CHAPTER LIV: THE TREE BEGGAR

   It escaped her. Mr. Graham Fox's Volvo was further and further. She had stopped at some traffic lights and was self-absorbed with her memories of Europe. Anne-Marie had just returned to work. She had taken some more free days. It was October 4, and meanwhile the company was in the good hands of her dear Joan Weissmann. With green light already, other drivers had to whistle their car horn so she resumed the road. In those moments, she was still in Barcelona, where they had traveled after Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin and before Venice and Prague. She was evoking that coffee in a bar in Las Ramblas where now she did feel shot by the arrows of a small winged God, and finally she loved the one who loved her. Brandon – she sighed-, scratching her heart. But soon she came to her senses and recalled she was trying to hunt Mr. Fox.

   When she reached the Thuban Joan had informed her that Mr. Fox had the urgency to see her precisely today and she had given him Anne-Marie’s address. But when she came to her home, after having spent the afternoon with Brandon, she hardly had any time to notice a blue Volvo and Mr. Fox in it getting away from her home. He was one of the lawyers of the Thuban Colonial Railway, and they had to meet to discuss the fact that he should convince his customers to close a railway line which ran inside Pakistan, which was giving them many headaches and was not cost-effective. Anyway it would be impossible to reach Mr. Fox and meet him this afternoon. Her Mercedes was at the beginning of Castle Road and the Volvo could hardly be seen now near the Basilica. It was useless to continue that absurd car chase. She was very close to Deanforest and she came up with the idea of stopping to say hello to the Protch. Perhaps Nike or his children would be there.

   Just after parking she found Herbert with some haste. He actually didn’t see her and she had to call him. He seemed worried. But finally he saw her and approached her.

─ "Excuse me, Anne-Marie, I was late for the hospital and I was distracted and didn't see you."

   Anne-Marie often visited Deanforest now and they knew each other very well and treated informally.

─ "To the hospital? Has anything happened to your wife?"- She asked ignoring everything.

─ "Don’t you know what has happened to Luke?"

   And when she said she knew nothing, he explained the beating and the need of having a transplant which was now urgent for him to survive, but added no one had been able to donate it because either they did not share the blood group or did not pass the histocompatibility test.

   She was A negative. She felt a twinge of loyalty. She was blessed now because she was in love and suddenly she evoked again not only how she loved Nike but also that, although she had never been able to have more than two or three polite words with Luke, it was evident that he really liked her and she finally shook. It was not only John and Nike. The eight were part of her affections, and the two children, who were also Luke’s children. Perhaps she could avoid the possibility that they were without one of their parents.

    She told Herbert Protch that she shared the blood group and she would be done the tests. He could get in for she would take him to the hospital. During the trip, he was fairly quiet and Anne-Marie had too much time to think of needles, blood and pain. It was ridiculous that with her age, she still feared hospitals, but she had to overcome. She sensed that she would be compatible and if Luke’s life was in her hands, any ordeal would be worth. So long the road to learn that I appreciate you, Luke. Calm down, you fool, don't think about needles, think only of him.

    Upon arriving to the hospital, it didn’t take them too long to persuade doctors that there was a new potential donor and that she wanted to be tested. Herbert was with her all the time and when they confirmed that she was compatible, she wanted to convince Protch not to say anything to anyone. She wanted them to believe that an anonymous donor had appeared. Anne-Marie was permitted to make a couple of phone calls. Still it was early for Joan Weissmann to be awake and she could locate her and let the Thuban temporarily in the hands of her assistant. And then a phone call with her heart to her dear Brandon, who was waiting for her tonight, whom she told that she was going to be operated on and that she would be some time in hospital. Brandon told her that he was leaving for the Philip Rage immediately.

   Meanwhile, everyone waited fearfully expecting a miracle. And Mistress Oakes said:

─ "We have never believed in established religions. And neither has Luke. But the Prancitt have always thought highly of Francis of Assisi. Today it is his day. Have faith. Something good will happen."

