Penthesilea's Wish [Vol.1]

Chapter Seventeen

Once back at the table where a few of the Chinese dishes had been placed before them, Nicasio tried to get back into focus that other part of his life which was becoming far too consuming. Somehow he could see these new elements were rising to the importance of his relationship with Daniela, though he struggled to push this notion away.

"Everything OK, my boy?"

"Yeah . . ., yeah. Just someone checking in, that's all."

"Just someone?"

"No. I mean . . . yes. It's fine. Really, professor."

Tired as he was, Nicasio attempted to get back into the previous discussion. For now he did not want to think further about the troubles he had already got himself into with Daniela. It was all about this latest ramping-up of his academic priorities.

He looked into the weather-beaten face of the professor and tried to block out the image of the frowning, yet beautiful countenance of the girl he had known intimately as a lover and companion for the better part of five years. He had shared her emotions and been a part of her experiences since the dawn of her adulthood. And he took pride that he had been a significant force in her life.

A look back at the professor's balding head and the sound of his droning voice was enough to bring Nicasio thankfully back to the prosaic discourse at hand.

"So Sir . . . just who back in Spain or to the south in New Spain would have even carried out such orders as this . . . to place a domed burial structure on an isolated cliff? It's such an impossibly dangerous stretch of coastline."

Nicasio's expert knowledge of California's navigational difficulties and its hazardous coastline had come to bear on the perplexing question now faced by he and his mentor.

You know, professor, your timeline also puts on the table the earliest Manila galleon activities of Spain traveling along these cliffs. Commercial voyages back and forth from Acapulco in Mexico to Manila in the Philippines."

"Exactly, my boy. But on those earliest voyages, the return run across the Pacific usually avoided any proximity to the coast."

"Yet they were bound to it. For a line of sight back to Mexico. You don't think one of those huge sailed freighters could have stopped offshore at the mouth of the Bixby River? Rowed in with a crew . . . to climb the cliff and assemble . . ."

"Only on a very, very calm day, my boy. And at great peril to the men. And more importantly, their cargo . . .tons of silks and spices.

"OK. So you're going to keep the focus on our early expeditionaries or explorers? Rule out the more lucrative shipping trade with the Spice Islands? They traveled eastward across the Pacific and sailed back. . . around the same years"

"Well, I suppose even though the Manila to Mexico spice ships ran twice a year, they shouldn't be totally overlooked as a solution to our mystery. . ."

"Exactly, sir. But those Portuguese and Spanish galleon pilots eventually did learn not to sail too close to the coastline on their return. And epecially here at 36 degrees north Latitude where the tholos sits."

"True. They would make their great turn southward for Acapulco much further out at sea."

"Riding as long as possible the Easterly Trade Winds."

"Yes. And it was at Point Concepcion to the south of us when they turned and glided in on a southward run to Acapulco."

Nicasio began to shovel the hot food into his mouth with a fork, skipping the formality of chop sticks.