Ixchel- a metropolis of jade, obsidian, and stone. A shock to the system. Glowing pyramids, blinking towers, luminous skyscrapers, bloody ball courts, larger-than-life statues and every wonder in sight was built with these raw materials.
Bright colors permeated the atmosphere- not unlike those found in any ancient cities back in Mia’s dimension- yet this parallel city was layered in a shades of gray, black, and green.
The passengers in the boat were mostly descendants of indigenous Mesoamericans. But in this world, there had been no Christopher Columbus. No conquest. No colonization. No small pox. Unperturbed, the cultures known as the Mayans had flourished for centuries in this continent. Most indigenous groups in the Americas, like the Aztecs and Incas, had disappeared and been subsumed into the Mayan collective.
A passenger with an intricate tattoo on his face climbed aboard the ferry and approached her. He wore a smart colorful suit made of what looked like iridescent bird feathers. Standing before her, he raised his voice:
“A lord has come a long way and a lord must have a seat. It is hot outside, and he cannot bear it. How will he make it home in peace to his wife and children if he does not have seat? Now everyone in the ferry is looking at him beg for a seat. How great will his shame be if the pale woman does not move to another seat!”
Back in her own world, she would’ve protested. She would’ve fought back. Called the driver or the police. But she remembered Clyde’s words before she embarked on this journey.
“The social classes are highly stratified in this world, and there are wide gaps in power distance. As a white woman, you’re at the bottom of the ladder, and they will go out of their way to let you know it. Don’t engage them. Keep your head down and don’t make a fuss.”
She did not look at the man that loomed before her but simply gathered her pack and moved to the back of the boat.
His dark glowering eyes followed her. He took the seat she had vacated. Then he looked back at her and mumbled under his breath.
She avoided his gaze and instead, she stared out the window at the network of canals on which many boats were cruising along throughout the great city. There was no other mode of transportation.
“The wheel does not exist in this dimension” Clyde had explained. “It is forbidden to create anything in the likeness of the sun and the moon, including their geometrical shape.”
The boat passed the giant statue of a jaguar with its jaws agape and water pouring out of its mouth.
The man up front turned to look at her and called her a whore. Mia’s face turned red. The other passengers laughed.
In the distance, the smoke of many fires rose from the top of the pyramids.
“This is an advanced technological society,” Clyde told her, “but they still hold human sacrifices, particularly during the festival of Venus. This is how they deal with those who commit social transgressions or have somehow ended up on the wrong side of the law.”
The belligerent man looked back at her and stood up.
Mia put her bag on her lap and discretely placed her hand on the hilt of the gun within it.
“Only use it as a last resort,” Clyde had told her. “Guns don’t exist in this dimension.”
The man up front threw a few insults her way. The passengers roared with laughter and looked at her expecting her to retaliate, but she remained silent.
“A pale whore in need of a real man!”
He stumbled towards her.
She put her finger on the trigger and tensed.
The man was nearly barreling upon her when a young woman stood up and put an obsidian blade against his throat.
“Enough!” she told him and shook her free hand. Her bracelets rattled.
The man growled at the woman, called her a whore, bemoaned the shame she had brought upon him, tears welled up in his eyes, but eventually he returned to his seat.
The woman looked back at Mia.
Mia nodded and tried to smile, but her lips simply trembled.
The woman scowled and sheathed her long blade in a jaguar hide scabbard.
“It’s a matriarchal society,” Clyde had said. “Only women have the power of death. That is to say, only they have the right to bear arms. Let them protect you.”
Mood music
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