    It was then that the nurses came for Luke and took him away on a stretcher, to the operating room, they were told. There was a donor, but they didn't know anything else. They were going to operate on him right away. Lucy had the chance to tell him:

─ "Kiss me, Luke"

   Lucy and Nike approached a window. The others gave themselves forces and heat huddled as they could in the white waiting room. She spoke of how she had been about, in her desperation, and since Amanda Cohen had granted her a free month, to tell her boss, or continue working in the hair salon and ask each customer to try their histocompatibility. This way she would have been fired, she was sure, but she could no longer think of more people who could help. She was going to suggest to Nike to seek for donors on the Thuban, saying it even to Bruce’s brother - everyone already knew that it was Walter Hope - and they should look for help anywhere. But she realized that Nike wasn’t listening to her.

─ "Sorry, my heart. I was distracted."

─ "What were you thinking?"

─ "I was calculating possibilities. I cannot believe it has been an anonymous donor. Look, it cannot be someone who has died. In this very corridor, there are two men in need of transplantation and the waiting list may not have gone so fast. A living donor who does not know Luke is absurd. All who are here have tested ourselves and we have not been able. At last we have located James, but Rosa and he will catch the plane tomorrow and it cannot be them.  I am thinking of Anne-Marie or Brandon, but he hardly knows him and my heart tells me that it has been her."

   Nike’s words came to Herbert Protch, who stood up quickly.

─ "Nike, I didn't know whether I should tell you, but if you keep guessing aloud everybody will hear you, so I preferred to speak to you and beg for your silence. Anne-Marie has been in Deanforest tonight. I told her about Luke and she decided she could be examined and yes, it was her, but she does not want it to be known. I didn’t tell you anything, okay?"

   So it was Anne-Marie. Nike realized at that moment how much he appreciated her. He had to open the window so nobody could see him weeping. He had always known that she had a heart willing to spill because of the people she loved. And it would be her precisely who saved Luke. Because he would be saved, he was now sure. The rest of his life he would spend in returning her friendship and keep in her the red-hot steel of happiness.

   It was a night of infidels trying to remember some prayers. Lucy and Nike were the most confident and serene ones. Sometimes they went down for a coffee and they wanted to reassure Herbert that it didn’t matter that they knew and in case Anne-Marie said anything he could answer her that Nike had figured it out. He missed his wife, but she was caring for the children that night, since Olivia was going to spend it with all of them in a waiting room or, if they told them not to be there, in the cafeteria. At times she had a nap lying on her brother’s shoulders, and he looked at her tenderly, while her mistress watched her certain that with Gerald she would find alone the lane where the new stones were that would keep firm the building of her future. But Mistress Oakes and he sometimes talked to each other and had dialogues which obviously they wanted private. Bruce kept the hope. Having seen the light had scared away the ghost of death and had given him the security that Luke would follow the same fate. And he repeated that to Miguel and John, who stayed all night restless and taciturn.

   There was also Samuel with the same motivation, although Nike was trying to convince him to go home. But he argued that he had phoned Susan and that night he would not sleep, for he had been years following the path of his beloved three and now he could not leave Luke alone in his great battle to live. In the same way Richard would go to work without sleep tomorrow. He didn't say it but he didn't have any faith and he wanted to join Luke in his last trip and later comfort his dear Nike. Nigel had little hope but he saw Lucy and her husband tired but unmoved and he trusted their faith rather than in doctors.

    Nike had many coffees that night. He came to the bar once and again, often with Lucy, and in one of those occasions he observed Brandon’s arrival. He did not know where to go since Anne-Marie had told him that she did not want the others to know. Lucy called him to sit with them.

─ "We know why you are here, Brandon. No one has told us. We have found it out.

-“Do the others know?"

─ "They don’t."

─ "I do not know where to go. When she is later moved to a room, everyone will see me."

─ "Say that she has a dislocated arm or something - said Nike - and meanwhile stay here. I have been a couple of hours walking and sometimes going to the waiting room, to see if I am informed. When I know something, I will come to tell you. And do not fear anything. Anne-Marie has a strong physique and she will soon recover. I would like to, but I cannot find any words to thank her."

─ "Surely she wanted the secret because she doesn’t need them. If you show her that you know, be careful and don’t overwhelm her."

