Primal Spirits
It was my fourth and final week in Costa Rica.
I was 12 years old and there with my best friend's family.
More on my own than I'd ever been.
Iguanas resting on rocks, bats crowding the trees, crabs parting along the shore and I was Moses parting the red sea with a stray dog lingering behind
swimming pools, monkeys, Chicklets for sale everywhere for a few colones, terrible sunburns, ginger ale,
the magic was dense, we moved around a lot
One night I watched a dancing woman turn into a spider right before my eyes.
We ate crab right from the shell -
They seemed to always be dancing
Another time Dino, a five year old blonde kid, fell from the top tier hot tub and cracked his head on the cement below, pool level. Matt and I were the oldest ones there. Matt scooped up Dino, covered in blood, and carried him back to the adults while I watched over his older brother, Max - a seven year old. I can't remember how, but a massive loogie is a part of that story. A lot happened in Costa Rica.
It was my fourth and final week in Costa Rica, like I said,
there was a woman at our table
she was the center of conversation
a very old witch
and we were very lucky to be friends of her friends.
She addressed Matt, his little brother (Joshua), and I
One after another she guessed our astrological signs
She got all three correct
Smiling at us with her strange primal genius
She told us our birthdays
Precisely to the day
And again we nodded with frightened humility
the adults were laughing
they always laughed in Costa Rica
, they laughed while white water rafting
, they laughed among the hornets
and all throughout the rainforest, they
laughed while spiders clacked about
trapped in aluminum pots
in her heavily decorated, wrinkly hands
below the table and in her ancient lap
the old witch held our passports