Echoes of the Well of Souls watw-1

by Jack L. Chalker

  “You shared hospitals?”

  She laughed. “No, by that time I’d been this way for years. But I found I could sit and rot at home, watching the telly and being spoon-fed by doting relatives and nurses, or I could get out and do something. When an old friend of Father’s who’d been working in the physical therapy wards voiced frustration that many people with relatively minor disabilities compared, say, to my own were so depressed and suicidal that they put themselves beyond help, I thought I might be able to do something. After all, if you’ve lost an arm, or legs, or even your eyes but you are confronted with someone with a more serious disability, like me, actually doing something, what sort of excuse do you have?”

  The captain liked them more and more as he heard their stories.

  “In truth, we are one person,” Tony Guzman noted. “Most of me works all right, except my eyes, and Anne Marie’s eyes work quite well. So she guides me and describes the world to me, and I do for her what she cannot do for herself. You would be surprised at how one could get used to almost anything.”

  “No,” the captain responded, thoughtful. “No, I wouldn’t. We all have crosses to bear. Some are just more obvious than others.”

  “But what of you?” Anne Marie said. “No wife… Do you have family of any sort?”

  “No, not really. Well, there is one person, but I have no idea now where she is or what she is doing.”

  “A sister?”

  “Not exactly. The relationship is rather— complex. Hard to describe. It’s been so long, though, that I find it difficult now to even remember what she looked like. We had some sort of fight. I can’t remember what it was about or even if I understood it then. She walked out, I thought for a little while, but she never returned, not even for her things. I never saw her again, even though I half tore that city apart looking.”

  “You speak of it as long ago, but you are not that old, surely,” Tony noted.

  He returned a grim smile the man could not see. “I am much older than I look.” Much older. The city, after all, had been Nineveh at the time of its glories.

  “I hesitate to say it, but from your account I would say that she met with foul play,” Tony noted.

  “Foul play possibly,” he agreed, “although she’s not dead. Once or twice I’ve run across someone who had known her, but never did I learn of it in time to track her. Like me, she is a survivor. If I had a clue as to where she might be, I’d still drop everything and go hunting for her, but, again like me, she could be anywhere in the world.”

  “You still think of her like that, even though you say you can hardly remember her looks?” Anne Marie asked, amazed. “Surely there must be someone else for you out there.”

  “I’m afraid not. We are bound in a way. Two of a kind. It’s no use going into details, but trust me on that.” He turned. “Ah! Here comes the sun!”

  The three of them grew silent and let the great orb appear from the ocean depths, seeming huge enough to swallow the whole world. Finally Solomon said, “Have you two had breakfast yet? There is a cafe just a couple of blocks inland from here that is excellent. I would be honored if you would join me. My treat.”

  Tony said nothing but seemed to wait for his wife to speak. She mulled it over, then said, “Thank you, I believe we will. But then we must get back. I have to keep to something of a schedule, and I have some medications to take. But right now I feel all energy. We shall do some things this morning and go to sleep early.”

  “What? With all the nightlife here?”

  She laughed. “Not tonight. Haven’t you heard? They say there’s some huge meteor that’s going to come in tonight and crash in the western jungle. Some of these bloody locals are panicking and moving out for the night or staying in church or whatever, afraid that God is going to smite them or something. They say, though, that it might be visible here in the early morning hours. Between one and threea.m. Atlantic time. They say it might fragment and give us all a spectacular natural fireworks show. I shouldn’t like to miss that, with the luck of being here when it comes.”

  “I had to pull every string I know just to get into our room,” Tony told him. “There is not a vacant room anywhere in the area or farther inland, either. All the scientists and touristas, the sort of people who go on eclipse cruises, are all here for it, as are the newspeople from a hundred countries.”

  “I haven’t paid much attention to the news,” the captain admitted. “I did hear something about it when I noticed the shops selling lucky charms and meteor repellent in the last week or so. I thought it was far away and inland, though.”

  Anne Marie roared with laughter. “Meteor repellent! That’s wonderful!”

  “Don’t laugh,” the captain responded in a serious tone. “I will be willing to wager a good amount of money that nobody who uses it has ever been hit by a meteor.”

  They all laughed at his little joke, and then Tony said, “It is supposed to be visible from here—if it is clear. Of course, it is rarely clear here.”

  The captain thought a moment. “Look, I’ve got a minivan. If you’re really keen to see it, we might manage the wheelchair and drive up into the inland mountains for a while, maybe above some of the coastal weather. That’s if you feel up to it.”

  “Oh! That would be delightful!”Anne Marie exclaimed excitedly. “Sir, I will ensure that I am up to it. It is only one night, and we are on holiday, after all!”

  Tony frowned and started to say something, then thought better of it, but it didn’t escape the captain’s notice. He had the distinct impression, though, that Tony was not all that thrilled by her being out on an expedition, however conservative. It made the captain wonder if there was something else important he didn’t know but should.

