One morning, Alexis saw a man at the front gate. Standing in the doorway, she couldn't tell who it was but it looked like one of the villagers from Cristo Rey.She called to Max, who was working in the far corner of the distant garden. "Max, there's a man out front."
"Yeah, I recognize him,” he shouted. “Hang on. I'll go see what he wants."
Alexis watched as Max went to the gate and led the man into the yard toward the house. He was acting strangely nervous and kept looking behind him.
"Alexis, this is Chico. Chico, this is my wife, Alexis."
"Buenos tardes, Señora. I have someting to show yu." Again, the man looked behind him nervously. "Well, really, I no have it here. It is back inna de village."
"All right, the next time we pass by the village we'll stop by your house," she said.
"Well, really, my brother have it. He inna de bush outside."
Like pulling teeth, Alexis thought. "So bring him in."
By now the man was sweating profusely, and he motioned to another man hidden in the bushes alongside the house, who had apparently been there all along. The two men entered cautiously. Alexis and Max couldn't imagine why. Here they were, out in the middle of nowhere, ten miles from the nearest town, and a mile away from any other living human being.
As they lifted a burlap bag on to Alexis' kitchen table, she could tell it was heavy. There were three parcels inside, each wrapped in layers of burlap. The man opened the first one, and Alexis saw the black stone figurine of a woman in a crouching position. The figure was badly scratched and not particularly impressive. Next, he opened up a smaller bundle, and this time they were amazed at the sight of a Mayan necklace of jade. It was obvious that the piece had been restrung by an amateur, a collection of mismatched jade beads varying in size, shape, and color. Included in the strand were some flared convex pieces with a pea-sized hole in the middle that Alexis recognized as ear ornaments. There was no doubt that they were authentic. She knew from pictures that the flared piece fit through a large hole in the earlobe, and another small cylindrical piece fit through the back of the ear like a plug to hold the piece in place.
Then Alexis' eyes widened as Chico opened the third parcel and a huge green stone came into view. Max inhaled sharply. There, on the table before them, lay a tablet of solid jade, a death mask, carved in the likeness of an old Maya woman. The nose jutted out below the stylized headdress of stone feathers and the impassive face confirmed her nobility. No doubt, it was a grand lady of royal prominence, now venerated in death."Yu wan buy dese Maya tings?" the man asked simply.
"How much?" Max choked. As for Alexis, she couldn’t even talk.
The one brother looked at the other and nodded. "Three hundred Belize dollahs."
"Each?"
"No. Fu everyting." Max looked at his wife. Given the exchange rate, the man wanted fifty U.S. dollars apiece for these priceless artifacts.
Ironically, the young family now lived on the edge of poverty themselves. The new piston pump, dory, and outboard motor had cost them what little cash they'd had on hand. The garden was still young; it was subsistence farming at best; they had enough to eat and no more. Each week they might splurge on either peanut butter or jelly, but not both in the same week. Their only dessert was cold rice with goat's milk and brown sugar. They couldn’t afford Mayan treasures. Now part of the Belizean culture, they were no better off than the poor villagers who were offering them priceless antiquities.
