The Gene of Life

by Tetsuo Ted Takashima

  “Their lifestyle is too far removed from mine,” Katya said.

  The sky was as black as ink. The stars were shining as if someone had tossed a handful of golden sand into the heavens.

  “It’s strange, if you think about it,” she continued. “Civilization is just around the corner. Satellites are taking pictures, and radio waves are zipping by from all over the world. Why don’t they adopt civilization? They could go into town if they wanted to.”

  “They’ve lived this way for hundreds, no, thousands of years. Just as Inuit are no longer Inuit when they abandon hunting, they would lose their identities if they were to leave this place. They can only live here. Just like the Nazis, who couldn’t live outside of civilization, met their ends here.”

  Max thought again of the grass-covered tombstones. He felt a heavy leaden mass inside, which swelled and spread throughout his body.

  “What’s wrong?” said Katya, puzzled.

  “Jake and the rest ought to be back soon. As representatives of civilization, they’ve been out working this whole time. Let’s prepare them some food.”

  Max went up the stairs. Katya was about to say something, but decided against it and came to Max’s side instead.

  CHAPTER 12

  When he woke up the next morning, people were gathering in the clearing. Max stood in front of the hut. “What’s going on?” he asked Bocaiúva, who was watching the villagers.

  “The soothsayer is performing his prayers.” Bocaiúva looked at one of the huts. Dozens of villagers were sitting in front of it, and a monotonous sound similar to a beast’s roar could be heard from inside. “Davi’s daughter appears to be ill.”

  Villagers entered the hut by turns. As Max approached, the villagers who had gathered split off to the sides to open the way. There were so many in the hut it was almost overflowing. Tania lay in the center of the dimly lit dwelling, and Davi traced lines across Tania’s body with feathers in red, yellow, and blue.

  “He’s also the medicine man,” Bocaiúva whispered from behind. Next to him, Katya was listening.

  “Let me examine her.”

  Davi stopped and turned to face Max. Max pushed his way through the villagers to Tania, and Katya followed him. He knelt in front of Tania, took her pulse and palpated. Then he took out a penlight to examine her pupillary light reflex. Tania curled up and groaned.

  “What are the symptoms?”

  “She says her stomach’s been upset for two days. Last night, she had a fever and nausea.”

  Max recalled when they first met Tania in the jungle. She didn’t appear to be suffering at all. Tania’s face contorted when her abdomen was pressed; it hurt.

  “It’s appendicitis. There’s a chance she has peritonitis, and it’s also possible that her inflamed appendix ruptured. She needs surgery, and fast,” he told Katya behind him.

  “Surgery is impossible here,” Katya said. “It’s dim and far from sterilized, to say nothing of the heat and humidity. It would be infection central. And we have no surgical tools anyway.”

  “I know.” Max injected painkillers and instructed the villagers to cool her abdomen before going outside. When they returned to the hut, Jake and his assistants looked at Max with anxious faces. Max didn’t know what to say.

  “Are you a doctor?” came a sudden voice. Max looked in its direction, and there stood Davi.

  Max nodded.

  “Do the surgery.” His gravitas as village chief had given way to naked pleading and fear of the creeping shadow threatening to take his daughter away from him. Max explained that surgery would be difficult under the conditions.

  Davi was listening silently. Surprisingly, he understood what Max had told him. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but instead he left the hut. Max took out his medical bag and examined the equipment. It wasn’t usually a difficult operation, but it was still impossible to operate in the hut.

  “Professor, you can’t be serious. If she has peritonitis, she’ll need an extensive laparotomy. And we don’t have the surgical tools.”

  Max arranged his surgical tools on a vinyl sheet laid on the floor. “Do you carry these with you everywhere you go?” asked Katya, stunned .

  “Not always. But it sure is lucky I happened to this time.”

  “Do you have a lot of experience as a clinician?”

  “Only about a year’s worth, after I graduated. Beyond that, I just learned by imitating.”

  “It’s too dangerous. If Tania were to die, then—”

  “Davi understands the meaning of surgery. Including the dangers. Yet he asked me to do it anyway.”

