Eat, Pray, Vomit

Chapter 6: Before the Ceremony

The evening of the first ceremony was fast approaching. Anne stepped out to the dining room lodge to join the group. As she had noticed during the ride over, the group consisted primarily of young white men from the US, Germany, and Australia. They reminded her of her son Chad, in fact, and she must have reminded them of their best friend's MILF, because they were all immediately bashful and flirty with her. Ordinarily, Anne would not be above reciprocating their fumbling adoration. After the divorce, she had made up for lost time by cutting a swath through a large quantity of her son's male friends, until Chad had finally confronted her and begged her to stop. Then she had moved on to the yoga instructor with the buns of steel and the inconvenient spouse. It had felt so good to be bad.

But now Anne was a woman on a mission. And that mission was Diego.

Hiya, Anne is it?

A friendly Aussie named Chad — inconveniently — came up with a hand extended and a broad shit eating grin. To Anne's horror, when she tentatively extended her hand, he gripped it and drew it into a bear hug saying "bring it in, mate."

Boundaries mate! Anne thought, but just smiled wanly. Looking over Australian Chad's shoulder, she noticed Diego quietly huddled in a corner with some Amazonian women in native attire. He looked shockingly like a Latino Jesus.

" Is this your first time Anne?" Asked Chad.

"I take it it isn't yours?" She replied.

"Ha ha, no. This is my third journey actually. Come, sit down and meet some of my mates? We've traveled together."

"All the way from Brisbane?" Asked Anne warily as she consented to be drawn towards a table of grinning bros. She could hear her son Chad in her head crying Mom! Stop embarrassing me.

"We live in Berlin now actually. Long story but you know Australians, we're prone to wander! Anne this is Chevy, Chris, and Chiku. Boys, this is Anne from Boston."

"Hello ma'am" the boys all replied in unison. Anne hated being ma'amed. She took some satisfaction in the thought that they would all be running around vomiting later that evening.

"Don't be so sure they won't like that." Diego's voice came into her head for the first time since their interview in her hut. He was looking at her across the room. "They're young dudes after all. Throwing up every night ... how you say? ... comes with the territory."

"Have you been in my head all this time?" Involuntarily, Anne found herself 'speaking' back to Diego in her head.

"The plants tell me what I need to know." Came the response. "And before you go any further I feel the need to tell you that at least two of them have VD."

"I'm really not here to screw some frat boy, Diego. If that is what the plants are telling you, they are way off."

"I am sorry, I can get a bit cheeky before the ceremony. You must forgive me. Too many white people come to ayahuasca for the wrong reasons."

"But you take our money anyway?" Anne was feeling defiant.

"It's not for we curanderos to say who should or shouldn't receive the plant wisdom. It is for her to say."

"Her?"

"The plant mother. She is beyond human gender of course. But most of us experience her as the divine feminine."

"Oh." Anne was silenced a little at the thought. Awed in spite of herself. A daughter, wife, and mother her whole life, she nonetheless felt somewhat estranged from femininity, let alone the divine feminine. Maybe she had let all this male energy distract her? Is that why she was here, sweating in the Brazilian Amazon with a bunch of tourists?

Just then, the drums of the ceremony began.