  But they were longer at the door of the operating room, which they already knew which it was. Lucy made several trips to the waiting room. The others thought she and Nike could not stand that tension sitting and they were walking outside. Brandon accompanied them and Lucy asked him about his recent travel through Europe and he could hardly achieve to keep those memories and was speaking to them now of Prague, their last destination, when he saw two stretchers and in them were Luke and Anne-Marie. She was going to the third floor; he to the fourth floor. They asked a lot of questions to the nurses, who could not tell them much, but it seemed that both of them were fine. Brandon moved away then and went with his girlfriend. Luke was placed in a room only for him. Seeing the stretcher all of them stood up at the same time like ants which now did not know which direction to take. Only Lucy could enter the room. Her husband was asleep, but it was clear that it was the dream of health. Soon a doctor came to inform them that the operation had been successful. It was now necessary to observe how he evolved and be aware of a possible rejection but at the moment everything seemed to be hunky-dory. Lucy tried to convince everyone to go to sleep a little. Nike declined. He would spend the rest of that night in the cafeteria or begging on the outside. Then Miguel spoke.

─ "These days the weather has been dry and I couldn’t take advantage of the rain to have a shower. I had to go to the public baths of Temple Road. But I remember that John told me a few words from James when Bruce’s heart attack. Tomorrow everyone will want to hug him and hygiene is essential. Finally - his gaze turned to Herbert Protch-, I'm an incorrigible grouch and I miss being with everyone and the people who love us and we love. It is time to pay off old debts, Herbert. John and I can go to have showers in the palace and then sleep there. And tomorrow, well, ended absurd complaints, we can enter Deanforest and greet Maude, and we can even have breakfast with you before returning to the hospital."

─ "Hug me, Miguel - said Herbert really moved-. My wife and I had wanted so much to have you at last in our house."

  Nigel first took Lucy and Nike, who were going to spend the night with Luke and had to be clean, while Richard stayed with him. Later, when both were back, he took them all in two trips. Maude was awake looking after the children and waiting for news. She believed that her husband would phone her and great was her surprise when she saw them all together and Miguel coming with them. Soon she learned the news and looking at Paul and Kirsten, she cried in real happiness and then she embraced Miguel with a real hug of welcome.

   In the room, Luke was breathing rhythmically and finally he woke up in the morning twilight. Lucy was looking out of the window and heard him say:

─ "I'm alive."

─ "Of course you're alive, Luke. The worst is over, my darling. Now you must recover and live again."

─ "Yes, now I believe I will live. Now I really think I will be longer with you."

    She didn't know whether she should tell him the vision Nike had had.             Perhaps it was not the moment. Now he had to think of life again.

─ "I really desire to kiss our children. And walking again down our outskirt."

   Something she had to tell him, although it could be bitter.

-"I have to tell you, Luke. Miguel has slept these days in the "house" and has spoken frequently with the Outcasts. They have not seen Ted for more than a week. It is possible that we have no cats now."

─ "Then Ted has gone in my place. But I would like to go for walks there, see the bridges, the river."

─ "Soon you'll be at home again. Today comes your brother. Maybe you need to spend some time with him before returning to the bar or begging again."

─ "My brother has not come yet, isn't it?"

─ "Rosa and he will come today."

─ "He could not have been the donor. Not even his wife. I can't stop thinking..."

─ "Luke, now you shouldn’t think a lot."

   They did not want to tell him anything. They wanted him to believe it had been an anonymous donor.

-“I will leave you just for two minutes. I am gonna tell Nike."

   When he came, he found him conscious and not too depressed.

─ "Lucy has told me that she has been looking out of the window watching the starry sky, my love. And I've been doing the same downstairs. I wanted to watch the shocking Orion, which will win in his battle as you have won now in yours. And with him shone strongly the stars of Bruce, Miguel and John. When soon we see Leo again, we will see Denebola this year shine much more brightly."

─ "Thank you, my love. Now I'm beginning to believe that I am saved, I will continue with you for a long time."

─ "Remember also that you are the Tree-Beggar. In a dark time you lost your crown, but you still had your roots. We are in autumn, and a tree like you has to lose some leaves, but you'll sprout again and you don't have to even wait for spring."

