Flesh: Sacrifice Ch. 03

Summer was grinning from ear to ear, a smile that was infectious.

Dani, too, was beaming.

***

Sunlight streamed through the Land Rover's rear window, and Dani D'Annunzio blinked herself awake. She rolled over, took stock in her surroundings, and remembered where she was.

Which was, for all intents and purposes, nowhere.

The Land Rover was parked on the banks of the Rio Rosa, a tributary to the Rio de los Reyes for which the entire valley was named, which itself was a tributary to the Rio Beni (which, in turn, flowed into the Mamore, the Madeira, the Amazon, and eventually the Atlantic Ocean). They were quite literally at the end of the road, having bombed down well-worn dirt highways out of San Eduardo, and then less-maintained, narrow roads as the sun set, and then down twisting, muddy paths in the dark of night. Dani hadn't understood why they didn't just wait for the morning to leave, but Benitez had insisted that the best place to camp the following night was a full day's journey from where they'd put in. They'd be paddling upstream, but to hear Benitez describe it, the Rio Rosa sounded like a fairly lazy river without a terribly strong current, at least for much of their route.

Benitez was still asleep in the front, his seat completely reclined. He was snoring, and Dani guessed that was what had woken her up. But she had to pee, and the fact that the sun was now coming up over the horizon meant they'd be getting up shortly anyways. She had folded the rear seat down, and had stretched out in the bed of the Land Rover -- feet towards the front, head towards the rear. The tent was packed away, neither Dani nor Benitez thinking it necessary while they still had the Land Rover, and neither having any interest in erecting when the reached the river late last night.

Dani found the handle to the backseat door, and as quietly as possible, creaked it open and stepped out into the Bolivian jungle. They were surrounded on all sides by rain-forest, and even at dawn Dani could already feel the steam and heat of the day. She was wearing nothing more than a simple white tank-top and a pair of purple cotton bikini panties, but she padded barefoot out behind the car nonetheless.

Dani had packed light. She had her swimsuit, as well as a light, little cover-up dress, for the canoe ride. She a pair of khaki shorts, a button-down short sleeve shirt, and a rain parka. And she had two extra pairs of panties -- none so sexy as the thongs she'd worn in Aya Pampa -- and two extra bras. The jeans she'd worn last night, as well as her bra, had been shed before going to sleep the night before. And she'd probably packed too much anyways -- it wasn't as if she'd be expected to wear her Sunday's best up in Manqus Wasi.

Dani had debated whether her not she wanted to bring something to wear as pajamas while on the trip up to and then back from the little Indian village, but had decided against it. Benitez had already seen more of her than she'd intended, and he was on deck to see even more. The fact that she slept in the Land Rover with him in nothing more than a pair of panties and a t-shirt might have seemed scandalous forty-eight hours earlier, but Dani slipped out of her jeans the night before without much in the way of hand-wringing.

Only a few feet from the Land Rover, Dani squatted and peed in the "road." She had little interest in encountering a greensnake or a howler monkey or even the little hyla benianis that Summer had come out to the Oriente to study in the first place. Besides, Benitez was still asleep, and Dani couldn't start to get self-conscious or embarrassed around him now -- not with what was coming.

She'd been afraid that when she woke up that morning she'd be filled with self-doubt and second-guessing. But as Dani slid her panties back up her thighs, she found herself relatively confident and resolved to going through with this. She couldn't speak for just how confident she'd be as they got closer and closer to Manqus Wasi, but for the moment Dani was focused on the journey ahead of her rather than on the expectations she'd be forced to met in the Huaca village itself.

Summer and Benitez had decided to send Dani to Manqus Wasi first. The Chief, Suwaqara, was an old friend and relatively casual about the stricter rites and rituals around the t'ojsiy itself. The village's priest, Qallu Qallu, was -- in Summer's words -- "gentle." And Manqus Wasi was a good two days' trip from San Eduardo, meaning that Summer could hit both Qola Warmi and Kasaraku nearby in the time that Dani performed the ritual in her assigned village. Taksa Kuchu and Chuy would go with the blonde woman, while Benitez would go with the brunette; he had skipped Manqus Wasi the previous year, and thus the little village was overdue for its public health session.

Dani stood, closed her eyes, and gritted her teeth.

She wasn't looking forward to this.

