“I didn’t know either,” she said blithely.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I … we …” She looked at Eli. “We were just going to get some coffee.”
“No, I mean, what are you doing here” — he spread out his arms — “in Kenya?”
“I’m going to be helping out. Here at Brockhurst.”
“Really? For how long?”
The group all seemed to be staring at her, waiting for a reply. She could tell some of them were fixated on the sight of her and Eli holding hands. Katie tried to slowly pull her hand away, but Eli held on a little tighter.
“I’m staying indefinitely.” Katie felt something inside her go wobbly when she said “indefinitely.” It was a true answer from her heart, but it was so — indefinite.
“That’s great, Katie!” One of the girls offered a supportive smile and nod. Katie remembered Kaycee Uy from the World History class they had together two years ago. Kaycee’s straight, dark hair was longer now, but her warm brown eyes expressed the same kindness they had when Katie had last rattled off to her one of her rants about all the reading they had to do for their history class. Kaycee’s encouraging expression meant a lot to Katie now.
“Do you know what time the Coffee Bar opens?” Justine, one of the other girls asked. Katie remembered her, because when Katie had to sign her in for an event, it took three tries before Katie had assembled the letters in Justine’s last name in the right order: V-o-n-d-e-r-h-e-i-d-e. The last time Katie had talked to Justine, she was transferring to another college in Kentucky. This morning she looked like a country fresh girl, with her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, her great smile showing off her straight teeth, and a happy gleam in her clear eyes. She looked way too awake to be in serious need of coffee the way Katie felt she was at the moment.
These were her fellow Rancho Corona friends. Katie didn’t know why she still felt so reserved in front of them.
Eli lifted his arm to look at his watch while still holding Katie’s hand. “I’d say the Coffee Bar should open in about a minute and a half.”
Katie and the others looked at the closed sign and the unattended counter. Why did Eli think someone would come sliding in and be on duty in a minute and a half?
The answer became clear when Eli gave Katie’s hand a tug and briskly led the way behind the counter. Apparently he was the volunteer employee with the morning shift at the Coffee Bar. Still holding on to Katie’s hand, he led her farther behind the counter, where the others couldn’t hear them, and asked, “Are you okay?”
“Of course.”
He gave her a piercing look.
She lowered her voice and turned away from the group. “I felt a little embarrassed for some reason.”
“Of me?”
“No, I’m not embarrassed of you. Not at all.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m embarrassed that this—you and me — is so soon. That we started ‘going together’ so quickly.”
“According to your time frame, it may seem quick, but for me it’s been a year.”
Katie knew that Eli had set his affections on her when she was still dating Rick. Eli had hung in there, patiently waiting and praying.
She tried to explain what she had felt so that he wouldn’t take her embarrassment personally. “I don’t know what some of them might think about us being together.”
Eli pulled back. “What does it matter what they think?”
Katie smoothed back her hair. “You’re right. What does it matter? Why am I worried about that?”
“Exactly. If you’re going to call yourself Princess Hakuna Matata, you need to remember what it means. ‘No worries.’”
Katie smiled.
“If you’re going to find pointless things to worry about, you’re going to have to change your name.”
“Not a chance, Lorenzo.”
Eli gave her a grin. “Well, maybe we should leave the possibility of a name change open. Someday.”
It took Katie a minute to put together the pieces and to realize that he was saying they should leave the possibility open that one day her last name might be changed to Lorenzo. She felt her face flush. Eli had gone to work grinding coffee beans, as if his last comment hadn’t carried such weighty possibilities.
Katie didn’t have time to process what he had just alluded to, because Eli had taken command of the Coffee Bar, and she was trying to keep up with him as he walked her through the steps to sign in, wash up, start the espresso machine, and serve the students who were placing their orders from the handwritten menu on the blackboard hanging over the counter.
