Chapter 3

The first half of this summer’s interns arrived in late May. We met them Monday morning, shaking hands as we moved through the much larger than normal group. The first half of the interns was more than we had in total last summer. Of course, we also had a lot more work to do. I noticed a timid-looking young Hispanic woman near the back of the group as we approached. When I neared her, she genuflected to one knee.

“Holy Shaman Parker,” she said reverently in Mayan, her voice quivering with emotion.

“I appreciate the honor, but I prefer Ray,” I answered in Mayan as I helped her back up. Her eyes widened as she stared at my hand touching hers. I vaguely remembered telling Ted to consider seriously the applicant from Mexico City. Itzel had told me later that she was both a top student and Mayan, but she only spoke Western Spanish and contemporary Mayan. Itzel moved in beside her to translate when I addressed the group.

“That takes brown-nosing to a whole new level,” one of the girls commented cattily behind me.

“I can see how someone who is ignorant of the facts could draw that conclusion,” I said to her sarcastically. “Do any of you speak contemporary Mayan fluently?” I asked. No volunteers. “Anyone speak Western Hemisphere Spanish?” I asked. About twenty people responded including an apparent friend of the commenter.

“Zafrina only speaks Spanish and Mayan. I would like you to translate my questions and comments and her answers into English for everyone else here,” I told the friend of the girl who made the remark.

“And if you would please correct any major translation errors, I would appreciate it,” I asked a guy several feet from the two girls who had also raised his hand. I saw that Itzel had been translating for Zafrina the entire time.

“Zafrina, would you please explain to the rest of the students why you bowed to me so that they may fully understand?” I asked in Spanish. She started nervously but gained confidence when I smiled at her answer.

“My father is the chief of our village. Last July there was something major happening, but he wouldn’t talk about it. All we knew was that one morning, he, and the shaman spent the day fasting and cleansing themselves for a ritual. That night they used herbs in a religious ceremony to help them reach the spirit plane. All night they remained until shortly before dawn. Much of the village kept vigil, worried. Nobody had ever seen anything this serious before. They emerged in the morning, soaked with sweat and exhausted but happy.

“They explained that a new, powerful shaman had spent the night doing battle with the face of evil. With the two women who fought by his side he managed to defeat the evil, saving many thousands and maybe even millions of lives. After the battle, he also destroyed the two gods who created the evil force. Every Maya chief and shaman, and most other elders were with him on the spirit plane during the battle so he could draw energy from them during the battle. Some were so weak afterwards it took them two days to recover.

“Word of this new shaman has spread throughout the Maya world and everyone knows his name. Every shaman and chief bows to him when they are in his presence. I applied to work here to have the honor of working with him and I bowed to him as is customary for a common person to do in the presence of someone so holy,” she explained. The girl translating managed to keep up and nobody questioned her translation.

“It’s just superstitious nonsense,” the first girl shot back.

“Maybe, maybe not; sleep on it tonight and we’ll see if you change your mind tomorrow,” I told her, smirking. I saw Zafrina’s eyes widen and my wives grinning knowingly.

Next, I launched into my usual “keep an open mind” discussion, one even more appropriate this year. I reminded them that even today with all of our modern technology we had no idea exactly how the Incas built their cities with stones sometimes weighing several tons or how they placed them so precisely that there was no gap between them whatsoever. We didn’t know how Peru’s famed Nazca Lines were created or why. There has been a succession of theories about how the pyramids of Egypt were built. How did such “ignorant” people accomplish these things?

Aristotle postulated as long ago as 350 BCE that the earth was round, and that the universe rotated around the earth. As long ago as the year 500 CE, Aryabhata, an Indian mathematician and astronomer, correctly calculated the circumference of the earth.

Columbus’s voyage of discovery has been hailed for centuries. The fact that Chinese explorers found their way more than twice as far to Africa some five hundred years earlier seems to have been lost on us. Even Columbus had to bow to the church at the time by stating that his trip was to prove the earth was flat. Why in God’s name would he want to sail off the edge of a flat earth to prove it so? Even if he did, who would remain to report the fact back to the authorities? Only when Magellan actually completed his circumnavigation of the globe did the church recant their assertion that the earth was flat, accepting that it was a sphere. What the church finally accepted had been known to the “ancients” more than a thousand years earlier.

