A Hidden Fire
Page 4

“The Tibetan manuscript, please.”
“Of course.”  She handed over a small paper slip so he could fill out the formal request for the item.  Then she reached into the desk drawer to hand him a pair of silk gloves necessary for handing any of the ancient documents in the collection.
He took a seat at one of the tables in the windowless room, laying out his notebooks, a box of pencils, and a set of notes for Tenzin written in Mandarin.  After a few minutes, Beatrice walked through the door from the stacks.  Carefully placing the grey paper box containing the fifteenth century Tibetan book on the counter, she turned back to make sure the door to the air-controlled room was closed and locked before she walked around the desk and toward Giovanni.
“There is a book you need to copy for me,” Tenzin had asked.
“Why do you need it copied?  Isn’t there a translation available somewhere?”
“No, I want this one.  It’s in Houston.  Didn’t you just move there?”
He frowned.  “I didn’t move here so I could copy books for you, bird girl.”
“How do you know?  Maybe that’s exactly why you moved there.”
“Ten—”
“I have to fly.  Be a good scribe and copy it.  Use the…what do you call it when you send me things?”
“The fax machine.”
“Yes, use that.  I’m going into the mountains for a while.  Have Caspar send them to Nima for me when you’re done.”
“I’m busy right—”
She had already hung up.
He noted again how well-preserved the manuscript was as the girl opened the acid-free paper box.  The manuscript was a series of square, painted panels that contained spells purportedly used by goddesses for healing.  The carved wooden covers and gold and black ink were startling in their clarity, and though it held the musty odor typical of old documents, he noted with satisfaction very little scent of mold or mildew clung to it.
“Please wear your gloves at all times and handle the pages as little as possible.  Please keep all manuscript materials inside the box as you examine them.  If you need further assistance in examining the document, please…”
Listening absently to the rote instructions the girl offered, his mind had already moved ahead to his task for the evening.  He’d copied the first third of the small volume over the summer.  He estimated careful transcription of the manuscript would take another four to five months at the rate he was working.  Fortunately, time was not an issue for him on this project.
He settled down to take advantage of the two hours he had left to work on the transcription.  He hoped to finish the second of the six sections by the end of the week so he could have Caspar fax it to Nima with his notes.
“Dr. Vecchio?”
“Hmm?”  He bit his lip, lost in his own thoughts.
“Did you have any questions?”
He flashed her a smile before turning his face back to his work.
“No, I’m fine.  Thank you, Beatrice,” he said, his concentration already shifted to the manuscript in front of him.  He heard the young woman quietly return to her seat behind the computer.
They worked for the next two hours, both occupied in their own projects.  Every now and then, she would glance at him, but he barely noticed, engrossed in his careful transcription.  The soughing of the air-conditioner provided background noise to the turning paper, the scratching of his pencil, and the quiet click of the young woman’s keyboard as she typed.
Shortly before nine o’clock, she closed her books and walked to his table.  He looked up at her, dazed from concentration.  He saw her take note of his precise transcription of the characters.  They were a nearly exact copy of the original, down to the thickness of the brush strokes he recreated with the tip of his pencil, over and over again.
“Dr. Vecchio, I have to ask for the manuscript now.  The reading room is closing in fifteen minutes.”
He blinked.  “Oh…yes, if I could finish this last character set?”
“Of course.”  She waited for him, and Giovanni smiled politely as he closed the manuscript, repacked it, and put the lid on the box.
The girl took the book back to the locked stacks to put it away in the dim room where it was housed.  As she locked up the stacks room, she turned back to see Giovanni putting his pencils and notes away in his leather messenger bag.
“Well—”
“Why don’t you like the name Beatrice?” he asked, looking down as he fastened the brass buckle of his bag.
“Excuse me?”
He looked up at her, dark hair falling into his eyes again.
“It’s a lovely name.  Why do you prefer to be called by your initial?”
“It’s…old.  My name—it sounds like an old woman to me.”
He smiled enigmatically.  “Yet, you work around old things all the time.”
“I guess I do.”
He leaned his hip against the sturdy wooden table.
“She was Dante’s muse, you know.”
“Of course I know.  That’s why I have the stupid name to begin with.  My dad was a Dante scholar.”  Beatrice looked down to straighten her own papers on the desk.  “Kind of a fanatic, really.”
He cocked his head and studied her.  “Oh?  Does he teach here?”