Chapter Nine
Steamy mist rose from the jungle floor and swirled about the small remote mountain village. A lone figure sat by the opening of a hut in the hamlet and stared, waiting. It had been too long. He should have been here by now. Something must have happened.
"Maria? He's waking up. The infection seems under control. Do you want to see him?" a voice behind her said.
She lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut. What would she say? What excuse for the hell she had allowed him to go through?
With a sigh, she rose and turned to face the young doctor. "I will see him. It may be the last time he wishes it though." She started to walk past him when he reached out a hand to stop her.
"Juan will be all right. He always has been."
She turned her eyes to him. "Si. He always has been. Tell me when he comes."
Worry for her brother tried to cloud out the fear she felt at facing the man she had loved and, in fact, still loved. She walked into the hut and stared down at the man lying before her. Nelson had survived the journey to the village, but had been weakened by it. His breathing, to her relief, was better and his color continued to improve. No more was he the deathly shade of white he had been.
She sat down on the floor beside him and picked up one of his hands to hold in her own.
"I wish that you had never come back. To see you like this, I..." she closed her eyes to shut out the memories of what they had once been to each other. She tried but failed as the memories flooded back anyway and, for a time, she was lost in them. Lost until she felt a gentle squeeze on her hand and opened her eyes to see him staring at her in shock.
"You...you aren't a dream. Are you?" Nelson asked weakly.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she shook her head. "No. I am real, my love."
"L...love? How... can you call me that wh...when you...you lied to me?"
Her tears formed tracks down her cheeks as she struggled to answer.
"I did not lie to you. No one did. At first."
"At first? I... was told you were...were dead. Killed during the... patrol you went out on."
She nodded her head as she remembered the time of which he spoke.
"Yes. We were attacked by the government troops shortly after we left the base camp. The others, save for Enrique Santiago and I, were killed. I was hurt. Enrique escaped." Maria stroked his hand as she spoke, unmindful of his glare.
"Enrique assumed I was dead and told the others, including Juan. I was captured by the soldiers and taken to the capital where I was cared for until I was well enough to be questioned."
"How long?"
Maria looked up into his eyes and dropped her gaze once more. "I was told it was about a month before I was brought before the Presidente. Four more months of interrogation and finally I was able to escape with the help of one of the soldiers there. It took me another month before I was able to find my brother."
Nelson struggled to sit up. "And... in all...all that time...since then, it never...never occurred to you to...to let me know?" he asked.
She put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him back down. "You must not get up. You will start to bleed again."
Weakened as he was, he didn't disagree. "You didn't answer me."
She looked him in the eye and flinched from the pain she saw there. Physical pain as well as emotional.
"When I returned to the cadre, Juan wanted to contact you. To tell you. You had been gone for almost four months by then. Enough time, I thought, for you to forget and begin to heal." She dropped her eyes once more when she saw disbelief cloud his eyes.
"Heal?! Forget?! I loved you! How could I forget?"
"I didn't belong in your world. I saw that even if you didn't. My place was with my people. With..."
"I never forced you to...to promise to come with me. If you hadn't come I... I would have stayed. You... knew that."
"Yes. I know. You would have. And all your hopes and dreams would have been gone. For me."
"I was...was willing to..."
She reached out a hand and stroked his cheek, encouraged when he didn't pull away. "I know you would have been willing. When I got back, I realized I wasn't willing to let you. And I refused to leave my brother and the others to fight my fight."
"So you...you let me...let me... believe the...the woman I loved... was...was..." Nelson's voice began to weaken and his eyes began to droop. Within a few moments, he was once again asleep.
Maria stared at him for a few minutes more, continuing to stroke his cheek. How easy it would have been then to have let him know she was alive. How different things would have been. What kind of life would they have had?
Her musings were cut short by the sounds of excited voices. She rose and walked to the front of the hut. Before her was her brother, dirty and disheveled, but alive. She ran to him and put her arms about him.
"Juan! I was so worried! Where have you been?"
Juan pulled back from her embrace and looked her in the eye. "Paying back a debt. The government's research lab is gone. Destroyed! No more do we need to worry about our great Presidente's biological weapon!"
"But how? When...?"
"After the last of our people left the caves, I and several others took the last of our munitions and went back to the facility. We waited till night, crept inside, planted the explosives and watched the whole thing explode!"
Maria searched her brother's eyes. "It was that easy?" she said with disbelief.
Juan's face fell and he turned from her. "No. It was not that easy. Jose and Miquel are dead." He turned back and smiled once more. "But the laboratory is gone, Maria! Don't you see what that means? How can the Presidente not make peace with us now?"
Maria smiled as she looked at her brother. "Perhaps, Juan. We will see." She turned back to stare into the dark hut.
"I am sorry. I almost forgot. How is he?"
"He lives. He was awake for a little while. He knows," she said softly, turning to him. She walked away from the hut and stood at the edge of the clearing, not daring to look her brother in the eye.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and she closed her eyes.
"You knew it would be hard. You knew he might..."
"Might? He hates me, Juan! And he has every right. If only..."
"If only what? If only you had told him? If only he had stayed? What, Maria?" He grabbed her arm and turned her to face him. "You cannot live in the past, wishing for things that can never be! But you can live now. He is here. Now. Talk to him. Be there."
Maria looked into her brother's eyes and smiled sadly. "Perhaps. We shall see." She turned on her heel and headed in the exact opposite direction from where Nelson lay.
Juan watched his sister walk off and shook his head. So much heartache. He turned back to where the revelers now stood, still celebrating their victory. They had much to rejoice in and he left them to their jubilee, stooping to enter the hut.
He walked to where Nelson lay and seated himself beside him. His thoughts became lost in the past and he didn't realize until he spoke that Nelson was awake.
"So. You knew and you didn't tell me?" he asked weakly.
Juan dropped his gaze from Nelson's pale face and nodded. "Si. I argued with her, but she does not listen. You should know that."
Nelson snorted. "I remember," he said softly.
"Do not hate her, mi hermano. What she did was very hard for her."
"And it wasn't hard for me?"
Juan looked away for a moment. "You went on. Your dreams, the ones you told us of, became reality. Your submarine, the Seaview is real. Your Institute is real. Would all that have happened if you had stayed here? If Maria had come with you?"
Nelson closed his eyes and was quiet for a long time. So long that Juan began to rise, thinking he had fallen asleep again.
Finally, he opened his eyes and looked at Juan. "I don't know. Those months after I got back...I...was lost. I tried to forget. Tried to put all those memories away and go on. And I did. Slowly. And yes, my dreams became reality."
"Would they if Maria were there with you? Would you have had the fire to find a way to make those dreams become reality, mi hermano?"
Once again Nelson closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "I don't know Juan. I... don't know."
Juan patted him on the shoulder and rose. "You must sleep. If Edwards finds me keeping you awake, I will be banned from here. Sleep, mi hermano. Sleep."
Nelson nodded once and was asleep.
