aMarina, we left two days ago. All those rivers, all those trees. I get turned around in Manaus.a Her hands were shaking and so she sat on them. aDo you have a cigarette? I would really love a cigarette.a aIam sorry,a Marina said.
aThank God Milton was there. At first Mr. Fox asked me a lot of questions, mostly questions about you, but once he was convinced I really hadnat heard from you he stopped talking to me altogether.a There was something about Barbaraas hair, the two yellow braids hanging over her shoulders, that had robbed her of her considerable sophistication and left behind a fourteen year old girl. aI was staring out at the river bank every second. I felt like I was trying to intuit where you were, like it was my responsibility to know, and I didnat know. Mr. Fox wouldnat believe me when I told him I didnat remember. He thought I was still trying to throw him off Annickas trail, like it would be great fun for me to take us all out on the river and get us lost. And then I saw another river, a small one, and all of the sudden I was sure it was the right one. The opening would have been so easy to miss. If I had been looking on the other side of the boat for just a minute we would have kept going. Mr. Fox and Milton didnat see it at first, and they both perked up then because I was so sure. We went up that river for half the day and everything was quiet. Most of the time I was still thinking Iad gotten it right, and then I started to think we had gotten it wrong, and I was just about to say that, I was getting up my nerve, when we came around a bend and there were all these people on the shore in loincloths with their foreheads painted yellow. It was like theyad been standing there forever, waiting for us, and I didnat remember exactly what the Lakashi looked like. I was so tired by then and I was so confused by all the wrong choices Iad already made that I honestly didnat remember.a Marina leaned forward from the bed where she was sitting. She put her hands on Barbara Bovenderas knees. All of the rivers in the Amazon and she knew which one this story had taken.
aSo I said, aThere they are!a and Milton was slowing down the boat and he was whispering to me, aAre you sure, are you sure?a Heas met the Lakashi before. They come down to Manaus selling timber, sometimes theyave come with Annick. He knows this isnat right, and then I know it isnat right, and the river is narrow there and they all raise up these bows and arrows and theyare huge.a She is crying now, and she takes her trembling hands out from beneath her legs and begins to wipe her eyes.
aYouare okay,a Marina said. aYou found me. Milton got you out.a She nodded but her fingers could not get far enough ahead of the tears to wipe them all away, there were simply too many of them. aHe did. He was so fast. Milton deserves some sort of medal. Head never driven that boat before and he slammed it around so fast we nearly went over. When I looked back the air was full of arrows. Arrows! How can that be possible? And then I saw something. I thought I saw something.a aWhat?a Marina said.
She shook her head. aIt was worse than anything, worse than Mr. Fox or us getting lost or those people shooting at us.a She looked up at Marina and blinked her eyes and for a moment the crying stopped and a look of utter seriousness crossed her pretty face. She took Marinaas hands. aI saw my father running through the trees,a she whispered. aI donat know what youad call it, a vision, a visitation? He was coming straight towards me, coming down to the water, and I threw myself on the bottom of the boat. There were arrows in the boat and Milton said not to touch them. I tried to look back for him but Milton said to keep down. Marina, my father is dead. He died in Australia when I was ten years old. I think about him all the time, I dream about him, but Iave never seen him. He came there for me because he knew I was going to die.a aDid Milton see him, or Mr. Fox?a She shook her head. aMr. Fox was on the deck and Milton was driving. I donat think they would have been able to see him anyway. I think he was only there for me.a aWho would have known you were missing?a Dr. Swenson was saying to Mr. Fox when Barbara and Marina walked into the lab. Dr. Budi could not stop shaking her head and the two Drs. Saturn stayed very close together. The misery that comes from having a good imagination was writ large on Thomas Nkomo. aI suppose the Inca Cola man would have wanted his boat back at some point. When Jackie Bovender came home from his surfing expedition in two or three weeks they would have come here together. Donat you think so, Barbara? He would have come looking for you then.a Barbara Bovender, now the center of everyoneas nervous attention, made the slightest gesture towards a nod.
Dr. Swenson held out a hand towards this confirmation. aOne man missing a boat, one man missing a wife. What do you think I should have told them when they arrived? I wouldnat have had any idea where you were.a aIf you had a telephone no one would have to risk their lives to find you,a Mr. Fox said. How was it possible that Marina could not go to him? Why didnat he come to her now having survived a rain of poison arrows? How could he not take her in his arms regardless of who was in the room? He looked so out of place in his lightly embroidered white shirt and khaki pants, as if he had dressed up for a party whose theme was the Amazon.
aThis is about my not having a telephone? Do you think Dr. Rapp came to the Amazon with a telephone? I am trying to finish my work. First you send a man down here who dies and when you decide to follow him it seems you are determined to die yourself and take two of my people with you. It is disruptive, Mr. Fox, can you understand that? You do not advance your own case by continuing to throw these tragedies in my path.a aI was looking for Dr. Singh,a he said, tapping his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his index finger, a nervous tic Marina knew to be the slightest outward manifestation of simmering fury. aI hadnat had any word from her. I couldnat take the chance that another one of my employees was sick or in danger.a Another one of your employees, Marina thought. Well, there you have it.
aBut you endanger them yourself!a Dr. Swenson said. aYou throw a person in the river and then make a spectacle of jumping in to save them.a Before Mr. Fox had a chance to answer, Dr. Budi stepped between them. aI must ask that you stop this now,a she said, her voice unexpectedly strong. aDr. Swenson, this is not right for you. This argument has ended. You must sit.a The room fell suddenly silent and in the silence they could hear the unexpected sound of Dr. Swenson struggling to catch her breath. There was no ignoring Budias advice. Dr. Swenson sunk down heavily in her chair and put her swollen feet up on a box in front of her. Nancy Saturn came over with a glass of water and Dr. Swenson waved her away. When she spoke again her voice was calmer. aLook at as much data as you need to reassure yourself, Mr. Fox. The two Drs. Saturn will help you. Tomorrow when itas light, Dr. Budi will take you to see the Martins, and after that you will get back on the Inca Cola and go to Manaus. That is all the hospitality I am capable of extending.a aDr. Singh is coming with us.a Mr. Fox said. It was not a romantic gesture but the first counteroffer in an ongoing negotiation.
