The Testament

Ruiz arranges for a pilot, Milton, to fly Nate over the Pantanal on Christmas Eve by promising him more money. Nate’s guide is Jevy, who drives him to the deserted airport. The weathered condition of Milton’s single-engine Cessna worries Nate, but Jevy assures him that Milton, who has a wife and four children, does not want to die. Nate calls to check in with Sergio, choosing not to tell him about the previous day’s temptation.

Shortly into the flight, clouds begin to thicken, and despite Milton’s efforts to outrun it, a violent storm overtakes them. A crash seems inevitable, but at the last moment a strip of grass appears, and Milton manages to land the plane. It hits a cow, then flips over. All three men survive with minor cuts and bruises.

Nate resolves the anger of the cow’s owner, Marco, with financial compensation, after which Marco hospitably brings the men to his home. As they eat with his wife and three sons, the men ponder their options. Navigating the waterways of the Pantanal will take hours, and Marco does not know if he has enough gas for the journey. Using Nate’s satellite phone, the men call various pilots whom Milton knows in Corumbá, but no one is available. Jevy, who served in the army, phones a base near Corumbá and eventually is promised a rescue helicopter.

Meanwhile, Marco’s sons take Nate on a horse ride through the local pastures, swamps, and rivers. Colonized more than 200 years earlier, the Pantanal remains unchanged. Nate wonders about education for the children and whether they will choose to remain or flee to Corumbá. As the group rides through piranha-infested waters and passes an alligator, Nate is anxious, but the boys betray no concerns. Nate laughs at his own anxiety, then reflects that he could “sell this back home” to friends “who were into extreme vacations” in pursuit of “near-death experiences” they could spin into stories (129).

Back in Corumbá, Jevy offers a bottle of beer to Milton and Nate, who hesitates only slightly before assuring himself that he can “handle it” (132). He has had a rough time but is “no closer to Rachel Lane” (132). Back at his hotel, he drinks all four beers in the refrigerator, insisting to himself that he is not beginning a slide. He does not phone Sergio.

The following day, Nate is sore and bruised but feels no negative effects from the beer, “other than guilt” (134). A phone call from Ruiz awakens him. Ruiz has found a boat to take him through the Pantanal.

Nate assures himself that he has not begun another slide and goes out for a run, but with the heat and his lingering injuries, he is only able to walk. Gazing at the Pantanal on the horizon, he reflects on Rachel Lane and what he has learned about her. Phelan seduced her mother, Evelyn, a native of Louisiana, when she was young and naive, then arranged for the adoption of her child. Back home in her small town, Evelyn and her family eventually became outcasts, and she died by suicide five years after giving birth to Rachel. Father and daughter met when Rachel was 18, but nothing is known about the meeting.

Jevy finds Nate while he is out walking and takes him to see the boat for which Ruiz has arranged: a 60-foot craft that has been used for tours of the Pantanal. Nate is eager to avoid planes after the previous day’s experiences.

At “a cozy Christmas dinner” that Lillian planned for her family, they exchange “fabulous gifts” chosen “without regard to cost,” but after Troy arrives “late and drunk,” fighting with his wife, and tempers flare all around (144-45). Lillian’s grandchildren disappear into the basement with a cooler of beer while the adults drift to separate corners of the house. The various “armies of lawyers” have fueled flames of discord and distrust among the family members, claiming to be advocating for their clients’ interests while actually “figuring ways to get a larger piece of the pie” (145).

Phelan’s second wife, Janie, spends Christmas in Switzerland while her daughter, Geena, spends it with her husband, Cody, and his family up east. The family’s money has dried up, but they have retained the prestige of their name. Geena detests their phoniness and their condescension toward “new money” (147). They greet her with stiff smiles and snipe behind her back.

