Pascale's Wager: Homelands of Heaven

by Anthony Bartlett

  Jonas seized the opportunity. The experience of downtown had not gone quite as he had hoped. It had been too rushed and Pascale's mood seemed flat compared to what he'd envisioned. So he followed up at once on her reaction. There were gondolas drawn up along the lido on the other side of the piazza and he suggested they take one out to the island in the middle of the lake. “There's a replica of an old building out there with a mosaic masterpiece inside. It's really worth seeing. And it's such a relaxing trip; the color of the water is unbelievable.”

  The others agreed easily. They crossed the piazza to the lido wall and picked out one of the violin-neck boats moored along the edge. Jonas took the oar, stroking the craft out toward the open lake. Eboni sat in front trailing her hand in the frothy blue water while Pascale and Danny took the main seats across the middle. Danny had begun to relax and feel something of his old self around his sister. He asked how Palmiro had persuaded her into the whole crazy escapade, to steal the rocket and come uninvited to the Heavenly Homeland, even though, of course, she herself was really invited. How had he pulled it off? How had Palmiro done something no one else had even thought of?

  “Palmiro was definitely the first to figure out this sunshine world. He kept talking to me and finally got me to see it too. But you know, getting here, on the shuttle, was just as much my doing as his.” Pascale went on to tell the story of her rescue of Palmiro, and then setting out to find the rocket with the sure intention of using it. “Palmiro wasn’t thinking of that at first. He just agreed to come along!”

  Pascale was speaking to Danny in such a natural way they could have been back at the Training Center, but what she was actually telling him was astonishing. He began to understand at least a part of why she looked so different and the way he had almost felt shy of her.

  “So you're saying you really came here on your own, without the guides inviting you, and it was you who invited Palmiro. It's really you who upset everything?”

  “Yes, I suppose so.”

  “No one here thinks anything like that; they think it was all Palmiro.”

  “Well I told Jonas everything, but we have been kind of cut off, so, you're probably right, no one else would know.”

  “You're not kidding you've been cut off! You were lost to the world. What is that about, you and Jonas? What about Palmiro?”

  Pascale stopped and shook her head. “I can't really explain it, Danny. Something happened and...and I needed someone...Jonas was there for me. Perhaps like you and Eboni. But before that.…” She stopped and looked away, out across the shimmering lake, and Danny knew he'd come to whatever it was that had really changed his sister.

  Jonas had been watching his lover attentively. He had never really gotten to the bottom of Pascale's behavior during Initiation. He sensed it was off-limits and keeping it off-limits was almost a condition of his incredible relationship with her. He guessed if this thing ever was going to come to the surface it would be now, talking to her brother. He dreaded the possibility. It could put her back in the fearful state of mind she'd shown in the pool and out in the desert. The moment he saw her look away in that abstract manner, out to the open water, he knew she'd hit that memory. He spoke up at once.

  “Look, we're almost at the island! We'll pull in at the jetty and take a walk to the monument.”

  Pascale looked back toward the outcropping of rocks and its stone building partly hidden by trees. It was only a few boat lengths away and she'd hardly noticed it talking with Danny. Her attention was now taken, and Jonas felt perhaps the crisis was averted. He pushed the boat in beside the low pier, bringing it quite skillfully alongside the wooden decking. As they clambered ashore, holding up their robes to avoid tripping, he continued talking.

  “This place is pretty interesting. It's actually an abbey from something like fifteen hundred years ago. Most of the stuff in Heaven is only a replica, because by the time our architects started construction the storms had already done their damage. Most of the world's great buildings were just too badly damaged to save. It was much easier to create reproductions and assemble them here. But Venice, you know, already had experience dealing with rising sea levels. So they were able to move very quickly to preserve their treasures, and many features of the cathedral back on the piazza, and some of this abbey here, are original. You'll see, it has a very special atmosphere.”