Dr. Swenson shook her head. aThat will not be possible. Dr. Singh has agreed to stay until I deliver my child.a She put her swollen hands on either side of her belly. aThe big reveal, Mr. Fox. Seventy-three years old and I am pregnant. If you trouble yourself to look around in the morning you will see that I am not alone in my condition. We are very close to being able to bring you what you want if you could only control your impulse for disruption. Iam keeping up my end of the bargain. I expect you to start keeping yours.a For a moment Mr. Fox was too far behind. He had missed the rodent trials, the studies in higher mammals. He had no knowledge of a first efficacious dose or the multidose safety studies. He had seen no reports on the probability of technical success, and then suddenly he was six months into the first human dose. First in Man, thatas what it would always be no matter how inherently sexist the implications. Given all there was to absorb it took a moment for the news to settle in, but when it did the look on Mr. Foxas face was as tender and pleased and surprised as it had been on a night thirty-five years before when his own wife Mary had made a similar announcement. He took a few tentative steps towards Dr. Swenson. He softened his voice. aHow far along?a aNearly seven months.a aIam not qualified to do the section,a Marina said to her. aIave told you that. You need to go to a hospital.a aI would feel more comfortable with Dr. Singh,a Dr. Swenson said. aWe canat afford any breaches in security at this point. I canat go to the city to have a child. Iave seen her operate several times now. She does a brilliant job. I have no questions as to her complete competence.a While Marina had come far enough to contradict Dr. Swenson when they were alone, she still lacked the skills to do so publicly. There was no way to point out that these compliments were her road to perdition.
aWe could bring in an obstetrician from Rio,a Mr. Fox said. aWe could bring one in from Johns Hopkins if youad like.a He had already forgotten about the trip from Manaus, about Mrs. Bovender, about the Hummocca. The drug worked, that was all he had ever needed to know. He didnat care about the paperwork, the trees, he didnat need to see Marina. He could get back on the boat tonight.
aWhat I would like is what I have already said. I trained Dr. Singh myself. You can spare her for a little while longer.a aI can,a Mr. Fox said.
Marina started to say something but Dr. Swenson cut her off. aDr. Budi is right, I am tired. Walk with me back to the hut now, Dr. Singh. Iave done enough for tonight.a She held up her hand and Marina took it. The skin between Dr. Swensonas fingers was cracked and bleeding. Mr. Fox touched Dr. Swensonas shoulder before they left the room and she nodded at him in return.
Once they were safely under the cover of darkness, the stars spreading their foam over the night sky, Marina started in. aI told you I wasnat going to stay,a she whispered sharply over the grind of insectsa wings, over the endless repetition of frogs croaking. aDid you think you could just lease me out from my employer?a aHold on to yourself for two more minutes,a Dr. Swenson said.
Dr. Swensonas hut was the one closest to the lab. It was a small room with a single bed and a dresser, a folding table with two chairs. Dr. Swenson struggled up the four stairs, leaning her weight against Marina, and when she came inside she sat down heavily on the bed. aIam going to have to lie down,a she said, and with that she stretched over the bed, her stomach pointing up. She sent forth a low moan, though whether it was pain or the relief from pain Marina could not be sure. aBe a friend and pull off my sandals, Dr. Singh.a Marina struggled with the Birkenstocks but managed to get them loose. Dr. Swensonas toes were sunk halfway into her swollen feet which had an unnatural purple cast. aDonat make me feel sorry for you,a Marina said. aThe more I worry about you the more certain I am that you need to go to a hospital with doctors who know what theyare doing.a aYou know what youare doing,a Dr. Swenson said, aand you will feel sorry for me because that is your nature. Thereas nothing I could do to prevent that.a Marina sat down on the edge of the single mattress. aWhoas the man in the picture?a She took Dr. Swensonas wrist between her fingers. Her pulse was almost too rapid to count.
Dr. Swenson turned and looked at the frame on her bedside table. It was a black-and-white photograph of a tall, thin man with a very fine nose standing in the jungle. He was wearing a white shirt and seemed to be looking over the shoulder of whoever was holding the camera. aNever ask a question if you already know the answer. I find that the most irritating habit.a aHeas very handsome,a Marina said.
aHe was,a she said, closing her eyes.
aWhereas the blood-pressure cuff?a She pointed down to the red bag on the floor and Marina got the cuff and a stethoscope. aThe baby is dead, Dr. Singh. It died yesterday, maybe the day before. I was going to tell you tonight but then the company arrived. You can go on and try to listen but nothing has moved. Iam not certain when it moved last. I havenat been able to find a heartbeat.a Marina put her hand on her teacheras arm but Dr. Swenson shook her off. aGo on,a Dr. Swenson said. aTry.a Marina put the scope in her ears, ran the drum across Dr. Swensonas belly, trying one spot and then another and then another.
aThereas nothing there,a Dr. Swenson said.
aNo,a Marina said. She took her blood pressure then and then took it again to make sure her reading was correct. aOne seventy-two over one fifteen.a Dr. Swenson nodded. aI have preeclampsia. There is no Pitocin. There is a syrup the locals use to bring about labor in these circumstances, a boiled-down extract of crickets or some such thing but for the time being I am finished with my own human experimentation. I donat think Iad survive labor anyway. So the bad news is you will have to do the section and the good news is you wonat have to wait two months to do it. Mr. Fox will leave tomorrow with the proof he needs that the drug is viable, and that in itself will buy us a great deal of time. If you could stay here just a little while after the surgery to make sure there are no complications I would appreciate it. Later Iall have Easter and the Saturns take you back to Manaus in the pontoon. Can you do that?a aI can put you on that boat in the morning and we can go to a real hospital with real medicine and a sterile surgical room and an anesthesiologist. Iam not going to operate on you with a syringe full of Ketamine.a Dr. Swenson waved her hand. aDonat be ridiculous. We have bags of Versed for special occasions.a There were things to say about that but Marina let them go. aThese are serious circumstances. I know it isnat what you want but you have got to think like a medical doctor and not an ethnobotanist. If you go with Milton and Mr. Fox youall be there in half the time. You could be there tonight, which, considering your blood pressure, is what you should be doing anyway. Youad never put this off if it were someone else.a aListen to what Iam saying the first time, Dr. Singh. I donat have the energy to keep repeating myself. Iam not going anywhere tonight, so if I die before you have the chance to save me the onus will be completely my own. You canat have Mr. Fox take me to the hospital. Then all of his dreams will be shattered and subsequently my dreams will be shattered as well. I will not sacrifice a potential malaria vaccine for a hospital bed in Manaus. I am asking you to do this surgery as a way of saving myself from having Alan Saturn do it. I donat know that I have asked you for so much in the past that you would find this single request something you are unable to grant.a Marina waited, considering the horror of it all. In the end she could do no better than a nod of the head.
aThere is of course every reason to think that this will kill me in the end.a She opened her eyes and looked at Marina. aItas difficult to say if this is an outcome of the drug or the circumstances of age. Whether or not I am finished remains to be seen, but I want you to know that the drug is finished, at least the fertility aspect. Mr. Fox can go and cry in his cups. With a little luck weall be able to keep that news from him for a few more years while he finances a malaria vaccine.a Marina shook her head. She wrote it off to the circumstances. In a couple of months when all of this was behind her Dr. Swenson would feel differently. aYou shouldnat say that. Youave worked on it for too many years to let it go.a aAnd how shall we test it further? Iave been eating this bark for years. Iave seen my own menstruation return at sixty. Iave lived through the pimples and the cramps and I will tell you there was nothing there to enjoy. I did not need to see that aspect of my youth again.a aThatas why they have NHV, normal healthy volunteers. No one expects that you should do all of this yourself.a aWe would have to find a great many childless seventy-three-year-old women who were willing to be impregnated in order to evaluate safety. Chances are we would kill the lionas share of them in the course of the drug trials.a aChances are,a Marina said. She brushed down the insane wires of Dr. Swensonas hair with her hand.
