the Surgeon
by free man jung
At the trailhead there is a book where hikers register themselves in case they don't return. As the Couple signed, they both felt absurdly uneasy, as tho they were signing more than simply a guestbook. A few spaces above where they signed their names, someone else had written, "Beware of wild animals-- we found a small human hand in some skat."
"Oh my God," She said with a gasp, "Do you think it's true?!" He hesitated a moment,
"Naw, probably just some prank to keep tourists away."
The hot springs at San Sebastián require a short hike, an icy river crossing and are just a little bit hidden away. Rarely is anyone there. In town, people say that some folks live down there by the spring, 'hippies' they call them, tho truly no one knows what that word means anymore. Neither He nor She had ever seen anyone down there, and were relieved when no cars were parked at the trailhead.
"They would have called the cops," She decided, "if they had found a human hand they would have called the cops."
"Not too many police in these parts," He said thoughtfully. She paused a moment, as tho making an attempt to understand what He had told Her. She had come from "back East" where I suppose life is a lot safer.
"Would a real hand pass thru the intestines and everything unscathed?" She wondered aloud.
"Definitely not." He replied, "Especially if it was a baby which they certainly seemed to imply--'small human hand'." She pulled up closer to him. "I imagine a large cat could digest a baby, bones & all." They hiked on in silence across the broad, empty plain.
When they reached the edge of the cañón, the trail dropped suddenly and steeply to the river. The other side was breathtaking-- precipitous walls of rock-- solid plumb lines so straight, so vertical, that they seemed unnatural. The ribbon of green which unwound beneath their feet suggested the path of an obscured river-- a river that had patiently whittled this majestic scar from solid rock. The green basin was a welcome contrast to the dusty grey landscape where They stood.
The Two descended in silence down the rocky trail until it ended abruptly at the river.
"I think the water's higher than it was last time," She said as She took off Her shoes and rolled up Her pantleg. He came up behind Her and kissed Her on the neck.
"It looks about the same to me," He said. His boots were harder to remove, but He knew He'd be glad for dry feet later on when it was time to go.
The river was piercing cold, the current swept swiftly about their ankles and over their feet . They paused a moment on the sandbar and he threw his arms around her.
"I love you, cielito."
"I love you too, Happy Valentine's Day." They embraced again and forded across to the other bank. They came upon a clear vega of beautiful, ancient chopos temblónes which only grow in high altitudes. It was a short walk to the hot springs.
They found the pool that they had sat in last time, but after undressing and getting in, they found the water to be far too cool.
"It's because of all these leaks," he said gesturing to the dyke of rocks and silt separating the pool, not much larger than a bathtub, from the river.
"It's too cold!" She said, "I have to get out!" He stayed in the water, determined to repair the pool by adding rocks to the dyke.
"It's getting warmer," He said triumphantly, "just give me another minute!" Suddenly, a man's voice called to them from an unseen location, "There's another pool downstream. It's much hotter, and big enough for four!"
"Oh yeah, we know about those," He stood, unashamed of his nakedness, "Things have changed a lot since the last time we were here."
"You work at that coffeehouse-- back in the city, right?" The voice called to Him.
"That's right," He said, "who are you?" annoyed that the speaker had not yet shown himself."
"No one you know," the voice said smugly, but then He saw the man, and He did know him; with his brown overalls and ridiculous hat, just as they'd met back in town. He went by the name Surgeon & was one of many Travellers who were always passing thru San Vicente de la Ciénega. Herds of them-- dreds with guitars and dirty faces, lined up with tin pots scorched by campfires, to be filled with coffee, or standing outside busking. None of them ever begged for money; one couldn't help but wonder who amongst them was an earnest aspirant for Thoreauesque idealism and who beneath the grimy, hairy façade was just another trust-fund kid with priveledge and access, following an edgier trend. There was something of a vulgar, hipster superiority in the scorn they hold for those in more conventional lifestyles. Some were very nice, of course. And some might legitimately be called insane. Most, however, just seemed really caught up in 'the scene.'
Surgeon was one of the more regular faces on the Traveller scene-- him and the girl with the beautiful eyes. They must be staying somewhere nearby. The young couple felt apprehensive that the "big enough for four" comment was meant as a self-invitation, but they decided to locate the bigger pool anyway, after Surgeon left.
"You saw who that was, right?" He said after he was certain to be out of Surgeon's earshot.
"Yeah," She said with an air of familiarity.
"He always reminded me of an elf," He said, "Not the cute, cookie-baking, shoemaker sort of elves, but the grimy, sinister sort found in the dusty annals of European history." She had alreay heard this rant, but allowed Him his moment of soliloquy.