  “We don’t have enough gauze or bandages, and we don’t have rubbing alcohol or distilled water. How do we anesthetize her?”

  “If we leave her like this, she’ll die for sure.”

  “But if she dies during surgery?”

  “We’ll use the operating table in the lab building. Go get people to clean it. Rinse the floor and walls with water and disinfect the operating table with boiling water.”

  “That horrid, filth-ridden place? We don’t have enough surgical tools.”

  “No, but we have an excellent surgeon and assistant.” Max turned to Katya.

  “The assistant for this appendectomy has only done it once.”

  “This will be your second.”

  “What do you do about the anesthesia? The morphine we have won’t cut it. Wait, you don’t mean for us to use the lab building’s . . .”

  “It’s worth checking out.”

  “They’re past their expiration dates.”

  “The inflammation is widespread. At this rate, there’s no telling what shape she’ll be in tomorrow. You know that,” Max said.

  “I’ll help. Give me your orders.” Bocaiúva was standing at the entrance of the hut. From behind him, children were peering inside.

  “We’ll help, too.” Jake and his assistants offered. Katya sighed and stood up with the surgical tools.

  “Everyone, hurry up!” she said, leading the group out of the hut.

  “Get as many people as you can to bring the water to the lab building. Then make a stretcher to carry the girl,” Max told Jake, who had been about to follow Katya. Then Max headed for Davi’s hut. An hour later, Jake and Bocaiúva came with the villagers holding a makeshift stretcher composed of a hammock stretched over two logs. Tania was on the stretcher, carried by the villagers. Tania’s forehead was drenched with sweat, and she was gritting her teeth. She must have been in blinding pain, but she didn’t let a single moan escape her lips. Children with worried faces followed the group.

  The operating table had been cleaned and covered with vinyl sheets, made from cutting up the tarps they’d brought in place of tents. In a corner of the room, hot water was boiling on a stove. The surgical tools were disinfected with the boiling water and placed on the operating table. Suddenly, the table became brighter.

  “What’s this?”

  “A substitute for surgical lights,” Katya said, adjusting the light. She had attached a battery-powered lamp to a rusty stand and made a reflector from aluminum foil.

  “It seems I’ve got a magician for an assistant.”

  “I’m good with my hands. And I have many other special skills besides. I’ll show them to you soon.”

  “Is humility one of them?”

  “Isn’t it more attractive when women keep some things to themselves?”

  “You’re more than attractive enough as you are.”

  They all left the room except Bocaiúva and Davi. Bocaiúva was standing in front of the door with his arms crossed, watching over the room. Davi sat in a corner, closed his eyes, and muttered something.

  “It’s just not usable.” Katya held up a morphine ampoule, which she had taken out of the storage case. The otherwise clear liquid was a little turbid.

  “We’ve got no choice but to use whatever morphine we’ve on hand,” said Max, who was not shocked by this turn of events.

  “It’s ju
st not enough.”

  “Use this.” Davi handed them a wooden tube. As soon as she removed the stopper, Katya frowned. It gave off a strong pungent odor and contained brown liquid.

  “If she drinks this, she will stay asleep.”

  “What we don’t know about could be dangerous,” Katya whispered in Max’s ear.

  “It must be a soporific drug, that’s all.”

  “If there are side effects—”

  “Do you want me to perform a laparotomy without anesthesia?”

  Tania’s eyes squinted open, and she stared at them. She had to be in agony, but she didn’t make a sound or shed a single tear. Max poured the liquid into Tania’s mouth. Tania’s eyes darted as though searching for something, but soon her eyes closed.

  “What about her pulse and breathing?”

  “They’re on the low side, but it’s okay. She doesn’t seem to be conscious.”

  Katya looked into her eyes with a penlight.

  “Starting surgery.” Max took a scalpel.

  “We can’t make distilled water, so I boiled water and filtered it through gauze.” Katya disinfected the girl’s abdomen with alcohol.