aDonat be tender, Dr. Singh. Weare fine the way we are. I only tell you this because I want you to know that if anything happens to me now, anything, it is not your fault. Iave brought this on myself in the interest of science and I donat regret any of it. Do you understand that? This has all been to the positive. We are very close to securing a vaccine, and in addition to that we know what the body has told us all along, postmenopausal women arenat meant to be pregnant. That is what we had to learn.a aIt might not work at seventy-three. That doesnat mean it couldnat work at fifty. This isnat the time to throw everything away.a aLet the fifty-year-olds console themselves with in vitro as they have in the past. I have no intention of unleashing this misery on the world because I trust women to stop trying at a sensible age.a She shook her head. aSo itas good then,a she said, aitas good. Iam going to go to sleep now. I want you to get some sleep, too. Weall do this tomorrow in the afternoon when everyone has left and thereas plenty of light. Do your best to get them off early. Milton and Barbara would swim out of here, I feel sure of it, but Mr. Fox may try to linger. Once you get them on the boat, go and ask Dr. Budi to assist you. Thereas no sense in telling her tonight.a aAlright,a Marina said. She pulled the mosquito netting down over the bed. She turned down the flame in the lantern but she couldnat seem to make herself go.
aYouare still here,a Dr. Swenson said finally.
aI thought Iad wait until you fell asleep.a aI know how to sleep, Dr. Singh. I donat need you to watch me unless it is something you are trying to learn to do yourself.a When Marina got back to the lab, Dr. Nancy Saturn was explaining the relationship between the Martin trees and the purple martinets to Mr. Fox, and Thomas Nkomo was showing him the charts of pregnancies, birth weights, live births, and they were all lying to him in everything they chose not to tell. Milton and Barbara made sandwiches out of the store-bought bread they had brought with them. Everyone was helpful. Everyone was getting along.
aHave you seen all of this?a Mr. Fox said to Marina when she came over to them.
aI have,a she said. aIave been here a long time.a aItas remarkable work. Truly remarkable work.a He was smiling at her now without the slightest trace of collusion. He was simply happy. The drug would soon be in hand, the stock would exceed expectations, his risk would be lauded by generations of board members to come.
Dr. Budi handed her a sandwich on a plate, potted chicken after so many weeks of potted ham. aDr. Swenson?a she asked.
aHer blood pressure is high,a Marina said.
Mr. Fox looked up and Marina shook her head. aSheas tired. She just needs rest, thatas all. There should be as little stress as possible.a It was a line of dialogue she remembered from meeting with patients years ago. It always comforted them. Anyone could embrace the idea that the answer was rest.
aWeall leave in the morning,a Milton said.
aAfter weave seen the trees,a Mr. Fox said.
Marina waited another minute for old timeas sake. Mr. Fox bent back over the data and she wanted very much to put her hand on the crown of his head. It was probably better that he didnat look at her, that he didnat take her aside and whisper his true plan in her ear. If he loved her now, it would only be sadder later on when he realized that she had lied to him along with all the others. He would leave her once the whole thing fell apart. It might be years, but once he understood that he was holding a malaria vaccine instead of a drug for fertility and that she had known it and done nothing to stop it, nothing to save him, he would break with her in every possible way. That loss would be infinitely harder to take if he had ever loved her. aLetas go to bed now,a she said quietly. Then he did raise his head, looking at her as if to say that surely he misunderstood.
aIam with you,a Barbara Bovender said, slipping the second half of her sandwich into one of the many pockets on her dress. The two of them took Easter with them while the rest of the group called good night, while Mr. Fox said good night.
aHow does this work?a Barbara asked, looking again at the configuration of the sleeping porch.
aI have the cot and Easter has the hammock, but Easter sleeps with me so I guess that leaves you with the hammock. Iall grant you that it isnat much but itas better than winding up on the floor somewhere.a Easter was sitting on the floor wiping off the bottoms of his feet with a rag. It was the one bedtime ritual Marina had taught him.
aLook,a Barbara said, twisting a fat yellow braid around her fingers. aI know this is your place, but if you wouldnat mind terribly could I sleep with Easter? Itas just for tonight. Iave been half out of my wits all day. Frankly, if he wasnat here Iad be asking to sleep with you, and I donat think the two of us would fit in that bed.a She looked sadly at the child. aItas been a bad time for Jackie to be gone.a Marina nodded. She understood completely the calming powers of Easter. Still, as she shook the marmoset scat out of the hammock, she thought of how on this particular night she would have preferred not to sleep alone herself.
That night Marina dreamed not of her own father but of Barbara Bovenderas father as he ran through the trees towards the river. When she woke up she had one leg and both of her arms hanging over the edges of the reeking hammock and her first thought was of the Martins. There was only the smallest bit of light coming onto the porch and Barbara and Easter were still sleeping, Easter in the nylon shorts head worn the day before and Barbara in a white cotton nightgown. For a moment Marina looked at them and marveled that such things as nightgowns had ever existed and that the people who owned them thought to wear them to bed. She took her flashlight and walked out into the jungle, keeping the beam pointed low to the ground as it was still so early the tarantulas would just now be making their slow crawl home. She wanted to get to the trees and back before anyone else was out. She was fairly certain there was some other quality in the bark that no one was talking about and she knew she wasnat going to make it through this particular day without it. She thought of how she would come out here on her last day and saw off a few branches from the trees on the farthest edge of the perimeter. She would saw them into smaller and smaller pieces and tie them together with twine and she would bring them back with her, a little something for herself. She pictured herself in her kitchen, a freezer full of twigs, taking them out only when she needed one, sitting alone in her living room scraping the bark down with her teeth, and while she was thinking about this she came perilously close to putting her foot into a nest of ants. She stopped and watched them cut a determined path through the leaf litter. She was walking too fast. She kept her eyes down for the rest of the way and when she finally looked up again it was to see the morning sun coming through the Martins at an easterly slant, the full illumination of the thin yellow trunks, the high crowns of pink flowers brushing the edges of the barely blue sky. Maybe she wasnat sorry not to be going back on the boat today. As she touched her mouth to an already soft opening in the bark, a feeling of peace and well-being spread through her veins. She wondered if in fact it was really time to go at all.
