Part 18 (1/2)
”I don't think he believes you,” Thibideaux said. ”I wouldn't myself, except for some of the things you've showed me since he was injured and Danielson, of course.”
”He's in denial,” Terton said, falling back on the jargon of what was apparently only one of her professions.
”Nope,” Marsh said, getting to his feet. ”He's in the same place he's been for the last you-only-know-how-many years and has been thinking of it as a prison camp and now you tell him it's paradise. How do you expect him to react? It's like playing tug-of-war, hanging on to your end of the rope as hard as you can and having the other guys let go of their end. It's a little hard for any of us to take. I just want to know a couple of things right now. One, if this was supposed to be paradise, how come you left a martinet like Wu in charge?”
”She had to learn to use her authority better than those who once had authority over her, and also she is a performer, and acting a role came more easily to her than it did to the rest of the people who remained here to receive you. I saw to it that none of the rigors you suffered were more than would havebeen asked of a monk seeking enlightenment. The more difficult tests were not of her devising.”
”She doesn't seem like much of a candidate for enlightenment to me. Why bring her here anyway?
Did you do it to protect her? She's not your daughter, is she?”
”No, she's not my daughter. She has been my mother, however. She was once a very idealistic young woman, a television journalist, in Beijing. She had the courage to publicly support a student movement demanding government reform. When the soldiers overwhelmed the students, she was captured, tortured, slated for execution. I happened to be a private in the Chinese army at that time, a lowly Tibetan recruit, but I was her jailer. I freed her, and together we fled the city. I was wounded as we drove through a roadblock. It was a small wound, but in the days and nights that followed as I attempted to take her to friends on the Indian border, the wound festered. I spoke to her of my birthplace, of the friends who would help her, and told her how to find them. Finally, when I was too sick to move, she took the last of our food and left me to die. Later, she found Lobsang Taring and he led her back here. Within a few months, she gave birth to my next incarnation and I was once more born here.”
If this startled Marsh, he didn't show it. ”Okay,” he said. ”So Wu's your mama. Now, my next question is this. If we are in the only safe place left on earth, we're the last of the human race, right?”
”That has not been revealed to me, though logic would seem to suggest-”
”That's just what I thought,” he said, and started walking back up the hill.
”Where you goin'?” Thibideaux asked.
”I'm going to get started on my traditional duty as one of the last men on earth. The war's over.
Time for the re-population part.”
”I think I'd better get back to those sick refugees too,” Thibideaux said. I rose and caught his arm and we took a few steps, out of Terton's earshot.
”Wait,” I said. ”Don't you want to hear what she has to say?”
”Cher, that old lady is a mighty fine doctor and there is somethin' funny happenin' here, I grant you.
But all this stuff about the power of prayer and her rescuin' Wu and Wu bein' her mama after she died, that's a little crazy. I think all this has been a little strain on the old girl, you know? I don't know what happened to Danielson but I begin to wonder if Marsh is wrong and what we saw was really nuclear missiles.”
”But why would they stage a hoax?” I asked.
”I don't know but I don't know why anybody'd deploy nukes either. Ain't n.o.body asked my opinion on any of this. So I'm gon' go back to my patients and think it over some more. Between doctorin' and that repopulatin' Marsh mentioned, I reckon to have my hands full for a good long while, and that's just in this life. I ain't thinkin' no further than that right now.”
The doctor watched Marsh and Thibideaux leave with a somewhat pained expression and Tea, who had quite successfully made himself invisible after his initial comments, raised his eyebrows quizzically at me.
I shrugged. ”They're upset and they're joking to cover it up, I think.””No, no, it is a good idea,” Terton said. ”To think of conception instead of destruction. Very natural, very healthy. But I am afraid they do not entirely believe me.”
”Well, as you said, doctor, it's easy for your people to believe in this stuff. They were raised on it.
Most of my people are steeped in a belief in logic and reason. We aren't quite ready for the truth as you know it. You should have softened it up a little maybe. Given a little white scientific explanation of everything so it would have made sense to them.” I appealed to Tea. ”You're an engineer with a Western education. You know what I mean.”
”Oh, yes, I know. But you, Viv, you are also a Western person. Are you believing Ama Terton?”
”I do believe in fairies, I do believe in fairies,” I mumbled.
”Pardon?”
The doctor smiled at him. ”Your education was neglected, Lobsang. She quotes the famous death scene of the Tinkering Bell from the child's story Peter Pan. In my fourth life, it was very popular in all Western countries and once a stage version was shown in Hong Kong. To save the Tinkering Bell, all children must aver their belief in fairies. The force of their collective will goes into the Tinkering Bell so that her soul is restored to her same body. It is very moving.”
