Chapter 8 — Manuel

IF YOU’RE NEW HERE, YOU ARE LATE TO THE SAGA OF A TALE OF TWO TIMES. WE ARE NOW BEGINNING THE 9TH AND FINAL VOLUME OF THE NARRATIVE, WHICH WILL WRAP UP IN THIS POSTED FORMAT IN JUNE 2025.

TO START READING AT THE BEGINNING, THE FIRST VOLUME, THE MENACE OF THE ANCIENT FOE, CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING THE BUTTON:

~ 1 ~ The place of Manuel’s entrance to the Commons had been moved by Rhoda’s Denizen sisters, as Rhoda had discovered on the day of her Head Thing. They had moved the Corridor which led from Manuel’s room to the Commons, so that it no longer opened inside Rhoda’s Workshop. It opened among the wild roses of the Craggy Heights’ alcove near Rhoda’s Back Gate. Manuel had come to prefer this "outside" entry location, so it remained in that place.

Before he had been injured in driving Hector’s dust devil from the Garth Delvers’ Hold, Manuel had been able to wheel himself into the alcove in the Craggy Heights and enjoy communion with the higher Airs. There, within a short time, his body would build into its Commons wholeness and he would leave his wheelchair, walking easily through the Commons to Rhoda’s Back Gate to enjoy the use of her Workshop. Because Manuel also had explored the nearby Commons, Rhoda had said to him one day, “You’re a free man in the Commons, Manuel.”

“No, Rhoda,” he had replied darkly. “I’m only a free human Denizen, like the others who have died, except that I die to leave, rather than to enter, my denizenship.” Rhoda, at once regretting her use of “man”, had taken his hand and kissed it, but Manuel had said to her, “Don’t feel sorry for me, sister. It’s only a fact, not something I brood over.”

“But I’ve stirred it up in you, Manuel. I can tell.”

He had laughed. “And you have the opposite problem, woman.”

Soon after his injury, Rhoda had escorted Manuel into the Commons, to the alcove of wild roses in the Craggy Heights, where Manuel had said after a while, “Rhoda, I feel that my body will never again rebuild, because of the seriousness of my injury. I do not feel it rebuilding now.” They had stood in the alcove for a long time, communing with the Airs, but Rhoda had seen Manuel’s body rebuild only slightly. His hands had rebuilt a little and he had demonstrated some control of them while unconsciously gripping his wheelchair’s turning rims.

After returning to Home Ranch, Rhoda had suggested to Victoria that Indigo’s care of Manuel include escorting him with Victoria into the Commons. Victoria had been reluctant to do it.

“Try it, Mother!” Rhoda had urged. “This is the voice of the War Thing speaking to you.” Sighing, Victoria had nodded assent, and on the next day she had invited Indigo to join her in escorting Manuel into the Commons. Indigo had been surprised, and Manuel had thrashed around in his wheelchair. Indigo had thought that Manuel was pleased, but Victoria had known that he was opposed to receiving Indigo’s attention. In Manuel-speak Victoria had said, “Rhoda’s orders, Manuel. We can tell Indigo about our first day in the Commons with Rhoda.”

Manuel had replied in Manuel-speak, “Alright, alright, Mother. When she sees that I’m no better there than I am here, maybe she’ll go away.”

Indigo had been staring at the two of them in amazement. She had asked, “Are you speaking with Manuel, Mrs. Knox?”

“Yes, Indigo. These odd sounds and motions are a language devised by Rhoda and Manuel. Rhoda calls it Manuel-speak.”

“Your daughter is a wonderful person, Mrs. Knox! May I learn Manuel-speak, too?” Indigo’s face had shone with eagerness. Reluctantly, Victoria had nodded.

In the Commons, mother and son had described in detail to Indigo the day of their first adventure in the Commons, which had taken place on the eve of Rhoda’s Head Thing. Victoria and Manuel had begun by using Manuel-speak, with Victoria translating for Indigo. After several days, Indigo had been able to understand a few of Manuel’s words. Victoria had noticed this, seeing Rhoda’s wisdom. She also saw the quandary in which Rhoda had placed Indigo, who was clearly in love with Manuel. Victoria had thought then of the sacrificing moves by Ottilie and others to thwart the Foe’s designs, realizing that her daughter truly was made of Ottilie’s kind of steel.