Once again Katie felt her worlds collide. A year ago at this time she was learning the ropes at the café Rick managed. He was the one showing her all about food service. What also felt strangely familiar to Katie was that when Eli had come to a pizza night last fall, he had ended up serving beverages to everyone and making himself right at home as he looped Katie into serving alongside him. Here they were, serving beverages again to probably at least one person who had been at that pizza night.
As soon as everyone had been served, Eli said, “It’s your turn. What would you like? I’m buying, remember?”
“I didn’t forget. I’d like one of those mochas like you made for Justine.”
“You got it.” Eli first pulled some Kenyan shillings from his pocket and followed the protocol on the way to take the money and make change that he had explained to Katie earlier. She watched him make her mocha and then asked what he was going to have so they could go sit with the rest of the group.
In a lowered voice, Eli said, “That was all the money I had on me; so how about if you drink as much as you want and save me a few good swigs at the end?”
The first thing Katie thought was how impressed she was with Eli’s integrity. He could have made anything he wanted to drink, and no one but Katie would have known that he hadn’t paid for it. The next thing she thought was how her favorite part of a mocha was the last few sips.
“No way.” She put on a stern expression. “You’re not getting the dregs of my mocha. You and I both know that those last few swigs are the best. All the good stuff settles on the bottom.”
“You are one determined woman, aren’t you?” Eli returned the teasing expression.
“Have you already forgotten how you tried to give me a parking ticket at school last fall and how I fought to get out of it?”
“No, I haven’t forgotten.”
Reaching for her hair, Eli took a few strands and rubbed them between his thumb and forefinger. The tender gesture matched the tender expression on his face. “I haven’t forgotten anything, Katie Girl. Not a single thing.”
Katie pulled back, not sure what to do with his expression of affection. She gave him a playful, taunting look. “Nice try, Lorenzo. But you’re still not getting my mocha dregs.”
“I had a feeling you would say that.” Eli leaned back, crossed his arms, and added, “And that’s such a bummer, because it looks like you’re going to have to find someone else to be your wild monkey patrol guy.”
“What?” Katie put her hands on her hips. “You can’t blackmail me like that.”
“It’s the way of the jungle, sweetheart. Share your mocha dregs or chase your own wild monkeys. It’s up to you.”
“Fine.” Katie shot him a sideways look. He seemed to tower over her, grinning and looking like he was about to beat his chest and let out a crazy Tarzan holler.
Inside, Katie felt as if Eli had scooped up her heart in his brawny arms, and the two of them were swinging through the air on a jungle vine.
5
And you’re sure you got a tetanus shot before coming here, right?”
The doctor looked at Katie over the rim of his glasses.
“Yes, I checked. It’s listed on the papers I brought with me. They’re in my shoulder bag over there.”
Eli’s mom lifted Katie’s bag from where she had left it
beside the desk in one of the guest rooms in Building C where Dr. Powell and his wife were staying. Cheryl brought the bag over to Katie so she could pull out the copies of her immunization forms.
It had been four days since she and Eli had arrived, and the odd little wound on her back was continuing to bother her. That morning she told Cheryl about how the injury had awakened her in the night because it felt hot and was throbbing. Cheryl took a look at it and said a doctor needed to take a look. Blessedly, Dr. Powell and his wife were staying at Brockhurst for two weeks before they returned to the village where they lived and worked in Sudan.
“Yes, this is all in order,” Dr. Powell said. “You got all the right immunizations. That’s the good news. But you definitely have an infection in the wound. I’m going to clean it out for you, and then we’ll see if we can start you on an antibiotic. Do you have any allergies to any medication?”
“No, not that I know of.”
“When was the last time you took an antibiotic?”
Katie couldn’t remember. Aside from catching a cold or the flu every few years, she was a healthy person.
“Any other symptoms?”
“I’m really tired.”
“Have you slept much since you arrived?”
“Not much. Only about four hours at a time before I wake up. It takes a while to fall back to sleep, and then I only manage to get in another couple of hours before I wake up again.”