She saw the first three Lakashi women coming towards the trees in the same dresses they wore every day, the same dress she wore every day, and they raised their hands to wave to her. Marina waved back and moved quickly to the side of the stand. In the distance, she could hear the disembodied voice of Nancy Saturn lecturing on the purple martinet, the digestion and excrement versus the larval sack. Marina only knew one way out of the trees. One would think she could walk out in any direction and make a circle back around the edge but that wasnat the case. She needed a path. She had to leave the same way she came in or she would get lost. She had a distinct desire to run straight into the jungle, but why? What was there to run from? Mr. Fox was her lover, the Saturns were her friends. Either way she had already stood there too long.
aMarina!a Alan called.
She went to them. The Lakashi were busy at their trees and the gentle sound of their mastication was a comfort to her. One of the women patted her bottom as she walked past, her mouth firm to the bark. It was her nurse. Marina patted the back of her head.
aSheas gone completely native,a Alan said to Mr. Fox.
Like everything else around this place, Mr. Fox looked better in the light of day standing between the trunks of the Martins. He had on a blue shirt this morning and a darker pair of pants. She couldnat quite believe that in his rush to find her he had brought a change of clothes. aI was meaning to ask about the dress last night.a Marina brushed off the front of the coarse fabric. aItas the local uniform.a aWhat happened to your clothes?a Marina shook her head. aA misunderstanding,a she said. aReally, the dress has been fine.a aIf my legs looked as good as yours Iad wear one too,a Nancy Saturn said.
While Marinaas legs were of sound basic construction they were also bruised, unshaven, scabbed, and covered in a fierce topography of insect bites. It struck Marina then that it wasnat only Mr. Fox she was lying to. She was lying to the other doctors, her friends, who would certainly have wanted to know that she had more than a professional relationship with the man they were trying to snow. A small Lakashi woman who had finished her requisite amount of bark came up behind Marina and gave her shoulder two hard taps and Marina sat down on the ground with thoughtless obedience. She didnat mind sitting down in the Martins. All of the insects save the purple martinets cut a wide berth around this part of the jungle. The woman untied the end of Marinaas braid and combed out her hair with her fingers.
aIs this a service?a Mr. Fox asked.
aYou canat stop them,a Marina said. aThere is absolutely no fighting this.a aI had long hair the first month I was here,a Nancy said, nodding at Marina. aThey were all over me. As soon as I cut it off I was invisible to them.a aThey fix Budias hair every morning,a Alan said. aThey come to her hut.a aSo youave gotten used to the place?a Mr. Fox said, and for the first time he sounded as if he were speaking to Marina as if she were someone he had met before.
She nodded. aFinish your tour and then Iall take you back. You can catch me up on everything Iave missed at work.a Mr. Fox agreed to this and went off with the Saturns. Marina listened to their voicesa"Martins and martinets and not a single mention of Rapps. She leaned forward from where she was sitting and picked one, the smallest, bluest mushroom that grew at the base of the tree. It was hardly bigger than her little finger. She brought it to her nose and sniffed it like a daisy and the woman who was braiding her hair began to laugh. She leaned over Marinaas shoulder and sniffed the mushroom herself, then she put her arms around Marina from the back and hugged her, giggling into her neck until Marina had to laugh herself. When the woman finished Marinaas hair she took the mushroom from her fingers and, giving a quick, furtive glance to either side, popped it in her mouth and walked away.
The Saturns stayed behind with their litmus paper and their cotton swabs while Marina walked Mr. Fox back to the lab. The Lakashi trickled past, raising their hands to her.
aYouare popular here,a he said.
She stopped and turned to him. She took his hands. They had gone to Chicago together once, gotten a fancy room at the Drake and stayed in bed until noon. aI wrote to you. Some of the letters will get there eventually. The second suitcase was lost and I didnat have the phone.a Three more women came by. One of them reached down and slapped Marinaas thighs and Mr. Fox let go of her hands. aDonat worry about them,a she said. aThey donat report back to anyone.a aStill,a he said.
aIt doesnat matter,a Marina said. aNo one cares what weare doing. It didnat matter before either.a She kissed him then because she didnat know if there was ever going to be another chance. She remembered that she must smell horrible although she could no longer smell much of anything herself. The snake had burned it out of her.
He stayed with the kiss for only a second. There were too many women walking past and they were laughing quietly with each other. aYouare fine,a he said, pulling away. aYouare going to be home soon and weall have time to talk about everything. All of this is better than anything I could have imagined, and I have you to thank for much of that. It was very brave of you to come down here alone. I see that now.a He turned away from her then and took a step forward and Marina saw the snake, his foot coming down right on top of it as she grabbed him and pulled him back, pulled him into her with a not inconsiderable strength. It was a little lancehead, small enough to be immature. She had seen the picture in one of Andersa books and she recognized it an instant before it darted away into the high grass.
aMarina!a he said sharply, but she had hold of him now so tightly he could not get away and she did not immediately let him go. Instead she put her lips very lightly to his ear.
aSnake,a she said.
As soon as they were back Marina went to check on Dr. Swenson and found Barbara coming up the path. Her eyes were red and cheeks were flushed. Marina didnat know if she had just now been crying or if it was leftover from all the crying the night before. aSheas alright,a Barbara said, and stepped in front of Marina. aBut you shouldnat go in there. She said she wanted to rest now.a aYouare back to guarding the gate.a Barbara was wearing white linen pants and a tight navy top and Marina wondered if she had packed it thinking the outfit had a certain nautical look that was appropriate for river travel. aMaybe you could put in a good word for me then, tell her Iam still doing my job.a aIs she going to fire you for bringing out Mr. Fox?a She looked back towards the door she had just come out of to make sure Dr. Swenson wasnat standing there watching. aI donat know. She may just be trying to scare me. She says she hasnat decided. I think she looks awful, by the way. I had thought the idea of waiting until later to have children was such a good one, and now Iam not so sure.a aIt isnat a good one,a Marina said.
Mrs. Bovender put her arm through her friendas arm and together they walked towards the water. aI donat know how youave lived out here. You were so miserable in Manaus but this is a thousand times worse. Maybe Iad be lucky if she fired us. I want to go back to Australia. I hate this entire country. Jackie hates it here.a aThen you should go.a Marina found herself wanting to comb and braid the yellow hair which spread around Barbaraas shoulders like a loose blanket. She was thinking that maybe the desire to groom was yet another component of the Martins that had yet to be traced.
aThe thing is,a Barbara said, aweall never find a gig as easy as this one anyplace in the world.a Barbara Bovender gave Marina much of what was in her suitcase before she left: two pairs of lacy underpants and a matching bra and the white cotton nightgown and a jar of face cream that smelled like jasmine. Mr. Fox gave her the white shirt he had worn the day before and his extra pants which she planned to tie up with a piece of twine. Milton gave her his straw hat.
aBut you wear this hat,a she said.
