Swift as Desire Read Online Free PDF Page A

was himself. Maybe he only needed to fine-tune his perception a bit to capture the more subtle wavelengths, allowing him to expand his ability to communicate with the world around him.
    Júbilo firmly believed that everything in the universe had a soul, that every single thing had feelings, thoughts—from the tiniest flower to the farthest galaxy. Everything had a particular way of vibrating and ofsaying, “Here I am.” So it could be said that the stars talked, that they were capable of sending signals to indicate their most intimate thoughts. The ancient Mayans believed the stars were linked to the mind of the sun, and that if one managed to establish contact with the king of the stars, it was possible to perceive not only the sun’s thoughts, but also its desires. And Júbilo, as a worthy descendant of that wonderful race, liked to open his consciousness and widen his sensibilities to embrace the sun, the stars, and a galaxy or two, trying to find a signal, a message, a meaning, a pulsing vibration that would speak to him.
    How sad it would be if no one received those impulses! If no one understood them! If the emitted signals wandered aimlessly through the darkness of time. There was no thought that could disturb Júbilo more than a message that finds no receiver. Being such a wonderful listener, and having been born with the ability to interpret any kind of communication, he would feel depressed when a message languished without a response, floating there in space, unnoticed. Like a caress that never touches skin, or a freshly fallen fig which is ignored, uneaten, and ends up rotting on the ground. There was nothing worse, thought Júbilo, than the idea of countless messages that never knocked on a door and just languished in space, disoriented, wandering, unclaimed. How many of these pulsating, invisible, inaudible presences were spinning around a person, a planet, or the sun? This simple thought filled Júbilo withguilt. It made him miserable, as if it were his responsibility to receive messages for all those who couldn’t. He would have loved to tell everyone that he was able to perceive their signals, that he valued them and, most important, that they were not sent in vain. Over the years he found the best way to acknowledge the signals of others was by fulfilling their most intimate desires, by doing them an honest act of service.
    Perhaps this sentiment was born one distant day when his grandmother took him into the jungle, to a secret place, a hidden Mayan stela still undiscovered by archaeologists. To the eyes of a small boy, it seemed like a colossal monument, difficult to take in at first. Just as great was its power of attraction. The hieroglyphics carved into the stone instilled a tremendous fascination in all those who gazed upon it. Doña Itzel and Júbilo studied it for a long time while the old woman smoked a cigarette. It was one she had fashioned herself, the tobacco wrapped in a corn husk. We’re talking about a whole leaf of the husk, so it was quite a cigarette and took doña Itzel a long time to finish. During this time, Júbilo concentrated on the hieroglyphics.
    “What does it say,
abuela?
” he asked.
    “I don’t know, child. Apparently, some very important dates are written on this stela, but no one has been able to interpret them.”
    Young Júbilo was horrified. If the Mayans had bothered to spend so much time carving this stone to leave the dates inscribed on it, it was because they consideredthem to be truly important. How was it possible that they had been forgotten? He just couldn’t believe it.
    “But tell me,
abuela
, isn’t there anyone who knows the numbers?”
    “That’s not the problem, Che’ehunche’eh Wich. We can read the numbers, what we don’t know is the corresponding dates on our calendar, because the Mayan calendar was different, and we’re missing the key that would allow us to interpret them.”
    “And who has it?”
    “No one, it was lost during