   After a while, he gave his place to Lucy again. When he left he found Mistress Oakes waiting for him.

─ "Let’s go to the cafeteria, Nike. I have to talk to you, but I want you only to hear it."

   He did not know why, but he was afraid. The bar was empty and that very loneliness depressed him.

─ "Last night I had a dream, Nike. It is not exactly a vision, but as in many dreams you finally remember a few words. I heard this: "you will fade when the shadow dies". This morning upon waking I did not understand anything, but this afternoon speaking with Miguel, he has told me that Ted has disappeared. You might wonder what the link is. Nike. We have spent years calling our cat "our night shadow". It is dead, for sure. And I will die later. The third part of the prophecy will be fulfilled."

   He could not stand it. He cried a lot, he was sobbing, he choked.

─ "It is the best thing that could happen to me. When I was young I don't remember what dreams I had, but I never thought I would live as a beggar. But a beggar I have been and on the street I've spent more than fifty years. And at the end I had a daughter, a granddaughter and two great-grandchildren, and many fellow mates to whom it is impossible to tell how much I have loved them. But think that soon I will be 79 years old. Everything that was worth in life can go to hell if I end up crippled, with some ailments which could make at the last minute my enjoyed freedom end up on slavery. Soon I will not be able to walk, and who is going to look after me? I could be taken anywhere else but it would not be fair to die far from you. And I could not stand it. In order to complete a happy life, and as I know you love me, Nike, think that the reward would be dying now."

─ "I understand what you say, Madeleine. But Holy Heaven - he said completely upset-, what are we going to do without you?"

─ "You are strong, Nike. Another man would have told me that the others would take care of me, Olivia would go alone to the street and there would always be someone watching me, but you do not say anything because you understand, even if it is with bitterness, dying now is what I want. The day I met you I told you I wanted to die in the street. Look, I am telling Olivia little by little what will happen to me and in addition to her daughter and her family, she can rely now on Gerald. But all this I am telling you because you are the strongest. And Commotion in your case is strength, the strength with which you have been coming out of all abysses. And now that very strength will hold them all. You will be the support, the column I trust so they are all well when the inevitable comes. Death is not always Horror. You will cry for me, of course, but eventually you will remember this conversation and you will be able to see that I lived the way I pleased and death only helped to make my life more valid. "

─ "I'm desperate. Now with what you have told me I can't find any consolation. But I am not going to be unfair with you. You need I give you some certainty. At least you can say goodbye to me. Trust me, Madeleine."

   Meanwhile in his room Luke had just dreamt of light, and when he opened his eyes a glow of joy made him watch again his brother’s face. Rosa de Lima came with him.

─ "James." – He greeted him happily.

─ "Luke - and he gave him a big hug-. Holy heaven. They have told me what has happened to you. Fortunately I can see you again when everything is over. Now I know that you will recover."

─ "I'm ok. Tell me about your trip and I’ll be able to think about different things. I cannot get out of this bed, but I can travel with you to San Pedro Nonualco."

─ "San Luis Talpa - Rosa said-, it is also in the department of La Paz, but more to the southwest."

─ "We have been building a school. It is almost finished. When we go there the following year, we will see it complete. But in these projects you find yourself alone. Education is vital, but there is no infrastructure. We create it but we need funding. We need a philanthropist, a sponsor who feels the needs of the Central American children and is willing to defray us. Meanwhile, we are looking for resources where we can, but there are times when we cry with impotence."

─ "If money does not come, people like James must – Rosa said – who are very necessary. It is what I always say."

   And Rosa and James were also there that whole October. Days passed tedious but hopeful. Paul and Kirsten already knew that in a few days they would embrace dad Luke, but their parents did not want to take them to the hospital. Lucy knew before her husband was discharged she had something else to do and taking courage she came at last to the third floor looking for Anne-Marie’s room.

─ "Hello" – She was able to tell her with watery eyes.

─ "Lucy, Brandon has told me that you know, but please, I'm here because of an operation in the arm, remember. I do not know what the others know, but a little while ago Mistress Oakes was here. It is impossible to hide anything to her."

─ "I would say many things, but I'll only ask you how you are."

