Jack Chalker - Echoes of the Well of Souls

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.”