They embraced and began speaking in rapid Portuguese. Curtis gradually gleaned that Paolo was not simply a custodial employee of the city tourism department. He’d actually built the stairs himself, with his father, sixty years earlier. Now he lived with his wife in a one-room cabin near the base of the steps, and every day he worked to maintain the stairway. Later, Rob and Curtis ate dinner in that cabin, spicy stewed pork served over rice. Rob and Paolo kept a running conversation in Portuguese that Curtis couldn’t understand as Rob finished bowl after bowl of stew.
