And then, I heard a tinny voice through the phone.
“I’m not shouting at you, Bahati. You have no idea how glad I am that you called.” Jack paced back and forth as a stream of words came through.
“There’s a spare key in my desk. Top drawer, right-hand side. But that’s not—” Jack shook his head as Bahati rattled on. “Just tell Goma to wait until I get home. There’s someth—” Jack threw his hands up and went silent.
“Are you done?” he asked, when the chatter at the other end stopped. “Yes? Now I talk, you listen. Deal?” He must have got an affirmative because he continued. “Ro and I are stranded in Magesa. The car broke down. No. It’s just us. No kids. I’ll explain when you get here. Yes. I want you to come get us. I know . . .” He held the phone away from his ear as Bahati squeaked at the other end. “I know you don’t. But you won’t be making any stops in Maasai land. You’ll be driving straight through. Who cares about Lonyoki’s vision? You don’t believe in those superstitions, do you? Okay, so now’s your chance to prove it. Prove his prophecy wrong.”
There was more protesting before Jack spoke again. “Look, I’ll make it worth your while. I don’t know. New seats for Suzi? It doesn’t matter. Black leather, red leather, pink fucking zebra. Whatever you want. Yes. Yes! And one more thing. How’s Scholastica?” Jack paused and nodded. “Good. That’s great. Bring her too. We’re close to Wanza. We’ll take her to the orphanage, get her settled in, and sort out my car on the way back. If you leave now, you can make it here by morning. Rodel and I will set up camp tonight. No, not Magesa.” Jack scanned the village. There was a latrine pit at one end, and when the wind blew the door open, a foul stench filled the hot, humid air. “Meet us on the other side of the hill. You’ll see it when you get here. We’ll wait for you there. Right.” He hung up and exhaled.
“Bahati’s coming?”
“He is.” Jack shook his head like he couldn’t quite believe it. “And Scholastica’s feeling better, so he’s bringing her too. We just ha—” His phone rang again.
“Yes?” he answered. Then he laughed. “Really, Bahati? No gas money? That’s the best you can come up with? Put Goma on the line. Oh? You don’t want to get her involved? That’s right. Or she’ll make you drive through Maasai land in her muumuu. I know you don’t want to. Do it for me, okay? No, you still get the seats. The seats stand, plus, I will be forever indebted. Yes? Okay.”
We watched the phone for a few more moments after Jack hung up, but it didn’t ring again.
“You think?” I asked.
“I think.” Jack put the phone away. “He’s going to come through.”
WE SENSED THE rain before it came, in racing clouds that thrummed with charged energy. I was securing the poles at the base of the tent when it started falling, rolling over us in thick, warm sheets.
“Get inside,” Jack shouted over the rumbling of the sky. “I’ll finish off.”
“I got this one. You fix the other side.”
By the time we crawled into the tent, we were wet and soggy but exhilarated from racing against the storm.
“No, leave it open,” I said, as Jack went to zip the door shut. “I want to watch.” I leaned back on my elbows, trying to catch my breath.
We lay beneath the raining canvas, gazing through the tent flaps. In the distance, thorn trees stood in iron silhouette against the gray sky. Water mingled with the cindery soil, filling the air with the sweet, earthy fragrance of rain.
Jack grew still. Too still.
“Are you okay?” I asked. His hair was wetly draped over the bones of his chiseled face.
“It’ll take some time,” he replied, staring into the light. “I can’t shake off this feeling—of wanting to stand by Lily’s side, so she’s not alone out there, in the rain. I know it doesn’t make any sense, I know she’s gone, but a part of me still wants to protect her.”
A train whistled in the far distance, and somewhere on the water-washed plains, a solitary jackal whined at the flash of lightning.
“I’m sorry.” Jack blinked and tilted his head to look at me. “Sometimes I get so wrapped up in it, I don’t see the whole picture. At least I got Lily back. They never recovered your sister’s body. That had to be tough.”
“It was. It is.” I folded my arms around my knees and rested my chin there. “But then I think that maybe Mo would have wanted it that way. She never wanted to stay in one place. She felt boxed in. And now she’s . . . free. She would have laughed at my thwarted mission. First, that I crawled out of my comfort zone for her. And then at how wrong everything went, how I couldn’t get even one of her kids to Wanza. If there’s a lesson behind things, I wonder what I’m supposed to learn from it.”
“Maybe the lesson is not for you but for me. So you can teach me that it’s okay to sit in the rain without Lily, and not feel like dying.”
He leaned in and something wild swirled in the pit of my stomach. It wasn’t just a kiss. It was a lesson—a fierce, burning imprint, so that my lips would always know the difference between being wanted and being craved. The world washed away in a blurry, wet painting. All that was left was Jack’s hot breath, the firmness of his lips, the way his drenched clothes clung to his body. When he pulled back, he was breathing hard, like he’d run a long, long way.