Less than four hundred years ago, Galileo’s support of Copernican theory that this round world was not the center of the universe ended up with him convicted of heresy and sentenced by the church to spend the last years of his life under house arrest. An interesting point is that “ancient” Indian astronomers beat Copernicus to the superstitious nonsense idea of a heliocentric universe by more than 2,500 years.

Darwin’s theory of evolution is practically taught as fact in our schools and yet, with all of our “modern” tools and technology, nobody has come remotely close to proving it correct. Rather than surmise that the lack of any evidence to support the theory means the theory isn’t valid, they lamely explain that it simply means we haven’t found the evidence yet.

“I’m not here to tell you what to believe or disbelieve in your personal life. All I’m trying to do is get you to keep an open mind about ancient cultures, their beliefs, and their way of life. Maybe their beliefs are superstitious nonsense or maybe they knew something forgotten in the ensuing centuries. If you go into this with preconceived notions, your conclusions will reflect those preconceived notions and not necessarily reality. Much of what is still taught about the cultures of Meso-America and South America came from the Spanish who misunderstood, purposely distorted, or simply lied about what they found, allowing them to manufacture reasons to force their religion on the natives and to subjugate them for the enrichment of Spain.

The “historical accounts” from Spanish explorers and priests are so inaccurate, it would almost be better to toss them and start over. Except that the Spanish destroyed as heretical any written records of the civilizations they conquered, just like the church labeled the works of Copernicus and Galileo as heresy. Hence, it falls to us to discover and correctly translate everything we can to help us better to understand these early cultures, and possibly even ourselves.”

We had four returning interns from last year who had been group leaders. Picking other interns that had been among the better workers last year I made them new group leaders, and then split the groups into four sections and put one of the returning group leaders in charge of each section. Once that was done, everyone had to suffer through my basic instructions and orientation. Then we handed out assignments to the groups. Still, by late morning, everything was organized, and their summer of tedium had begun. Itzel kept Zafrina nearby and had her scanning photos into the computer all day. The times I stopped poring over my computer screen long enough to take a drink or rub my eyes, Zafrina would be watching someone in the room like she was in a dream. She watched each of the girls poring over their computers, looked longingly at the babies, and on the occasions I caught her looking my way she would blush and look away quickly.

Our lunch arrived while Amanda and Itzel were feeding the babies. I paid a nearby catering company to bring in lunch for everyone the first day. They’d been bringing our family’s lunches in for most of the last semester. I figured that I’d put some of the money Amanda confiscated from the drug dealers to good use to make our lives a little less complicated as well as making sure we were eating a little healthier than if we ate the cafeteria food or fast food. Zafrina was on cloud nine when they let her hold the babies for a few minutes. I was surprised when the girls brought her home after work, but they explained that she would feel more at home with us than with the other interns. I didn’t really much care either way and knew the girls frequently had their own agendas.

Among the many perks of dream sex is the fact that you can be as loud as you want even with company like Zafrina staying in your home. Before joining the ladies, though, I dropped in on Sandi’s dream, the girl that commented on Zafrina bowing to me. I guess I wasn’t too surprised with what I found, but still left a little surprise for her for tomorrow.

I was surprised when I dropped back into the dream with the ladies. Usually they would have started without me, but they were sitting around on the bed grinning. Seeing me, they pulled the covers back to reveal Zafrina in her bronze glory and nothing else. In the morning, she begged me to take her virginity for real, after taking her dream virginity last night. With the permission of my wives, I eagerly accommodated her. Aside from walking a little gingerly the rest of the morning, Zafrina was on cloud nine all day.

