Excerpt from the book
Page 23
One morning I woke to laughter and sat up on my bedroll to find Cian and Rachel playing a game with a score or so of smooth stones consisting of many colors. One of them would shake several stones in her hand, toss them upon the place they had cleared in the dirt, and then, at some sign they would begin to grab as many of a particular color of stone as possible. At the end of the round, the two would open their hands, look at the stones they had captured, and in a frenzy, begin plucking stones of a certain size from each other's hands. This last phase was always accompanied by a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
I watched this game for some time and for the life of me could not determine the formula of play, which appeared to be quite liquid from one round to the next.
I did, however, notice that my niece now had her wavy blonde hair tied in the back, held in place by a delicate length of curling tendril and two lavender orchids. Cian's long dark hair was done up in two pigtails just over her ears. The left one a bit higher than the right and both secured by barrettes, one of red plastic and the other green.
I found a circle of Cian's nook-a-noom bread ready for me on a warm stone near the fire, along with a cup of honeyed tea. As I began my breakfast I suddenly realized that the two were not only laughing hysterically from time to time, but between rounds of their game they were chattering back and forth in what I knew to be the Yanomami language! Not a word of Portuguese was heard. I looked over at my sister Kaitlin to find her looking at me, a smile on her lips. I raised an eyebrow and she shrugged her shoulders as she went back to studying a yellow leaf under her magnifying glass.
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