"Speaking of that rongorongo thing," I said. "Where is it? In safekeeping I presume?"
"No effing idea," Daniel said. "I just wish it looked at bit more impressive on film."
"I was kind of hoping to see it. I had a migraine and had to leave just as it was being wheeled on to the stage."
"We'll ask on your behalf when we finally see Jasper," Mike said.
"Given you're one of the few people at this congress who will actually talk to us plebs," Daniel said.
"You're kidding," I said. "I'd have thought everyone would be interested in hearing about the documentary."
"Nope," Mike said. "You and that dead guy, Maddox, were the only ones who'd have a conversation of any duration with the likes of us. He's gone, so that leaves you. So it will be our pleasure talking to the great one on your behalf."
"Thanks! I really want to see that thing. Dave was interested in the documentary?" I asked, I hoped casually.
"Yes, indeedy," Daniel said. "Bit of a bore, though. All that 'great to see you' stuff. I suppose I shouldn't speak ill of the dead. He was helping Kent with the research. Kent asked him and paid his way to the congress apparently. That's all I know really. I have no idea what he did for the airfare. Funny choice, I'd say, but there you are."
That seemed about all he was going to say. "So did last night make for better television?" I asked.
"The dancing girls in those feathered skirts and tiny bikini tops were good," Mike said.
"Too many white girls," Daniel said. "The spots in the dance company are all being taken by Chileans. It's a shame because it's Rapa culture they're representing, and furthermore, Rapa girls are really lovely."
"You would hardly be biased or anything, would you?" Mike said. "But to take your question seriously, Lara, no, slides and a talking head at a podium do not good television make. That's why we plan to take Jasper out, should he deign to show us his lovely face before the sun goes down, to shoot some footage at a cave where rongorongo tablets could, theoretically at least, be found. When that was done, we were going to have him give you all a little talk at Ahu Akivi and film that as well."
"You don't like him, do you?" I said.
"I do not have strong feelings on the subject," Mike said. "About him, or about his big discovery, if that is what it is. He's a job, one job in a not-so-illustrious career."
"By not having strong feelings he means he hates the guy," Daniel said. When Mike started to protest, Daniel put up his hand. "Don't try to deny it. J. R. is a turd. We all know that." Mike shrugged and then laughed. "Still, Mike and I keep begging Kent to let us work on every one of J. R.'s adventures."
"Our masochistic tendencies," Mike said. "I think this will be the last time for me, though. There is only so much of J. R. I can stomach."
"My wife Eroria certainly feels strongly," Daniel said. "She was much miffed last night when I told her what Jasper had to say about South American stonemasons. He has earned the undying enmity of Eroria and every other Rapa Nui on the island, I should think. In the interests of family harmony, I agreed with her. I have no effing clue, of course, whether he's right or not."
I noticed for the first time that Daniel had a tattoo, a lizard, on his left bicep. "Does everybody here really have a tattoo?" I asked.
"A lot do," he said. "Long tradition of it, I believe. Eroria treated me to this one when we got engaged."
There was something about this tattoo business that was bothering me, and I didn't know what it was. I had no problem with Moira getting one, and I thought I'd even consider something very discreet myself, except I couldn't bring myself to do it. I wondered what that was about. I'm sure it hurt a bit, but so did having your ears pierced, which I'd done maybe twenty-five years earlier and certainly never regretted. For some reason, though, right now I was filled with revulsion at the idea of a tattoo, something I'd never noticed in myself, not that I'd thought about it much, if ever, before.
By now the buses were ready to go, and our group headed out in two of them, followed by the Kent Clarke team in their van. Kent had decided that rather than waste more time, they'd film some footage of the group at the site to use as background at some point in the documentary.
I loved Ahu Akivi the moment I saw it, and the mere sight of it put troubling thoughts about tattoos out of my mind. Unlike other ahu that invariably hugged the coast, this one was inland, an ahu with seven moai gazing across the landscape toward the sea. I don't know why I liked it better, other than to say it had a certain grace that the larger Ahu Tongariki lacked, something Brian Murphy attributed to the sensitive restoration work of his hero, Bill Mulloy.
Christian Hotus, the young man Gordon had described as his right hand, was the guide for this excursion, the only one, given Jasper had still failed to show. Edwina Rasmussen could have done it, but she would much rather stand under her umbrella, which she used constantly outdoors in the sun, and criticize someone else, which is what she did all the while Christian talked. I, however, thought he did a better than credible job as guide, and the fact that he was Rapa Nui born and bred added a great deal.
According to him, there were two stories about the ahu, one that the seven moai represented seven sailors sent out by Hotu Matu'a to find the island he had seen in his dreams. The other, perhaps more realistic, was that these moai represented seven ancestors of the clan whose village the moai guarded. There was space for one more, perhaps to honor the man who had built the moai and had the seven carved, but the clan wars and the toppling of the moai made the raising of the eighth impossible.
We stood, a group of about twenty, in front of the ahu, while Christian pointed out various features, telling us that long after the moai had been toppled, the ahu had been a burial place. "Now," he said. "Follow me around the back, and I'll show you something interesting."
It was interesting, all right. What followed was a scene right out of the Keystone Kops. Christian rounded the end of the ahu, and I was right behind him, snapping photographs. Oblivious to everything beyond what I could see through the camera lens, I walked straight into Christian, who had come to an abrupt stop. When I saw what had happened to him, I stopped dead in my tracks, too. Then Enrique, who had his guidebook up to his nose, bumped into me, and then Brian, who was rhapsodizing about the work of Bill Mulloy, ran into Enrique. We then had the pedestrian equivalent of a pileup on the freeway. One after another, those coming around the side of the ahu, all gawking at something other than where they were going, bumped into the person just ahead. Susie was almost knocked down. Over to the side, Daniel, who, like me, was oblivious to anything that could not be seen through the camera lens, kept right on filming, panning across the back of the ahu, not noticing the absolute chaos just to his left.
The cause of this uproar was the great Jasper Robinson himself. He was sitting on the ground, leaning against the stones of the ahu, legs stretched out in front of him, looking for all the world as if he'd been waiting for us forever.
"What is he doing there?" Edwina carped the minute she saw him. "We could have been hurt."
"If you didn't want to see me, you could have just said so, Jasper," Yvonne said loudly.
"For heaven's sake, Jasper," Kent Clarke said, striding purposefully up to the seated Jasper. "Do you not realize how expensive it is to have a crew on standby for hours on end?" And then she fainted dead away.
6