  “Actually,” Max said as he took the scalpel to Tania’s abdomen, “this is my second-ever peritonitis surgery, too.” Max carefully carried the scalpel forward. “I’ve formed a gene therapy team with a medical faculty professor.”

  “I heard you don’t do clinical work.”

  “I received a letter that said that if I couldn’t save him, the whole world would reel from the loss. And that if I could save him, I’d have the right to ask him for anything.”

  “Was this letter from some country’s president, or a sultan or something?”

  “It was from a spoiled brat from New York.”

  “Did you save him?”

  “He’s physically well, but that mind of his is beyond my control.”

  Tania’s blood had pus in it. The purulent appendix had ruptured, causing complete peritonitis.

  “This is pretty bad,” said Max. He tried to wipe it off with gauze, but blood and pus spread throughout her abdomen.

  Katya handed him a tube. “I’ll suck it out.”

  Max turned his eyes to Katya. He saw her give a nod, and inserted the tip of the tube into Tania’s abdomen. Katya sucked out the blood and pus. Davi’s deep-voiced incantation filled the room.

  The operation was over in about two hours.

  “Disinfect your mouth immediately.”

  “The alcohol’s all gone.”

  Bocaiúva came to the rescue with a small flask he drank from occasionally. “A drink for the heroes. Drink it all!”

  When Katya gargled, the smell of whiskey spread throughout the room. “If I ever need surgery in the future, I’m going to ask you to do it,” she said cheerfully, her voice high-pitched with excitement and nervous tension. “You’re incredible.”

  “And I’d like you to operate on me. And I’m not just flattering you, I mean it.” Max took the flask from Katya and took a sip.

  “Professor, you have a wonderful smile.”

  With the help of Jake and the others, Tania was moved to a bed brought in from the building next door. Tania slept quietly, her expression calm and peaceful. Her pulse and breathing were normal.

  “She’ll wake up tomorrow morning. She just needs to rest a while,” Max told Davi, who was anxiously standing beside the bed, looking at Tania.

  “I want to take her home. Evil spirits live here.” Davi looked around the room. His prior calm disappeared, and he was clearly frightened. “The spirits will get her!” he said, his voice shaking as he touched the bed.

  “Stop! Do you want to kill her?” Katya grabbed Davi’s arm and took it off the bed. He was terrified. They could hear voices outside the building.

  “The villagers are upset. They want to take her home,” Bocaiúva said as he walked into the room.

  Max gave it some thought. “We have no choice but to let her sleep here all day today. Don’t worry, I’ll be here with her. Tell them that I’ll take her back to the village tomorrow if she’s up for it.”

  “But, Professor . . .”

  Max shot Katya a glance: Don’t say a word.

  Davi returned to the village with the villagers, mumbling incantations under his breath.

  Max and Katya stayed with Tania all night. The lamp dimly lit Tania’s face. “She’s a pretty girl,” Katya whispered. She had deep-set eyes and a straight nose. Her skin was tanned by the sun, but without that tan, it was probably closer to white than brown.

  “She’s got Caucasian blood in her,” said Max, who was cleaning the surgical tools. “She’s an enigma. I think I see a little Asian in her, too.”

  Katya looked at Max and Tania in turn.

  “That’s just being human. If you trace the origins of humanity, the closest common female ancestor of modern humans was ‘Mitochondrial Eve,’ one hundred sixty thousand years ago. Different races, same origins, same genes.”

  “When it comes to anthropology, I’m not quite up to speed.”

  “I don’t like that stubborn and sarcastic streak of yours, Professor,” Katya said as she gazed at Tania’s face. “I read The Origin of Life when I was in college. I didn’t quite understand it, but I got the sense it was more a book full of love and compassion for human beings rather than a science book. The mysteries of life, the beauty of humanity—I felt the vastness of the universe. Life, people, the cosmos, everyone is connected in one big circle. And then there’s the meaning of life. I interpreted your book as a poem praising everything in the world. I saw your picture on the back of the book and thought to myself, so that’s the person who wrote this book. That’s why,” Katya looked up and stared at Max, “that’s why I was surprised when you said you don’t believe in God. I thought that you had a great affinity for the spiritual.”

