The Ascent

about a head injury that might have predated or even caused the epileptic seizures.

He wanted to take another look and ask some questions now that the patient could

answer for himself.

As the boy struggled across the gray and white debris, the climbers talked baldly

about him. 'What a gimp,' J.J. said, astonished. 'How'd he ever make it up here?'

Robby sauntered over in moonboots and a pair of purple polypro pants. He looked

like a rodeo clown with fuzzy chaps and two cameras slung around his neck. 'Can you

believe it?' He beamed. He turned to photo-frame the kite between his fingers.

'Will wonders never cease,' Stump cracked. 'You finally got it up.'

'Look at it,' Robby said. 'I'll tell you what, though. This Tibetan kid definitely missed

his calling. He's born to fly. He could have been an aviator the way he works the wind.

You should have seen the way he sent my kite up, just kind of opened his hand and it

took its place.'

'These Asians, man, they love their kites,' Carlos said. 'Down in Kathmandu, they get

so excited with their stringwork, they'll forget where they are and run right off of

five-story rooftops.'

'Maybe that's what happened to this guy,' J.J. suggested.

'Or a yak stampede,' Gus said.

They made a few more jokes. The boy continued laboring across the loose rocks

toward them. The afternoon's late rays cut him out from the shadows, making him

hard to look at for his radiance.

'You didn't tell us he was a tulku,' Daniel said to Abe. He had one hand shading his

eyes and was squinting at the boy.

Abe had never heard the word. He faked it. 'Yeah, one more yakherder.'

'A tulku?' Carlos said. He pulled his goggles off and looked more closely. 'Jeez, Daniel.

You're right.' He was excited and hushed in the same breath. 'He's no yakherder. Look

at that round face, and those pointy elf ears sticking out. And the eyes. And look at the

Sherpas, man, they're blown away. They look like disciples waiting for the body and

blood. Nah, nah, this guy's beaucoup holy, you can tell. Doc, you saved a tulku.'

'What the hell's a tulkoo?' J.J. asked.

Carlos sighed and tried again. J.J. thrived on reiteration, though even on the second

and third explanations there was no guarantee he'd get it. ' Tulkus are holy men.

They're like a monk and a prophet all rolled into one. And they can tell the future.'

'Yeah,' Daniel joshed, 'and tulkus can fly, too. And they fight demons.'

Carlos grew cautious. 'That's what they say.'

'All I know is I thought he was a dead man,' Abe said.

'Oh, they can do that, too,' Gus threw in. But whereas Daniel had been gently

teasing, she meant to sting. Gus had her virtues, but suffering credulous dharma

junkies was not one of them. She'd been through Asia too many times to get

snookered by the smoke and mirrors of local religions. Ascent was her dogma. 'These

tulkus can think their body temperature up or down. They can quit breathing and

fake death,' she lectured facetiously. 'They can even pick a precise moment to die and

then just check out, snuff themselves with a prayer, and catch the next cycle on the

merry-go-round.'

The Tibetan boy limped closer. His affliction became more graphic and they quit

talking about him. Chances were he couldn't understand a word of English, but he was

a thin frail reed among these sturdy climbers and he was their guest. Above all his

smile was the real McCoy. He looked positively overjoyed to have them down off the

mountain safe and sound. Despite themselves, the climbers seemed to warm to him.

To everyone's surprise, since it was presumably Abe he'd come to see, the boy

walked directly to Daniel.

Nima was embarrassed for the boy and stepped up beside him and laughed off the

mistake. 'This man is thinking you save him.'

'Me?' Daniel was startled. 'No. Him.' He clapped Abe's shoulder. 'Here's your

archangel. Not me.'

Switching to Tibetan, Nima corrected the record. The boy's smile didn't falter,

though a slight confusion clouded his brow. It was apparent he thought Nima was

wrong. He continued studying Daniel's blue eyes with some cryptic recognition, and

Daniel looked strangely off-balance. Then the boy twisted to face Abe. His smile

broadened, if that was possible, and Abe beamed back.

'Ask him how he feels,' Abe told Nima.

Nima didn't bother to ask. 'All better, sir. You see.'

'I don't think so, Nima. He looks very weak. He should be at Base Camp eating lots

of food and sleeping. This altitude is very bad for him. You should tell him that.'

But Nima was a Sherpa. High altitude was a fact of life and this Tibetan holy man

was here, so how could it be bad. 'This man is coming now to see you, Doctor. Coming

now eight days.'

From the back of the gathering, out of nowhere, Jorgen's voice crashed their little

party. 'The boy thinks he's going to stay here for another week? Not a chance.'

Nima didn't understand and his expression said so. But he seemed to realize Jorgens

wasn't addressing the issue of hospitality. This was gringo politics, Abe saw it clearly.

Still reeling from the shift in leadership, Jorgens was out to score some points. The

beauty of this issue was that he had logistics on his side.

'Tell him he can't stay, Nima,' Jorgens said. 'We don't have the food for an extra

mouth, and he doesn't have a permit to be up here. You know the rules. The yakkies

come up. The yakkies go down. One night here, that's it. More than that, he needs a

Chinese permit, understand?'

Somebody said, 'Chill out, man.'

Jorgen flushed. In the old days, before the mutiny, he would have cut the offender

down. Now he was reduced to trying to build a coalition. 'We can't afford trouble with

the liaison officer,' he clarified, straining for a civil tone. 'That's the bottom line.'

'That's not what Nima meant, though,' Abe said. He turned to the Sherpa. 'Eight

days. Are you saying it took this boy eight days to walk here from Base Camp?'

'Yes sir. Eight days maybe, maybe more. Many days, walking, saying the prayers,

slowly, slowly.'

One of the climbers whistled. 'Eights days from Base. He must have been crawling.'

'The dude must like you, Doc,' J.J. said.

'He had a debt,' Daniel stated. To him, anyway, it made perfect sense.

'Tell him I'm glad to see him,' Abe said to Nima.

Like a minister of the court, Nima didn't bother his prince with the small talk.

Speaking for the boy, Nima replied, 'He is very glad to see you, sir.'

'But Nima, ask him. Why did he come so far?'

'To give the puja, sir. We need the puja.' Nima's delivery was emphatic. Obviously