The laughter among the interns in the morning told me that Sandi had arrived. Still trying to figure out what everyone was laughing about she looked at me. “Aside from superstitious nonsense, can you think of any reason you’d have your pants and shirt on backwards?” I asked. It was difficult not to join everyone else in laughter, but I didn’t want to humiliate the girl completely. When I entered her dream last night, I discovered just how many difficulties she and her lover Sharon had to overcome to get this far together.

“You hypnotized me,” Sandi accused.

“When? I barely talked to you for two minutes yesterday right here in front of everyone. Oh, by the way, you and Sharon might want to trade shoes,” I suggested. My suggestion made them realize that each of them wore one of their own shoes and one of their partners’ shoes.

“You’re just being mean to us because we’re gay,” she accused, and then slapped her hand over her mouth when she realized that she’d just said it aloud in front of several other people.

I motioned Janice and Becky over. “Could you two convince Sandi that I have no problem with her being gay?” I asked. Several students gasped when they embraced and started a very passionate kiss. Sharon and Sandi just stared, open-mouthed.

They were startled when I closed their mouths for them, smiling. Sandi started to say something but I stopped her. “I have a proposal for you two. Come on into my office,” I said. I saw the nervousness in their eyes and the surprised excitement in Janice and Becky’s eyes.

“You’re not in any trouble. In fact, I have job offers for each of you,” I stated quickly before the girls had to agonize further. I let them stop in the women’s restroom and change before meeting me in the office. I also made sure my wives understood that I was only offering them a job--nothing further. Their playful grumbling ceased when Sandi knocked nervously on my open door.

“Sandi, as you are probably aware, we are very busy with translations,” I commented as I motioned around the room. “I understand how difficult it has been for the two of you to be regarded seriously but I would like to offer you a job working with us doing translations,” I told her.

The shocked look on her face quickly gave way to nervousness. “As much as I would love to take the offer, I don’t feel nearly qualified enough to accept the job,” she answered.

I picked up a printout of the glyphs on one of the stellae we had just translated yesterday and handed it to her. “What does that mean?” I asked.

Her eyes were moist when she looked back up at me. “I don’t know. A couple of the glyphs look familiar, but I have no clue what they mean,” she said sullenly.

Sandi watched nervously as I touched my right index finger to her forehead and my left to her temple. I set it up so the touches would unlock what she learned in her dream last night. “Look again,” I said softly.

She did, her sullen look slowly changing to one of incomprehension and finally excitement. “Oh, my God, I can understand it,” she squealed excitedly. Sharon quickly hugged her and they bounced up and down together like a couple of excited schoolgirls.

“Does that mean you accept my offer?” I asked, amused.

“Yes,” she exclaimed excitedly and quickly pulled me into her group hug with Sharon.

“You’ll get an assistant’s pay. In addition, our group shares a quarter of any money we make for the school, after expenses, and you will get a share of that. During the school year, you may work whatever hours fit into your class schedule, but your schoolwork takes priority. I expect a ten-year commitment and there is a very good chance that you will be working part-time as a professor once you get your PhD. We publish our findings frequently and you will get an equitable share of whatever royalties we make from that. Any questions?” I asked.

“You said that you had a job for Sharon, too?” she asked nervously. I smiled knowing how important it was to her to share her good fortune with her lover.

“Sharon, I have a similar offer for you as a translator. I’ve been hoping to expand our services beyond just Mesoamerican cultures. I would like you to be our first translator in a new Mediterranean culture department.

“All I know is some of the basic Egyptian hieroglyphics,” she protested. I performed the same “ceremony” with her that I had with Sandi. In actuality I had left both of them in the capable hands of different ancestors last night and told them they would only remember what they learned when I touched their forehead and temple.

“Do you have something for me to try?” she asked hopefully.

“I have a better idea,” I said as I dialed the phone.

“Dan, how is my favorite professor?” I laughed when he answered.

“Ray, how’s my second-favorite student?” he retorted. His wife had also been a student and was obviously his favorite student.

Laughing at our usual interplay, I asked, “Any chance you could use a little help with some translations?”

