Song of the Night
by
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The old man stepped closer and opened the tattered book. Everyone then recognized it as a Bible, or what was left of one. He opened to a series of color plates in the space between the Old and New Testaments. He found the picture he was looking for and held it up, showing it to them, pointing to it and saying, "Hees-oos!", and then pointed to Travis again. The picture was an artist’s rendition of Jesus praying in Gethsemene. Suddenly the meaning hit everyone at the same time. Hees-oos was the Spanish pronunciation of Jesus, and the man seemed to be saying that he thought that Travis was Jesus.
"Probably the beard," said Hernan. "You may be the first man they have ever seen with a beard, besides that picture of Jesus, because the Indians do not grow beards." "Just because I have a beard, he thinks I am Jesus?" "Yes, the headman, who says his name is Ariwari, wants to know if you were sent here by the Big God to die for their sins." "Are you kidding? I won't even be able to pay my own tab when I leave this life! Tell him he's just shit-out of luck!" As they spoke, the headman turned a page and showed them a picture of Jesus on the Cross. "Tell him my name is Travis, not Jesus. Jesus was a man of peace, I am a man of war."
Hernan relayed the message to Ariwari, and he replied with another question, his smooth, aged brown skin wrinkling on his forehead as he spoke. "Ariwari asks, 'Do you have a brother called Jesus?" "No, I have no brothers." The message was conveyed, and the answer came back. "Ariwari asks, 'Do you have a cousin, or nephew, or anyone from your kinship who is called Jesus?" "No, no one in my family is named Jesus. I am not related to the man. I don't even know the man!" (Suddenly Travis felt a little like the apostle Peter, the one who denied Jesus three times, and he felt a twinge of guilt, even though his denial was without thinking.)
Hernan relayed the message, and got a long reply, which Hernan paraphrased for him. "Ariwari thinks that you are lying, that you have been sent by the Big God to destroy the Maguay, to make war with them, and force them to give up their ways and live like the inferior white man. He also asks if you are a headman among the white man." "Tell Ariwari that I'm just a peon in the big picture of things, and that I have come to take our women back home, the ones that his people stole from us. Tell him I didn't come to make war, but I sure as hell can, if he doesn't let us go in peace!"
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About the Book
Travis Lee promises to take each of his five children on an overseas adventure for their 16th birthday. In this story, he takes his daughter, his father, and a friend to the rain forest in Northern Peru for a one-week vacation. What they find is more adventure than they bargained for, when members of their group are abducted by a tribe of man-eating headhunters. This story is volume one in a seven part travel series.
About the Author
Tim Tingle was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1958, and grew up near Montevallo, Alabama. Educated at the University of Montevallo, he is a full time coal miner, and part time farmer, wood sculptor, and writer. He, his wife Nanette, and their five children, Grace, Andrew, Joseph, Chris and Kevin, live on their eight acre farm near the small community of Pea Ridge.