She stepped back towards the car, and realized that this was a lie.

She was, in fact, very much looking forward to this.

She was a slut, pure and simple. That was the voice she kept hearing in her head. Her mother's voice. Her grandmother's voice. Her friends' voices. Her own voice. How could she not be, given what she'd agreed to do? It was the reason she'd gotten so wet in Aya Pampa, the reason she'd fantasized about being strung up on Summer's Y-frame in the river, the reason she'd masturbated in the shower out behind the Oveja Negra. She fingered Summer's necklace as she approached the Land Rover.

But so what? What if she was a slut? How different did that make her from countless other women back in the States? There was a girl she'd trained with for the Peace Corps, who'd admitted to sleeping with twenty-one different men while in college. And Dani wasn't even doing that -- it was just a dildo she'd be fucking. How different did that make her from your run-of-the mill adult dancer?

It was the same conversation she'd had with herself since the previous evening over and over. It was the same conversation she'd continue to have over the next few days. Justification. Explanation. Rationalization. Whatever the underlying reasons, Dani had butterflies in her stomach, a nervousness and fear mixed with a sense of excitement and adventure. She wanted to get the whole thing over with, but she also hoped that the canoe trip would last forever; she was terrified of playing the role of Summer in Manqus Wasi's t'ojsiy ceremony, but she also couldn't help but fantasize about it.

Dani reached into the Land Rover, dug through her oversized purse-turned-travel bag, and fished out her black, one-piece swimming suit. Benitez still hadn't stirred, and so Dani didn't give a second thought to pulling her tank top over her head and slipping out of her panties. Still, she didn't linger in the nude, slipping into the swimsuit one leg at a time and pulling it up her body. She pulled the top up, and tied the straps behind her neck.

While it was a one-piece, Dani's black swimsuit wasn't a particularly conservative one-piece. Low-cut in the front, and open in the back, the suit accentuated Dani's tall, athletic build while showing off a good amount of cleavage. She'd hardly worn the suit in Gracias a Dios, at least after she'd been victimized by teenage Kwirku boys who'd thought it was funny to try and pinch her ass while she was swimming. Here, in Bolivia, Dani knew she could dress as daring as she wanted and be warmly accepted by the Huaca.

She pulled her cover-up out of her bag, a sunburst yellow cabana dress that was worn for modesty purposes to and from the beach. It showed off more leg than one of Dani's other dresses, but given that she'd spent the other day wearing nothing but a loincloth, Dani thought it would suffice for the trip to Manqus Wasi. She pulled it over her head, straightened it out, and then reached back into the Land Rover for her flip-flops.

Dani glanced out at the Rio Rosa. It was tempting to go down and dip her feet in the water, or the start the hot, Bolivian day with a quick swim. But Dani didn't want to risk it without first asking Benitez if it was safe; she was no more a fan of piranhas in the river than she was of snakes in the jungle.

Benitez was still slumbering peacefully, and Dani was hesitant to wake him up. Their drive, as they'd gotten closer and closer to the river, had been fairly stressful: poorly-marked and poorly-maintained dirt roads, puddles large enough to swallow the Land Rover whole, and overgrowth everywhere. They'd talked while Benitez drove, Dani sharing her own bucolic upbringing in Southern Vermont and Benitez talking about his own life in Argentina. He'd grown up in Córdoba, but moved to Buenos Aires for medical school, and ended up staying after he met his wife, Angelica ("Geli," he called her). She was a doctor, as well, and the two had been married for almost seven years, but Benitez explained that they had spent more time fighting than anything else. Thankfully, they never had children. After the divorce, he found himself wanting to some good somewhere in the world and wound up in rural Bolivia. The Huaca were fairly welcoming people, but it was only once he had hooked up with Summer that they allowed him to dispense medicine and inoculations, deliver babies and perform other public health duties.

Summer. Dani thought back to the blonde woman. Strong, determined, and oozing sex appeal, she belonged in a 1950's T&A film, not hitching from one little Indian village to next in South America. Their parting had been rushed -- Benitez wanted to get on the road as quickly as possible -- but Summer had had enough time to offer her gratitude, a couple of her own memories, and her advice. In a hushed tone, she told Dani that it was alright if she enjoyed herself; she may not have understood it at that very moment, and may have only been heading up to Manqus Wasi reluctantly and out of guilt, but the reason Summer kept doing what she'd been doing for all these years was because sex had never been quite so good as performing the t'ojsiy. More practically, Summer gave the girl a gift, a dildo so large that Dani would have a difficult time hiding it from Benitez on the canoe trip up. But then, Dani guessed that Summer didn't intend for her to hide it from Benitez. It was large, not quite as large as the qollqephichilu that Summer had been engorged upon in Aya Pampa, but an intermediate step up for Dani to practice with.

