A Short Walk Through a Wide World

Marta listens to Aubry’s story, particularly fascinated by the infinite library. Aubry says that she has found the library many times, in many different places: in the North American prairies, in an iceberg near Greenland, and in the middle of a giant tree in Madagascar. Suddenly, there will be an impossible door, and she will walk into an underground passage filled with books, plants, and food and through paths that lead her beneath oceans and mountains and out of deserts and jungles.

They reach Juneau and go to the nearest saloon to buy beer. Aubry has forgotten that Prohibition is in effect and that there is no alcohol to buy.

Aubry sits in a Roman-style room of the library with lava flowing beneath a stone bridge. She looks at a book about a botanist who traveled the world discovering new flowers, including one “as big as a Chinese lantern, as red as an open wound” that releases a cloud of pollen so thick and potent that it can put a horse to sleep for a week (281).

Suddenly, a voice calls her, and she sees an old woman on a bridge. The woman shouts, “Your mother is dying! […] Go to her! It’s safe!” and then runs away across the bridge (282). Aubry tries to follow but loses her in the labyrinth of rooms. She walks through a door and wanders into a city that she does not recognize. Then, she sees the Eiffel Tower and realizes that she is in Paris, but the city is so different after decades of change that she hardly recognizes it. She wonders how much a place must change before her sickness considers it new ground. Then, she runs home and knocks on the door.

Her father opens the door and hugs her, shocked and crying. Her sisters also greet her and then take her to her mother. Aubry tells her mother about some of the incredible things she has seen. Her mother asks for forgiveness, but Aubry cannot understand what she is apologizing for, and she cries.

Aubry sleeps in a chair by her mother. Her sister Sylvie sees blood and wakes Aubry with a scream. The family hurriedly packs her things and tells her to leave, but Aubry refuses, crying and trying to stay with her mother. Finally, her father carries her out to an automobile. He and Pauline drive her out of the city. She knows that she will not see her home again.

As they drive, Pauline confides that she is studying medicine because she hoped to cure Aubry. They take her to a barn in the farmland beyond Paris. There, they meet a man who owns a biplane. He offers to fly Aubry anywhere she wants. Her father ruefully says that he thought it would be better than walking. She bids her father farewell and climbs onto the plane, asking the pilot to take her to Constantinople. She never sees her father again.

Marta returns from a general store with a large globe. She marks each library entrance and exit on the globe, connecting lines between them. When she finishes, the pattern is “like a chain of stars, arms interlocked, circling the globe” (294).

Juneau is one of the largest ports in the world, but as Aubry tries to choose a destination, she realizes that she has been to most places already. Her sickness speaks in her head, noting that it is becoming increasingly difficult to chart a new course. It says that she must be more thoughtful about her decisions.

Aubry books passage on a ship heading for Vancouver. Marta insists on joining her, but Aubry warns that she will likely die.

After staying in Constantinople for several days, Aubry boards a ship to Odessa, Ukraine. On the boat, she bumps into a man and realizes that it is Lionel Kyengi, whom she has not seen since the train in Russia. Even 15 years later, Lionel is still handsome. He asks how she has been, and she says that she has been lonely without him. Then, a woman and two children arrive, and he introduces them as his family.

Lionel’s wife can see from her expression how Aubry feels. After some small talk, she takes the children into the boat and leaves Lionel and Aubry to talk. Aubry is delighted that Lionel has children. He says that he loves his children and has a good life but that he still regrets not going with Aubry the day she left. Now he is dying, and the doctors say that he has six months or a year left. He is taking his children on a trip to show them the world before he is gone.

For two years, Aubry and Marta travel together. They reach the wilderness of the Congo, but Marta is sick with malaria. While Aubry tries to care for Marta and hunt for supplies, she is surrounded by people of an indigenous tribe carrying weapons. Fearfully, she drops her spear and tries to appear harmless. They take both women back to their village. An old woman treats Marta’s illness.

Delirious, Marta shows Aubry a photo from her binder of notes. It is a picture of Aubry stepping off a boat. Marta says that she saw the photo in a newspaper when she was 15 years old and immediately fell in love with Aubry. She has “spent [her] life chasing things [she] could not have” (314).

Aubry is unsure of whether she can stay long enough for Marta to recover, and she fears that she will have to leave her there. That night, she hears a strange noise in the jungle beyond the village and goes out to investigate.

Aubry follows the noise. She finds a group of monkeys sleeping on the forest floor, which is odd because they stay in the treetops where it is safer. She hears something fall and sees another monkey topple from a branch to the ground. Then, she finds an elephant also asleep. Aubry runs back toward the village. By now, many animals litter the jungle floor, and she knows that something is wrong.

In the village, she sees something shimmering in the air, like particles glowing in the moonlight. She inspects each hut and finds everyone asleep, including Marta, as if everyone has gone into hibernation.

Aubry stays by Marta’s side all night and the next day, hoping that she will wake up soon. She wonders if the hibernation will end before her sickness catches up with her.

Something wakes Aubry in the middle of the night. She steps out of the hut and sees a thick fog spreading from the trees toward the village. Panicking, she tries to wake Marta while holding her breath. The fog spreads until she can barely see, and her lungs scream for air. Marta does not wake, and Aubry is forced to run. She escapes the fog in a marsh, where she sees hundreds of enormous, red flowers releasing their pollen into the air. Suddenly, she recalls the book in the library about the flower with pollen that can put animals to sleep for a week. She wonders how powerful a whole field of them might be.

She dives into the water to avoid the pollen and is dragged toward a whirlpool. She fights against the current, but it pulls her under.