A Golden Legend

Chapter 26

Marcelo opened the door of his small studio, located on the second floor of an old textile mill transformed into a loft by the ingenuity of architects. He pulled the jacket out and threw it on the bed, separated from the rest of the single room by a folding screen, and dialed the key on his phone to hear his messages.

“Nothing important” he thought “luckily because today I am "shot" and I need to rest”

He began to undress, spreading his clothes all over the place, and when he was entering the bathroom the phone rang. Resignedly Marcelo took the handset thinking that it was a call from his office, but when he heard the voice at the other end his mood turned 180 degrees.

“Hello Teresa. What a joy to hear your voice! I actually had been waiting for that call for days. I haven´t heard from you in three weeks. Where are you?”

“In Lima. I returned yesterday night, and I slept twelve hours until I woke up five minutes ago. I never believed that I would miss the city comfort as it has happened to me this time. Being able to sleep with soft and clean sheets, to wash up at will, to let the water run out of the tap. You have no idea how much I missed all that.”

“Is it that you're gentrified?”

“Or that I'm getting old.”

“No tell! And tell me, you just missed only comfort?”

“No, my love. Notice that the first thing I did as I woke up was calling you.

The talk continued on a personal level for a long time, since both were in need of listening to each other for long. Then the conversation turned to news, actually gossip, about the companions of the expedition.

“It seems that Magnus got the Balinese pregnant” said Teresa. with a hint of disgust

“To me he seemed a sexually inactive type” replied Marcelo, but he immediately bit his lips.

“On the contrary, is a collector of exotic beauties, in addition to his three former wives. She has several children scattered across three continents.”

“And what can you tell me from the rest of the friends? How is Lupita?”

“Finally, it seems that she got a candidate. A Chilean who you haven´t met as he joined us in the last two weeks.”

“Good for Lupita! It was obvious that she was looking for a boyfriend.”

Finally the talk moved to the expedition and its results.

“Magnus is excited again” said Teresa “ Gamarra could decode knots and pots that seem to confirm the relationship with Tarco Huaman and its people. It is possible that Tarco himself has lived in the town, that we have decided to call Juruá I after a nearby river. So whether this is true or not, what seems sure is that this was indeed a secondary place, subordinate to a main site located to the Southeast, in Peruvian territory, in an area of high forests. Juruá I seems that it was a kind of Plan B, for the case where the men of the Inca Capac Yupanqui located the main site. They are even decoding certain messages in the quipus, where there are possible references to distances between Juruá I and the main site, measured in travel days.

“ And what is Magnus doing now?”

“Right now it is seeking new funds to finance the second part of the expedition, in the nuboselva. For that he has flown to his country. Currently he is probably in meetings at Yale University, and will also go to Columbia. He promised to return in a fortnight.”

“ And what are you doing you in the meantime?”

“I thought staying in Lima, or take advantage of the free time to visit Cuzco and Machu Picchu, just as one more tourist. But... I can consider other plans….”

It was the response that Marcelo was waiting for; without hesitation he invited the girl to visit him in Buenos Aires, deal that, after making him beg a little, she accepted. They combined that Teresa would call him back when she had details about the flight, to allow Marcelo to fetch her at the  Ezeiza Airport.

Marcelo put the suitcases on the hall floor, opened the door of his apartment and ceremoniously gave way to Teresa. When the woman had entered he scrutinized her face to guess her reaction, she had already told him about the features of her home in Mexico DF. The girl looked in detail the 1600 square feet of unique environment and said with total frankness:

“It is very cozy, reminds me of a nest, and looks well furnished and equipped. You have everything you need.”

“A cousin, who is an architect, advised me in decoration, that I followed as far as possible with the little money that I had left  after purchasing the unit. I imagine that after a while, used to your house, would you feel suffocated here. I guess that your dressing room must be about the size of this entire apartment.”

“Do not forget that I cast my time between my house and the camps, where I don't have any kind of comfort.”

The young woman settled in the site already left free by Marcelo, who had carefully ordered his possessions after a prolonged period of disorder bordering on chaos. She occupied completely the available places in closets and drawers, and filled the bath with her belongings.

“I come from a long time in the tent that you know in the jungle and want revenge” she sincerely confessed.