"What about...lube?" Dani had asked, embarrassed by the whole conversation. How was she going to keep Benitez from seeing it? How was she going to 'practice' while Benitez was around?

Knowingly, Summer smiled. "Do you need lube?"

She hadn't then, she doubted she would later, and she certainly didn't need any at that moment. Even standing in the jungle, fully dressed and more or less all alone, Dani was turned on and dripping wet. She fingered the necklace again as she looked at her reflection in the car window. All night, she'd had X-rated dreams, and the memory of them lingered somewhere at the back of Dani's mind as well as between her legs. She hadn't pulled her gift from her purse the night before -- it was too late, and she was too embarrassed anyways -- but Dani found herself contemplating a quick go now. She did have to practice, didn't she?

Benitez stirred, and Dani knew she'd have to wait.

***

The day was long, but relaxing. It was easy for Dani to forget where she was heading and why, surrounded by the sights and sounds of rainforest and accompanied by the charming, good-looking Argentine doctor. Benitez did most of the heavy paddling, but Dani was apparently a stronger paddler than he'd been expecting, and they made good time. Dani talked, Benitez pointed out wildlife, and they shared breakfast (and lunch, and snacks) requisitioned from San Eduardo and the Oveja Negra. The water was, in fact, safe to swim in -- at least, so long as they kept a look-out for alligators -- and cool, clear, and a refreshing break from the sweltering Bolivian heat.

At lunch, during a lull in the conversation, Dani told Benitez about the dildo Summer had given her. She was reclined in the front of the canoe, propped up with her back against the Argentine's duffel bag, and facing backwards. She munched lazily on a cold empanada salteña as Benitez continued to paddle.

The doctor, to his credit, didn't bat an eye. "Fairly sensible," he conceded, and offered her some time alone in the tent that night if she wanted. He'd been traveling with Summer for too long, Dani thought to herself -- this has all become normal and mundane to him.

Dani nodded her head red-faced, taking Benitez up on his suggestion. "Sensible," she repeated to herself, and took another bite of her lunch.

Wherever they were going, Benitez seemed to think they were making excellent time. Unlike the day before, when he'd rushed her into the Land Rover and sped off down the road to make the most of the lessening light of dusk, he was more relaxed and upbeat about their progress. He checked off indiscernible landmarks known only to him along the way, checking his watch every now and then to make sure that the canoe was on schedule to Manqus Wasi.

Dani was in just her swimsuit as the sun began to drop toward the horizon. In fact, she'd been out of the cover-up for much of the afternoon, tucking it away once she'd decided it was easier than taking it off and putting it back on for her more and more frequent trips overboard and into the Rio Rosa. She'd scan the distance for caymans and alligators, look to Benitez for the thumbs-up, and slip over the side of the canoe and into the clear, clean water for a swim. She'd been back on board for the better part of an hour, and had no plans to put the dress back on, when the Argentine pointed out that they'd reached their destination

"We're here," he announced.

"How can you tell?" Dani asked.

Benitez grinned. "The spires."

Dani didn't see anything. At least not at first. But then, in staring at the tree line directly in front of her, forms began to take shape. Walls. Windows. Doors. Scattered bricks. A crucifix. All overgrown by the jungle. It was a church. Or, rather, it had been a church once upon a time. The interior had been gutted, the roof had long since disappeared, and the difference between outside and inside was now a purely academic discussion. Strangler figs and vines covered most of the standing remains, and an assai palm grew up and through one of the open windows.

"It's beautiful," Dani breathed. And it was, if partly in a spooky sort of way, catching the orange light of the sunset the way it did.

"Santa Teresa," Benitez said. "The Spanish built it a long time ago."

"How long ago?"

"Long, long ago."

"Is there a city, or a village, or people around here?"

Benitez shrugged. "Not anymore."