  They continued down a sandy path, bordered by walnut trees, vegetable gardens and outbuildings. The abbey church soon came into view, a simple rough stone and brick structure with a terracotta tiled roof. They went inside and stood on flagstones that looked as if they had been worn by the passage of a million feet. Light came from a course of clear windows just below the roof. On a high wall just to left of the entrance was a strange fresco with human figures spread about in a vertical scene. Jonas saw them looking at it and smiled.

  “Yes, this is very curious. It comes from a primitive religion of those times which had a very naive view of their god. It's called ‘Judgment’ and it shows the deity coming to earth to judge all that happened in human history. Very odd.”

  The group stood in front of the wall of faded images trying to figure out what was going on, but it was very hard to make sense of or relate to it. Jonas continued. “The whole wall is encased in a very thin but extremely tough sheet of transparent plastic. That's how it was preserved and brought here. But really don't waste time on this. The absolute jewel is at the far end, in the apse.”

  He turned away and they all followed him beneath the shadows of the pillars, down to the far end. Gazing up at the circular apse they were confronted by the enormous figure of a woman six or seven meters in height, made out of tens of thousands of pieces of glittering mosaic. She was wearing a cobalt blue robe that framed her hair and swept down to the ground. It was her face that held your attention, passionate, imperious, gentle, all at the same time. Her figure filled the building with an urgent energy which did not impose itself but just hung there in the air, waiting to be embraced. It was doubly unnerving that she was only an image, composed of so many individual pieces of stone without shape or personality.

  “Wow," said Danny. “Who’s this?”

  “The subject is probably a Byzantine Princess, but in this setting, in the abbey, the image would be evoking a holy woman from that time, a kind of goddess.”

  “How could an artist capture so much power just by little stones laid next to each other?” Eboni also was impressed.

  “The mystery of art! Mere line and color transcend themselves to become the ideal.”

  There before the mosaic Jonas' words sounded slightly pompous and at once he tried to distract from them with a joke. “Though, whoever the model was, she would fit right in here, in Heaven, don't you think?

  Pascale was standing in front of the mosaic stirred to her soul. Her own eyes were held by the eyes of the icon and she felt that they were looking at her just as much as she was looking at them. She continued both transfixed and energized by the majestic portrait and something inside her shifted. She felt purified, stronger. It was as if a spring that for the longest time had been pulling against its catch suddenly broke free and opened a valve within. The others had chuckled politely at Jonas’ joke but she turned to him. “No Jonas, what you just said, that's wrong. It's not a mystery. The artist experienced a power, a life, and he showed it real because it was real.”

  Eboni and Danny were taken aback and Jonas actually blushed. “Yes, yes, I dare say you're right. One person's mystery is another's reality, yes for sure.”

  They stayed there for a few more moments and then drifted away, starting to walk back out of the abbey. Shafts of liquid sunlight were falling through the high windows, casting up a sea of motes. Pascale came behind the others. She called out, “Look at the dust how it rises and falls in the sunshine.”

  Eboni returned a few paces. She replied, “Yes, it's really pretty.”

  They stood there watching until the others retraced their steps also.

&n
bsp; Pascale said, “Some of the dust may be very old, from these paving stones. It could be tiny bits from the people who walked on these stones more than a thousand years ago?”

  Danny asked, “What are you saying?”

  “Isn't dust mostly dead pieces from people's skin? It could have got lodged in the crevices of these flagstones and then kicked up when people walked here.”

  Jonas looked horrified. Where was Pascale getting this from? He tried to change the tone. “Hey, at least we don't have to worry about being trodden on a thousand years from now! Thankfully we're immortal!”

  Pascale bounced his quip right back. “Yes but isn't it sad too, no one will ever see us like this, dancing like stars in the sunlight?”

  A void opened up in Jonas. Pascale was focusing on obscure, dead things. He couldn't get off the island quick enough. Almost definitely he had been wrong to keep Pascale to himself, no matter her mood. She should have met all the other Immortals, and certainly the best minds of Heaven, the philosophers. They would have impressed her with the true, healthy thinking of immortality. Still perhaps it wasn't too late. Emmanelle had mentioned that the Philosophers’ Colony urgently wanted to host a dinner. He hoped it would happen as soon as possible.

