Las Mayas!

On the morning of the end of the world, Becca awoke to a house without electricity, only she didn’t realize it. She awoke to a house without water, but didn’t realize that one either. It was well into breakfast before anyone mentioned these things. Her father told her matter-of-factly that both had been out since nine the previous night. Becca laughed at herself for failing to notice either resource was absent from the house as she spent the morning washing her clothes in buckets of stored water.

            Conversation the entire morning centered on the impending doom of the day, December 21, 2012. For weeks people had been asking her if she believed it and she always laughed. She thought of explaining the leap year argument but always opted for a joke instead which was typically well received. She wondered if things might be different if the prediction was Incan and not Mayan...though they probably wouldn’t be.

            At breakfast her host mom turned to her,

            “Rebecita, es el ultimo dia del mundo, no?” she asked. (Rebecita, it’s the last day of the world, no?). Becca turned to her without skipping a beat,

            “No, mami, solo es el electricidad, no te preoculpes,” she grinned and they all chuckled. (No, mom, it’s just the electricity, don’t worry).

            At the end of breakfast, Sandra, Becca’s sister, caught a serious case of the giggles and nearly spit her apple juice all over the entire family. This set the rest of them off except Becca’s host mom who looked at Sandra, straight faced and told them all that it was the last day of Sandra being sane if nothing else.

            The rest of the day, besides being hotter than the inside of a feverish cow, went along as usual. The power and water eventually returned. At the end of dinner, they all sat watching news coverage of what was now being called “the beginning of a new era” rather than the end of the world. Suddenly a loud crashing and banging started above their heads and they all turned to the ceiling.

            “Las Mayas!” Becca’s sister, Mireli cried in feigned terror and they all laughed.

            “Solo gallinas,” her other sister whispered seeing Becca’s confusion. Thank goodness chickens didn’t bring the end of the world and neither did the Mayans, two years cut short of this hilarity would be tragic.