by D. R. Graham
“Six,” Mason said and collected our trays to return them.
“He’s joking, right?” Sophie asked Orrett in a panic.
“Nope. We wake up at six, eat breakfast, and start working. It’s cooler in the morning.”
Sophie groaned. “I have to go to bed now then. Where did Ma—” she stopped herself from saying his name, glanced at me, and started over with a completely different question. “I’m really not a morning person. Do you think I can get some of those Tylenol 3s too?”
Orrett laughed because she was genuinely worried about the early wake-up call for hard labour.
“I’m serious. If you guys don’t want your faces ripped off in the morning, I need to go to bed now,” she said and looked around the room. “Where’s Bill? I’m not walking around in the dark by myself.”
Mason came back and walked us to the bathrooms, which looked like a classroom portable. He waited outside, and when we were done he walked us to the medical tent for the painkillers and then back to our tent. Sophie unzipped the flap and crawled in. I stood outside with Mason to say good night. He turned off the lantern and I couldn’t see his face. He stepped closer and his fingers slid down my arm to my hand as if he wanted to hold it. I might have been wrong. It was dark. Maybe it was an accidental touch. Regardless, I moved my arm to make his hand fall away from mine.
He leaned in and whispered in my ear, “I’m really glad you’re here.”
I closed my eyes for a second before I responded, “I’m glad I’m here, too. Thanks for the horseback riding, and the broken arm, and the medical treatment. Oh, and thanks for the average dinner. I’m not a snob.”
“I know.” He laughed. “Good night, Derian.”
“Good night, Bill.”
“It’s just the two of us. You can call me Mason.”
“Good night, Mason.”
I didn’t see him leave. I could only hear his footsteps getting quieter as he got farther away. I climbed into the tent and flopped onto the bed. Sophie rolled over and muttered, “He’s working you. Be careful.”
I didn’t say anything because it felt like maybe she was right.
CHAPTER 12
The next morning I woke up to the sound of tapping on our tent frame. Sophie groaned and pulled the sleeping bag over her head. I sat up and crawled over to unzip the door. Mason had a big grin on his face. “Rise and shine. Breakfast is in ten minutes.”
I rubbed my eyes.
“You look cute in the morning.” He winked.
Not sure if he was teasing or flirting, and uncomfortable with both, I patted my frizzed hair down. “We’ll meet you at the mess tent.”
After a slight pause, where it felt like he was trying to interpret my tone, he nodded before he turned and walked away. I watched him for a while, then crawled back inside to try to wake Sophie up. I got dressed and poked her one more time. She threw a shoe at me as I crawled out of the tent, which was relatively civil for her that early in the morning. I knew she wouldn’t get up for breakfast, but she’d be ready to work.
In the mess tent, I sat down at the table with Mason, Orrett, and the nurse. I looked down at the tray of food in front of me and tried to figure out what the yellowy goop was exactly. “Is this eggs or oatmeal?”
Mason chuckled. “Just eat it. You’re going to need the fuel because I’m going to work you like a donkey today.”
“I have a disability.” I held up my brace. “Because of you, I might add.”
“All I did was take you horseback riding. You’re the one who tried to mount a temperamental horse from the wrong side.”
“Fine, my disability might be due to my own inexperience. It still hurts, though.”
“All right, you can be my assistant.”
“What does your assistant have to do?” I asked warily.
“Whatever I tell her to do.”
I rolled my eyes and wrinkled my nose. “I’d rather haul lumber or dig an irrigation ditch.”
“I can arrange that.” He made a face back at me and reached over to tickle my waist.
Okay. That one was definitely a flirty thing. Orrett and the nurse exchanged glances with each other, as if they were amused with our bantering. “You two act like you’ve known each other forever,” the nurse commented.
“Thank goodness we haven’t,” Mason said without missing a beat. “I don’t think I could tolerate large doses of her.”