“That’s not unusual. You’ll adjust the longer you’re here. The formula is that it normally takes one day for every hour of the time difference before your internal clock is set to the local time. What is the time difference from California? Isn’t it eleven hours?”
“I thought it was ten,” Cheryl said. “Or is that only with daylight savings?”
The doctor turned back to Katie and said, “Whatever the difference, the point is you’ve been here a few days already. Give yourself another week, and you’ll be less fatigued. In the meantime, avoid caffeine and take short naps in the afternoon if you can. I’ll see what I can do about some antibiotics for you. If I’m unsuccessful, you might have to take the prescription into Nairobi.”
Katie noticed the expression on Cheryl’s face that seemed to indicate she wasn’t thrilled about having to go to Nairobi.
“Is that a problem?” Katie asked. She liked the idea of seeing the countryside in the daytime and going back to Nairobi.
“It can be,” Cheryl responded. “We’ll see. Last month we had a guest visiting us from Canada. She forgot to bring her blood pressure medication, and we had to take three trips into town and wait in long lines at several places before we finally located what she needed. The antibiotics shouldn’t be as difficult.” She turned to Dr. Powell. “Don’t you think?”
“I’m afraid I never know. I’ll look into it right away. Can you think of anything else you or Jim need while I’m hunting down the antibiotics?”
“No. We’ve both been managing to stay pretty healthy.”
“That’s always good to hear. I saw Eli working at the Lion’s Den last night. He’s looking the best I’ve seen him in years. His time away at college must have been good for him.”
“It was very good.” Cheryl offered Katie a small smile. “Katie went to school with him, and they both graduated a few weeks ago. She’s planning to be here for, hopefully, quite some time.”
Dr. Powell gave Katie’s face a closer exam, as if checking for symptoms of a fatal crush. He must have found what he was looking for, because his diagnosis was, “Well, that’s the best news of the day. For both you and Eli.”
Katie nodded but didn’t try to offer any sort of explanation. She thought of how the conversation had gone around the table yesterday morning when she and Eli “shared” her mocha and sat with the other Rancho students. Eli carefully had dodged every question that was an attempt to corner him into clarifying how serious he and Katie were about each other. The best line he used that morning was, “We’re content to figure it out as we go.”
Katie liked that, because she did feel content. Eli was finding all kinds of clever ways to make his feelings known to her, and her heart was responding to every small gesture and message he sent. But Eli was making it clear that the relationship was theirs to explore.
Dr. Powell patted Katie’s wound with a cotton pad soaked in something that felt cold and smelled awful. She winced at the sting.
“My wife and I have a deep affection for Eli,” Dr. Powell said. “Did he tell you we happened to be here six years ago when he went through his worst bout with malaria?”
“No. I didn’t know Eli had malaria. Didn’t he take his malaria pills?”
“You can get malaria even if you’ve taken all the precautions.”
“I didn’t realize that.”
Dr. Powell finished cleaning and patching her wound and pulled down the back of Katie’s shirt. He took another look at her immunization papers and glanced at his watch. “I need to meet some folks over at Building A. I’ll let you know what I find out about the antibiotics. Great meeting you, Katie. I’m sure we’ll be seeing you a lot in the future.”
“Not if I can help it,” Katie said.
Dr. Powell and Cheryl both looked startled at her reply.
“I meant, you know, since you’re a doctor, I want to stay healthy so that I don’t have to see you often. As a patient.”
“Oh, I see. Well, I meant that I would see you around here. It’s a small community of people who come and go and use this place as a haven. I’m sure you’ll get to know a lot of wonderful folks as they pass through.”
“I look forward to that.” This time Katie didn’t try to be clever. She followed Cheryl out the door and into the rain.
It had been raining off and on for the last three days, and the walkways were slick. Cheryl held a wide umbrella over the two of them, and they walked close together back to the Lorenzos’ cottage.
“I didn’t know Eli had malaria,” Katie said. “Dr. Powell made it sound as if it was pretty bad.”