He shrugged. aI can wear another hat.a She held it for a minute, looked at the thin red ribbon band. She put it on her head and immediately felt braver for it. aIall bring it back to you,a she said.
aThen it would be so valuable to me I could never wear it.a It occurred to Marina then that she should have run off with Milton that first moment she saw him in the airport. She should have begged him to take her to Rio where they could have vanished together into the crowds of dancing girls and handsome men. She and Easter went down to the dock and said goodbye to their three friends. She kissed all three of them and only Mr. Fox was embarrassed. Then she slapped each one on the waist. The Lakashi came down and stood with Marina and Easter and together they watched the beautiful Inca Cola boat pull away. Marina put her hand on Easteras head to comfort herself. Everyone waved. Long after the particular details of their features became small and blurred down the river she could still make out the gleam of Barbara Bovenderas hair, which had turned into a great flaxen flag in the wind.
The future was a terrible weight and Marina stood on the dock for a long time after the boat was out of sight and felt it press down on her. Finally she went to the lab to look through the surgical supplies, and talk to Dr. Budi about assisting, and take whatever means were available to forestall the inevitable, but Dr. Swenson was there at her desk in front of a large spread of paper: file folders and typed reports and hand written notes pulled from spiral notebooks.
aYou arenat really going to fire the Bovenders, are you?a Marina asked.
aSince when do you care about the Bovenders? They were the ones that kept you in Manaus for so long.a aYouare the one who kept me in Manaus,a Marina said. aThey were just doing their job.a aSo in the case of Mr. Fox they didnat do their job well, or I should say she didnat do it at all.a aBut in the end it served your purpose, their coming here. It all turned out for the best.a aWe are not in a rush, Dr. Singh, but neither is there an endless amount of time for what needs to be accomplished. Youall forgive me if I donat care to focus myself on the matter of the Bovendersa employment with the time that I have. There is so much to do here. Iave been trying to organize some things, just in case.a Her thick fingers cut and recut the stacks in front of her like a deck of oversized cards. aBut I see now thereas no doing it. It would take a solid three months of work to make them even passingly useful to anyone other than myself. I realize now Iave been too cryptic, Iave kept too much in my head. There are some things here I can hardly make sense of myself. I can see now Iave been very optimistic. I should have taken failure into account.a aThe failure of what?a Marina said. How far away was the boat now? Was it possible that one of them could have had a change of heart, if not Mr. Fox then Milton or Barbara? Couldnat they insist on turning around to go back for her?
Dr. Swenson looked over the top of her glasses. aI think it is safe to say we will be making surgical history today, though God knows we wonat be getting credit. I canat imagine there have been any other women my age having cesareans.a Marina sat down heavily and put her elbows on the table and in doing so frightened a handful of small bats that nested inside the tableas lip. Five or six of them went spinning around the room, lost in the bright light of day, until one by one they stuck to the walls and flattened out like thick daubs of mud.
aThere could certainly be a problem with bleeding, but Dr. Nkomo has offered himself for a transfusion if we need one. Heas A positive. Thatas a stroke of luck.a aDo you have a bag?a Marina asked. What they had and what they lacked was a source of great mystery.
aOne line, two needles, gravity does the rest.a aYou must be kidding me.a Dr. Swenson shook her head. aYou would be amazed at all the things that are possible in a state of deprivation. Itas only a matter of thinking things through. Just take your time, Dr. Singh. Thereas no reason to rush this. That was your downfall in Baltimore. Rushing is the greatest mistake.a Marina sat up, a sound like a bell ringing in her head. aBaltimore?a Dr. Swenson looked at her without bemusement or compassion, two of the things that Marina might have hoped to see, then she glanced back at her papers. aYou thought I didnat remember that.a aBecause you didnat remember that. When I met you in Manaus at the opera you didnat know me.a aThatas true, I didnat. It came to me later, not long after we were back, and by that point it didnat make any difference.a She plucked a thick article out of the stack, scrawled a note across the top in illegible writing, and placed it in a blue cardboard file. aI only bring it up now because I donat want it weighing on you going into surgery. Thatas why I had you do that cesarean, you know, not just to see if you could do it. I wanted you to get your confidence up. You made a very common mistake that night at the General. You rushed, nothing more than that. Had it not been the eye you would have forgotten all about it in a week. Everyone at some point nicks a skull, nicks an ear. It was just your bad luck that the head wasnat positioned another centimeter in either direction. In retrospect the real loss was your quitting the program. If I had known you better then I would have stepped in. At the time though,a she shrugged, ait was your decision. This will be easier for you. There isnat the pressure of a baby to save.a Marina sat down in a chair beside the desk, and there it went, the burden of her lifetime, taken. She wondered if she could have turned the Lakashi baby. She looked down at her hands. She wondered what they might have accomplished.
aIt would have been remarkable if it had worked out, to have had a child at this age, to have had the chance to see myself in a child. I wouldnat have ever thought about it except for the fact that we came very close.a She made another note, equally unreadable, and put it on the other side of the desk. aBe sure to freeze it, Dr. Singh. There are tests that Iall want to do later. Iall want to see what levels of the compound are in the tissues.a Marina nodded. She would have liked to know what any of it meant, especially the part that concerned her, but she was lost. Mr. Fox was speeding down the river now and she wanted him to come back. She would tell him everything. She would start with her internship and bring the story right up to today.
Dr. Swenson looked at her watch, and then she took it off her swollen wrist and laid it on the desk. When she stood up from her chair she struggled, the great and looming failure of her pregnancy going before her. aWe should get to work now, donat you think? Thereas nothing else here that I can do.a
Eleven.
Many hours after the surgery, and well after dark, Easter and Thomas took the mattress off the cot on the sleeping porch and carried it to Dr. Swensonas hut. They had to take out the table and push the two chairs against the wall but in the end there was enough room for Easter and Marina to sleep. Not that Marina was sleeping, she was watching Dr. Swenson, watching the parade of every nocturnal creature in the Amazon as it wandered through the room. It seemed that they were all attracted to the light, which made her think of that first night in Manaus and Rodrigoas store. The next day she sent Benoit over for the cot frame and the mosquito netting. Easter brought his strongbox with him. For a moment Dr. Swenson opened her eyes and watched while they rearranged the furniture again. aI donat remember asking the two of you to move in,a she said, but before Marina could launch her explanation Dr. Swenson had fallen back to sleep.
