Inseparable

In honor of the victims of Hurricane Mitch, 1998


The village of B’alam, is located in today’s Honduras. In the ancient Mayan language, B’alam means “jaguar”. According to the villagers, the night god founded the village and offered its protection for all eternity as long as they provided offerings to him. In Mayan mythology, the sun god Ahau Kin travels the world and when he goes down in the west, he becomes the night god, the night jaguar. Unlike the other Mayan tribes or city-states the B’alam people do not fear the night or the jaguar, but view the jaguar as a God and this somehow has become one of the few surviving villages from the Spaniards during the 1500’s but the people would soon discover that their suerte or luck would be gone forever.

“Chicas, don’t wander away from the village. You’ll give the elders a heart attack,” said their mother as she left for work. The two girls stood outside of their family’s mud house and waved good-bye.
“Come on,” said one of the girls and she took her sister’s hand and they snuck out of the village into the forest.
In the forest, the two girls wandered around and ran all around playing those old “pretend” games. The girls were twins. They were actually the only twins in the whole village. The two girls were born on July 16, 1993 and since then have been considered “buena suerte” or “good luck” by the villagers, because twins were considered sacred, holy, and spiritual. Though the girls knew this, they never cared. They only cared that they had each other and were like any normal children.
“We should be heading back, mamá will be home soon to cook lunch,” said Sarita, the oldest of the two by thirteen minutes. Grace, the youngest one, nodded. The two spent so much time in the forest that they knew their way back and quickly got back home before the elders knew they were gone.
Life in a village was simple, especially in B’alam. The men were farmers and left early in the morning usually before or during dawn. A boy joined the ranks of man around the age of seven to eight. The women worked in the city, which was a long walk from the village. The women worked as maids or waitresses. Females wouldn’t start working until the age of nine or ten. Because of this, there weren’t too many children around and very few elders who got blinder every day. Also there were many in the village that left once they became of age, saying they would start a better life in the capital or big city. The adults never returned home until after dark. Only the women returned to make lunch for the children and the elders.
“How was your day?” asked the girls mother.
“Good,” replied Sarita.
“That’s good. Eat all your tacos, I don’t want you two to starve when I am away. Speaking of being away, the elders have told me you haven’t been seen all day.”
“We’ve been in the house,” said Grace.
“Really? That’s not what the elders told me.” The two girls stared at each other, seeing if one could come up with a lie. Their mother sighed and looked at the two girls, straight in the eyes.
“You know how dangerous the forest is. You don’t know what’s in the forest or who could be in the forest. Tonight, when your father and I are home, we will discuss your punishment.” Their mother then left, leaving the two girls to finish their tacos. The two girls stared at each other, wandering what their punishment would be.
That night, when they were eating tamales, their parents were talking to each other in the Mayan language to decide their punishment. Almost no one spoke the ancient language because Spanish has become so popular that even the new generation speaks it. The two girls don’t even know their ancestor’s language.
“We’ve decided,” said their mother. The two girls looked at their father who was stretching his legs and arms.
“Your mother and I have decided that you will go with her tomorrow and she will leave you at the local day care for four days, so you will wake up, go to the day care, and then come home for dinner,” he said. The two girls were about to cry because the day care in the town was horrible. They would never let the girls do what they allow them to do in the village, like run around and get dirty. The day care would try to teach the girls how to read and other boring stuff. The girls then went to bed early.
Sarita woke up early; hearing her father leaving and noticing her mother was about to go to bed.
“Where is papá going?” asked Sarita.
“To work, all the men are going because they forgot to do something important and they need to do this or the corn won’t grow. He’ll be back soon,” she said. Sarita then went back to sleep, with a sleeping Grace next to her. Her mother soon fell asleep from the long hard day’s work.

“Sarita! Grace!” their mother yelled waking them up. Both girls woke up at a start from their mother’s worried voice. The girls noticed it was raining outside and that water had come into their house.
“Girls, go onto the roof. I need to go outside and bring things into the house. ¡Ve!” and the two girls listened to her and quickly got out of their bed and started climbing onto their flat roof. The rain was coming down more quickly and the girls discovered themselves wet and cold on the roof. The winds started to get stronger. It was becoming a hurricane.
“Where is mamá? She should have been up here by now,” said Grace. Sarita didn’t hear her and as the rain and winds got stronger, the girls huddled together and held onto each other. They couldn’t see through the dark and cold winds. But they heard screams, cries, crashing noises, and were wondering what was going on. They were wondering where their mother was. The girls stayed on the roof for what seemed like many years.

“Grace, wake up. Grace,” said Sarita. Grace woke, cold and hungry, still on the roof.
“¿Qué?” she asked. Her sister pointed out into the sky and Grace got up to look at what she was pointing to. Grace and Sarita stood with amazement. Five mud houses were standing, but the rest had fallen. There were people lying in the village and not moving. Many were crushed by trees and houses that had collapsed on them. So many trees fell, that both the girls could see the town had suffered a lot of damage too. Grace then looked around and noticed someone she knew.
“¡Mamá!” she yelled and Grace slowly got down. Sarita wanted to get down quickly to join her sister, but as she was climbing down, she slipped and fell. Grace looked back at her sister who was lying on the ground crying. Grace then ran back to help her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Both my legs hurt. I can’t walk,” said Sarita. Grace started to think of how she could help her sister.
“Papá and the men are in the fields. There is a strong building nearby that they could have stayed at during the storm,” and Grace left, running down the road to the field.
Once Grace got there, she was dumbfounded. The fields were destroyed and in their place were dead men from the village. Grace saw her father, who was bleeding from the head. Tears started going down Grace’s face and she started running back to her sister in shock.
When Grace got back to her village, she saw a white van. The van had a red cross on it. Grace quickly thought that help had finally arrived for her sister and her. She saw a young woman with long blond hair and blue eyes, picking up her sisters and putting her on a white bed and then putting the white bed in the van. Grace ran up to the lady and tugged on her white coat.
“Can you help my sister?” ask Grace. The lady looked down at Grace and could quickly tell she was her twin sister. The lady spoke Spanish with an American accent.
“We are here to help. We will help your sister,” she said.
“I have to go with her,” said Grace.
“There is no room in the van. We will send someone to get you. Just wait here,” she said. The van left without Grace.
Grace stayed at the front of her house and watched as people came to take the dead bodies away. She was still waiting for the lady, but the only people she saw were people taking bodies, one after the other. She saw them when they took her mother’s body away. No one asked her if she needed help or if she was okay. Before she knew it, all the bodies were taken away and night fell quickly. She fell asleep ruined, alone.
Grace waited a day and no one came. She became hungry and thirsty. She then noticed a boy enter her village and he quickly saw her. He seemed a bit older than herself. He walked up to her.
“Are ya’ alone? Where are ya’ ma’ and pa’?” he asked.
“Dead.” Grace said. The boy nodded.
“Mine too. Come wit me. I live wit oters just like us,” he then started walking away. He turned back to see Grace still sitting at the front of her house. She then started to think that if she stayed she would die. She already felt sad being in her ruined village with no one and her house had too many happy, but bittersweet memories. She got up and walked towards the boy, who smiled at her.
“My name is Grace.”