  They had an excellent breakfast, and Anne Marie couldn’t stop talking about their good fortune in meeting the captain and how excited she was to be going somewhere where she was sure to see the big show.

  After eating, Solomon accompanied them back to their hotel, one of the better ones in the area, as it turned out, with some handicapped-equipped rooms. Tony took his wife from the wheelchair with well-practiced motions and found the bathroom, acting as if he could see very well, indeed. He was certainly well adjusted to his blindness and had the room memorized.

  He took some time with her in the bathroom. Finally they were done, and he brought her out and laid her on one of the beds.

  “Thank you, Captain, for a delightful morning,” she said, sounding suddenly very tired. “I can hardly wait until tonight!”

  Tony pulled up the covers on the still unmade bed, then made his way back to the door. The captain went outside, and Guzman followed, keeping the door slightly ajar.

  “Captain, I think there is something you should know,” the blind man whispered, switching to Portuguese.

  Solomon responded in kind. “I thought there was something.”

  “We are here, at grave expense, because it is the last chance we will have. She has been growing weaker and weaker, and eventually even the automatic organs like the heart and lungs will fail. It is only a matter of time. This is, most likely, our last holiday.”

  “I suspected as much. How long do they give her?”

  “God knows. The doctors argued against this trip. I asked them how long she might last if she went into a hospital or was under constant home monitoring. They said a few weeks to no more than six months. Then I asked them how long it would be if she made the trip. They responded that it might be a few weeks to no more than six months but that it would certainly shorten her time. You have been with her this morning. I think you have seen why I fell in love with her. If she were to die today, here, it would be as she would want it, still out, still active, still doing new things. I think the doctors are wrong. I believe she would have died far sooner rotting at home. Certainly she would have died in misery instead of here, in my homeland, about which I have spoken all too much, watching the sun rise and smelling the smells and meeting the people. You see?”


  He nodded. “But even you think this kind of silly trip tonight might be too much for her, is that it? Shall I make some excuse and call it off?”

  “No! Not now. Had this been suggested only to me, I would have refused, but—well, you saw her. Perhaps it will kill her, but not before she sees the meteor. I just—wanted you to know.”

  The captain nodded. “I’ll keep it an easy drive. And I suspect you might be underestimating the power of her will. She may die within the period the doctors say, but I think she’ll pick her own time and place.” He patted the blind man on the shoulder. “I’ll see you at six.”

  There seemed to be only three kinds of people in metropolitan Rio that night: those who were terrified of the meteors, those who were profiteering from it, and those who were anxious to see what they could of the big show. Bars served meteor cocktails—which differed from bar to bar, but who cared?—and one main hotel advertised an Asteroid Ball in its rooftop club.

  The captain found his new friends waiting for him, and once he was shown how the wheelchair collapsed, they managed to get everybody in the Volkswagen minivan. Getting out of town wasn’t difficult, but though traffic normally thinned out going farther inland, the two-lane road through the mountains that formed the natural barrier between the city region and the dense jungle beyond was almost bumper to bumper.

  “It looks like everybody else had the same idea we did,” the captain noted sourly.

  “Well, there are not many roads back here, and even those give out not far beyond the mountains,” Tony noted. “I do know a few places that might be less traveled, but the road may not be paved.”

  “I’m willing, but I don’t want too rough a road, not only for Anne Marie’s sake but also because even though this is a good, solid Brazilian-made car, it doesn’t have four-wheel drive,” Solomon responded.

  “These would be service and old military roads no longer in use. I do not know how rough they might be, but you should not need four-wheel drive for them. At any rate, we can take a look and you can make a decision from there.”

  The captain shrugged. “If your memory can get me to them, by all means,” he said. He was a bit surprised. It had been Tony, after all, who had worried so much about Anne Marie’s fragility that he hadn’t been enthusiastic about the more civilized trip they had planned.

  For a blind man who hadn’t been in the area in twenty years, though, Tony was proving remarkably accurate.

  “There should be a dirt road going up the side of the mountain on your right about two kilometers after that intersection,” Tony told him. “It will have a sign markeddo not enter —military district road.Ignore it and go on up. It has not been used as more than a lover’s rendezvous in more than a decade.”

  The captain was a bit suspicious at Tony’s detailed recall. “How do you know all that?”

  Tony smiled knowingly. “Well, I will tell you the secret. For a thousand cruzeiros the head porter was more than willing to suggest this and to write out the directions for Anne Marie. He has used the spot himself, you see. It is not likely, however, that there will be many up there tonight, or so he said, although he doubted we would be alone and suggested we use discretion with our lights.”

