Chapter Four
Note to self—Angélica suggested that I look up if there were ancient Maya dentists and what tools were used in teeth decorating. Research curative efforts relating to cavities and infections.
Quint gaped at the tooth KuTu had dropped into Angélica’s open palm. A small green bead filled a hole bored in the center of what looked like a front upper incisor.
He’d heard about the ancient Maya and their eccentric fashions, from attempting to shape a baby’s head into a cone in reverence of the maize god to dangling an object in front of the kid in hopes of crossed eyes—a sign of beauty and intelligence.
But this was the first time he’d actually seen a tooth with a gemstone still intact outside of a museum.
Angélica pointed at the bead. “That’s jade. The owner of this tooth liked to be chic.”
“Could it have belonged to a king?” Raul asked, coming over to check out the tooth.
She held it up between her thumb and index finger. “Possibly, but the procedure of having gemstones drilled and set into the teeth was not limited to the elite. Several recent studies show this was a common practice among some in the middle socioeconomic class, too.”
“But would a middle-class Maya fashionista be at a site that is believed to be for the religious elite?” Quint asked.
“Not likely,” she said. “But those in the noble class might have been allowed. If I remember right, it’s believed that as many as one in three or four elite males had gemstones in their teeth at one point in Maya history.”
Quint pulled out his camera, wanting to capture the image in case it turned out to be something important to the story. “All jade?”
“No. Hematite, quartz, and turquoise were also used. Cinnabar, too, which would have been a pretty red against an ivory-colored tooth.”
He focused his lens and snapped off several closeups of the tooth. “How did they drill out holes in the teeth like that back then?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure, but gemstones required deep openings and the Maya didn’t have the anesthetic drugs we do, so it must have hurt like hell.
Not to mention it raised the chances of pulp necrosis and probably periodontitis if not done right, or if the healing went sideways.
But there are some new studies showing that the cement used was a complex mixture of natural ingredients that possibly had medicinal benefits like antibacterial and antifungal that helped with healing and long-term dental health. ”
“Still, all of that drilling and no anesthesia.” Quint winced. “No, thanks. I’d stick to being out of fashion.”
“Duly noted,” she said, aiming a teasing smile at him. “I’ll add ‘no pretty teeth’ to your list of refusals, along with no bloodletting via a stingray spine to your nether regions.”
Raul glanced Quint’s way. “What does ‘nether regions’ mean?”
Quint smirked at her. “You want to field this question, Dr. García?”
“I will,” Juan said with a cheesy grin as he joined them. As Angélica started to object, he leaned over to Raul and spoke around his hand as if shielding his words from his daughter. “His partes privadas.”
“Ah.” Raul grinned. “El pajarito.”
Was that some kind of parrot? Quint’s Spanish was improving, but his vocabulary had its limits.
Juan’s bark of laughter was echoed by the peanut gallery of spider monkeys in the trees nearby. “Yes, his little bird.” He patted Quint’s shoulder. “Maybe that should be your new nickname.”
Quint aimed a mock glare at Angélica, whose grin matched her father’s. “Are you going to come to my ego’s rescue at any point here, my fair maiden?”
“I think a clean segue would save the both of us a set of red cheeks.” She held the tooth up in front of Quint’s mouth, closing one eye to look up at it and then him. “The green of the jade bead sort of matches your eyes, Prince Charming. Hubba hubba.”
“A smile-full and he’d be even more handsome,” Juan played along. “You’d probably blind us with your man-beauty when you flashed those pretty green choppers at us.”
“Yeah, but then I’d have the ladies in their loincloth bikinis chasing me through the jungle day and night, and your daughter would get jealous and start threatening me with her pointiest stingray spine.”
She nodded. “Better yet, the sharp side of my machete. I’m the only one allowed to chase you through the jungle, Parker. And you’re the one who has to wear the loincloth.” She held the tooth out for her father to take. “What do you think, Dad?”
“Well, I’ve seen Junior Mint in his skivvies, same as you, so I think he’d make a decent clothing model for a caveman catalog.”
Quint snickered and repeated a quote from one of his dad’s favorite comedians of old, Rodney Dangerfield. “When I was born, I was so ugly the doctor slapped my mother.”
That line drew a laugh from all but KuTu, whose grasp of English wasn’t so great.
“I meant what do you think of the tooth, Dad?”
Juan slid on his reading glasses. “It’s a fancy one, for sure.
” He turned the tooth one way and then the other.
“I’m guessing they used some kind of pine resin to cement in the stone.