Indigo had asked Manuel and Victoria to retell their story several times, in greater detail, until she was able to tell the tale as well as they did. And Indigo had been instinctively sharing with Martha all that she did and all that she learned, and Martha—who had sought to remain aloof—had been surprised by Indigo having learned things which she herself had not learned from Victoria. Rhoda has seen more in this young lady than have Victoria and I.

Victoria had come to see the heartfelt nature of Indigo’s unflagging devotion to Manuel’s care. She had seen Manuel, gradually submitting to it and beginning to rebuild his Commons physique, although his body had remained disabled at Home Ranch. In Earth’s Province he had remained very weak and frail in his wheelchair, and he had avoided social occasions beyond family events. Indigo had become more of a nurse to him than Victoria had been, and Victoria had felt that Manuel had placed himself in Indigo’s hands with a bittersweet resignation. Victoria’s heart had become more deeply troubled, for, in the end, how would Indigo have any more of Manuel than Ottilie had of Martin?

Slowly, Indigo had become a part of their life, until one day, Victoria had realized that she regarded Indigo to be her daughter as much as Isabel was. On that same day, Martin had joked with Victoria sympathetically about “Nurse Indigo.” By her close care of Manuel, Indigo had come to understand completely his physical condition. And Martin, recalling his own decades-earlier hopeless relationship with Ottilie, had wondered if Manuel saw his prospects with Indigo in a similar hopeless way.

“My dear Martin,” Victoria had said, “I, too, have been worrying over that. What can we do but wait, and trust in God?”

Martin had read in Victoria’s eyes, her deeper fear of Rhoda and Ricardo perishing in the War Thing.

Earlier, Rhoda had confided to Martin, “Daddy, I think Manuel’s still alive not only because of Indigo’s love for him and his for her—although he worries about never being able to return it in a natural way—but also because of this: The implosion of the No-thing of Hector’s Inner Sanctum should have killed Manuel, but it didn’t, and I’ve discovered why. First of all, Diego fortunately entered Manuel’s room in a moment concurrent with that of Manuel’s being cast along a Line of Tintina into his Place—his wheelchair. Diego naively anchored Manuel into the War Thing's advancing front in meta time, when he entered the room and touched his wheelchair as Manuel was manifested in it. So Manuel did not die then, although he soon would have died. Now, Diego and Manuel are bound in an adventitious chronological Niche centered in the Commons. The reason Manuel still lives, however, is the partial entanglement of his personal Niche and Hector’s in the implosion of the No-thing of Hector’s Inner Sanctum.”

“How has that happened, Rhoda?”

“The gods in Hector’s dust devil had a purchase on Hector’s imagination, as Lucia had guessed. In the No-thing, that purchase was released, and it melded naturally with the human No-thing of Manuel. In the implosion of the No-thing which sent the gods to their Provinces and Manuel to his wheelchair in his room to die, Manuel and Hector have become partially entangled in their imaginations.”

“So Manuel is kept alive by his suspension in the tension between Places in two segments of the Advancing Front?”

“Yes, Daddy.”

“Rhoda, how long have you known this?”

“Since yesterday. Ricardo has taken Leo and Diego on a secret expedition to the Bleak Berm. From the Thing Living in which they moved, Ricardo learned of the complex relationship existing between Diego and Manuel, and—through that relationship—with the imaginative entanglement of Manuel and Hector. It’s a secret that you and I must keep.”

“Does Manuel know?”

“Yes. I’ve explained it to him. He recognized at once some of its symptoms in his imagination, and he realized the consequences. He said to me, ‘When Hector gets into the Commons Crawler, I will die.’ "

"ls that because the tension in which he lives will cease, Rhoda?"

"Yes. It will cease when the Crawler returns to Earth's Province. Manuel has told me that eventually he will inform Indigo.”

“Does Leo know?”

“He doesn’t know. That trip to the Bleak Berm was only for his general education.”

“Who else understands this?”

“Hans. Ricardo now keeps Hans informed of all War Thing matters of which he knows, just as I keep Yohanna informed. Do you confide your War Thing matters to Manuel?”

“Yes. He knocks on my Back Gate; then we stroll in the Commons, talking things over. To think that, after his accident, I had despaired of Manuel being able to play his part in the Clan!”

“Oh, Daddy, you had despaired of me, too!”

And now, Victoria, our burden is doubled.

~ 2 ~ Diego was eating alone at first breakfast. Seeing that he had a heavy weight on his mind, people avoided disturbing him. That heavy weight was Isabel.