Aside from her quick morning trips to the Martins, Marina stayed close to her patient, watching her pass in and out of fevers. In her lucidity Dr. Swenson was demanding, wanting to talk to Alan Saturn about mosquitoes, wanting briefings on the data that had been collected since her surgery, wanting Marina to take her blood pressure. Then just as quickly the fever came back and she cried in her sleep, great flooding tears. She would ask for ice and Marina would go and get the small block she kept in the freezer where they stored the blood samples, chipping it into shards with a knife. It was the same freezer where she kept the child with the curving tail. Sirenomelia. It was two days before Marina remembered the name for it. The only time she had ever heard of it was in a lecture on birth abnormalities Dr. Swenson had given at Johns Hopkins. It flashed by in a single slide, Sirenomelia, Mermaid Syndrome, the legs of the fetus are fused together into a single tail, no visible genitalia. It is nothing youare likely to see. And there it went; with a click and a brief flash of blackness they were on to the next slide. The only person who ever stood to know what it would have been like to have Dr. Swenson for a mother had not lived to meet the experience. A life of such extraordinary beginnings had, in the end, amounted to little more than a science experiment. Marina had rested her hand on the tiny head for a moment when the whole thing was over, just before Budi covered it over to keep it from the insects and took it off to the lab.
In her fevered dreams, Dr. Swenson often gave bits and pieces of lectures, and sometimes it was a lecture Marina remembered, aEctopic Pregnancy and the Damage to Fallopian Tubes.a She fell into another broken sleep, the blood of Thomas Nkomo making a slow loop through her veins. Marina gave her fluids and tinkered with the antibiotics. For all that they lacked in the jungle their assortment of antibiotics was as comprehensive as any hospital pharmacy. She checked the incision, watched for excessive swelling. She sat in the small room with the door open and read the copious notes on malaria. As the days went by, Dr. Swensonas fevers would stop and then start again. Marina upped the dosages, beat them back. It was days before they could sit her up, and then stand her up. Marina worried about clots. With Easter on one side and Marina on the other, Dr. Swenson walked halfway down the path to the lab. When she was safely back in bed, too tired even to sleep, Marina read to her from Great Expectations. That became their new routine, and if the chapter was particularly good, or the day particularly dull, Dr. Swenson would ask Marina to read her some more. Easter sat on the floor with his paper and pad and practiced bending straight lines into the alphabet. Marina wrote out Dr. Swenson and put it on Dr. Swensonas chest. She wrote the word Marina and put it in her lap.
aDid you think Iad forget?a Dr. Swenson said, looking at the piece of paper when she woke.
aIam trying to give him a few new words,a Marina said.
Dr. Swenson put the piece of paper back on her chest and patted it there. aGood. Let him remember this. Dr. Eckman was always trying to teach him to write Minnesota. That was never going to do him any good.a aYou never know,a Marina said.
aI do know. I think about Dr. Eckman now. There is something very specific about having a fever in the tropics, very unlike having a fever at home. Here you feel the air burning into you, or you are burning into it. After a time one loses all parameters, even the parameter of skin. I think he couldnat possibly have understood what was happening to him.a aProbably not,a Marina said. It had been almost a week since Easter had left one of Andersa letters in the bed. He must have run out of them. Easter was sitting shirtless by the door and the sun fell over exactly half of him, one leg and one arm, the left side of his face. The bruises had in time faded down to a dull green.
aHow well do you think I am now?a aYouare through the worst of it but I wouldnat say youare well. That will take a long time. You know more about it than I do.a Dr. Swenson nodded. aThatas what Iave been thinking myself. Dr. Budi, Dr. Nkomo, even the botanist could look after me now.a In fact they came to visit every day. Just that morning Dr. Budi brought a bouquet of pink blossoms from the Martin trees in a drinking glass, who knows how she had managed to get them. They were there on the bedside table, the heavy blossoms crossing the face of Dr. Rapp. The Lakashi came too, the women keeping a silent vigil outside the window while they unbraided and rebraided one anotheras hair. Any one of them would have taken care of her if given the chance. Marina told her as much.
aNone of them would do the job like you. I trained you myself, after all. You do your follow-up the way itas meant to be done. I would like to keep you on, Dr. Singh. You certainly could manage Vogel, keep them happy while everyone else did their work. The other doctors like you. The Lakashi have bonded to you in much the way they bonded to Dr. Rapp. Someone is going to need to look after them once Iam gone. I donat think any of the others could do that.a aThe Lakashi can look after themselves.a Dr. Swenson shook her head. aNot if the world comes in to take the Martins, to take the Rapps. I will get over this surgery or I wonat. Other people can take care of me but who can take care of them? The truth is, I could just keep thinking up reasons you had to stay. I understand you well enough for that.a aYouave done a good job so far,a Marina said, wringing out a cloth to wash Dr. Swensonas face and neck.
aSit still for a minute,a Dr. Swenson said, pushing her hand away. aSit down. Iam trying to tell you something important. This is a conflict I am facing. I am telling you I want you to stay and at the same time giving you a reason to go.a aYou arenat giving me any reason to go.a aThatas because you wonat be quiet. You wonat stop moving all the time.a Marina sat down and held the wet cloth in her hands. It was cool. Shead let the extra ice melt in the bowl.
Dr. Swenson, small in her bed, looked up at the ceiling. There was a fly circling over her head and Marina disciplined herself not to shoo it away. aBarbara Bovender came to see me the morning that she left. She was worried that I was going to fire her, and because she was worried she told me the story of her visit to the Hummocca. It was a story that Milton had already told me, but she wanted to tell it again to show me how she had suffered for the cause. She sat in that chair where you are now and she cried. She told me she was so close to death that she had seen her father running through the jungle towards her, waving his hands, her father who had died when she was a child.a It was Barbara Bovender they were talking about? Not the child with the curling tail? Not Vogel? Not something that had happened thirteen years ago at Johns Hopkins? aShe told me the same story,a Marina said.
aShe told you the same story? Then I would imagine you have come to a similar series of assumptions.a Dr. Swenson looked at Easter sitting in the doorway. She kept her eyes on him for a long time. aI didnat realize she had told you.a aWhat assumptions?a Marina asked. It was a quiz of some sort and she had no idea what the answer was.
