An Unexpected Journey
Desert Secrets
by KIM CAREY
Copyright © Kim Carey 2010
Published by Kim Carey at Smashwords
All rights reserved. This ebook is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any person without written permission. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.
This
work is fiction. All
characters and events portrayed in this work are either products of
the author’s
imagination or used ficticiously. Any resemblance
to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-0-9804404-1-6 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-9804404-2-3 (ebook)
For John Politzer
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge
is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
Peru. 1978.
1
In the predawn hush the mighty arms of the old Curanderos stretched to meet the limitless sky. Standing in the silent depths of the desert canyon he prayed for a sign. With his bare feet grounded in the naked earth and the strength of his forebears chanting through his blood, the ancient mystic smiled. His prayer immediately answered.
Two eagles soared majestically in the azure canopy circling a child snuggled between two mighty boulders marking the entrance to Narac cave, four hundred kilometres south of Lima. This was a powerful sign for Joachim. Eagles were sacred omens of the Great Spirit and his personal totem animal. The old man snapped a light clap to the heavens and walked toward his ahijada, his godchild, who had already spotted her winged companions.
Clay dust swirled and the small girl danced and spun stretching her arms to the heavens. With an air of graciousness unusual in a five year old, Jo Potter blew a soft kiss to each eagle and turning on one foot delivered another to her beloved godfather. The Nikon F camera dangling from her neck brushed against her red shirt swaying with each twirling step. She steadied herself confidently moving buttons and knobs, pretending to adjust the speed and aperture just as her mother had shown her.