The visit by Diego and Leo to the Bleak Berm, guided by Ricardo, had left them aghast. They had ceased completely their joking about the Commons being a playground. Now Diego was reflecting on Ricardo’s description of his tasks in the War Thing, and on the fact that Ricardo, in telling him that Diego would return to the Bleak Berm, had not revealed the identity of anyone with whom he would have to work. “Time will tell, and there are many chances,” Ricardo had said.

Diego was left wondering: Would he be working with Isabel in coping with the “final events of the Convergence” at the Bleak Berm? He considered that Isabel had navigated to the Bleak Berm on her own, and that she was now doing perilous War Thing work in the Commons. He had last heard of her from Theresa Rose, who had informed him yesterday that Reyna and Isabel had met at her front door and had gone into Rhoda’s place. It appeared to Theresa Rose that Isabel, Reyna and Rhoda were not now in the house. “I suspect that Rhoda’s place opens in some way to the Commons, Diego. Alonzo thinks so too, although we have never seen any sign of a Gate.”

A woman slid onto the bench next to Diego and set her hand on his. “Diego,” she said, “you must come with me at once to Manuel’s room.” The woman was Indigo, with whom he had experienced little contact. Her words brought him out of his personal concerns, reminding him that—War Thing or not—he had much to do today on the ranch.

Diego knew that Indigo was close to Martha, who had told him all that he knew about Indigo. And he recalled that Manuel, when Diego had seen him last in his wheelchair, had not looked well. But Indigo and Manuel had not been Diego’s responsibility, and Diego was unaware that his own intervention had saved Manuel’s life. He knew nothing about Indigo becoming Manuel’s caregiver, as Martha had told him only that it was a War Thing matter, and that Manuel and Indigo had—somehow—saved the day when the Delvers trapped in the Hold had been rescued. Martha had explained that, “In the Commons, Manuel was not bound to his wheelchair; he got around easily on his own. But he was seriously injured in that fray, and Indigo is the only one who can nurse him back to his ‘Commons health’. More than that, I can’t tell you.”

Diego replied to Indigo, “Wouldn’t Victoria be of greater help to Manuel?"

Indigo simply took his hand and pulled him up. “We must depart now and you must come with us. Those are Ricardo’s orders.”

Slightly bewildered, and more than slightly annoyed, Diego shrugged and followed Indigo to the Head Family’s quarters, wondering if Ricardo truly had ordered anything. His odd interaction with Indigo had attracted attention, and several people followed them to the parlor off the entrance hall and watched them ascend the stairs to the Head family’s quarters. Following Indigo, Diego recalled ascending these stairs for the first time, lugging Rhoda’s incredibly heavy suitcase.

Without speaking, they passed the family room and the rooms of Victoria and Martin, to Manuel’s room at the end of the hall. The door was ajar, and Diego saw Manuel sitting in his wheelchair facing the wall. “Take Manuel’s chair and follow me,” Indigo said to him.

Diego took the wheelchair’s handles in his hands while Indigo knelt to straighten Manuel from his slumping position. She stood and turned her back to Diego, and slid open the wall panel revealing the entrance to the Great Maze—startling Diego with her knowledge of a well-kept secret.

“Quickly, Diego, follow me!” Indigo shot a desperate glance over her shoulder at him. "Seconds matter."

They emerged suddenly into the alcove by the Craggy Heights.

“We’ll stop here, Diego.”

Diego was bewildered for a moment by the sight of the high Air of the Commons. Then he held tightly to the wheelchair to steady himself as he realized that Manuel and Indigo were to be his companions in performing his Bleak Berm assignment from Ricardo.

Quickly kneeling at Manuel's side, Indigo exclaimed, “Oh, thank God!” and threw her arms around him. Diego looked away from the infinite vista of soaring mountains in the bright Air, and saw Manuel returning her embrace. Manuel said to her, “Indigo, wait! Give me a chance. I’m coming back together.”

Indigo knelt with Manuel, her face shining with joy. Looking up, she said, “Thank you, Diego. Only you could have helped Manuel. He was minutes away from death.”

“I don’t understand. …This is the Commons!”

Indigo stood up and looked around. “Yes. Isn’t it wonderful? We’re in the high Air of the Commons. I was here for the first time when Manuel led us from Home Ranch to rescue the Makers trapped in the Delver’s Hold through Hector’s folly. Well, you may not know that I had a part in that folly, Diego.”

“I’ve heard different stories, Indigo, but Benjamin didn’t say you had any such part.”

“Everett and I were positively wicked, Diego, but we’re smarter now, and Benjamin is a good man; he always sees things in the best light.”

