ТРИЕСЕТ И ШЕСТ
…
Nate thought hard for a second,
then fatigue hit him. He slumped a bit, still trying to remember her name.
Maybe she never told him her last name. ‘I don’t know’, he mumbled, his lips
barely moving. Valdir pressed the phone harder.
‘Nate, talk to me! Did you find
the right woman?’
‘Oh yes. Everything’s okay down
here, Josh. Relax.’
‘What about the woman?’
‘She’s lovely.’
Josh hesitated for a second, but
he couldn’t waste any time. ‘That’s nice, Nate. Did she sign the papers?’
‘I can’t think of her name.’
‘Did she sign the papers?’
There was a long pause as Nate’s
chin dropped to his chest and he appeared to be napping. Valdir nudged his arm
and tried to move his head with the phone. ‘I really liked her,’ Nate suddenly babbled.
‘A lot.’
‘You’re stoned, aren’t you, Nate?
They’ve got you on painkillers, right?’
‘Yep.’
‘Look, Nate, call me when your
head is clear, okay?’
‘I don’t have a phone.’
‘Then use Valdir’s. Please call
me, Nate.’
His head nodded and his eyes
closed. ‘I asked her to marry me,’ he said into the phone, then his chin fell
for the last time.
Valdir took the phone and walked
to a corner. He tried to describe Nate’s condition.
‘Do I need to come down there?’
Josh yelled for the third or fourth time.
‘That is not necessary. Please be
patient.’
‘I’m tired of you telling me to
be patient.’
‘I understand.’
‘Get him well, Valdir.’
‘He is fine.’
‘No he’s not. Call me latter.’
Tip Durban found Josh standing in the window of
his office, staring at the cluster of buildings that composed his view. Tip
closed the door, took a seat, and asked, ‘What did he say?’
Josh kept staring out of the
window. ‘He said he found her, that she’s lovely, and that he asked her to
marry him.’ There was no trace of humor in his voice.
Tip found it humorous
nonetheless. When it came to women, Nate culled little, especially between
divorces. ‘How he’s he?’
‘Feeling no pain, pumped full of
painkillers, semiconscious. Valdir said the fever is gone and he looks much
better.’
‘So he’s not going to die?’
‘It appears not.’
When Josh turned around he looked
quite amused. ‘It’s beautiful.’ He said. ‘Nate’s bankrupt. She’s only
forty-two, probably hasn’t seen a white man in years.’
‘Nate wouldn’t care if she was as
ugly as sin. She happens to be the richest woman in the world.’
‘I’m not surprised, now that I
think about it. I thought I was doing him a favor sending him off on an
adventure. It never occurred to me he would try to seduce a missionary.’
‘You think he hit on her?’
‘Who knows what they did in the
jungle.’
‘I doubt it,’ Tip added on second
thought. ‘We know Nate but we don’t know her. It takes two.’
Josh sat on the edge of his desk,
still amused, grinning at the floor. ‘You’re right. I’m not sure she would go
for Nate. There’s a lot of baggage.’
‘Did she sign the papers?’
‘We didn’t get that far. I’m sure
she did or he wouldn’t have left her.’
‘When is he coming home?’
‘As soon as he can travel.’
‘Don’t be so sure. For eleven
billion, I might stick around for a while.’
THIRTY-SIX
The doctor found his patient
snoring in the shade of the courtyard, still sitting up in bed, mouth open,
gauze removed, head fallen to one side. His friend from the river was napping
on the ground nearby. He studied the IV bag and stopped the flow. He touched
Nate’s forehead and felt no fever.
‘Senhor O’Riley,’ he said loudly
as he tapped the patient’s shoulder. Jevy jumped to his feet. The doctor did
not speak English.
He wanted Nate to return to his
room, but when this was translated by Jevy it was not well received. Nate
pleaded with Jevy and Jevy begged the doctor. Jevy had seen the other patients,
the open sores, the seizures and dying men just down the hall, and he promised
the doctor he would sit right there in the shade with his friend until dark.
The doctor relented. He really didn’t care.
Across the courtyard was a small
separate ward with thick black bars sunk in cement. Patients wandered out from
time to time to gawk through the bars into the courtyard. They could not
escape. A screamer appeared late in the morning, and took offence at the
presence of Nate and Jevy across the way. He had brown spotted skin and red
patchy hair, and looked as crazy as he was. He clasped two bars, stuck his face
between them, and began yelling. His voice was shrill and echoed around the
courtyard and down the halls.
‘What’s he saying?’ Nate asked.
The lunatic’s yelling startled him, and helped clear his head.
‘I can’t understand him a word.
He’s insane.’
‘They have me in the same
hospital with the crazy people?’
‘Yes. Sorry. It’s a small town.’
The yelling intensified. A nurse
from the safe side appeared and shouted for him to be quiet. He lashed back at
her with language that made her run away. Then he refocused on Nate and Jevy.