“What, you finally came to your senses and decided to drop the Mesoamerican research?” he laughed. Dan and I had kidded each other since before I graduated about our different interests.

“No, I still like doing important research,” I jibed back. “But I’ve got a young woman here who has quite an uncanny expertise with Egyptian hieroglyphics.”

“Is she anywhere near as good as your team is?” he asked. I could hear the interest in his voice.

“You tell me. Why don’t you email me something you just translated or something you haven’t translated yet,” I suggested.

“Hmmmmm,” he mused. I heard shuffling on the other end of the line and then heard him typing. “Okay, you should have it momentarily. Get back to me when she finishes,” he said.

“Why don’t you just hang on the phone a minute?” I asked motioning for someone to check the one computer we had hooked up to the internet. Amanda opened the email and printed the photo, then handed it to Sharon. She looked disappointed at first, and then started concentrating.

“I know you can do it,” Sandi whispered encouragingly. Suddenly Sharon’s eyes grew huge and she grabbed a sheet of scratch paper and began scribbling. Blushing, she handed it to me, and I read it to Dan.

“Holy shit, I’ve worked on that for two weeks now and hadn’t even gotten through the first column,” he gasped. “I’ll pay her plane fare and for a place for her to stay,” he offered eagerly.

“There’s a bit of a problem with that offer,” I said. “Her partner is working for me and I don’t think they want to be that far away from each other,” I explained.

“Partner?” he asked quizzically.

“Yeah, as in someone very special that she doesn’t want to be away from for any significant period of time,” I explained delicately.

“Aaaaahhhhh,” Dan answered, understanding both from what I said and what I didn’t say exactly what I meant.

“Any chance you have room there for another professor?” he asked out of the blue.

“What? I thought you liked Southern California,” I gasped.

“I love the weather. The politics suck. They still haven’t passed a budget and the University and all of the schools gave everyone pink slips. They have to give anyone they lay off a ninety-day notice, so they gave them to practically everyone until they see what the new budget looks like. I’m pretty sure my job is safe, but Meagan is worried about hers. We talked about the possibility of moving back closer to her parents last week and I was just putting the finishing touches on my resume to send out,” he explained.

“Don’t bother. If the school won’t hire you, I’ll pay your salary until you find something. There are enough colleges in the area that at least one of them will jump at the chance. Besides, we seem currently to have a pleasant surplus in the department budget. They’ve given me more than twice as many interns this summer.”

“I can’t imagine why,” he laughed. “Let me call Meagan. I’ll let you know tonight,” he concluded before hanging up.

“Who was that?” Sharon asked.

“Doctor Daniel Lorhan,” I commented offhandedly.

“What?” Sharon squealed.

“Who is he?” Sandi asked.

“One of the top Egyptologists in the world,” Sharon answered excitedly.

I called Ted to see if the department could afford another full-time, albeit rather expensive, professor. He almost fell out of his chair when I told him who. “How did you manage that?” he gasped.

“Oh, and I just found three more assistants this morning. Two translate ancient Mayan dialects but one is strictly Egyptian hieroglyphics. Dan sent her something he’s been struggling with for two weeks and she translated it for him in minutes. He and his wife are tired of the games California is playing with the state’s budget and want to move closer to her parents.”

“Where do her parents live?” Ted asked.

“About fifteen minutes from here,” I answered, smirking.

“Look, if the university can’t afford him right now, I’ll donate enough to cover his salary” I offered.

“No, that’s not the issue. The building is starting to get rather cramped suddenly,” he explained. I excused myself and found Amanda. She laughed at my question and the reason for it.

“Shit,” I whistled when she told me how much money she currently had in the offshore accounts. Evidently, she had a couple of large chalkboards in one of our spare bedrooms and tracked the smaller dealers that she made turn themselves in. Then she went after their suppliers, right up the chain of command. She also went back down the chain after getting names of each of their dealers from the suppliers. She had practically eliminated four major drug chains from the eastern seaboard. The higher up she went the more money they had available to “donate.”

Ten minutes later, I was in Ted’s office. “Now what?” he laughed good-naturedly.

