The Ascent

'Yeah,' Daniel joshed, 'and tulkus can fly, too. And they fight demons.'

Carlos grew cautious. 'That's what they say.'

'All I know is I thought he was a dead man,' Abe said.

'Oh, they can do that, too,' Gus threw in. But whereas Daniel had been gently

teasing, she meant to sting. Gus had her virtues, but suffering credulous dharma

junkies was not one of them. She'd been through Asia too many times to get

snookered by the smoke and mirrors of local religions. Ascent was her dogma. 'These

tulkus can think their body temperature up or down. They can quit breathing and

fake death,' she lectured facetiously. 'They can even pick a precise moment to die and

then just check out, snuff themselves with a prayer, and catch the next cycle on the

merry-go-round.'

The Tibetan boy limped closer. His affliction became more graphic and they quit

talking about him. Chances were he couldn't understand a word of English, but he was

a thin frail reed among these sturdy climbers and he was their guest. Above all his

smile was the real McCoy. He looked positively overjoyed to have them down off the

mountain safe and sound. Despite themselves, the climbers seemed to warm to him.

To everyone's surprise, since it was presumably Abe he'd come to see, the boy

walked directly to Daniel.

Nima was embarrassed for the boy and stepped up beside him and laughed off the

mistake. 'This man is thinking you save him.'

'Me?' Daniel was startled. 'No. Him.' He clapped Abe's shoulder. 'Here's your

archangel. Not me.'

Switching to Tibetan, Nima corrected the record. The boy's smile didn't falter,

though a slight confusion clouded his brow. It was apparent he thought Nima was

wrong. He continued studying Daniel's blue eyes with some cryptic recognition, and

Daniel looked strangely off-balance. Then the boy twisted to face Abe. His smile

broadened, if that was possible, and Abe beamed back.

'Ask him how he feels,' Abe told Nima.

Nima didn't bother to ask. 'All better, sir. You see.'

'I don't think so, Nima. He looks very weak. He should be at Base Camp eating lots

of food and sleeping. This altitude is very bad for him. You should tell him that.'

But Nima was a Sherpa. High altitude was a fact of life and this Tibetan holy man

was here, so how could it be bad. 'This man is coming now to see you, Doctor. Coming

now eight days.'

From the back of the gathering, out of nowhere, Jorgen's voice crashed their little

party. 'The boy thinks he's going to stay here for another week? Not a chance.'

Nima didn't understand and his expression said so. But he seemed to realize Jorgens

wasn't addressing the issue of hospitality. This was gringo politics, Abe saw it clearly.

Still reeling from the shift in leadership, Jorgens was out to score some points. The

beauty of this issue was that he had logistics on his side.

'Tell him he can't stay, Nima,' Jorgens said. 'We don't have the food for an extra

mouth, and he doesn't have a permit to be up here. You know the rules. The yakkies

come up. The yakkies go down. One night here, that's it. More than that, he needs a

Chinese permit, understand?'

Somebody said, 'Chill out, man.'

Jorgen flushed. In the old days, before the mutiny, he would have cut the offender

down. Now he was reduced to trying to build a coalition. 'We can't afford trouble with

the liaison officer,' he clarified, straining for a civil tone. 'That's the bottom line.'

'That's not what Nima meant, though,' Abe said. He turned to the Sherpa. 'Eight

days. Are you saying it took this boy eight days to walk here from Base Camp?'

'Yes sir. Eight days maybe, maybe more. Many days, walking, saying the prayers,

slowly, slowly.'

One of the climbers whistled. 'Eights days from Base. He must have been crawling.'

'The dude must like you, Doc,' J.J. said.

'He had a debt,' Daniel stated. To him, anyway, it made perfect sense.

'Tell him I'm glad to see him,' Abe said to Nima.

Like a minister of the court, Nima didn't bother his prince with the small talk.

Speaking for the boy, Nima replied, 'He is very glad to see you, sir.'

'But Nima, ask him. Why did he come so far?'

'To give the puja, sir. We need the puja.' Nima's delivery was emphatic. Obviously

he thought they needed the puja, too. That was some kind of ritual. Abe had never

seen one.

'He's right,' Carlos said. 'We've been running on empty ever since we got here. We

should never have left Base without a puja.'

Immediately Jorgens went on the attack. His exasperation was tinged with the

weariness of a schoolmaster at the end of a very long semester. 'There are sensitive

issues here, people. I keep telling you, when in Rome we have to do as the...'

'This is Tibet,' Carlos overrode him. 'And this is Everest. And we need a puja. You go

climbing in these hills without a puja, you're asking for trouble. We're damn lucky to

have a monk who can do one.'

'A tulku,' J.J. added.

Jorgens weighed the vote with a quick scan. 'Fine, have your ritual,' he said. 'But

keep it up here at ABC. I don't want word one of this getting down to Li. It's one thing

for Li to think we're hosting a dumb, hurt yakherder. I don't want to test him on a

monk. Li's got his rules. Got it? Silence on the monk. Silence on the puja.'

Abe found it touching and a little childlike that hardcore mountaineers could be in

such a state over a good luck ceremony. He figured they couldn't really take this puja

business seriously. But when he looked around, there was satisfaction on people's

faces, a quiet relief that had been missing since their arrival. Even Gus seemed more

at ease.

The climbers disbanded and crunched off through the limestone rubble to their

tents, leaving Abe behind with Nima and the boy. Overhead the North Face burned

with a tea rose alpenglow.

'One more thing, Nima. Tell him I want to examine him before he leaves. Let's just

make sure he's good and healed.' In truth it was in the role of a skeptic that Abe

wanted to look the boy over. He couldn't fathom a recovery so complete, especially at

these heights. Maybe tulkus really did have magical powers.

'Okay,' Nima said. 'When, sir? Now?'

Abe hesitated. He was tired. 'Yes, okay,' he decided, 'now.'

On their way to an empty tent, they passed Daniel peeling off his super-gaiters. The

monk slowed his jerky pace for another look and came to a halt. Daniel glanced up,

startled by the boy's quizzical gawk.

'You sure you two haven't met?' Abe asked. 'Maybe on your last expedition.'

'Doubtful. He would have been ten or eleven years old.' Once again Daniel seemed

nonplussed.

'Maybe he saw you on your trek out.' Abe didn't say 'Lepers' Parade.' He'd never

mentioned it before, uncertain how Daniel preferred his history. But what a sight that

must have been to the Himalayan villagers, five monstrously ravaged human beings

straggling down from the outlands, feet and hands frozen black. A sight no young boy

would have easily forgotten.

'Doubtful.' Now, behind Daniel's bemusement, Abe saw the look of a hunted animal.

Daniel was afraid of this boy and his eerie recognition. He was afraid of the past. Abe