structure. Within an hour, all of the pueblo blazed with rumbling flames. Even in the tree, heat forced me to pull my huipil over my face. I feared that the branches and leaves might catch fire.
With flames surrounding me, the pueblo became a literal hell of raging fires as the soldiers returned to the plaza carrying their rifles. Their packs bulged with stolen money and jewelry. At last, late in the afternoon, the soldiers walked single file away from the burning pueblo as calmly as if they had just finished another ordinary day of work.
By this time, I had lost all hope. I feared climbing from the tree, but I had no choice. My body was so weak and my mind so numb. My muscles ached and felt frozen as I began working my way down. Inch by inch I crawled from a tree that had taken only seconds to climb the day before. I used my arms to hold on to the branches because my hands were too weak. My legs threatened to collapse with each movement.
Ten feet above the ground, my body simply gave out and I slipped, crashing from the tree and landing hard on my side, knocking the air from my lungs. I laythere dazed, gasping for breath, and trying to decide if anything was broken. I stared back up into the tree where I’d spent the last two days and was overcome with guilt for having survived. I deserved to die along with everyone else.
Climbing that tree had not been an act of bravery. It was the act of a desperate coward. Everyone else had faced the soldiers except me. I had hidden while others died. By being a Tree Girl, I had been a coward.
There was a time when trees brought me closer to Heaven, but climbing the tree in the plaza had brought me closer to Hell. I made a promise to myself that day. As I lay exhausted and nearly unconscious beneath the machichi tree in the middle of that burning pueblo, with smoke clouding the air and the wretched smell of burned bodies as thick as the haze around me, I made a solemn vow to the earth and to the sky and to everything left sacred in the world: Never again would I climb a tree.
CHAPTER TEN
A s I lay under the machichi tree, my conscience screamed at me,
Gabriela, get up and leave now! Go to where you left Alicia and the baby!
I tried to stand but couldn’t. I was dizzy and weak. My dry and swollen tongue filled my mouth and threatened to suffocate me, and every part of my body hurt. I lay moaning on the ground, exhausted, needing water, but first my body demanded a few moments of rest.
Finally I struggled to my feet, stumbling like a drunken man across the plaza and into the marketplace. Little remained from the massacre except spilled fruit, charred ashes from the vendors’ stands, darkbloodstains in the dirt, and everywhere the stinking carcasses of rotting animals. Much of the bread that remained had hardened. Meat brought fresh to market had rotted, the odor mingling with the stench of death.
I picked my way among the destruction until I found an old clay jug full of stale water. I gulped mouthful after mouthful of the warm foul liquid until my thirst was satisfied. Then I picked my way through the destroyed stands, eating a piece of fruit, an old chunk of salted meat, a dried cookie, and anything else I could find. I wrapped my waist strap tightly around my corte and filled the front of my huipil with whatever I didn’t eat.
I made my way toward the edge of the pueblo to search for Alicia and the baby. I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting more soldiers to appear at any moment. I tried to run but couldn’t. I was still weak, and my legs threatened to collapse under me.
At the place where I had left my little sister, I called out and crawled behind the bush. Alicia and the baby were gone. Frantically I looked in every direction, searching for tracks in the hardened earth and imaginingthe worst. What if the soldiers had found Alicia and taken her and the baby to the schoolhouse in the pueblo? I dared not allow such a thought.
The unnatural stillness of the air hung
With flames surrounding me, the pueblo became a literal hell of raging fires as the soldiers returned to the plaza carrying their rifles. Their packs bulged with stolen money and jewelry. At last, late in the afternoon, the soldiers walked single file away from the burning pueblo as calmly as if they had just finished another ordinary day of work.
By this time, I had lost all hope. I feared climbing from the tree, but I had no choice. My body was so weak and my mind so numb. My muscles ached and felt frozen as I began working my way down. Inch by inch I crawled from a tree that had taken only seconds to climb the day before. I used my arms to hold on to the branches because my hands were too weak. My legs threatened to collapse with each movement.
Ten feet above the ground, my body simply gave out and I slipped, crashing from the tree and landing hard on my side, knocking the air from my lungs. I laythere dazed, gasping for breath, and trying to decide if anything was broken. I stared back up into the tree where I’d spent the last two days and was overcome with guilt for having survived. I deserved to die along with everyone else.
Climbing that tree had not been an act of bravery. It was the act of a desperate coward. Everyone else had faced the soldiers except me. I had hidden while others died. By being a Tree Girl, I had been a coward.
There was a time when trees brought me closer to Heaven, but climbing the tree in the plaza had brought me closer to Hell. I made a promise to myself that day. As I lay exhausted and nearly unconscious beneath the machichi tree in the middle of that burning pueblo, with smoke clouding the air and the wretched smell of burned bodies as thick as the haze around me, I made a solemn vow to the earth and to the sky and to everything left sacred in the world: Never again would I climb a tree.
CHAPTER TEN
A s I lay under the machichi tree, my conscience screamed at me,
Gabriela, get up and leave now! Go to where you left Alicia and the baby!
I tried to stand but couldn’t. I was dizzy and weak. My dry and swollen tongue filled my mouth and threatened to suffocate me, and every part of my body hurt. I lay moaning on the ground, exhausted, needing water, but first my body demanded a few moments of rest.
Finally I struggled to my feet, stumbling like a drunken man across the plaza and into the marketplace. Little remained from the massacre except spilled fruit, charred ashes from the vendors’ stands, darkbloodstains in the dirt, and everywhere the stinking carcasses of rotting animals. Much of the bread that remained had hardened. Meat brought fresh to market had rotted, the odor mingling with the stench of death.
I picked my way among the destruction until I found an old clay jug full of stale water. I gulped mouthful after mouthful of the warm foul liquid until my thirst was satisfied. Then I picked my way through the destroyed stands, eating a piece of fruit, an old chunk of salted meat, a dried cookie, and anything else I could find. I wrapped my waist strap tightly around my corte and filled the front of my huipil with whatever I didn’t eat.
I made my way toward the edge of the pueblo to search for Alicia and the baby. I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting more soldiers to appear at any moment. I tried to run but couldn’t. I was still weak, and my legs threatened to collapse under me.
At the place where I had left my little sister, I called out and crawled behind the bush. Alicia and the baby were gone. Frantically I looked in every direction, searching for tracks in the hardened earth and imaginingthe worst. What if the soldiers had found Alicia and taken her and the baby to the schoolhouse in the pueblo? I dared not allow such a thought.
The unnatural stillness of the air hung
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