They walked downstream and came upon two loose rock-forms that at one time might have been built-up barriers encasing the warmth of the spring & shielding it from the rushing icy onslaught of the river. Now they barely held any shape at all, they might just as easily have been washed there naturally by the river current and only looked like ruined pools.
Beyond these rocks was the pool Surgeon had told them about. The wall of rocks and silt enclosing this pool was bigger & sturdier & stood taller up above the level of the river than the other one had. Someone had used a machete to hack away all the brush & prickles around the area to create a nice bank.They put their clothes in a pile on the bank and found the water in this pool to be much warmer.
Before too long, the girl who was riding with Surgeon, the one with the beautiful eyes and the distant, lonely look on her face came up near the pool.
"How's the water?" she asked of them, not as if she actually cared to know, but as if it were a phrase she had heard before in a similar context & had deemed a propos.
"Nice and warm," He called up to her.
"I came to see if you have any rolling papers," she stated with the same deadpan delivery as before. When they'd arrived in San Vicente, some of the men had taken notice of her. It hadn't taken long for them to figure out that Surgeon owned her. Hanging on his every word, she spent all day in the coffeehouse when they were in town. Even some of the female patrons began to take note of the situation.
It was as if she hadn't a mind of her own.
It was as tho she were profoundly and startlingly empty.
"Nope, sorry," he called back up to her.
"I ran out of tobacco a week ago and haven't re-upped."
"We have tobacco, we just need papers," she said. They both waited, watching the other until He finally said,"Sorry," and she vanished. The Couple looked at one another & smiled.
"Weird," They agreed.
When their fingertips were as wrinkled as dried plums, they decided to climb out of the water and walk up the bank. The steep, white rock walls work almost like a corral, forcing one's route directly into a sunny corner.
"I want to jump in the water," He said, "I'll be right back." He ran off, back down to the Rio & plunged immediately into the cold water. She watched as his shadowy form moved upstream beneath the current. He emerged momentarily to gasp for air before returning to His silent obscurity. That's when she saw the back of his head bob up slightly & with a sharp jerk, dash against the rock & disappear beneath the water.
A deep crimson streak poured down the Rio before she saw the dark shadowy form of his body pass quickly by. She felt the warm rush of dread panic seize her in the center of her chest. She turned to run and almost crashed headlong into Surgeon who stood like a limp ragdoll, motionless. He had been standing behind Her the whole time, but She hadn't heard him.
"We have to--" She gasped but could not finish. He smiled slowly, a long thin smile stretched at the cheeks, without any kindness at all in it. A brightness came into his eyes from beneath the shade of his wide-brimmed hat and she knew he meant her no help.
"I have to go-- I have to find him!--" And as she moved, he countered her step like an actor who's rehearsed the scene a dozen or more times. Like a frightened rabbit, the poor girl stepped left only to be blocked again. In terror, she stepped back only once but afforded him enough room to charge forward with the look of a violent & hungry dog on his face. She ran quickly along the rock wall, but by the time she realized her mistake, it was too late. Cornered, she stood trembling, & just like that, he grabbed her by the wrist and cuffed her to a rusty metal ring that, like a stage prop, just happened to be right where it was needed, jutting out of the rock.
"Help!--Anybody! Please help me!" She was screaming now at the top of her lungs. The girl with the blue eyes came around the corner holding a folded leather bindle. "Oh thank God!-- help me, please!" She cried out to her. The girl made eye contact briefly, but did not move to help Her. She only handed the leather bindle to Surgeon. He untied the bindle and spread it out neatly before him. A dozen or more archaic-looking medical tools lay glittering in the sunlight. He took a scalpel in his hand and held it up to his eye.
"D'you know what they call me?" he asked Her. She nodded her head and sobbed a little hissing sob. She couldn't bring herself to say the word for now it terrified her. "But do you know why?" he asked with a sadistic grin. The girl with the beautiful, blue eyes stood silently by, staring blankly at the ground. The Woman struggled against her bonds but all was futile. She let out a loud, piercing cry, but there was no one for miles to hear her. Before long she fell silent, and the Surgeon went to work.
They didn't return to San Vicente for over a month. By then, the coffeeshop had given up on their employee, but why didn't they notice his wife?-- sitting there outside with the travellers-- blank-eyed like a zombie. Why didn't anyone notice his sweet wife? I suppose she looked different now, but they'd have seen her if only they had looked. If they'd looked closely, they would have seen her there, marble-calm and disturbingly blank, a small crimson stain below each eyebrow marking where her prefrontal cortex used to be.
No one even noticed that now he rode with two instead of one. Probably they were all just too busy to notice Her amongst the grimy, shiftless forgotten.