“Are ya sure?” Orrett asked in a goading way. “I haven’t seen you smile this much in the entire time I’ve been here.”
My face felt as if it burst into scarlet blotches. Mason’s face didn’t blush, but he ran his finger along the scar that cut through his eyebrow. “I smile,” he defended himself.
“Not like that,” the nurse agreed and stood up with her tray. “Have a good day, everyone.” She stopped and turned to say one more thing to Mason, “I sent your lab work in. I should have the results soon.”
Mason pressed his lips together in a polite I-wish-you-hadn’t-said-that kind of smile, but said, “Thanks.”
Orrett patted Mason on the back and stood up with his tray. “It’s good to see you looking happy, man.” He pointed at me and added, “Don’t let him work you too hard.”
He walked away and left Mason and me sitting at the table in silence. I tasted the yellowy goop. It wasn’t too bad—whatever it was. Mason watched me as he twirled a spoon between his fingers.
“What lab work?” I asked.
“They made me do some blood tests because I haven’t been feeling that well. Just routine. No big deal.”
“What do they think it is?”
“It’s most likely a low-grade virus or possibly a parasite.” He leaned his elbows on the table in an avoidance tactic that I didn’t fall for.
“Both Orrett and the nurse seem worried.”
He shook his head to dismiss the concern. “You’re the one who should be worried.” With a mischievous grin he took the spoon from my hand and licked both sides before giving it back. “It might be a rare contagious jungle fever and I just contaminated you.”
“Stop pretending it’s not serious.”
“It’s not.” He sat back and his mood shifted. “I’ll take some medication and be fine.”
“And what about earlier? They both said they haven’t seen you this happy.” I made eye contact with him to make sure he knew I wasn’t going to let him brush everything off with a joke. “If it’s because I’m here, we need to talk about that. I came here because I thought we could be friends. If that’s not how you feel and you’re hoping for something more, I should go back.”
He uncrossed his arms and sat forward again “I don’t want you to go.”
“Well, I don’t want to be here if you’re hoping to be more than friends. I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear about that.”
“You were clear. You love Trevor. I respect that.” He stood with his tray. “I just want to enjoy the time we do have together—as friends.”
I felt bad for pushing the point when he hadn’t stepped over the line. I just wanted to remind him there was a line. “I don’t want you to get hurt when I leave.”
“I’m a big boy.” He reached over to stack my tray on his. “Stop stalling. You’re not going to get out of working.”
I didn’t want to make a big deal about it if it didn’t need to be, so I stood and followed him. Without saying a word to each other, we walked to get Sophie from the tent. I brought her a cup of coffee and, as I suspected, she was at least dressed for work. She was still curled up on the cot, though, so Mason went in and lifted her up, draped her over his shoulder like a fire fighter, then ran and made a motion like he was going to throw her in the creek.
“Do it and I’ll say the M word,” she threatened.
He immediately put her down and raised his hands in the air to surrender.
She pointed at him with a cautionary glare. “Don’t mess with me.”
He laughed. “Right, I almost forgot how ferocious you can be.
”
“Some things never change,” she said sweetly.
“No.” He glanced sideways at me. “Some things don’t. Come with me. You two are on special assignment today.”
We followed him towards the construction site. His comment stuck with me as we walked. Hopefully his feelings weren’t the ‘some things’ that didn’t change. Even if that was what he meant, we were only staying one more night. How much emotional damage could be done in forty-eight hours?
We passed a group of volunteers getting buckets of paint ready. I liked painting and it wouldn’t be too bad with just one hand. But Mason kept walking towards some people arranging trees for planting. I liked gardening too, but my cast would probably be a bit of a pain. He kept walking, right past the construction site. Into the forest. “Uh, where are we going?” I asked, not comfortable being away from the camp.
“You’ll see. It’s a surprise.” He turned and grinned at me when he said it because it’s what he used to always say to me. Surprises were his thing.