Dr. Swenson looked at her the way she always looked at her, as if everything was obvious. aMrs. Bovender is a very tall, pale blonde. Wouldnat her father be the same? I canat help but think that what she saw was a white man in the jungle, a man who was not her father but from a distance, in her fear, might have looked something like him. He was running through the trees towards her, she was in a boat. She couldnat have seen him for more than a few seconds. I asked her if he had said anything, if he had spoken to her in English. She told me that her father had called for her to wait.a For the first time since she had left Manaus, that last morning when she had woken up standing in front of the air conditioner having dreamed about her father, Marina Singh was cold. She was so cold she thought her bones would break. She put the wet cloth back in the bowl. She felt as if there were ice around her heart. aHe isnat dead.a aI would swear to you with everything I understand about this place that he was dead, but no, I did not see it for myself. Sometimes when Dr. Eckman was very sick he would wander off. He never went very far. We found him in the storage room once. Once he fell over the railing of the sleeping porch and hurt his shoulder. I left Easter there to watch him. Dr. Eckman would start to get up and Easter would put him back to bed. Easter was a very good steward of Dr. Eckman. The boy had grown attached to him, the way heas grown attached to you. Then one night he came into my hut well after midnight and he was frantic, frantic. He pulled me out of bed. I barely got my feet in my shoes and he was pulling me back to the storage hut. It was pouring rain that night, a blinding rain, and Easter was crying like it was the end of all the earth. I assumed that Dr. Eckman was dead. I remember feeling surprised, as sick as he was I had thought he would pull through. We came onto the porch and Easter had a flashlight. He showed me the bed, he showed me the room. Dr. Eckman was gone. While Easter was asleep in his hammock Dr. Eckman had wandered off in the night. I went to wake Benoit and he rounded up a group of Lakashi, but no one could find him. Not that night or all the next day. We never found him. Youave been out there. It isnat so hard to imagine that a man who was very sick would last about twenty minutes in the jungle at night. He would step on a spider. He would crawl into the hollow of some rotting tree and never wake up. Something had eaten him, something had dragged him away. I didnat know what it was but he was gone, Dr. Singh, he was as gone as any man who had died, and so thatas what I said. I told the other doctors the Lakashi take away their dead in the middle of the night. I wrote a letter saying we had buried him. And I believed I had handled the situation with as much humanity as was possible until Barbara Bovender turned up the wrong tributary and saw her father.a Marina had thought she understood this place. She had spotted the lancehead after all, she had cut apart the anaconda. She had performed surgeries she was neither licensed nor qualified to perform on a dirty floor and had eaten from the trees and swum in the river in a bloody dress only to find out that none of those things were on the test. There was in fact a circle of hell beneath this one that required an entirely different set of skills that she did not possess. She would have to go there anyway. She had been foolish enough to think that she had given up everything when in fact she could see now that she hadnat even started. Anders Eckman could still be alive. Anders her friend, Anders father of three, was down the river with the cannibals waiting for another boat to go by. aIs there any safe way for me to do this?a she said finally.
Dr. Swenson covered her eyes with the heels of her hands. aNo. In fact, I imagine theyall kill you.a Anders took off his lab coat and put on his jacket that was hanging on the back of the door. He retied his tie, took his briefcase off the desk. aIf I have to go to one more meeting it is going to kill me,a he said to Marina.
Marina looked out the open door. Somehow it was still morning. It wasnat two hours ago that she had been eating the Martins. aI should go now,a she said.
aAfter weave thought it through,a Dr. Swenson said. aFirst there has to be a plan.a Marina shook her head, thinking of Karen Eckman and what she had said about Anders not being comfortable with the trees. She would have walked off the path at that moment. She would have gone straight into the jungle to find him. aI donat think tomorrowas going to be any better.a And with that she left, Easter trailing behind her. She could hear Dr. Swenson calling her name as she went past the lab but she didnat go back. They could have talked it over for the rest of their lives. Marina only wanted to be on the boat, out on the water, heading towards Anders and her own fate. She was floating now, caught in a current that pulled her ahead and to her surprise she did not mind it. She was content to float, to be pulled under or tossed up. She would give herself over to the force of the river if the river took her to Anders. She would have gone straight to the dock but she needed to take something with her. She was trying to think of what she could offer the Hummocca in exchange for her friend. She looked around the storage room, opening boxes, and found ten oranges left in the bottom of the crate. She took them along with the peanut butter. She put the white nightgown Barbara Bovender had given her around her neck like a scarf, thinking if there was in fact a universal language of surrender it would at least give her the means to do so. She wished for buttons and beads, knives and paint. She wished for something other than syringes, litmus papers, glass tubes with rubber stoppers, bottles of acetone. She sat down on a box of fruit cocktail and closed her eyes. She saw Anders sitting on his desk looking through birding guides to the Amazon. She tried to think of something that was as valuable as Andersa life. And then Marina remembered the Rapps.
Easter stayed with her though he had never followed her out to the Martins before. The sun was high and hot though it was not yet nine in the morning. She carried a very large basket that she had found in the storage room, something the Lakashi had woven out of heavy grass. She had never come so late. In the two hours since she had last taken this trail the jungle had installed an entirely different set of birds screeching out an entirely different hue and cry. The mid-morning shift of insects replaced their early-morning brethren and clicked and vibrated a new and distinct set of messages. Marina kept her mind on the snakes that wrapped around trees and tangled themselves into vines and she placed her feet down carefully. She could not afford to make a mistake now. She stopped for a minute at the edge of the Martins, leaning forward to wipe the sweat off her face with the hem of her dress. The way the bright sunlight came into the field now turned the bark a softer yellow and she stood there, making a point to notice everything. She picked a Rapp and held it up to Easter, then she put it in the basket. She picked another and another and he followed her, going to other trees, taking just a few from every individual community of mushrooms, thinning them out while the basket rounded into a pile of pale blue jewels. No matter how many they picked the plants did not appear to be diminished. Maybe that was part of their secret. She had never realized how many of them there were. Protecting the Rapps meant protecting the Lakashi, and the Martins, and the fertility drug, and the malaria vaccine. No one could ever know where the Rapps had come from. But who had thought to protect Anders? If this is what was available to her then this is what she would use. When she picked up the basket it was scarcely heavier than it had been empty, and she covered the whole thing up with the nightgown and made her way back.
The mushrooms she knew were her best chance but she had Easter carry the peanut butter and the oranges just in case. She loaded all of it onto the boat. Thomas met her on the dock, Benoit was beside him. aI cannot believe what Dr. Swenson has told me,a Thomas said, the panic rising in his voice, aWhat must Anders have thought, that in all this time we never came to look for him?a Marina shook her head. aWe didnat know.a Thomas took her hand. aI am going with you to find him.a The Lakashi were there now, waiting to leap aboard.
It was all a set-up. Dr. Swenson would have called out for Thomas as soon as she was gone, telling him everything, telling him he had to go with Marina, and Thomas, guilt stricken in his ignorance, played right along. But it was not his destiny to see this thing through. aAnders was my friend,a Marina said, and squeezed his thin fingers. aHeas the reason I came here. I think I should be the one to go.a aI understand that,a Thomas said. aBut he was my friend as well and so it is equally my right. And you have no language with which to ask for him back.a aYou donat speak Hummocca,a Marina said.
aWhat Benoit and I have between us will be closer to Hummocca than your English. I will not wait on this dock and wonder whatas become of you. I will not wait to see if Anders is alive.a His face shone with such bright earnestness it was nearly unbearable. aI have already made a promise to Dr. Swenson. We are going along.a Benoit nodded his head without understanding exactly what was being promised. Marina thought it was a nod of considerably less conviction.
