Serializing a new novel.
Chapter 5 — Part 1
Brazil, June 2000
Fay sat in the plane and looked at the itinerary. They had
flown from New York to Miami. From there they had embarked on
a plane to take them to Manaus, a Brazilian city situated
right in the middle of the Amazon Forest.
Fay studied the timetable for their week in Brazil. First
there would be two days in a luxury hotel in Manaus. There
they would meet with a charity that worked to protect the
rainforest. They would also visit a firm that sold rainforest
products that were collected in an ecologically friendly
manner.
A luxury ocean-going-sized vessel would take them on a cruise
for two days until they came to a camping lodge on the Rio
Negro River, where they would remain for a further two
days.
There they would have a chance to see the rainforest, to walk
in it, to see the unique flora and fauna and to meet with the
Amerindian people for whom the forest was home. They would
then return to Manaus, and after a day of rest at the hotel
they would fly back home.
It all sounded exciting, but Fay, with her early years spent
on careful business planning, could not help trying to
calculate the cost of the trip. It seemed horrifyingly
expensive. Her early days helping to run the grocery shop had
instilled in her a concern with budgeting. Her charity work
in the inner city had shown her how every penny counted for
poor people on a budget, and so she had a horror of
unnecessary waste. She wondered why they could not simply
have received literature about the charity, perhaps called
the representatives, and then made their decision. That was
the usual way that their charity was chosen each year. Why
this year all this traveling and expense?
However she was looking forward to the trip, so she tried to
put the doubts out of her mind.
Her husband next to her was gazing out of window, looking at
the unfolding scenery. Fred Smith was a few rows back,
looking at papers, putting them in a large briefcase, and
then pulling them out again.
A feeling of unease crept over Fay when she looked back at
the assistant. There was something about him that she didn't
like. Yet she knew that he had persuaded Eli to take her on
this trip and for that she was grateful.
Fay was determined that she would be a help on the trip, not
a hindrance. She took out her Portuguese study book and went
over the latest words that she had learned.
The first two days passed smoothly. The representatives of
the charity were friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable about
their subject. They explained how once the rainforests of the
world had covered 14 per cent of the earth's land surface and
now less than half of that remained. They talked about the
permanent loss of many plant and animal species as a result.
They spoke of the lives of the Indian tribes, who lived in
the forest and how they suffered as a result of the
encroachment of loggers and ranchers. The told of how global
warming would increase incrementally as the forest was
destroyed and less carbon dioxide was recycled into oxygen.
Fay and Eli agreed that it would be the charity for the
coming year, but Fay wondered still what benefit it had been,
traveling all this way to hear these details.
On the second day a representative of the firm that sold
rainforest products in America came to see them, bringing
many leaflets and samples of some products. When Fay read the
leaflets she noticed that their main office was in Carson
City, back in America, and she wondered anew at the necessity
of this journey. All the hours that Fay had spent learning
Portuguese seemed to have been for naught. Everywhere they
went people spoke to them in excellent English.
Fay began to look forward to the next stage in the trip. Eli
felt unaccountably irritated. He wished he was back among
familiar places, in his office looking down on the
supermarket floor. He began to regret agreeing to this
trip.
The first hint of trouble ahead came when Fred informed them
that the River Negro was low that year and the liner that had
traveled from Belem on the coast and that should have taken
them upstream along the River Negro, could go no further. It
would return to Belem. Instead he was arranging for them to
fly to Altamira, a frontier town on the Xingu River. From
there they would be flown by helicopter to a different, but
equally interesting, eco-hotel in the forest.
Fay began to feel uneasy. Traveling on a large ocean liner
was one thing. Flying in a small helicopter was quite
another. She protested. She said they would look at
alternative ideas, or perhaps just fly home early.
Eli thought that cutting out the boat trip along the river
would shorten the time they were away from New York and so he
agreed.
They flew to Altamira and landed at the small airport. There
a tall man came up to them and pointed towards an old
automobile. "Welcome. My name is Manuel. Come, we will go to
another airport where your helicopter waits for you."
Some time later they arrived at a clearing where there was a
ramshackle building and one helicopter. Now Eli began to look
uneasy. Manuel beamed at them. He nodded at the driver who
took their bags and followed them a short way to the
helicopter.
Fred said, "Pedro, will take you to see the beautiful little
hotel in the jungle. The `Save the Rainforest' idea will go
down great with the supermarket customers. I'll be waiting
for you here when you return, to drive you back to the
hotel."
"You aren't coming with us?" asked Eli in amazement.
Fay had turned her attention to the other two men, Pedro the
pilot and Manuel. She listened to their conversation,
struggling to understand. Then she said quite suddenly, "Eli,
we are going back to the hotel right now."
She acted in a way quite unlike her and pulled him backwards,
tugging him in the direction of the hired limousine.
"Fay, what are you doing? Of course we're not going back to
the hotel. We have come all this way especially to see this
Amazon rainforest project."
Manuel pulled out a gun and pointed it towards them. He
smiled, looked at Fay, and said very slowly, "So you
understand Portuguese. I didn't believe it when I heard you
were learning Portuguese. Well, it's too late now. You are
both going for a little ride with Pedro here."
