The Valkyries

thought,
just like we’re doing now.
    Chris had met J. for the first time in Amsterdam, when they were having coffee at a cafe in theBrower Hotel, looking out at the Singel canal. Paulo had turned pale when he saw the tall, white-haired man dressed in a business suit. Despite his anxiety, he finally worked up the courage to approach the older man’s table.
    That night, when Paulo and Chris were alone again, he drank an entire bottle of wine. He wasn’t a good drinker, and became drunk. Only then did he reveal what she already knew: that for seven years he had dedicated himself to learning magic. Then, for some reason—which he never explained, although she asked about it a number of times—he had given it all up.
    “I had a vision of J. two months ago, when we visited Dachau,” Paulo said.
    Chris remembered that day. Paulo had wept. He said that he was being called but didn’t know how to respond.
    “Should I go back to magic?” he had asked.
    “Yes, you should,” she had answered, but she wasn’t sure.
    Since Amsterdam, everything had changed. There were rituals, exercises, practices. There were long trips with J., with no defined date of return. There were long meetings with strange women, and men who had an aura of sensuality aboutthem. There were challenges and tests, long nights when he didn’t sleep, and long weekends when he never left the house. But Paulo was much happier, and he no longer thought about quitting his job. Together they had founded a small publishing house, and he was doing something he’d dreamed of for a long time: writing books.
    Finally, a gas station. As a young Native American woman filled the tank, Paulo and Chris took a stroll.
    Paulo looked at the map and confirmed the route. Yes, they were on the right road.
    Now he can relax. Now he’ll talk a bit,
Chris thought
    “Did J. say you were to meet with your angel here?” she asked hesitantly.
    “No,” he replied.
    Great, he gave me an answer,
she thought, as she looked out at the brilliant green vegetation, lit by the setting sun. If she hadn’t checked the map so often, she too would have doubted this was the right road. The map said that they should be at their destination in another six miles or so, but the scenery seemed to be telling them they had a long way to go.
    “I didn’t have to come here,” Paulo continued. “Any place would do. But I have a contact here.”
    Of course. Paulo always had contacts. He referred to such people as members of the Tradition; but when Chris described them in her diary, she referred to them as the “Conspiracy.” Among them were sorcerers and witch doctors—the kind of people one has nightmares about.
    “Someone who speaks with angels?”
    “I’m not sure. One time, J. referred—just in passing—to a master of the Tradition who lives here, and who knows how to communicate with the angels. But that might just be a rumor.”
    He might have been speaking seriously, but Chris knew that he might also have just selected a place at random, one of the many places where he had “contacts.” A place that was far from their daily life, and where he could concentrate better on the Extraordinary.
    “How are you going to speak to your angel?”
    “I don’t know,” he replied.
    What a strange way to live,
thought Chris. She looked at her husband as he walked over to pay the bill. All she knew was that he felt he had to speak with the angels, and that was that! Drop everything, jump on a plane, fly for twelve hours fromBrazil to Los Angeles, drive for six hours to this gas station, arm himself with enough patience to remain here for forty days: all of this in order to speak—or rather, try to speak—with his guardian angel!
    He laughed at her, and she smiled back. After all, this wasn’t all that bad. They had their occasional daily irritations—paying bills, cashing checks, paying courtesy calls, accepting some tough times.
    But they still believed in angels.
    “We’ll do it,” she said.
    “Thanks for the ‘we,’” he answered with a smile. “But I’m the magus around here.”

Chapter 2
     
    T HE WOMAN AT THE STATION HAD SAID they were going in the right direction—about ten more minutes. They drove in silence. Paulo turned the radio off. There was a small elevation, but only when they reached the top did they realize how high up they were. They had been climbing steadily for six hours, without realizing it.
    But they were there.
    He parked on the shoulder and