  Max said nothing as he cleaned the surgical tools. Katya watched Tania for a while and then got into a hammock prepared by Bocaiúva. Max lay down in a sleeping bag next to the bed.

  The moonlight shone through the hole in the ceiling. Max couldn’t believe he was in a Nazi operating room. He was overcome with fatigue. He tried to think about the future. He tried to focus his thoughts, but couldn’t. The fatigue was always there to sweep away his consciousness like a quiet wave.

  He woke up to a faint noise. He opened his eyes and saw a black shadow staring at him. He smelled sweat and felt warm breath on his face, but he didn’t dislike it. They had a delightful sweetness to them that shook loose what had been sealed in his body.

  “You’re . . .”

  Soft lips silenced that sentence. Time stopped and all the voices of the forest disappeared. The room was still and silent. The shadow’s lips slowly pulled away as though waiting for Max to take the next step, and she put her cheek to his. Seconds passed.

  “I must be dreaming.” Max gently pushed the shadow away. Now wasn’t the time.

  The shadow stared at Max for a long time, then returned to the hammock in resignation. Max closed his eyes. He felt relaxed and satisfied. It had been decades since he felt this relieved. Eventually, he was pulled into a peaceful sleep.

  “Professor!”

  He jumped at Katya’s subdued voice. The sun hadn’t risen yet, and the room was dim.

  Katya hung over Tania. Max pushed Katya away and put his hand on Tania’s neck. Her pulse was powerful.

  “What is this?” Katya looked surprised.

  Tania opened her eyes. She looked quizzically at Max, but soon saw Katya and smiled.

  “Her resilience is awe-inspiring,” Max said quietly. He took off the gauze and saw the wound was already covered with thin skin. By the time the sun rose, the anesthesia had worn off, and she was conscious. Tania smiled, and when Katya gripped her hand, she gripped back. She looked meaningfully at Katya. Perhaps Tania knew it was Katya who had sucked away the blood and pus.

  Katya’s eyes met Max’s for a moment. She seemed sad, but then she seemed che
erful, as if nothing had happened. Max began to think that what happened last night was just a dream. He was sure of it.

  That evening they brought Tania to the hut. People from all over the village came to carry the stretcher.

  The whole village celebrated that night. Villagers gathered in a hut that was their version of an assembly hall, and talked and ate. Max, Katya, and the others were invited as guests. Children came over to touch them and put their hands under their shirts. The hut was full of laughter.

  When their dinner was taken out of the pot, Katya shrieked—it was a boiled monkey, served shaved and whole. It was purplish-red and puffy, and it was steaming. The villagers picked it apart. Arms, legs, torso—they cut off the meat and ate their fill.

  “We’ve been recognized as allies and companions,” Max told Katya, who’d turned away and closed her eyes. “They’re treating us to a feast, and to their best hospitality. It’d be rude not to eat it. It’s really no different from steamed turkey or steak.”

  “I’m happy just appreciating the thought behind it. I’m already full.”

  “Once, at a Japanese restaurant, I ate some live shrimp. It was still moving in my mouth, but I bit into it anyway. I also had sashimi with the heads still attached. It was twitching even after getting sliced.”

  “Stop! If you say any more, I’ll vomit right here. As a doctor, you should know how the body reacts to that kind of thing.” Katya had turned pale.

  “Well, I think we shouldn’t snub their act of good will.”

  “I’m fine with just this,” she said, sipping from the soup that one of the children brought her.

  “Is that soup Chinese food to you?” Max pointed at the children with his eyes; the capybara’s head was in their midst. A red scarf was wrapped around it.

  “For them, death is nothing special. It’s just a necessary step to nurture the lives to come.”

  “I don’t regret what I did. I just did what needed to be done,” she murmured as she stared at the oily liquid.

  Davi offered him a coconut-shell cup. The cloudy liquid inside gave off a strong odor.

  “It’s fermented nuts.” Max brought it to Katya’s nose.