Chapter 3
La Sachamama
Smiling, Mr Domingo took Rosita’s hand and slowly raised it to his lips. “Encantado, senhorita.”
“No!” Ana shouted, leaping out from behind the gate. “Rosita, don’t let him kiss you. It’s a trap.”
But her sister didn’t even seem to hear her. She was completely under Mr Domingo’s spell.
“Encantada, senhor,” she murmured in a gushy voice Ana had not heard before.
“Hey!” Without thinking, Ana rushed forward, nearly tripping over a potted lily. She had to save her sister. Rosita turned at the intrusion but her eyes were already glassy, like a zombie’s.
Ana elbowed her out of the way. “Here. Kiss MY hand Mr… Bufeo Colorado.”
The sound of this name made Mr Domingo flinch, but only for an instant. “You must be confusing me with someone else, miss…,” he protested, a polite smile spreading across his face. Looking at him in the moonlight, Ana could see he was very handsome, with large eyes and perfect eyebrows. “I told you, my name is…”
And then Mr Domingo’s smile turned to a scowl. Suddenly, he stumbled backwards, his arms flailing as if he was teetering on the edge of a cliff. His eyes turned jet black, like water swirling in two bottomless pools.
Paulo had come up behind Ana. “What’s happening?”
Mr Domingo clutched at his throat like he was choking on a bone. He moaned, a low, keening moan that didn’t sound at all human, and fell to his knees. Paulo’s first instinct was to rush over to help, but Ana pulled him back.
“Don’t, he’s dangerous.”
A window opened in an upstairs room and someone leaned out.
What’s all this noise? Is everything alright down there?” It was Ana’s father.
“Yes, papa. A cat overturned the bin and Mr Domingo was very kindly clearing up.”
Rosita seemed to have snapped out of the spell. The girly voice she had used with Mr Domingo was gone and she sounded like her usual, bossy self.
“Yes, and I’m afraid I slipped in the mess,” chuckled Mr Domingo, wiping the fish blood from his face with a handkerchief. He too seemed to have mysteriously recovered. He looked at his watch. “Ha, just look at the time. I must go to bed. Busy day tomorrow. Goodnight, everyone.”
He tipped his hat at Rosita and sauntered into the house. Ana waited until he was gone before she spoke.
“Well, that was close.”
“Close?” Rosita looked puzzled.
“He nearly kissed you.”
“I don’t think so.” Rosita waved her hand as if she was shooing away a fly.
“But Ana’s right. The man raised your hand to his lips,” insisted Paulo. “He would have kissed it if Ana hadn’t come to your rescue. Don’t you remember?”
“All I remember is hearing a loud crash and coming out to investigate,” replied Rosita. “Poor Mr Domingo had slipped in the mess from the bin. The next thing I knew, Papa was calling from the window.”
Ana and Paulo watched Rosita march back into the house. She had obviously been so entranced by Mr Domingo that she did not remember clearly. And what had made him back away from Ana?
“What do we do now?” Paulo asked Ana.
“I have no doubt Mr Domingo is really Bufeo Colorado in disguise,” Ana replied decisively. “It all fits: the hat on his head, the trip to the riverbank, his effect on Rosita. And that strange reaction he had when I was speaking to him.”
“I still don’t understand what happened then…” said Paulo.
“Well it’s going to be the fiesta at the weekend.” Ana led the way back into the house. “The village will be full of girls. We must stop Bufeo Colorado from turning them all into botos.”
Paulo closed the door. “How do we do that?”
“It’s useless talking to Papa or the police,” said Ana. “They won’t believe us. And Rosita won’t be any help either. She can’t remember any of the weird stuff that happened tonight. We must go and consult my avó, my grandma. She knows everything about the magic of the rainforest.”
* * *
“It was this that saved you from Bufeo Colorado, my child.” Ana’s grandmother reached over and her fat, wrinkled fingers lifted a charm hanging round Ana’s neck.
“The snake tooth you gave me when I was a baby?” said Ana. Paulo and Ana had come to see her grandma in a little house in the rainforest. It was Saturday, and they had set off straight after washing the breakfast dishes.
“Not just any snake tooth,” explained Grandma. “It came from La Sachamama, the mother of the rainforest. She gave it to me many years ago.”
“The rainforest has a mother?” gasped Paulo. He shook his head in disbelief and yet he had seen so many strange things recently, he didn’t know what to think.
“All natural things have a mother,” said Grandma, inviting the children to sit on hand-carved stools on either side of her. Her house was built of wood and sunshine slanted in through the holes in the ceiling. “Mountains, deserts, lakes, they all have a mother who loves and cares for them, just as your mothers care for you.” She patted Ana tenderly on the shoulder “I know your mother, my daughter, is no longer with us, but your mother’s spirit still watches over you and protects you. Just like La Sachamama watches over her daughter, the rainforest. She is an ancient snake, a giant boa constrictor with leaf-green scales that hide her from the eyes of everyone except the lucky few she allows to see her. A long time ago she moved around but now the forest is shrinking, she stays always in the same place.”
“And you have seen La Sachamama with your own eyes?” asked Paulo.
“A very long time ago,” confirmed Ana’s grandma. “My own papa took me on a journey deep into the rainforest. We spotted La Sachamama in the branches of an ancient tree. She disappeared the moment we saw her but she left the snake’s tooth behind as a gift. That’s how I knew I should dedicate my life to the study of the forest and all its secrets. When Ana was born, I hung La Sachamama’s tooth round her neck to protect her.”
Grandma shifted on her stool. “But now we must discuss getting rid of Bufeo Colorado. We must send him back to Encante at the bottom of the river where he won’t be able to return for at least another year.”
“But how do we do that?” asked Paulo.
“I shall make you a poção, a potion with snake oil, herbs and a drop of deadly poison taken from the fangs of a poison dart frog. You must pour it into Bufeo Colorado’s ear while he sleeps. The first time he goes to the river and gets wet in its spray, the potion will turn him back into a pink dolphin. But you must be very careful with it. One drop on your own skin and goodness knows what sort of rainforest magic will happen to you.”
“We’ll be very careful,” promised Ana.
Ana’s grandma started pounding leaves in a mortar to make the potion. “The rainforest is full of magical creatures, some good and some bad. The good ones are ruled by La Sachamama and they will help you. But the bad ones are on the side of Bufeo Colorado and they will do everything they can to thwart your plans.”
“When Bufeo Colorado went to the river last night,” said Paolo, “two trees bent over him.”
Ana’s grandmother poured oil into the mortar and swirled it round with a twig. “Those are Lupunas, sorcerer trees. Some of them are good, some evil. I guess the ones you saw are on Bufeo Colorado’s side. The trees’ branches were filling him with forest magic just as the spray was filling him with river magic. Be careful of them.”
Grandma removed a miniature flask from around her neck and added a drop of dart frog poison to the potion.
“It’s ready,” she said, pouring the mixture into a tiny glass bottle that she handed to Ana. “Remember to be extra vigilant, children, and may the luck of La Sachamama go with you.”
* * *
It was late afternoon by the time Ana and Paulo left Grandma’s house, but the rainforest canopy stopped any sunshine from coming through. Ana led the way carefully, following the path she had taken this morning and many times before. They came to a clearing she also knew well. Suddenly a shadow fell across the vast expanse of leaf mould and Ana looked up to see a giant tree in the middle of the clearing.
It was a kapok tree that certainly had not been there when they’d passed by earlier! Its branches undulated like the arms of a giant octopus and its leaves trembled in the breeze.
“Paulo,” gasped Ana. “I think there’s a Lupuna blocking our way.”