The Valkyries

you?”
    “No. And when I asked him why he had never told me about the angels, he told me that some things are so important that you have to learn about them on your own.”
    They were silent for a moment.
    “If you meet with the Valkyries, there’s something that will make it easier for you to get along with them,” Gene said.
    “What’s that?”
    The young man laughed.
    “You’ll find out. But it would have been a lot better if you hadn’t brought your wife along.”
    “Did your angel have wings?” Paulo asked.
    Before Gene could answer, Chris had arisen from her folding chair, come around the trailer, and now stood before them.
    “Why is he making such a big thing about your coming here alone?” she asked, speaking Portuguese. “Do you want me to leave?”
    Gene went on with what he was saying to Paulo, paying no attention whatsoever to Chris’s interruption. She waited for Paulo’s answer—but she might just as well have been invisible.
    “Give me the keys to the car,” she said, at the limit of her patience.
    “What does your wife want?” Gene finally asked.
    “She wants to know what the ‘second mind’ is.”
Damn! Nine years we’ve been together, and this stranger already knows all about us!
    Gene stood up.
    “Sit down, close your eyes, and I will show you what the second mind is,” he said.
    “I didn’t come here to the desert to learn about magic or converse with angels,” Chris said. “I came only to be with my husband.”
    “Sit down,” Gene insisted, smiling.
    She looked at Paulo for a fraction of a second, but was unable to determine what he was thinking.
    I respect their world, but it has nothing to do with me,
she thought. Although all their friends thought that she had become completely involved in her husband’s lifestyle, the fact was that she and he had spoken very little of it to one another. She was used to going with him to certain places, and had once even carried his sword for purposes of a ceremony. She knew the Road to Santiago, and had—because of their relationship—learned quite a bit about sexual magic. But that was all. J. had never proposed that he teach her anything.
    “What should I do?” she asked Paulo.
    “Whatever you think,” he answered.
    I love you,
she thought. If she were to learn something about his world, there was no doubt it would bring them even closer. She went back to her chair, sat down, and closed her eyes.
    “What are you thinking about?” Gene asked her.
    “About what you two were discussing. About Paulo traveling by himself. About the second mind. Whether his angel has wings. And why this should interest me at all. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to angels.”
    “No, no. I want to know whether you’re thinking about something else. Something beyond your control.”
    She felt his hands touching both sides of her head.
    “Relax. Relax.” His voice was gentle. “What are you thinking?”
    There were sounds. And voices. It was only now that she realized what she was thinking, although it had been there for almost an entire day.
    “A melody,” she answered. “I’ve been singing this melody to myself ever since I heard it yesterday on the radio on our way here.”
    It was true, she had been humming the melody incessantly. To the end, and then once again, and then from start to finish again. She couldn’t get it out of her mind.
    Gene asked that she open her eyes.
    “That’s the second mind,” he said. “It’s your second mind that’s humming the song. It can do that with anything. If you’re in love with someone, you can have that person inside your head. The same thing happens with someone you want to forget about. But the second mind is a tough thing to deal with. It’s at work regardless of whether you want it to be or not.”
    He laughed.
    “A song! We’re always impassioned about something. And it’s not always a song. Have you ever had someone you loved stick in your mind? It’s really terrible when that happens. You travel, you try to forget, but your second mind keeps saying: ‘Oh, he would really love that!’ ‘Oh, if only he were here.’”
    Chris was astonished. She had never thought of such a thing as a second mind.
    She had two minds. Functioning at the same time.

Chapter 06
     
    G ENE CAME TO HER SIDE. “Close your eyes again,” he said. “And try to remember the horizon you were looking at.”
    She tried to recall it. “I can’t,” she said, her eyes still closed. “I