“How much would it cost to build a new building four times this size with state-of-the-art equipment and three floors of underground climate-control vaults?” I asked.

“Ray, you saw what happened last year. The Chemistry department had the rug pulled out from under their construction plans at the last minute when the economy went south,” he sympathized.

“I know, how much?” I asked. Raising his eyebrows questioningly, he told me just north of $500 million.

“How about to have it done in time for classes next year?” I asked.

“Another 25% to 40% or so,” he estimated.

“And then to have this building gutted and remodeled for the chemistry department?” I asked.

“Probably $100 million or so,” he answered guardedly.

“Then you’d better get busy. I have a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, and who will underwrite the entire project. I can have a check for the first $500 million in your hands within a week,” I said.

“I’m going to assume that you’re serious,” he said warily.

“Do you even have to ask?” I commented as I got up to leave.

“Oh, I’m guessing you’d rather wait until tomorrow to talk to the three new assistants?” I asked.

“Yes,” he groaned as he picked up his phone.

“Phil, Ted. Are you sitting down?” was all I heard of his conversation as I left the office.

The architect was in my office the next morning when Ted rushed in. “You didn’t waste any time,” he gasped waving the check. Amanda had contacted the bank right away and arranged to have a courier fly out last night with the check.

The architect wasn’t too happy with me. He wanted to build a “showpiece,” but I told him we just wanted a building to match what we had now. That way it would blend in with the rest of the campus. I wanted a four-story building four times as big with an additional three floors belowground for climate-controlled storage. I was pleased when both Phil and the Chancellor agreed with me.

I was doubly pleased when Dan and Meagan strolled into the office just as everyone was packing up to leave. I performed the introductions to a very excited Phil and the equally excited Chancellor. Dan and Phil left to discuss a contract, and the Chancellor and the architect headed out to find the head of the chemistry department to discuss renovation plans.

“You’ve done well for yourself,” Meagan smirked. I introduced her to my now five wives (we didn’t discuss Nuk yet, and Zafrina was still unofficial). I also made sure the girls knew Meagan and I had dated in college. “Among other things,” Meagan said teasingly. She always loved to tease me.

“Ray has good taste in women,” Amanda retorted plainly checking Meagan out.

Meagan laughed her melodic laugh. “I think we are going to be very good friends,” she laughed as she hugged Amanda.

“Is it safe to ask what happened?” Becky asked.

“It just didn’t work out,” I answered quickly.

“Still the gentleman,” Meagan said quietly. “Can I tell them?” she asked emotionally. By now, my throat was tight enough thinking about what had happened so long ago that I just motioned for her to go ahead, unable to trust my voice.

“What Ray isn’t telling you is that I made a complete ass of myself and he saved me in spite of it. My parents were very conservative and as soon as I got to school, I went crazy and tried everything they wouldn’t let me do while I lived at home. Ray was the first thing I tried out. We dated for a couple of months and he gave me a little grief when I started smoking pot. My roommate Carol was another thing I tried. Carol was jealous of the time I spent with Ray, but I didn’t know it at the time. I also didn’t know until a year later that she purposely kissed me one day when Ray could see us. He never said anything about it to me.

“When that didn’t work to break us up, she talked me into going to a party with her saying she didn’t want to go alone. I broke my date with Ray that Friday night telling him I had to go home for the weekend. At the party, I had a couple of beers before Carol lit a joint. By the time we finished it I was totally buzzed. I still protested when she offered me something else, but I was in no shape to argue for long and I took the pill she gave me.

“We sat and laughed at the guys while they told dirty jokes for a while before I started feeling really weird--almost like I was watching the world through someone else’s eyes. My mind was so gone that when one of the guys kissed me, I kissed him back. I didn’t even care when he started groping me or taking my clothes off. When he climbed on top of me I was just thinking how good sex with Ray was and was looking forward to feeling that way. I was disappointed when he was done in such a short time. When a second guy took his place, I remember hoping he knew what he was doing. The next thing I remember was waking up in Ray’s bed the next morning.

