The Traveler

“Welcome to the land of Lampropeltis getula, the common king snake. Of course, there’s nothing common about them. They’re brave, clever, perfectly lovely reptiles-another one of God’s gifts to a fallen world. What you’re seeing is subspecies splendida, the Arizona desert king snake. They eat copperheads and rattlesnakes as well as frogs, birds, and rats. They just love to kill rats. Especially large, nasty ones.”

“Dr. Briggs studies snakes,” Antonio said.

“I’m a biologist specializing in reptiles. I taught for twenty-eight years at the University of New Hampshire until they forced me out. You should have seen President Mitchell, a silly little man who can barely walk upstairs without huffing and puffing, telling me that I was too frail for the classroom. What nonsense. A few weeks after the retirement dinner, I started getting messages from my Internet friends that the Tabula had discovered I was a Pathfinder.”

Antonio dropped his canvas food bag on the table. “But she wouldn’t leave.”

“And why should I? I’m no coward. I own three firearms and know how to use them. Then Antonio and Martin found out about this site and lured me here. You two are clever schoolboys.”

“We knew you couldn’t resist,” Antonio said.

“You’re right about that. Fifty years ago the government wasted millions of dollars building this ridiculous missile site.” Sophia moved past the trailer and pointed at the site. Gabriel saw three enormous concrete disks set in rusty steel frames. “Right over there are the silo lids. They could be opened and shut from the inside. That was where they stored the missiles.”

She turned on her heel and pointed to a mound of dirt about half a mile away. “After the missiles were pulled out, the county turned that area over there into a dump. Beneath nine inches of dirt and a plastic tarp is twenty years of rotting garbage that sustains an enormous population of rats. The rats eat the garbage and multiply. The king snakes eat the rats, then live and breed in the silo. I study splendida and it’s been quite successful, so far.”

“So what are we going to do?” Gabriel asked.

“Have lunch, of course. Better eat this bread before it goes stale.”

Sophia gave them all jobs and they prepared a meal with the perishable food. Maya was in charge of slicing a loaf of bread and she seemed annoyed with the dull knife. Lunch was simple, but delicious. Fresh tomatoes mixed with oil and vinegar. A very rich goat cheese cut into chunks. Rye bread. Strawberries. For dessert, Sophia took out a bar of Belgian chocolate and gave everyone exactly two squares.

Snakes were everywhere. If they got in the way, Sophia picked them up firmly and carried them over to a moist patch of ground near the shed. Maya sat yoga style at the table as if one of the reptiles might slither up her leg. During the meal, Gabriel learned a few more facts about Sophia Briggs. No children. Never married. She had consented to hip surgery a few years ago but-other than that-she tried to stay away from doctors.

In her forties, Sophia began to make annual trips up to the Narcisse Snake Dens in Manitoba to study the fifty thousand red-sided garter snakes that emerged from limestone caves during their annual breeding cycle. She became close friends with a Catholic priest living in the area and, after many years, he revealed that he was a Pathfinder.

“Father Morrissey was an amazing man,” she said. “Like most priests, he presided over thousands of christenings, weddings, and funerals, but he had actually learned something from the experience. He was a perceptive person. Very wise. Sometimes I felt he could read my mind.”

“So why did he pick you?” Gabriel asked.

Sophia smeared the soft goat cheese on a piece of bread. “My people skills aren’t the best in the world. In fact, I don’t like people all that much. They’re vain and foolish. But I’ve trained myself to be observant. I can focus on one thing and get rid of the extraneous details. Maybe Father Morrissey could have found someone better, but he got lymphatic cancer and died seventeen weeks after the diagnosis. I took a semester off and sat by the hospital bed while he gave me his knowledge.”

When everyone had finished eating, Sophia stood up and looked at Maya. “I think it’s time for you to go, young lady. I’ve got a sat phone in the trailer and it works most of the time. I’ll call Martin when we’re done.”

Antonio picked up the empty canvas bags and headed back down the road. Maya and Gabriel stood close to each other, but neither one of them spoke. He wondered what he could say to her. Take care of yourself. Have a safe journey. See you soon. None of the commonplace farewells seemed to apply to a Harlequin.

“Goodbye,” she said.

“Goodbye.”

Maya went a few feet, then stopped and looked back at him. “Keep the jade sword with you,” she said. “Don’t forget. It’s a talisman.”

And then she was gone, her body becoming smaller and smaller as she disappeared down the road.

“She likes you.”