”It helps, Ama Terton, that you understand some of our stories too,” I said. 'These stories were already old and much disused when I was a child, but my grandparents and my mother held rather anachronistic views for their time and had many unfas.h.i.+onable books and videos for me to study. Would you understand the reference if I told you I feel now like Alice after she fell down the rabbit hole?”
The doctor thought for a moment, then shook her head. ”That story too I may have heard in another life but this body's mind does not recall it.”
- POST-BIG BOOM, DAY 40-REPOPULATION (Late September or Early October 2070) The doctor so far hasn't found another opportunity to tell me her complete story, though pieces of it come out on walks, in brief anecdotes, and in the stories told by the other former prisoners and guards.
Sometimes the children pester her for stories about her past lives and she welcomes my listening, if I have time. But she's often busy in the evening and although I'm sure she has told some of the other former prisoners at least a portion of what she told us, I haven't talked about it to her or to them. As for the refugees, the legend of Shambala seems to be enough for them now, probably because dwelling in the more recent past is too painful, and thinking of the future impossible. Thibideaux, Marsh, and Colonel Merridew haven't discussed the doctor's story with me since the day by the lake.
Marsh and Thibideaux earnestly pursue the repopulation campaign, and Marsh in particular has been steadfast in his determination that the maximum number of possible mothers be the recipients of his efforts. This has presented a few problems.
I found him one day in the far end of the valley sitting by a streamlet that fed into the lake. The late rhododendrons were in bloom-something blooms all the time in the valley now, and I thought I would pick a bunch to please Dolma, whose spirits had failed lately, perhaps because of the presence of so many children. Marsh sat in a spot so well sheltered by rhododendron tangle that I almost missed seeing the flash of his orange uniform until I heard mysterious splas.h.i.+ng sounds. Parting a few more tangledbranches. I saw him sitting on the bank throwing rocks at the fish, trying to stun them.
”Cease fire!” I called out, ducking through the brush. He shushed me, and with exaggerated stealth looked around. ”You weren't followed?”
”Not that I know of. I didn't exactly know I was coming here until I got here. What are you doing killing these innocent, and possibly rare fish? Don't you realize they should be encouraged to sp.a.w.n or whatever it is that fish do so we can get more fish? G.o.d only knows how they found their way here. You don't suppose they've been nuked, do you, and will have mutant swamp monster offspring? Speaking of which, how's the repopulation program going?”
He groaned. ”I hope you're not here to volunteer. Not that I'm turning you down, you understand, because at least I'm dead sure that you're female, but I really think you and the other women ought to get together and straighten out that refugee group. I can't be sure, but it looks to me like all the boys under the age of forty are gay. At least after I approached a couple of women I thought might be interested, I started getting these languis.h.i.+ng looks from those guys. I'm as broad-minded as the next guy but seriously, if we are going to colonize this place, everybody is going to have to do his or her part and that means laying aside-”
I couldn't help it. I giggled.
He grinned. ”Bad choice of words. I mean that I think we should set aside personal predilections until we are knee-deep in squalling brats.”
”What an attractive way you have of putting things,” I said ”But you know, from something Dolma told me, even going on the a.s.sumption that every woman producing lots of children is going to be a good thing, there may be a problem.”
I started to tell him about how Dolma lost her baby when rattling brush announced the arrival of two boys who looked slyly at Marsh and t.i.ttered behind their hands.
He stared pointedly in the other direction. I had the funniest inclination to avoid rudeness at all costs and began trying to chat with the boys, but my conversation was of no interest whatsoever to them. One started to touch Marsh on his deliberately turned back and I said quickly, ”Perhaps I can help you. Mr.
Marsh is- uh-deep in thought. What was it you wanted?”
They t.i.ttered some more.
Marsh turned around, having apparently had time to gather patience, and asked in Chinese, with all the diplomacy he no doubt had gathered on peace missions, ”How can I help you fellows?”
In English I smirked, ”Remember, Marsh, studs are a dime a dozen but you're a remarkable person,” and started to leave the young folks alone but Marsh grabbed my elbow in a bruising grip. I pretended to shrink from him and to the boys said, ”Oooh, watch out, guys, he's an animal.”
”We want make babies with you,” the bolder of the two said.
”Me? Or her?” he asked.
”Do you suppose 'make babies' is the local euphemism for copulation of all descriptions?” I asked, tickled with my own owlishness and his discomfort. Marsh is always so in control, so deliberate, that it was great cruel fun to see him squirm.”Who is she?” the bold boy pouted.
”You can speak freely in front of her,” he lied. ”We've been living together for some time now, haven't we, honey?”
”Right, my poppet, but there's no need for me to be selfish about it. These boys-”
One of the ”boys” abruptly pulled ”his” s.h.i.+rt off, displaying more-than-adequate-for-nursing b.r.e.a.s.t.s.