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"I'm going to take one more step," Chris continued. "I'll survive. I'm a courageous woman."
"I'll do it with you," answered Valhalla.
"Don't. You know about love now. It's a huge world, and you will have to spend the rest of your life trying to understand it."
"I will step back if you will. You know about your strength now. Your horizon now extends to mountains, valleys, and deserts. Your soul has grown large, and will continue to grow. You've discovered your courage, and that's enough."
"Enough, if what I taught you is sufficient to pay the price you were going to charge me."
A long silence. Then the Valkyrie walked over to Chris.
And kissed her.
"I accept that as the price," she said. "Thank you for what you have taught me."
Chris removed the watch from her wrist. It was all she had to offer.
"Thank you for what you taught me, too," she said. "Now I know about my strength. I would never have learned about it, though, unless I had come to know a strange, beautiful, powerful woman."
With great tenderness, she placed the watch on Valhalla's wrist.
THE SUN SHONE DOWN ON DEATH VALLEY. THE Valkyries tied their kerchiefs around their faces, leaving only their eyes exposed.
Valhalla approached the couple. "You cannot go with us. You have to talk to your angel."
"There's one thing left," Paulo said. "The bet."
"Bets and pacts are made with the angels. Or with the devils."
"I still don't know how to see my angel," he answered.
"You have already broken a pact. You have already accepted forgiveness. The bet you must make with your angel."
The other women's motorcycles roared. She placed the kerchief across her face, mounted her bike, and turned to Chris.
"I will always be a part of you," Chris said. "And you will always be a part of me."
Valhalla removed a glove and threw it to Chris. Then she revved her engine and the cycles sped away, leaving behind a gigantic cloud of dust.
A MAN AND A WOMAN WERE TRAVELING ACROSS THE desert. On some days, they stopped at cities with thousands of inhabitants, and on others, in towns with just one motel, a restaurant, and a gas station. They kept to themselves--and each afternoon they walked out through the rocks and the sand, feeling as if they had returned to the place where the first star was about to be born. And there, they talked with their angels.
They heard voices, gave advice to one another, and remembered things that seemed to have been completely forgotten sometime in the past.
She had completed her communication with the protection and wisdom of her angel, and was now gazing at the desert sunset.
He sat there, waiting. He wanted his angel to descend and appear in blazing glory. He had done everything right, and now he had simply to wait.
He waited one, two, three hours. He rose only when night had completely fallen; he found his wife, and they returned to the city.
They had dinner, and returned to the hotel. She went to bed and pretended to sleep, while he stared into space.
She got out of bed in the middle of the night, and went to where he sat, asking him to come to bed. She said that she was afraid of sleeping alone because of a bad dream. He lay down beside her, quietly.
"You are already communicating with your angel," he had grown used to saying at such times. "I've heard you speaking when you are channeling. You say things you would never say in ordinary life. Wise things. Your angel is here."
He caressed her, but continued to lie there in silence. She asked herself if his sadness was really because of the angel, or perhaps had to do with some lost love.
This question remained locked inside.
