg said. 

Jess nodded. She and Meg removed the remaining dirt as quickly as possible while still maintaining a degree of appropriate care.

After they freed the Ekeko statute from the ground, they placed the foot tall stone figure in the middle of one of the empty sieves and sat on the ground, catching their breath. Ekeko looked on with his wise, benevolent gaze which he he held steady for hundreds of years. Ekeko statues almost always depicted a jolly, mustachioed man who wore a poncho. This one was no exception. 

“What would you wish for?” Meg said, still panting from the dig.

“A billion dollars,” Jess said. 

Meg snorted. When Jess was eight years old and they had this conversation, Jess only wanted a million dollars. “Inflation. Careful what you wish for, sista,” Meg said. 

“I don’t think we’ll get that for muchacho Ekeko here, but we’ll get a couple grand for him,” Jess said. “How ‘bout you?”

“What’s the point of wishing? I already got what I wanted,” Meg said as she got up from the ground, dusted her self off, and began documenting the dig site, taking photos of the perfect excavation lines, the well placed sieves, and, of course, the flawless retrieval of a most prized find. 

But Meg did wish for something. She wished she could be flawless. In her heart, she wished for the perfection that she tried so hard to attain but never achieved, at least never did in her mind. She was reluctant to voice her wish because she knew it made her sound like some kind of evil queen from a fairy tale. To Meg, perfection meant freedom from criticism. Meg hated criticism. 

“Can I put the trinkets on him?” Jess said.

“Of course! What’s an Ekeko without offerings?!” Meg said.

Jess placed the clay money icon in one of Ekeko’s chubby hands. “Señor, deseo mucho dinero,” she said, bowing to Ekeko. Then, Jess nodded too Meg.

Meg shrugged and then approached Ekeko. She placed the perfect silver hoop in Ekeko’s empty other hand. “Señor, deseo perfección en todo.” Meg bowed.

“Take a picture of him,” Jess said.

Meg stepped back and snapped a photo of the great and benevolent Ekeko on her phone. 

“What the?” Meg said as she looked at her phone. Jess ran to her side and looked at Meg’s screen. Ekeko wasn’t in the picture. 

“What?!” Jess said, looking at the sieve where Ekeko had been just seconds ago. The great and benevolent Ekeko had disappeared. 

“What did you do with him?” Meg asked.

“What did I do with him? What did you do with him?” Jess replied. 

“Well, I didn’t move him,” Meg said. “He couldn’t have just disappeared. Maybe he fell off?”

“He didn’t fall off! That would be impossible,” Jess said as she ran to the sieve from where Ekeko had been moments before. As she ran, she didn’t see a rock on the ground, tripped, and fell face first into the sieve. Jess felt her nose snap.

“Jess! You ok?” Meg said, rushing to her side, 

Jess looked up at Meg. Jess bled from her nose and couldn’t speak. 

“We gotta get you out of here. C’mon, first aid kit’s back at the Jeep,” Meg said.

“The Ekeko . . . “ Jess said, a bit incoherent as she put her arm around Meg’s neck and they hobbled towards the cave entrance. 

“Look,” Jess said, pointing at the sieve.

“Huh?” Meg said, seeing that the great and benevolent Ekeko had returned. Jess nodded to Meg, as if telling her that it was OK to investigate further. 

Meg saw that while Ekeko had returned, the trinkets in his hands were gone. Meg wandered across the excavation lines to see if the trinkets had somehow flown off Señor Ekeko. 

“What do you see?” Jess asked. 

“The statue is back but I don’t see the— Oh, here they are,” Meg said, walking to the edge of the excavation site. Except, she didn’t walk to the edge. She walked off the edge into the abyss. 

“Meg!” Jess shouted. Jess’s face burned with pain, but she ran back into the site nonetheless, stepping over and violating Meg’s well preserved lines. Just over the abyss, Jess saw Meg standing impossibly in mid air, floating, in her own perfect way, calling Jess to join her. Jess ignored the throbbing in her face, ran as fast as she could to Meg’s side. But, Meg wasn’t there. Then, Jess fell forever. 

And as she fell, Jess dreamt a thousand lifetimes of wealth. And as Meg fell, she did so flawlessly.