Where are They?

Follow this back to: Touching Water

Manueline found her way back over the island. It was late in the afternoon; she had been gone a long time. When she got back to the boats people were sitting waiting quietly. One or two of them got up as she came nakedly down the path.

The old woman hurried over to one of the boats, picked up a cloth and made her way towards the path as Manueline came down it. The two guides said nothing but stood and bowed their heads a little as Manueline came to the end of the path, meeting the old woman. She took the cloth the old woman was carrying, thanking her and handing her the dirty one. She casually spread the cloth without even bothering to turn her back. She spread her arms out, holding the cloth behind her and wrapped it round herself.

Wals was watching from the moment she appeared on the path, mesmerized by her as he had been in the courtyard when she stepped up onto the platform and spread the cloth as she adjusted it round her body. That time he did not see anything of her except the shadow of her body on the cloth as the light shone through it. This time he saw her completely, her arms spread out exposing herself to the air and the afternoon sun. He saw how her body reflected the world around her; how her body was the world around her. He saw it and he lost himself in it as though he were losing himself in the world.

Manueline called to the southern guide, asking if they would travel that day. He said they should. There was a good spot to spend the night they could reach if they started straight away. There was a hurry into the boats, Manueline briefly saying farewell to the northern guide, calling to the wolf and chivvying Wals along. They traveled quickly over the relatively open water round the islands before finding their way into another of the interminable channels that provided the paths for the journey.

The channels were like an endless procession of indistinguishable days, each one much the same as another, each one a world on its own apparently cut off from the one before it and unconnected with the one after it, though somehow they always found their way through. A little after sunset they came to the spot where they would spend the night.

Tents were set up, chairs put out, Manueline and Wals sat silently either side of the fire. Wals was still transfixed by the vision of Manueline coming down the path in the afternoon. He could not understand what it did to him. He even went so far as to recognize that something had happened to Manueline but he could not reach out of himself enough to reach out to her and ask what was happening. Manueline thought back to being under the stream of water in the pool, back to the sensation of being touched by and touching all the world around her.

She found, sitting quietly, that she could bring that same sense back by simply thinking about it. The wolf became restless again watching her and put his head back opening his mouth and moaning a little but not really howling, just acknowledging Manueline and her presence in the world around them. The southern guide sat on the edge of the firelight and watched. He could see what the wolf was doing and tied it back to Manueline sitting in the chair, clearly taken out of herself by something. He watched them, remembering the howl from the wolf in the afternoon on the other side of the island. It was a sound he had never heard before but he recognized the wild power in it and recognized what that power might mean in the presence of the woman and what she brought back with her from the other side of the island.

It took another day and a half to get through the forest. The following had abandoned their boats on the other side. Many of the boats being used repeatedly to ferry people across the swamp. They came at midday to the curious sight of a beach covered with boats. Manueline was not looking forward to the business of deciding who would take the boats and who would walk through the forest. The prospect of getting the following organized was daunting as she had never before done anything more than forbid something like burning the villages or turning the river into a sewer.

She was using a paddle rather than oars, facing forward looking the way she was traveling so she was able to study the shore as they approached it. To begin with, she could not understand what was wrong, then it struck her. There were no people among the boats and there was no sign of any people on the bank or beyond it. The place had a sense of being abandoned as though anyone still there would be in hiding, ashamed of their presence.

The small group of boats slowly approached the shore. As they came close to the shore, Manueline came close to the southern guide's canoe. She called across to him, "Where are the people?" He looked strangely at her, "I thought you knew, they left five days ago." Manueline was about to call back, 'how would I know?' Then she realized he was right, she had known, in some way, she was not surprised that the people were no longer there. She had felt it when she touched the river standing in the pool. She remembered now how she had a sense of the emptiness of the forest, there was no one in it except the forest people, all the following had left and gone beyond it days ago. Manueline nodded her head, "they have left the forest." She realized she had spoken too softly for anyone except Wals to hear her, she called out, "They have left the forest. We should follow them."

To follow this thread in the story go to: Going Back

The next section to read is: Screaming Man

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