“At first, I thought it had just been a bad dream. When I tried to get out of bed, I hurt everywhere. I could barely walk to the bathroom and when I got there I saw my hair. It looked like I used a case of hair gel on it and clumps of hair stuck out every which way. I had bite marks all over my breasts with something brownish covering every bite mark. I had to bite my hand to keep from screaming when I went to the bathroom and there were more bite marks on the inside of my thighs.

“I couldn’t figure out where Ray went but found a note on his chair. It said:

Meagan-

I couldn’t find your clothes last night--sorry. I’m pretty sure I got all of the pictures. They are in the grocery bag. I put iodine on all of the bite marks and left my sweats for you to wear home.

Ray

“The bag with the Polaroid pictures was under the sweats he left for me. He even pinned the legs of his sweats up so I wouldn’t trip on them. I threw up twice just looking through the pictures. There were pictures of fourteen different guys having sex with me, several of them choosing to use my backside. There were pictures of Carol and me going to town on each other and then more pictures of the guys using me again. The last pictures showed me covered in cum. Ray had obviously taken a lot of time cleaning me up after getting me to his place. I sat there and cried for hours thinking about what he must think about me and knowing that he took care of me anyway.

“When Ray hadn’t come back by lunch, I went back to my room. One of the girls I’d seen at the party told me I was lucky Ray carried me out when he did. I guess the cops showed up half an hour later and Carol and most of the guys ended up in jail for drugs. The college later kicked all of them out of school and they lost any scholarships they had.

“I couldn’t even imagine facing Ray after that and avoided him for weeks. He kept leaving notes asking me to call but I ignored them. I went so far as to drive home to stay every day after class. It was near the end of the semester when Dan taught a couple of days of my Cultural Anthropology class, covering for another teacher that was ill. I knew the moment I saw him that I wanted him. He made me talk to the department head before he’d discuss dating me, but we started dating before Christmas. I fell for him so hard I’m surprised I didn’t get a concussion. He asked me to marry him over Spring Break. For a second, I felt like I was in Heaven until I realized I had to tell him about what I’d done.

“I sobbed through the story, waiting for him to call me names or get up and storm out, disgusted with me. When I finally finished all he said was ‘But you still didn’t answer my question.’

“After screaming ‘Yes,’ hysterically Dan explained to me that one of the guys from the party had told him what happened shortly after we started dating. Dan got pissed but rather than take just one person’s word he asked Ray. Evidently, the guy told Dan that Ray stormed into the place like a squad of SEALs. When two guys tried to stop him, he put both of them halfway through the nearest wall. The next two guys that tried to stop him ended up with a broken arm and broken ribs. The guy on top of me at the time ended up with Ray drop-kicking his nuts. At that point, everyone cleared out of the room and Ray covered me with a blanket he picked up off the floor and carried me out of the house.

“When Dan asked him about it all Ray would tell him is, ‘When I can walk on water maybe I’ll criticize her for what she did. She screwed up and she knows it, but it looks to me like she has her act together now and that you make her very happy.’ Dan said that he felt like an absolute ass for being so upset with me after what Ray said.

“A year later, I saw Carol again and she apologized to me. She explained that she was jealous of the time I spent with Ray and wanted to break us up. When seeing her and I kissing didn’t do it she set up the whole thing at the party. She even had one of the guys call Ray to tell him I was there and what I was doing. That’s when he came and got me. Carol was sure he was going to kill her when she saw the look in his eyes, but all he did was offer to get her safely out of the house and take her home if she wanted. She was so shaken up she just stayed there and ended up being arrested.

“After Dan slipped the ring on my finger and we cried together, I asked him to please tell Ray I was sorry. I still hadn’t talked to Ray but realized that he and Dan were fairly good friends. Instead, Dan drove me over to Ray’s place. I was so nervous I wanted to throw up. Ray hugged me and all he said was that he was glad I was okay and that I was happy. Dan even asked Ray to be his best man at our wedding.