  “All right, I’ll do what I can,” the captain responded, chuckling. “Yep. There it is. Pretty imposing sign and the remains of a gate and gatehouse.” He pulled off, slowed to a crawl, then went into second gear for the climb. It was steep, and he would not have liked to have met someone traveling in the opposite direction, but it was manageable. The climb also seemed interminable, and he kept a wary eye on the temperature gauge, which was climbing precipitously, but just as he wondered what was going to happen when he boiled over before reaching the top, the road swung around and there was a pulloff. He took it and waited for the temperature to come down. “Hard to say how much farther the top is and how many switchbacks we might face,” he explained. “I think we want to not only get up there but be able to get back down without having to coast.” He looked at the dashboard clock. “It’s a little after midnight. What time did they say the big show was?”

  “Sometime after two,” Anne Marie told him.

  “We’ll make it,” he assured them. “Plenty of time. How are you holding up?”

  “I’ll be all right. I had hoped to nap partway, but I was too excited earlier, and at the moment this drive is a bit too unnerving and too steep for any such thing. I’m afraid to close my eyes.”

  “Don’t blame me,” Solomon responded. “I’m not the one that came up with this place. All I can say is that there better be a nice view of a clear sky up there or I’m gonna be mightily pissed off. Uh—pardon the language.”

  “Take no mind of me,” Anne Marie responded. “I’m feeling a bit, well, you know, myself.”

  He started up again and, three switchbacks later, reached a level, debris-filled area that went back quite a ways. The headlights revealed it to be deserted.

  The captain looked at the crumbling remains of buildings and gates and fences and frowned. “Did your porter tell you just what this place used to be for?” he asked.

  “No,” Tony admitted. “It would have to be either something very secretive or something very mundane, such as a storage area for road-grading equipment—there are many rock slides through here, or there were in my day.”

  The captain took the minivan on a very slow circuit and stopped when the headlights illuminated a large concrete pad. “A helipad. That’s what that is,” he told them. “Either this provided a quick getaway for VIPs or it was used to spirit people out of the city in secret. You could take somebody out from a rooftop in Rio, bring him here, then transfer him to just about anywhere. The buildings seem too small for a real jail but perfectly adequate for some quiet interrogation with no prying eyes around.”

  “Oh, dear,” muttered Anne Marie.

  Tony just nodded. “As military governments go, the one that ruled here for more than a decade wasn’t all that horrible, but particularly in the early days, they went after communists, labor union people, vocal opponents of the regime… It wasn’t as bad as Argentina or even Uruguay, but the military mind is rather consistent, and security is always the most zealous and secretive, particularly at the start of a military regime. It was because they were not totally fascist that the army is still held in some esteem here, and they were not overthrown—they finally admitted they hadn’t the slightest idea how to run a large country and essentially quit. Still, there was probably much sadness here, and now it has become a lover’s hideaway and a refuge for would-be stargazers. There is something very Brazilian in that.”

  “Well, we’ve got a fairly clear view from here except in the direction of the city,” Solomon noted. “We still have a lot of light pollution but if there’s anything to see in this area, we should see it.”

  “Try the radio,” Tony suggested. “There is most certainly some coverage of it somewhere.”

  From the evidence of a slow turning of the dial, the “coverage” was mostly Brazilian music, the only obvious tie-in being a classical station playing The Planets. At the half hour, though, after the general world news headlines and local stories, the announcer said, “And finally, throughout the region, thousands of people are up in the hills or on rooftops or out at sea awaiting the arrival of what scientists say will be the most spectacular meteor display in centuries. If you are still up and listening to me, you should delay going to sleep another three-quarters of an hour and go outside and find a clear view to the northeast. Scientists tracking the meteor state that it should land somewhere in the remote upper Amazon basin, possibly near the Peruvian border, but it should be quite low over Rio when it arrives at approximately two-fifteen local time. Authorities state that the meteor will probably look much like a huge burning moon, but traveling very fast. Nothing is expected to strike Rio or anywhere within a thousand kilometers of the city, but as a precaution, police and fire teams are on the alert. Remain tuned to this station for updates.”<
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  “I’m not at all sure I like that last business,” Anne Marie commented. “It sounds like they aren’t bloody well sure of anything.”

  “Hundreds of meteors strike the Earth every single day,” the captain reminded her. “Most are very small, and most fall into the ocean, but getting hit by one is not exactly the sort of thing sane people worry about. This one is unusual because it’s so large, because it’s going to strike land, and most of all because it was spotted early, so we know it’s coming. But your odds of winning the Irish Sweepstakes three years in a row are far greater than the odds that even a splinter of this meteor will strike where you are. All that was, as he said, just precaution. You can never predict these things a hundred percent, and if it breaks up, pieces of it might fall in the region. Even then, it’ll just make a more spectacular show for us to see—but it’ll also mean even less damage to the world when the main body hits.”

  “Is that true?” Anne Marie asked. “Can the thing really do damage to the world? I realize I shouldn’t like to be under it when it crashes, but—the world?”

  “One of them killed the dinosaurs,” Solomon said. “The whole climate of the planet was changed because so much dust and debris was kicked up high enough that it gave us twilight for several years. The plants died, the swamps dried up, things grew too cold, and the giant creatures couldn’t eat or adapt to it.”