A kind of conclusion

Instead of trying to sum up my whole trip, and the meaning of everything, and how it all changed me (which would take more than a lifetime to do), I want to leave you all with an experience I had on my last day in Cuzco, which was all at once odd, disturbing, commonplace, and in some strange way an appropriate ending to this series of other-worldly events.

I spent the last couple days living in the house where I began when I first came to Cuzco, spending time with Rosita and reliving old memories in my head. Things had changed; the family was practically uprooting the entire house, redoing all three bathrooms. Mijael no longer works in the fish store underneath the house; his brother-in-law, who owned the store, decided to sell it. Rosita now sits at the table to eat with the rest of the family, instead of at a seperate table in the same room. She is almost finished her thesis and will soon be moving out of the house, but only once my host parents manage to find another maid (they really can't live without one).

At the same time, not much had changed. Erika, the maid in the house of my host mom's daughter, had off for awhile, the result being that Rosita kept being asked to come over and take care of the kids there. My host parents were away for the weekend in their house in the country while Rosita had to stay in the house and wait for all the different repairmen to come. Seeing as she was supposed to be taking care of the kids in the other house at the same time, I ended up having to stay in the house waiting for the repairmen to come.

Finally at mid-day on Monday Socorro and Ramiro returned from their weekend house. I left the house for a few minutes to buy something at the general store, and when I came back my host parents were gone, and at the kitchen table, like a ghost, was seated an elderly indigenous woman I had never seen in my life. It startled me, partly because she was obviously indigenous, in the characteristic sweater, hat and skirts, and for that reason I knew she couldn't have been any blood relation of my host family. It crossed my mind that maybe she had broken and entered, but I knew that was utterly ridiculous. Not knowing what to do, I entered the kitchen and just kind of stood there, looking at her, struggling to make some sort of connection but feeling as if there had never been two people on earth who understood each other less. Finally I said hello and asked her name. She said it was Juliana, and I introduced myself, explaining that I lived there. She just looked at me apprehensively and a little fearfully, and said she was waiting for la Señora Socorro. Mystified, I went up to my room.

Later it was explained to me what relation Juliana had to the family. When Socorro was growing up, Juliana had been the maid who took care of her. Yet it was impossible for me to imagine that this modest old woman had once had the authority to discipline Socorro. During lunch, which was kind of a going away party for me and in which I opened a bottle of wine from Argentina that I'd been saving, Juliana sat at the same table where Rosita used to sit. She was served a child-sized portion of wine and spoken to like a child. After lunch, Juliana sat at the table and waited there while Socorro went upstairs, watched some TV with the kids and took a short nap. I was waiting for Rosita to finish taking her shower so she could go out with me, so I came downstairs and sat at the same table as Juliana, neither of us saying a word to each other for several minutes. Finally Juliana asked me, "Is la Señora Socorro coming down, or has she fallen asleep?"

"She's not asleep right now," I said. "Should I tell her to come down?"

"No, she'll come down."

She sat and waited for another half hour or so, until Socorro finally came down, and started talking to her as if it were official business, about God knows what. During the part of the conversation I witnessed Socorro was giving Juliana a pair of earrings and saying they made her look so pretty--still speaking to her like a child. And to think, there was a time when Juliana spoke to her the same way.