aIf you wait much longer to decide, Alan Saturn will hear about this,a Thomas said. aHe will insist on going. He has always been interested in the Hummocca. And Nancy would never let him go without her, you know this, so factor her in as well. I do not imagine Dr. Budi would agree to stay behind to watch Dr. Swenson but I could be wrong. If she insists on coming as well then we will need to put Dr. Swenson on the boat. We could make her a pallet on the deck out of some blankets.a If Anders were in fact alive in a tribe down river he had been there for more than three months. Marina would not have him there another night. aAlright,a she said, finally. It only mattered that she left right away. It mattered less who was with her. aAlright.a Thomas nodded gratefully, glad that this part of the negotiations was complete. When he told her their next step was to find a gift she told him about the oranges and the peanut butter but didnat mention the mushrooms.
aI wish we had more,a he said, looking at the ten lonely oranges with discouragement. aBut we will make a good presentation. We will say to them, aWe have brought giftsa and aLet us have the white man.a a Thomas said the two phrases to Benoit in Portuguese and Benoit gave back the closest approximation in Lakashi. Standing on the dock, the three of them repeated the words over and over again. Marina prayed the linguist was correct, that this was an uninteresting language that came off the same predictable root as the languages of all surrounding tribes, though it seemed doubtful the linguist had ever found the Hummocca. The Lakashi interrupted them as they practiced their lines. Benoit tried to explain that the gifts and the white man did not concern them. Marinaas mind clamped down on every syllable, embedded them in her braina"I have brought gifts. Let us have the white man.
aWe should go now,a Thomas said. aBefore the others arrive. We can practice when weare on our way.a aI need to get some water,a she said, looking around the boat, aand a hat.a Thomas stepped onto the dock. aI will go,a he said, and then he nodded towards the Lakashi. aYou keep them off the boat.a He turned back and raised his hand to her and at that moment Marina realized how easily she could lose Thomas on this trip. Suddenly she pictured him dead, an arrow in his chest, his body slipping over the side of the boat. She shuddered, blinked. How could she risk the life of Mrs. Nkomoas husband while going off to find Mrs. Eckmanas husband? She tapped Easter hard on the shoulder, motioning for him to start the ignition while she untied the line. As they pulled back, Benoit yelled at her, pointing to the place where Thomas Nkomo had so recently stood, and with that she pushed Benoit backwards into the water. Easter seemed to think this was hysterical, Marina pushing his friend into the river, and he gunned the engine so the two of them could get away.
For hours they saw no one, no men on floating logs, no children in canoes. Occasionally a tree full of monkeys would scream at them or a silvered pack of sparrows would sweep past the bow, but other than that they were alone. Marina opened up one of the oranges and gave half of it to Easter. They had peanut butter and a bushel basket of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Marina kept her eyes trained to the right-hand side of the boat, trying to remember which slight parting of branches marked the turn they were supposed to take. aYou see that river there?a Alan Saturn had said to her. aYou follow that river to the Hummocca tribe.a When finally she saw it, or saw her vaguest memory of it, she tapped Easter on the shoulder and pointed out the turn.
The river that went from the Lakashi tribe to the Jintas was itself a tributary of the Rio Negro. It was a modest river, half the width of the Negro and a fraction of the Amazon, but the tributary they had turned on was lesser still, a wide creek really, narrow and nameless. Marina had felt certain about leaving Thomas and Benoit behind until they made that turn and now she was wishing for all of thema"the Saturns and Budi and even Dr. Swenson on the deck in a pile of blankets. She wished she had filled every available dugout with Lakashi and had them paddling along behind her. If there was safety in numbers she and Easter were perilously unsafe. The jungle closed over the entrance and after a few minutes she could no longer see the way out. In some places the trees touched leaves from either side and knit together a canopy, cutting the light into leaf-shaped shadows that covered over the water. Marina imagined Barbara Bovender and Mr. Fox standing silently in the back of the boat behind Milton, all three of them wondering if the turn they had taken could possibly have been the right one.
Easter took down the speed and the boat glided quietly ahead, the trail of purple smoke vanishing ten feet behind them. Marina couldnat understand how this part of the jungle could be so much worse: those were the same trees; this was the same water. They went along for an hour before the river widened, and then another hour before it narrowed again. Marina stayed close to Easter now. She kept a hand on his back. aIad like to be out of here before dark,a she said to him, because the sound of a voice, even her own voice, was a comfort, and that was when the arrows came raining down on either side of them, half of them making sharp clicks as they hit the deck while the others parted the water like knife blades and slipped inside. Easter leapt to push the boat ahead but Marina caught his hand. She pulled the throttle down to stop the engine and put her arms around the boy. This, she thought, was the outcome of the letter Mr. Fox had brought into the lab that she and Anders had shared: this moment, these arrows, this heat and jungle. Together she and Easter stared into the matted leaves. There were no more arrows. She opened her mouth and cried out in Lakashi, the series of pitches she sincerely hoped she had remembered correctly. She had a gift. She said it again as loud as she could. aWe have brought gifts.a It was ridiculous. They were not words, they were sounds. They were the only sounds she knew.
The wall of trees sat before her silently. She eased the throttle forward to counteract the current of the river that pulled them back. The arrows had fallen at least three feet away from them and Marina was willing to take this as a good sign. It wouldnat have been so difficult to hit the target had they meant to. She kept her hands on Easteras back and counted the seconds by the regular beat of his heart. Minutes passed. She called out to the jungle again, a sentence without meaning, and it echoed through the trees until the birds called back to her. She saw a movement in the leaves and then, slipping out from between the branches, a single man came forth, and then another. They were created wholly from the foliage, one and then one more stepping forward to watch her until a group of thirty or more were assembled on the bank of the river, loincloths and arrows, their foreheads as yellow as canaries. The women came behind the men, holding children, their faces unpainted. Marina thought of her father extolling the virtues of the pontoon boat but while it was steady in the water it was nothing more than a floating stage. She and Easter stood on an open hand offered to the Hummocca, and though she waited for her own fear it did not come. She was finally here. This was the place she had been trying to get to from the very beginning and here she would wait for the rest of her life. She tapped at the throttle to hold her place. They watched her and she watched them. Marina pushed Easter behind her and picked up the basket of Rapps. She tried to throw a few mushrooms as far as the shore but they fluttered into the water like a handful of blue feathers. She put down the basket and very slowly took an orange out of the box, holding it up first as an exhibit and then pretending to throw it and then throwing it so that it landed close to the middle of the group of them. They took a step back from it, making a wide half circle, and watched the orange where it lay in the mud until a man stepped forward from the back of the group and reached over for it. His hair was long and the color of sunlight, his beard ginger and gray. He looked to be thinner by half and yet he was there, still himself. Anders Eckman, just as his wife had speculated in the insanity of her grief, had only been missing. When Marina called his name he flinched as if someone had fired a gun.
aWho is it?a he called out.
aMarina,a she said.
He stood there for a long time, the globe of the orange caught between his hands, his shirt filthy and torn, his pants torn. aMarina?a aIave brought a gift,a she said in English and then said it again in Lakashi.