As we got further away from the volunteers, I heard children playing beyond the trees. After another minute of hiking along a narrow path we arrived in a grassy clearing that was full of children in school uniforms. The boys wore navy-blue shorts and white polo shirts. Most of them were chasing a soccer ball around, a few sat in the shade under a tree. The girls wore navy-blue jumpers over white blouses. Most of them were busy skipping rope and doing cartwheels, a few were playing catch.
The three-sided, slanted-roof building on the far side of the clearing looked kind of like a picnic shelter but served as the existing school. A woman, who I assumed was the teacher, set lesson books out on the three rows of benches. As we crossed the field, she saw us and waved. “Hola, Señor Murray.”
The children heard her and came rushing to swarm around Mason. They gave him high-fives and hugs. He said something in Spanish that made them all stand perfectly quiet with their hands pressed against their sides. He surveyed each child, then smiled at one boy, who was standing particularly still. It appeared he was holding his breath and trying not to blink. Mason pulled a shiny metal toy car out of his shorts pocket and gave it to the boy. The other kids seemed so happy for him for earning it and they patted him on the back.
Mason looked at us and winked. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to Gabriela. She’s the teacher. You’re going to be helping her today. Are you both okay with that?”
“Absolutely,” Sophie said with a level of enthusiasm that I hadn’t heard her use about anything in a long time.
Mason and I both watched as Sophie jumped right in to play soccer with the boys.
Orrett must have told Mason that Sophie was considering going into education. He had always been so thoughtful and that definitely hadn’t changed. It was the perfect opportunity for her. “Thank you,” I said as I turned to face him. “Still in the business of making people’s dreams come true, I see.”
His face was already lit up from seeing how happy he had made Sophie, but his smile widened even more. “Like I said, some things don’t change.”
“Apparently.”
He introduced me to Gabriela and once we were settled, Mason left to go back to the construction site. Gabriela was so sweet. Her English was not great and since Sophie took Japanese in high school and I took French, our Spanish was too horrendous to communicate well with her. We got by with hand gestures and the little boy who earned the toy car from Mason translated what he could for us. His name was Hector and he spoke English quite well. The language the children were speaking to each other was their native language. According to Hector, only about half the villagers spoke Spanish and very few spoke English.
“How did you learn English?” I asked Hector.
“Señor Murray. He teaches me. He teaches all of us. I learn the best.”
“You do learn the best,” I said.
The children did a writing lesson first. Sophie and I handed out books when asked and collected papers when the children were finished. Gabriela also recruited us to say the English vocabulary words on their spelling test. Midway through the morning, the students got a break, like a recess. I played soccer with one group of students and Sophie sang songs to a group under a tree. The children adored her singing and she ended up having quite a large crowd of kids around her. Gabriela noticed and brought a guitar out of a storage shed for Sophie to play. Eventually, all of the children joined the circle on the ground near Sophie. She taught them silly songs that we had learned at summer camp when we were kids. The kids laughed when I did the accompanying actions for “The Wheels on the Bus”, even though most of them didn’t have a clue what we were singing about. Gabriela also played a few Spanish songs that the children sang along to.
After the break, the children did a math lesson, which I could actually help them with since it was just addition for the younger children and long division for the older children. The last lesson before lunch was a craft, so we helped with that too. Well, I did what I could with one good hand and the fingers of my braced hand. Hector worked really hard and tied more pieces of ceramic and glass to his wind chime than everyone else. His was so adorned that it was almost too heavy for the string that he used at the top.
“Miss Darianna,” he said to me. “Please. Give to Señor Murray. Much thank you.” He handed me his heavy wind chime.
“He’s going to love it. You can give it to him yourself, though. He’s right over there.” I pointed over Hector’s shoulder at Mason, who had just stepped out of the forest and was walking towards us across the clearing.
