The Testament

In São Paulo, aware that no one knows where he is, Nate feels anxious and lonely. He wonders if a slower reentry into the world beyond rehab would have been helpful and phones Sergio for reassurance. On his next flights to his destination, Corumbá, Nate assesses the newness of the environment around him, pleasantly surprised to discover familiar elements, though the pace is slower and less intense.

At 17, Valdir Ruiz studied in Iowa for a year before returning to Brazil to attend law school and then take up a post with his uncle’s firm. The ways of American lawyers—press conferences and talk shows—puzzle him. He cannot understand their thirst for attention. Court appearances and “American-style litigation” are also absent from his legal practice in Brazil (102). Though he has dreamed “of what might have been in the big city,” he is “a pleasant man, happy with his life in the way most Brazilians tend to be” (102).

Later, in Ruiz’s office, Nate admires the decor, which makes him feel like an actor in a 50-year-old film. His search for Rachel Lane will take him to the wetlands of the Pantanal in search for settlements of Indigenous Brazilians.