I read that mint oils were sometimes used in the mixture, but I doubt we can tell for sure without proper analysis.
” He held it up to the bright sky to catch the sunlight.
“There aren’t many cracks in the tooth, so based on the wear and size, it most likely belonged to a young adult, possibly early twenties.
But again, we’d need to send it off for examination to be certain.
” He looked at KuTu over the rims of his glasses. “Were there more than this one tooth?”
“You mean like a whole skull full?” Quint asked, packing away his camera. If so, were the remaining bones of the skeleton waiting for them up ahead, too?
KuTu shook his head slowly. “Es no bueno.”
“What is no good?” Angélica replied in Spanish. A slight frown furrowed her forehead as she switched her focus from the tooth to KuTu.
The short guard pointed at Juan’s hand. “El diente.”
The tooth, Quint translated in his head.
“Where did you find it?” Angélica pressed.
“En un montón …” he started in Spanish, then held up his finger. “A stack,” he said slowly, his expression pained as if speaking English made his face hurt. KuTu held up his hand, chin-level. “Muy alta. Very tall. In front of …” His face scrunched up again. “Una larga pared. No se how long.”
Angélica rattled off a mouthful of Spanish, speaking too quickly for Quint to pick up more than the words “long wall” and “jungle” and “Maya.”
“KuTu found a long wall up ahead that he believes was built by the ancient people,” Raul explained, leaning near Quint as he quietly translated.
“Dr. Angélica is asking him why he doesn’t know how long the wall is that he found.
If the jungle was too thick to cut through on his own to find where the wall ends, and if it had any Maya glyphs or other symbols carved into it. ”
“Didn’t he say something about finding a tooth in a stack?” Quint whispered back.
“Sí.”
“A stack of what?”
Raul shrugged. “That is not clear yet, and Dr. Angélica is trying to get him to better describe the long wall at the moment.”
Describe the wall? What?
Quint turned to Angélica, interrupting her with, “KuTu says he found a tall stack of teeth and you’re focused on a silly wall?”
“The wall is not silly, Parker. Remember our discussion about the importance of seeing objects in situ regarding the relevance of the find? Not to mention what a wall represents at a site. I mean, is it tall? Does it go on for some length? Is it surrounding a temple, a group of temples, or a whole small city?”
Juan handed the tooth back to his daughter. “Junior Mint does have a good point, gatita.”
She scoffed. “Dad, teeth are a dime a dozen.”
“Even fashionable ones with gemstones?” Quint asked.
“I’ve lost count of how many teeth I’ve come across in the dirt over the years.”
“Yeah, but a bunch of teeth all stacked up to here?” Quint held his hand out to the height of KuTu’s chin.
“I don’t think he means what you’re envisioning, Parker.”
“Sí, muy tall.” KuTu cast a worried look in Quint’s direction, holding his hand up to his chin again. “Es no bueno.”
“No entiendo, KuTu,” Angélica said.
Good, at least Quint wasn’t the only one who didn’t fully understand what KuTu was trying to warn them about.
She continued talking to KuTu in Spanish, trying to clarify if the condition of the wall was what KuTu meant by his repeated “no bueno,” according to Raul’s translation.
“The wall was sound, per KuTu,” Raul continued translating. “But he wasn’t able to find an end because it kept going and going, deeper into the jungle.”
Quint turned to Juan. “Your daughter’s lack of concern about a stack of teeth has me wondering if she has some kind of jungle fever.”
Juan took off his reading glasses. “As I’ve said before, her tendencies toward obsession come from her mother’s side of the family.”
“Obsession can lead to trouble,” Bronko said from behind them.
Quint glanced back. He hadn’t even heard Bronko join them, partly because a howler monkey was gutturally growling at the top of its lungs not too far away, trying to drown out Angélica’s questions; but mostly because the ex-hitman was light on his feet.
Quint had witnessed Bronko’s stealth mode at breakfast when the killer had snuck up on him and Juan, seeming to appear from out of nowhere.
KuTu turned in the direction of where he’d found the tooth, still shaking his head. “Esto es muy malo, Dr. Angélica.”
Juan pocketed his glasses. “What’s very bad, KuTu?”
Quint wiped away a drip of sweat rolling down his temple. “Probably the mountain of teeth.”
“He said ‘un montón’ of teeth, Parker,” Angélica clarified. “That means ‘a lot,’ not a mountain.”
KuTu pointed at the tooth and rattled off something in what Quint guessed was his native language.
“My Mayan is not good enough to understand what he’s telling Dr. Angélica now,” Raul confirmed. “But I think he’s explaining about the teeth.”