Phelan’s third wife, Tira, is “on a beach somewhere” with “a young gigolo” while Ramble is in the care of his lawyer, Yancy, unaware that Yancy is billing him “six hundred dollars an hour” (148). While Ramble plays video games with his 11-year-old twin boys, Yancy frets over Tira’s aggressive lawyers, who are trying to pull Ramble into their corner.

Overwhelmed with loneliness, depression, and self-pity, Nate finds an open deli and buys two bottles of vodka. Back in his room, he vows not to stop drinking “until both [are] empty” (151). The next morning, Jevy arrives at the boat to find Welly, the young deckhand, but no sign of Nate. After helping the mechanic, Jevy heads to Nate’s hotel and finds him passed out in his room naked. He considers reporting this to Ruiz but decides to help Nate first. With great effort, he gets Nate on his feet, showered, and to the boat. It is two in the afternoon when they finally set out.

In a hammock on the deck, Nate fights nausea as he watches the landscape, assuring himself that he will get things under control. He phoned Josh before leaving the hotel, claiming to be doing fine. Exhorting himself not to think about Christmas, his “broken memories,” and his addictions, he vows to “dry out in the Pantanal” (157).

Exhausted by all that he has been through, Nate slips into a deep, dreamless sleep. When he awakens, they are wending their way through the Paraguay River, navigating alligators and sandbars. Nate marvels that he is “alive and sober,” having once again “touched briefly the edge of hell and survived” (159). Welly gives him coffee and later strums a guitar. After a while, they pass a small house, the first sign of human habitation since leaving Corumbá. Nate wonders what the money will do to Rachel Lane. He notes how time seems to have stopped here and reflects that he will “always crash” back home (164). At night, it is too hot to sleep in his cabin. He brings his papers up to the deck and reads in the hammock by flashlight.

Leading up to the reading of Phelan’s will, Wycliff fends off demands from reporters, who want interviews and cameras inside the courtroom, and the family’s lawyers, who have conflicting demands either for a closed or a televised hearing. On the day of the reading, reporters begin arriving early. Wycliff anticipates being “the center of the storm” for years to come, given the fortune at stake (168). When the family members arrive, they try to avoid sitting near each other, but it becomes impossible as the courtroom grows increasingly full. It is evident that they hate each other.

Josh arrives shortly before nine in the morning with Durban and others from their firm. All eyes are on the document that he removes from a thick file. Wycliff opens the session by questioning Josh, who now reveals publicly that Phelan signed a holographic will just before his death. Immediately, the family members begin to fear that “the old man [had] screwed them one last time” (176). Wycliff reads the one-page will, and family members begin to cry. The reporters are elated. The lawyers’ only hope of seeing any money for their services will be to contest the will. Wycliff adjourns.

In the hallways outside the courtroom, three fights break out between Phelan family members and the press. Deputies rush the family out of the building. The story hits the news quickly. The CEO of the Phelan Group, Pat Solomon, goes largely unnoticed in the courtroom. He is pleased with the contents of the new will, having had only negative experiences with Phelan’s children. An informal meeting of the board turns “festive” as they discuss the wives, children, and lawyers. None of them knows who Rachel Lane is.

Back in his office after the reading, Josh takes a call from Nate, who reports that his boat is currently entangled in some old rope but otherwise progressing. Josh informs him that the will has been read, and he must find Rachel Lane since “[t]he whole world will soon be looking for” her (186).

As night falls, a bad storm batters the boat. Jevy fights to maintain control against the relentless wind. Concerned that the boat will either capsize or be pushed into the side of the river with “the reptile,” Nate worries about the legal papers that he needs Rachel to sign and the satellite phone. He rushes down to the cabin and picks up the briefcase in which both are stashed. It occurs to him that if Rachel Lane does not sign the papers, someone will be forced to make this trip again. After the storm clears, they inspect the boat to make sure that no snakes or alligators have found their way on board.

Nate no longer wears a wristwatch. After sleeping for a few hours, he relieves Welly at the wheel of the boat, reflecting that “[i]t beat the hell out of a courtroom” (192).