Hector ran towards Mason, a bit lopsided because the wind chime was weighing him down on one side. Mason picked him up and gave him a hug. They talked for a while in Spanish, then Hector ran off. Mason continued over to Sophie and me. “So, how’d it go?” he asked.
“I loved it,” I said. “But are we done already? It’s only lunch.”
“They only have classes in the mornings. You can help out again tomorrow if you want to.”
“I would love to do that,” Sophie said, still beaming from the experience. “The kids are absolutely adorable. I’m so glad we came here. I can see why you’ve stayed for so long.”
“Yeah.” He nodded and glanced around. “It’s rewarding.”
“What’s next?” she asked.
“Siesta. Everyone rests while it’s hot. First we eat a big lunch, then you can go back to your tent and take a nap.”
“Sanctioned naps. I officially love this place,” Sophie chirped and headed across the clearing.
I turned to face Mason. “Thanks for setting this up. Sophie has been going through some stuff and I think this is just what she needed.” I hugged him, partly out of a genuine desire to do it and partly out of habit, but it felt strange. I ended it abruptly and rushed to follow Sophie, so it wouldn’t seem as awkward.
Mason caught up to us before we entered the forest and I could tell without even looking at him that he was smiling. When we got back to the construction site, Mason hung his gift from Hector outside his tent and then we all headed to the mess tent together. He wasn’t kidding when he said they ate a huge meal. It was actually good too, or maybe I was just really hungry.
After lunch, Mason walked us back to the tent and Sophie crawled in. I was about to kneel in behind her when he grasped my elbow and then pressed his finger to his lips. “Shh.” He smiled and motioned with his finger for me to join him. “I want to show you something.”
I bit at my bottom lip as I studied his expression. “What is it?”
“A surprise.” He extended his arm and wrapped his hand around mine.
I glanced down at our intertwined fingers.
“Trust me.” He tugged gently. I did trust him and I was curious, so I followed him down a path on the other side of the village. It led through dense trees that reminded me of the forest in Britannia Beach. We reached a field of big boulders and climbed over them one at a time. Eventually, we reached a secluded pool of water that was shade
d by the trees. It was fed by a small waterfall and trickled into a stream below. The trees formed a canopy to block just enough of the sun to make it the perfect temperature.
“Remind you of anything?” he asked as he sat down on the soft, bright-green carpet of moss and grass mixed together.
I nodded and spun slowly to take it all in. The perimeter of the clearing was thick with waxy green bushes covered in huge blooms of pink tropical flowers. “It’s like where we went for our third date.”
He smiled, obviously glad that I remembered. I sat next to him and we took our shoes off to dip our feet in the pristinely clear water.
“Do you always come here for your siesta?”
“Sometimes. When I want to be alone.”
“Are we alone?”
He raised his eyebrows in a suggestive way. “Why?”
“I’m just a little scared being this far away from the village. Does your bodyguard know where we are?”
“We’re not alone—alone enough for privacy, though, if you have something else in mind.”
“I have a boyfriend, Bill.”
He chuckled. “I know that. You’re the one who was insinuating.”
I shoved his shoulder lightly. “I wasn’t insinuating anything. I was just concerned for my safety.”
He lifted his feet out of the water and leaned back on the grass, then pulled my elbow so I would lie next to him. “You can call me Mason when we’re alone. And you’re safe.”
I glanced at him, cautious and reluctant to send the wrong message by having a nap with him. Who naps in the Mexican wilderness? His eyes were already closed. It was a peaceful place. And I absolutely wasn’t going to try to find my own way back to the tent. As a silent gesture to firmly establish the friend boundary, I scooted over so there was a body-width between us.
Mason chuckled. “Trevor is really lucky. I hope he appreciates how lucky he is.”
“He does.”
“Then what are you worried about?”
“Relationships are hard. It’s not like you just say I love you and everything is perfect all the time. Trevor and I have to work to keep things going well. Responsibilities get in the way. People get in the way. This,” I motioned with my finger between us, “is not helping.”