“It was. He pulled through, obviously, but it was a bad bout. Unfortunately, once you get malaria, you always have it in your system. The sweats and chills can show up years after you were first infected. The immunizations help tremendously, but they’re not a guarantee you’ll never get it.”
Katie felt sobered by this bit of information. She felt as if she had done everything she needed to protect herself from any tropical diseases, and yet she already had managed to get an infection by not properly cleaning out her small puncture wound. She knew better than to leave it untouched all night as she had, with just a couple of tissues pressed up against it. If she had ignored the same injury back at school, she could have easily gotten an infection there as well. Malaria, though, was something she hoped never to have to deal with.
“I’m glad Eli was okay,” Katie said. “I didn’t know it was still so prevalent.”
“Not everyone gets it.” They walked a little farther before Cheryl added, “I’ve never contracted malaria. Jim has. And so did our son Andrew, of course.”
Katie stopped walking. Cheryl came to a halt and turned to look at Katie. She stepped back to where Katie stood and held the umbrella over both of them.
“Eli has a brother?”
Cheryl looked surprised. “He didn’t tell you?”
“No.”
“That’s understandable. Andrew passed away before Eli was born. He was only four months old when he died from malaria.”
Katie felt a clench in her gut. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose an infant. “Cheryl, I didn’t know. I’m so sorry to hear that.”
Cheryl nodded and looked away. “I can see why Eli wouldn’t have said anything to you about him, because Andrew was never really part of Eli’s life.”
Katie could see the pain on Cheryl’s face even though she spoke with quieted emotion.
With equally quieted sympathy, Katie said, “But Andrew was part of your life.”
C
heryl looked at Katie, and the two women exchanged gazes as the rain gently came down around them and made a soft pinging sound on the taut umbrella.
Katie wrapped both her arms around Cheryl and gave her a long hug. “I’m so sorry you lost your firstborn son. So sorry.”
When Katie pulled back, she could see tears in Cheryl’s eyes.
“Thank you for saying that, Katie. It was such a long time ago. Andrew was so small. He was a preemie, and he had respiratory problems from the beginning.” Cheryl dabbed her tears. “We spent a lot of time at the hospital in Johannesburg during the brief four months of his life. There really was nothing that could be done.”
Katie blinked away the tears that had rimmed her eyes and kept looking at Cheryl, not sure what else to say. She didn’t want anything to pop out of her mouth that would sound dumb. Cautiously choosing her words, Katie said, “You guys have faced a lot of difficult situations living in Africa, haven’t you?”
“Yes, we have.” Cheryl drew in what appeared to be a deep breath of courage. “I’m not sure that what we’ve gone through is any more difficult than what everyone else experiences in a lifetime regardless of where that person lives.”
Cheryl started to walk again, and Katie moved right along with her under the big umbrella. All Katie could think about was the terrible experience Eli had recounted to her that had happened to both him and his mom when he was eleven and they lived in Zambia.
Perhaps Eli’s mom would feel comfortable talking about that another day. Not today. One sorrowful memory on a rainy day was enough.
“There are always obstacles in life,” Cheryl said. “But we love it here. We wouldn’t want to live anywhere else or do anything else. This is home to us.”
“I can see that,” Katie said. “For Eli this is home too. I saw it in his face the night we arrived.”
“And is it starting to feel like home for you too, Katie?”
Katie didn’t answer right away.
“Give it time,” Cheryl said confidently.
The two women arrived at the cottage, and Cheryl shook out the wet umbrella. Katie opened the door. Eli looked up from where he was reading a book on the small sofa that was once again covered with papers and files. Katie had found Eli reading more than once over the past few days, and each time it surprised her. College was over. He didn’t have to read books on theology or Star Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere. But he said he wanted to. Eli told her last night about how much he loved to read. Katie didn’t know any guy who loved to read. This was one of the curious discoveries Katie was making about Eli. His personality was becoming more and more attractive to her.
Finally and Forever Page 5