  “You know what?” he announced. “I just thought of it, there's possibly someone from the Philosophers’ Colony waiting for us back on the mainland. Emmanuelle remarked there might be. We have to get back.”

  They returned without discussion to the pier and climbed back into the gondola, pushing off across the water. This time Eboni took the oar and stroked the craft smoothly away from the landing. The sun had created a haze over the lake and for a moment or two the domes and pinnacles of the cathedral seemed to float in the filmy air. The creaking of the oar together with the color and warmth of the lagoon produced the most pleasant sleepy feeling. Pascale took Jonas' hand and squeezed it gently. She smiled at him and he suddenly felt much better. Probably he was worrying too much; things were bound to work out one way or another. He looked out on the water and said, “You know, one of the names of the Republic of Venice was La Serenissima, the most peaceful. And it's true, a city built over a calm sea really is heavenly!” This time his remark seemed apt and was happily received.

  When they tied up at the lido Jonas' wild guess of someone waiting turned out to be true. Danny was the first to see them. He stepped up onto the embankment and his keen eyes caught the figure of Charlize at a considerable distance across the esplanade. She was with another woman and they were both casting around as if they were looking to see someone among the couples and groups wandering back and forth. He pointed them out to Jonas who squinted into the shimmering space. He recognized the second person with Charlize.

  “That's Colette. She's come hotfoot with a message from the philosophers.”

  They began waving until the two women saw them. Colette and Charlize started walking toward them hand in hand and Jonas' party set out to meet them. When they all came together in the middle of the sun-dazzled flagstones everyone exchanged hugs.

  Danny was slightly embarrassed to be around Charlize whom he hadn't seen since the Doblepoble, but she was totally relaxed. She introduced Colette, then turned to Pascale. “It's great to see you, Pascale. You look wonderful.”

  “So do you, and I'm glad to say hello properly, after that brief meeting at the Initiation.”

  “Oh right. What a night! I wasn't really at my best. But I'm happy it all turned out well.”

  Pascale nodded agreement, “Yes, it does seem to have all turned out for the best.”

  Charlize underlined, “For me too, I'm actually with Colette now.”

  Pascale looked at her blankly, and then she understood. “Oh, I see, I see. Heaven is so full of surprises!”

  Colette laughed indulgently, hugged Pascale and smiled around at everyone. “It’s quite the occasion, isn't it? We heard a rumor our dear Pascale was out of purdah. Sure enough, here you are, a goddess learning the ways of Heaven!”

  She had captured everyone's attention and she continued to hold it. “Of course, we're missing your fascinating friend, Palmiro. We've been deprived of his company too. But all that's about to change. In two days’ time our Philosophers’ Colony is holding a grand banquet. Everyone will be there and it's a must for all you recent inductees.” She included Danny and Charlize in her smile.

  Danny said, “Yes, I remember, they said a very special guy was coming the next time, and we should go.”

  “Perfectly right, but you know what? You're certainly lucky because we're getting not just one special guest, but two. Sarobindo, the saint of Font Eterno, he'll be there, but the news is Adorno, our genius scientist, he'll be attending also. Someone visited his mansion to inform Palmiro, and Adorno volunteered to come too.”

  Jonas was impressed. “That's amazing. I can't remember the last time Adorno came to any kind of banquet. With both Sarobindo and Adorno there, the conversation should be brilliant.”

  “You see what I mean!” Colette nodded to Jonas, but as she continued she also arched her eyes in Pascale's direction. “And wouldn't you say it's an absolute must for your Aphrodite here. So far her scallop-shell has been riding exclusively on your private ocean, Jonas!” She gazed at Jonas and Pascale with more than a tinge of mockery.

  Jonas felt the sexual barb but he took her comment in the most innocent sense. “Oh yes, it's high time for Pascale to get a wider knowledge of Heaven.” Then he decided to add his partner's brush with death in extenuation. “But what with the trauma of her initiation she really did need time to recover and adjust.”

  It worked. Danny had picked up both the jibe and the hint of her ordeal and he came flying to their defense.