It was, according to the doctor, one of his favorite places in the Oriente, and one of the primary reasons he'd regretted not going with Summer to Manqus Wasi the previous year. Collapsed in parts, and standing in others. Overgrown here, but not over there. The church might not have compared to the finest Catholic cathedrals and missions that speckled the rest of the continent, but there was a beauty in the way the jungle had reclaimed the church for itself.

They pulled their canoe up along the banks in front of the church, and began to unload their supplies. Benitez had his duffel bag, his back-pack, the tent, and a few boxes of medical supplies. Dani, meanwhile, had just her oversized handbag. And, reflecting on the fact that she'd spent the better part of the day in her swimsuit, and would probably do so again tomorrow, she began to regret bringing as much as she did. Dani shook her head at this thought -- she'd succumbed to the half-naked role of Summer Monroe more quickly than she'd expected to.

"So this was just...here? Trying to convert who, exactly?" Dani asked.

Benitez didn't know. "I imagine it was the Huaca. The only community anywhere near here now is Manqus Wasi." He pointed to a series of scratches in the stone wall, graffiti carved by an unknown artist. "Those are definitely Huaca designs, but there's no way for us to know if they were done ten decades ago or two centuries."

The Huaca, like the Inca, had no formal writing system, no pictograms or glyphs like the Mayans to the north. But they had their own icons, their own designs, as Dani had witness painted on the canvas of Summer Monroe's white flesh. Here, in the remains of Santa Teresa, the Huaca had claimed the ruins as their own, the church literally covered in repeating patterns of Huaca hagiography. Over and over and over again, Dani saw a highly stylized Huaca sun, and -- causing a bit of a smirk on the brunette's face -- a similarly stylized open vagina.

"The two most important symbols in Huaca myth," Benitez explained. "Western myth opens up with, 'Let there be light,' but the Huaca believed that the Earth, Sipusiki -- represented by the female genitalia -- was first. Only then did the 'inti," or sun, a god named Taytaku, begin to appear. He worshipped her from afar, passing high overhead each and every day, traveling across the sky. Finally, she 'opened' for him, welcoming him down, and the two copulated. And then from that union came all life -- the trees, the animals, the birds, the fish, and the first Huaca man and woman, Apucha and Hatucha."

Benitez made eye contact with Dani. "It's this union that the t'ojsiy represents. It's why Sipusiki's climax is so important to the Huaca people."

Dani nodded. She'd be playing the role of Sipusiki. And Taytaku would be represented by an inanimate silver sex toy. That seemed to make sense.

Benitez erected the pop-tent inside the former sanctuary of the former church, right smack in the middle of Santa Teresa's crumbling remains. He gathered some wood, and in little time had a small fire going outside the tent for them to heat their dinners over. It was still too warm to really need the warmth of the fire, and, in fact, Dani's skin was so hot and sticky that she contemplated going for another quick swim. It was like a perfect summer evening camping in New England, and only one thing could bring Dani back to the task at hand.

"If you want some privacy," Benitez offered, "I can go for a walk?"

Right. The dildo. The Huaca. The sex rite. The orgasming in front of a crowd. How could Dani have forgotten?

She swallowed nervously. She didn't want to do this. No, that was a lie -- she didn't want Benitez to know that she was doing this. There was an attraction between them, a spark that Dani couldn't quite deny. She knew that she felt it -- she wondered if Benitez felt the same. Rather than a cold, hard dildo between her legs, Dani might have preferred taking the Argentine doctor by the hand and leading him to the tent.

It had been months since Dani had been with a man. Come to think of it, it had been almost a year. Ten months ago, maybe eleven, she'd just happened to be in Puerto Lempira when a threesome of Australian back-packers had breezed through town. They were site-seeing and surfing and just meandering through Belize and Guatemala and Honduras. Dani joined them for drinks and -- oh God, it had been so long THAT time since she'd had sex back on a trip home back to Vermont -- one thing had led to another, and Dani had ended up wrapped around one of them in a cheap, weather-worn cabana on the beach.

But Dani wasn't that girl. She'd never really been that girl; as much as she'd craved physical attention that night in Puerto Lempira, she never would have made the first move -- she had to thank her Aussie one-night stand for that. No matter how emboldened she felt by the nature of her mission to Manqus Wasi, she was simply incapable of doing what she wanted to do with Benitez. And so, meekly, she accepted his proposition.