Desire

It was after a few years that the significance of the flying body became apparent to Agapito. It was not quite apparent as he followed donkeys 500 kilometers across the Bolivan Altiplano, but almost. It really began to show itself in the ensuing weeks that found him slashing his way into the Amazon alone with a machete. What solidified the significance of the flying body was his encounter with the Kallawaya medicine man in his back-alley clinic in downtown La Paz.

But before we put the donkey above the cargo, so to speak, we must give clarity to where the flying body came from and how it came to change Agapito’s life. It is not a story we will soon forget.

THE FLYING BODY AND THE ESSENCE OF DESIRE
A few days prior to the encounter with the flying body, Agapito called out to all things sacred from the middle of the Mexican desert that he be “shown clarity in all desires.” Fasting for twenty-one days gave him the gift of clairvoyance that was shared by his compadres Sencillo, Memo, Roberto and Don Genero. They waited in the middle of the desert until sunrise before returning to their camp inside El Potrero Chico (The Little Portal.)

They returned to the most violent rain and lightning storm that Don Imeñez – a local bandito and vaquero who tended the cattle in the camp – could “remember in 80 years inside the Potrero.” This followed the two weeks of crisp blue that had crowned the days prior to the pilgrimage to the middle of the desert. Thus, even before hearing about the flying body – with their newfound gifts of clairvoyance – Agapito was able to say to Don Genero upon their return, “There is a change coming.”
Don Genero looked at him pitifully and replied, “No shit.”

At that instant the sky was split by lightning and rain came in buckets to splatter the parched Mexican earth. Raindrops bounced like gymnasts off peyote buttons and the coyote didn’t leave his cave for three straight weeks. Not even to play a trick, he threw not even a yelp or an omen into the wet fabric of the world.

It was then that Sencillo learned from his amigo Don Miguel of the flying body. Their mutual friend Don Geronimo had set on an unintentional and ill-fated flight from the top of a mountain the day before; the same day that Agapito had asked that he be “shown clarity in his desires.”

The last time Sencillo had seen his friend was three years prior when Geronimo ran nine days through Venezuelan rainforest to get Sencillo and his two legs – shattered from a fall into a sinkhole – to a helicopter to bring him to a hospital. At that point Geronimo had no illusions of wings, but the two of them had climbed Angel Falls together and maybe then he got the idea he could fly.

Sencillo shared the story of his friend’s death to Agapito and Don Genero back at their camp. The three of them made their own teary rain to match the heavens’ and moaned repeatedly, “A change has come, a change has come again.” The rain persisted through the night, flooding them out of their tents and inside the car. They hunched and huddled and slept to the patter of rain on a cow’s back.

THE FUNERAL

The following morning their tears had cleared while the rain continued and Don Genero looked Sencillo up and down before blurting out, “You look like shit!” It was true, there was snot in his dreadlocks and his shirt had been left out all night to be shat on by a toro. He had a brown cow pie stain that looked like a cinnamon roll spiraling on his belly.
Sencillo smiled and replied insightfully, “Geronimo is dirty, I may as well empathize with his condition.” He hurried off to greet Geronimo’s family who had just arrived from Caracas.

Agapito and Don Genero went to dry out and have a cup of tea. While waiting to hear news of the funeral, Agapito commented that, “Something feminine is coming. First sun, now water. First activity, now reflection. We were five men, now comes the woman. Who else can give such nourishment?”

“No shit,” Don Genero responded just before Sencillo arrived with a new amiga Doña Amparo.

Agapito was enjoying his new gift, so he tried it again, “Next there will be 10 women!” [To this day he is waiting for that prophecy to be fulfilled.]

Agapito, Don Genero, Sencillo, Memo, Don Roberto and Doña Amparo journeyed across the middle of the desert and into the center of La Huasteca, the mountain home of the Huasteca natives. The funeral was at the mythological place of Huasteca creation. There the flying body that landed in death two days before would be sent flying again as the wind carried his ashes into the misty sky that dripped off the limestone ramparts. It was more a celebration than a drab epitaph. Friends and family members would share the gifts that Geronimo had given in life before creating an ear-splitting applause that resonated throughout the canyon walls.