  “Don't take any notice, Jonas. I'm glad you and Pascale were holed up. People may not know it but my sister has some very special talents: what goes by fast for the rest of us is slow for her. It can take her in strange directions. It's not surprising she needs extra time.”

  Jonas followed on Danny's statement.

  “That reminds me, Danny, we haven't completed our sightseeing yet. We need to visit the lookout point so Pascale can see the sun go down over the Font Eterno. Especially now that she is going to meet Sarobindo!”

  He grabbed Pascale's hand and they made their goodbyes in short order. Really they had only just enough time to get to the parking plaza and drive the car to the ridge before sundown. Jonas grinned and Pascale smiled and went along with him, and they both ducked away and were gone. Colette gazed after them. The shadow of the domes inched its way along the stone pavement catching the hem of their robes and ankles as they ran across the great square. “My, what a pair they are. And Danny, you have me intrigued. I'd love to hear more about what you call these special skills of Pascale's.”

  6. POISONED BANQUET

  Palmiro accompanied Adorno in his car to the Philosophers’ Colony. His state of mind was self-assured, even triumphant. What had happened to him over these past weeks was astonishing, and yet it was always meant to be. He had broken free from the world of ice and had come to another one beyond his imagining. This other world was not composed of fairy tales, of old stories, of religion, but was something created consciously, piece by piece, by human beings. He had not forgotten at what cost its beauty had come, both his own suffering and that of many others. The reckoning was never absent from his mind. But the fact was he had landed in this world and had discovered very quickly that he could learn from it: he could discover its secrets. Not only that, he had found the best teacher possible, Adorno, the genius of immortality.

  The dramatically ugly, brilliant man had adopted him as a protégé. After only a few days spent with Emmanelle Adorno had appeared, abruptly summoning Palmiro to come live in his mansion. By that point Palmiro's honeymoon with Emmanuelle was already a shabby affair and had been interrupted more than once. Hona had followed them directly from the Agora and interviewed Palmiro irritably on how he had managed to fly the rocket. To her further chagrin he
told her he and Pascale had done it purely by guesswork. A couple of days later Marius and Blair had come from the Anthropology Colony. They questioned him as to whether he belonged to any kind of wider group back in the Northern Homeland and whether anyone else had found out about the shuttle. Palmiro assured them that it was just him and Pascale. All they had to do was ask Charlize and Danny about how many personal friends he had. It was only Pascale with whom he'd had any contact. They seemed reasonably satisfied with his solitary obsessiveness and knowing they would soon get a full security report from Brutus and Fyodor, the stranded guides, they left. A couple of days after that Adorno appeared, and Palmiro's brief fling with the blonde goddess was over.

  Palmiro was definitely not indifferent to Emmanelle's seductions; they had helped him feel welcome in quite an unmistakable way. But after the first few times his enthusiasm had waned. It seemed somehow absurd to keep having sex with this woman for no other reason than to pass the time. He remembered his vague feelings for Pascale and the embrace they had shared out on the icefield. It continued to bother him to think of how completely she had fallen for Jonas. The fact she had so quickly become intimate with a virtual stranger somehow had a reverse effect on him. It made him still less inclined to surrender to casual intimacy. So it was when Adorno arrived and explained that he was interested in Palmiro's education, and was prepared to take him as a private student, he had more or less rushed out the door. And Emmanuelle was perfectly happy to let him go.

  Adorno was not a man for small talk, but what he said counted a lot. On that first drive to where he lived the master told his disciple they would engage in an extensive course of study, which he would lay out for him the next day. That was all he said, but spoken in his rich baritone it was as if Palmiro was reading from a long and classic book. The scientist did not belong to a colony, rather he had a mansion almost entirely to himself. A couple of quiet and dedicated assistants occupied the upper floors of one of the wings. Apart from that he was alone. Behind the main building was a huge rambling laboratory where he worked and whose purposes only he seemed to know. He showed Palmiro a comfortable annex to the side of the mansion and told him this would be his private accommodation. He should consider it his. He said there was a library just inside the grand portico entrance and Palmiro should meet him there first thing in the morning. With that introduction he was done.