He squeezed the bars until his knuckles were white, and began hopping as he
screamed.
‘Poor guy,’ Nate said.
The screaming turned to wailing,
and after a few minutes of nonstop racket,
a male nurse appeared behind the man and attempted to lead him away. He didn’t
want to go, and a short scuffle ensued. With witnesses, the nurse was firm but
cautious. The man’s hands, however, were glued around the bars and could not be
removed. The wailing turned to shrieking as the nurse tugged from behind.
Finally, the nurse gave up and
disappeared. The screamer pulled down his pants and began peeing through the
bars, laughing loudly as he aimed in the general direction of Nate and Jevy,
who were out of range. While his hands were off the bars, the nurse suddenly
attacked from the rear, grabbing him in a full nelson, and dragging him away.
Once he was out of sight, the yelling ceased immediately.
When the daily drama was over and
the courtyard was once again quiet, Nate said, ‘Jevy, get me out of here.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Get me out of here. I feel fine.
The fever is gone, my strength is returning. Let’s go.’
‘We can’t leave until the doctor
releases you. And you have that,’ he added, pointing to the IV in Nate’s left
forearm.
‘This is nothing,’ Nate said as
he quickly slid the needle from his arm and yanked the IV free. ‘Find me some
clothes, Jevy. I’m checking out.’
‘You don’t know dengue. My father
had it.’
‘It’s over. I can feel it.’
‘No it’s not. The fever will
return, and it will be worse. Much worse.’
‘I don’t believe that. Take me to
a hotel, Jevy, please. I’ll be fine there. I’ll pay you to stay with me, and if
the fever returns, you can feed me pills. Please, Jevy.’
Jevy was standing at the foot of
the bed. He glanced around as if someone might understand their English. ‘I
don’t know,’ he said, waivering. It was not such a bad idea.
‘I’ll pay you two hundred dollars
to get me some clothes and take me to a hotel. And I’ll pay you fifty dollars a
day to guard me until I’m okay.’
‘It’s not about the money, Nate.
I’m your friend.’
‘And I’m your friend, Jevy. And
friends help friends. I can’t go back to that room. You saw those poor sick
people in there. They’re all rotting and dying and pissing all over themselves.
It smells like human waste. The nurses don’t care. The doctors don’t check on
you. The insane asylum is just over there. Please, Jevy, get me out of here.
I’ll pay you good money.’
‘Your money went down with the Santa Loura.”
That stopped him cold. Nate had
not even thought about the Santa Loura,
and his belongings – his clothes, money, passport, and briefcase with all in
the gadgets and papers Josh had sent. There had been few lucid moments since
leaving Rachel, just a few clear intervals during which he had thought about
living and dying. Never about tangible things or assets. “I can get plenty of
money, Jevy. I’ll wire it in the States. Please help me.’
Jevy knew that dengue was rarely
fatal. Nate’s bout with it appeared to be under control, though the fever would
surely return. No one could blame him for wanting to escape that hospital.
‘Okay’, he said, glancing around again. No one was near them. ‘I’ll return in a
few minutes.’
Nate closed his eyes and
contemplated his lack of a passport. And he had no cash, not a dime. No clothes,
no toothbrush. No SatFone, cell phone, no calling cards. And matters weren’t
much better at home. From the ruins of his personal bankruptcy, he could expect
to keep his leased car, his clothing and modest furniture, and the money put
away in his IRA. Nothing else. The lease on his small condo in Georgetown had been surrendered during rehab.
There was no place to go when he returned. No family to speak of. His two older
kids were distant and unconcerned. The two middle scholars from the second
marriage had been taken far away by their mother. He hadn’t seen them in six
months, and had scarcely thought about them at Christmas.
On his fortieth birthday, Nate
had won a $10 million verdict against a doctor who failed to diagnose cancer.
It was the largest verdict of his career, and collected over $4 million in
fees. Nate’s bonus that year had been $1.5 million. He was a millionaire for a
few months, until he bought the new house. There were furs and diamonds, cars
and trips, some shaky investments. Then he started seeing a college girl who
loved cocaine, and the wall cracked. He crashed hard and spent two months
locked away. His second wife left with the money, then came back briefly
without it.
He’d been a millionaire, and now
he imagined how he looked from the roof of the courtyard – sick, alone, broke,
under indictment, afraid of the return home, and terrified of the temptations
there.
His quest to find Rachel had kept
him focused. There was excitement in the hunt. Now that it was over, and he was
flat on his back again, he thought of Sergio and rehab, and addictions, and all
the troubles waiting for him. Darkness was looming again.
He couldn’t spend the rest of his
life riding chalanas up and down the Paraguay with
Jevy and Welly, far removed from booze and drugs and women, oblivious to his
legal troubles. He had to go back. He had to face the music one more time.
A piercing squawk jolted him from
his daydreams. The red-headed screamer was back.
***
…
(published by Arrow Books in
1999, copyright Belfry Holdings inc. 1999.)
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