─ "In love. That is the answer. These days are more bearable if I just think about that. Otherwise... look, Lucy. I had a great impression of you and your mother. Later I thought that you were influenced by Luke and at the end I saw it was just the other way around. You influenced Luke for good, as everyone who knows you. You know that for years I was jealous, but I had to see all of you. Not only due to what I have always loved Nike, but also your children. You are all now a second family to me. And now please, let’s talk of something different."

   And they were for half an hour speaking of travels and Lucy confirmed that in Anne-Marie she would always have a friend for life.

   Nike had not been bold enough to see her yet because he thought he would be unable not to cry and he knew that she didn’t need precisely tears or gratitude, but finally he went to see her. He saw her tired, but lively, Brandon holding tenderly her hand, until finally he left so they both could speak.

─ "I won’t tell you what you fear, but I must try to express to you how much I love you."

─ "Nike, I know that you're overwhelmed and we must speak about the subject I don't want to speak about. But let’s speak about it slightly. Look, once I told you that I do not think that I ever reach my motif by Verôme. But by what I have understood of you, it does not mean necessarily to become a beggar, right?"

─ "No – he answered unsure-, I don't know much about this, but I see it as a moment in life when you feel shaken when you find what is truly important."

─ "My motif by Verôme then may have come to me twice. In Barcelona I have fallen in love with Brandon. Now we will talk about this all you want. But it must have reached me for a second time. It will be that my heart is now located at the exact point and makes me see at last not just who I love, but those I appreciate and much. It’s not only you, or your wife or your children. At the end, I discovered how much I like Luke. I do, Nike. I could not leave him in the lurch if I could do something for him. I hope that he doesn't know it at least."

─ "It is impossible he does not discover it. He will end up finding it as I found out. Brandon has not said anything. He is very intelligent and ponders a lot."

   In fifteen days, Luke could no longer bear the bed and began to stroll through the corridors. Lucy and Nike saw that at last he had found what he wanted: the room where Anne-Marie was. And in mid-October he came in one day in one hour she was alone, one of the few moments in which Brandon was not there. When she saw him enter, she looked at him unsure until she broke down in a turbulent crying and as an echo also he broke down.

─ "Now that I see you, I don't know what to say - mumbled Luke, spilling-. I’d better ask you how you are."

─ "Or talk of what we will inevitably have to talk about. They have told you something, isn't it?"

─ "They haven’t. No. Lucy and Nike tried to hide it from me telling me that you were hospitalized because of a dislocated arm. I don't know how you can be here and not in the corridor where the other kidney patients are. But it was inevitable that I found the solution by myself. Not to mention you what you know, I will try to tell you what I've never told you. How much I’ve always liked you."

─ "I knew that, Luke. John and Nike had told me. And I always wondered why. I have needed many years to realize how much I have also always liked you. Thousand times you have talked to me about things that if jealousy had not deafened me, they would have made me reconsider. But now I am a happy woman and now the memory reaches me of how much I have learned from you in years. I love Nike and now I can say, his entire family, entire, Luke. You will see me more often in the outskirt."

─ "One day I will have to tell my children. I hope you don’t mind."

─ "One day, Luke. Now I hope that Lucy, Nike, and you may be enough. But there are many things of which we can speak. Please, let's talk about them."

─ "I ask you permission to come and see you every day."

   Luke entered her room several times every morning, sometimes with Lucy and Nike and if Brandon was not in, the topic of conversation was very easy: he, and so as not to think of a missing kidney, talk of a recovered heart. Soon they spent several hours a day walking around the gardens, Luke and Anne-Marie hand in hand, tender and of mutual affection fragrant.

   Finally on October 30 he was discharged. All recommended him to spend at least one month recovering in his brother's house and the Tree-Beggar accepted without rebellion to plant himself a time in the place where his first roots had sprouted. There he could finally embrace again his children and tenderness returned to be a bridge from his heart to his eyes, waters crossed by a footbridge of peace and survival.

   To James’ house came every day Olivia and her mistress, and as the former was speaking with Luke, Mistress Oakes was engaged in a conversation with Kirsten, who sometimes asked her difficult questions:

─ "Why these days Antares cannot be seen?"