Diego smiled. He was getting his bearings. “This seems to be a better part of the Commons. It’s awesome, but it’s not awfully terrible like the Netherworld’s neighborhood.” Diego’s trip with Leo to the Bleak Berm, guided by Ricardo, was a secret, but Diego felt now that no War Thing secret need be kept from his present company. Seeing that Manuel looked nearly healthy now, (His rapidly improving condition seemed miraculous!) Diego knelt and said to him, “Manuel, I heard you speaking…”

Manuel smiled and held out his hand. “Don’t shake too hard, Diego. I’m rebuilding, and I’m pretty tender yet. I’m pleased to meet you here, partner.”

Diego stood up after gently shaking Manuel’s hand, and Indigo said, “We should give Manuel a little space now for his recuperation. By just stepping over to the edge for a minute to look over it, we’ll give him lightyears of space.”

“What is this place called, Indigo?”

“It’s called the Craggy Heights; it’s the location of women Keen Makers’ Back Gates. Here, we’re right next to Rhoda’s Back Gate, so it’s a very safe Place. Diego, you should hold my hand; I think neither Isabel nor Manuel will mind, because I misspoke a little just now. In fact, this is only a relatively safe Place, and I’m a Keen Maker, although not a very accomplished one. If you hold my hand, we’ll be able to return to Manuel after you look over the edge into the great chasm of the Sundering Flood, when you’ll be very glad to be holding on to me.

Diego recalled that Ricardo, on their way to the Bleak Berm, had made Leo and Diego hold his hands, which had made them feel silly at first. But soon they had begun to feel like little boys protected by their all-wise and all-powerful father in a place of horror which otherwise would have overcome them. Could Indigo have such strength, too? Diego took her hand, and knew at once that she had.

Diego held Indigo’s hand while setting one foot on the parapet—as Victoria had done while holding Rhoda’s hand—and looked over the edge at the the Sundering Flood in the great valley below. Here, it was not darkness and horror which were awful. It was a rush of beauty which had touched his life previously only in random moments of half-realization: His mother’s way of rolling dough, the naturalness of his father’s resolution of conflicts, the sparkle in Isabel’s eyes and in sunsets and evening stars. These exploded into a myriad of things which he had beheld without ever suspecting their deep beauty. In an instant, these experienced beauties merged into a giant wave casting him out of a sea in which he was unable to swim, onto a beach from which he was unable to rise as the water’s power ground his face into the sand. Lost in blinding lights, he felt Indigo’s grip pulling him out of the next wave of beauty curving in pure immensity over him, in which was certain death. She turned him around, facing Manuel—who was standing next to his wheelchair—and exclaimed, “Diego, don’t look back behind you! If you do, that wave will fall on you!”

As they walked slowly to Manuel, Diego gripped Indigo’s hand for support, and he slumped into Manuel’s unoccupied wheelchair. He had never before felt so exhausted or so spent. Manuel knelt next to Diego and straightened his head, holding it until Diego opened his eyes. “Are you feeing better, Diego?”

Diego nodded and took a great breath.

“I must lead you through the Commons, Diego, to your assignment in the Bleak Berm.”

“Ricardo warned me that it would be my lot.”

“Don’t try to get up yet, Diego. You’ll recover in a short time.”

Diego watched Manuel and Indigo stroll away from him to the edge of the abyss of the Sundering Flood, talking earnestly together and occasionally glancing back at him as he began slowly to feel himself again. Soon he felt that he would be able to get back on his feet, but then he thought better of it and waved at them instead. As he waved, he realized that they were a great distance away. He saw the motion of his arm gently floating toward them like a bottle holding a message bobbing on the surface of a lazy river. When the motion reached them, they both waved back. Then, holding hands for the first time, they came back toward him, seeming to be walking from below, from above, and from every side as they approached him. “Diego, don’t get up yet!” Manuel’s call seemed to come from a great distance, yet within a few strides Manuel and Indigo were next to him.

Indigo took the wheelchair’s handles while Manuel helped Diego to stand, and it seemed to Diego that he was rising slowly, at the same time rising quickly forever. He was glad that he had not tried to get up on his own.

Once Diego was standing, Manuel cried, “Now, Indigo! Do it!” She grimaced and pushed the wheelchair away from her. Released from her hands, it vanished instantly.

Indigo spun around and embraced Manuel, sobbing deeply. Diego, standing back and wondering, was enveloped by a great grief.