Flash fiction - The Secret

Here is this week's Trifecta challenge. Below is the word and definition we had to use. Click on the icon below to read other entries.

The Secret

They didn’t have words for what they couldn’t see. They knew the rains came; they knew the storms lashed their giant trees: they knew the lightening broke on the winding waters around them. They knew the sun rose in a whirl of misty yellows. They knew the sun set in a myriad of fiery reds. They knew everything about their world and its shadows. But they knew nothing beyond their green horizon. What they couldn’t see was simply the past.

Only Huachawaca knew, had seen. He would only speak of the time he fought the white man when his bones grew cold and he believed his ancestors were coming for him. They never did. He was as strong as the trees, and had seen as much.

The white men were ghosts, cloaked in different colours. They brought terrifying sounds. They moved differently; like they came from a forest which bore different fruit, different materials. They carried obscure objects. The white man was always looking for something. Huachawaca and his brothers gave them their poison. He didn’t know how many years ago it was.

Huachawaca’s great-grandson crouched on his heels, chin on his knees, facing the old man. His hands were tucked into his thighs. Puji listened. He wanted to know why he was afraid.

We band together against the white man because we are this forest. Like the vines that wrap the trees, making everything one and the same. White man doesn’t understand this. White man looks for something else. He doesn’t understand it is all this here: our soul, our land.

The fire crackled. Palms swayed in the breeze. Monkeys could be heard settling. It would soon rain.

Puji kept his hands closed. Inside he held a secret. He knew it was the first secret like it of his tribe. He had no other word for it. But the secret hurt. The green, jacket button pressed into his palm hurt; like a misunderstanding, a wrong footstep in the jungle. 

330 words

BAND (verb) 1: to affix a band to or tie up with a band

2: to finish or decorate with a band

3: to gather together : unite