He raised his glass and saluted me across the table.
It was a wonderful meal and I thoroughly enjoyed the company. Once, I thought of Dad and wondered where he might be. Whether he was alive or not. But then Kamene wanted to know how we had travelled from Berne, and we began to relate our story. Between the four of them, Nin, Yuki, Josh and Alice talked about how we had left Switzerland, flown to Sudan and travelled down to Moyale and then on to here. Uncle Phil chuckled several times and seemed very pleased. Mum, on the other hand, exclaimed in dismay every now and then and hugged Alice close. “Oh, my little darling. That you had to live through all of this!”
“But Mum! I am not a baby! It was a great adventure and I wasn’t afraid. Because Lia was there!”
I tousled her hair. “Not just me, but everybody you like was there with you, weren’t they. Tiger?”
She beamed over at Paul and the others and vigorously nodded her head.
“You know, Mum, I was never afraid, because they all looked after me, Piglet and Malinda.”
Mum then wanted to know, who Malinda was, and Alice spent a happy fifteen minutes regaling Mum and whoever else could hear it, about how she had gotten Malinda and what a very, very brave rabbit-girl she was, much more up to snuff than Piglet.
Alice clearly was enjoying herself immensely. Good.
I turned toward Kamene and asked her to tell us how they had gotten here. But she shook her head and declared that there had been enough excitement for the day. We would all get together tomorrow and hear how each group had travelled here, what they had seen and encountered. This was important, she pointed out, to gain a larger picture of where we stood.
Nate chipped in, too, and said that he wanted to hear a lot more about how we had managed, and everything. But not now. Tonight we were all too tired.
“But just briefly, how did it go?” I insisted.
“Well, briefly: we hid for about a month north of Vancouver, deep in a fjord. Afterwards, Phil decided to head westward, we crossed the Pacific and made our way carefully through the Timor sea between Papua New Guinea and Australia, picked up Rob’s brother.” he chuckled when he saw our amazed faces. “Yes, that was quite a feat. As we were passing along the Australian coast, Phil suddenly declared that we’d have to stop over to pick somebody up. We were all thunderstruck. But sure enough, as we approached the rendez-vous-point, there was Rob’s brother Jack waiting for us. Apparently, Phil had contacted him before the onslaught and ordered him to wait for us, we would pass there sometime in May. It was incredible, really. Anyway, we were very glad to have Jack, as we encountered some very rough weather later. We crossed the Indian Ocean on a northward route and came down to Mombasa. Once we’d found Daniel’s daughter-in-law, Phil steered north again toward Kilifi, where we hid the boat in an estuary. Actually, the most difficult bit was the journey from the coast up here.”
“Did you ever see signs of survivors or of Nemesis?” Josh wanted to know.
“Yes, both.” Nate nodded at him. “On the way we did. More of this tomorrow. Since coming to Kenya, we haven’t met anyone apart from Jane and her children. Neither any Nemesis. But the last few days there were several planes flying over. Strange, we’ve no idea what it was about or who it was. But really, Lia, let’s talk about this all tomorrow. We need to have a look at these Nemesis papers and things you got. A very important find! And we need to talk strategy. Tonight, we are all tired and overwhelmed.”
How right he was. I stifled a yawn and Kamene scolded me for not having gone to bed earlier. We were told to go and get a rest and not to bother ourselves with the dishes.
I was thankful that we could call it a day. Alice, of course, made a fuss about going to bed, Mum, though, didn’t let her make a scene, but told her to brush her teeth and get to bed immediately. I hugged them all and then we all left for the upper level. Josh had shown us where the common shower and bathroom was and we left the others discussing who would go and have a shower first.
Josh pulled me along with him.
“But, don’t you want to wash? We have to know when it is our turn?”
But he just chuckled and hurried along. “No, we don’t. I’ll show you. He led me to our room. He opened the door and then pointed at the other side of the corridor. I saw a narrow door.
“There’s a shower and bathroom there, too. Just a small affair, but it’s ours!”
I went to see. It was a small, alcove-like room, a prefect little bathroom with all the facilities one wanted.¨
“How did you manage to install water pipes here? It’s a proper shower and everything!” I marvelled.
Josh, however, had other things on his mind and showed me. I happily yielded to his kisses, then I pulled free and declared that I wanted to have a shower and wash properly now.
Reluctantly, Josh let me be.
It was wonderful to feel the cool, refreshing water on my skin. I scrubbed, washed, and felt like new-born when I stepped out of the shower and walked toward our room.
Josh wasn’t in, but had left a little note saying that he would be back in a minute.
I stood by the mirror, combing my long hair, when he walked into the room. He was barefoot and wore only his jeans, his torso glistened with water and water dripping from his wet hair.
He stood there for a moment, looking across the room at me, his eyes ablaze with love and desire. As if on cue, we moved both of us and met halfway across the room. He lifted me up and pulled me close, his hands stroking my arms and then holding my face.
“Finally.” He whispered. “Finally we have time for ourselves. How I longed for this moment!”
I kissed the words from his mouth and he eagerly responded. Lifting me up in his arms, he carried me over to our huge bed and laid me down on it. A tender look in his face, he looked at me for a moment, before he knelt down beside me and covered me with his body.
Later, much later, when we lay side by side, he wrapped me up in his arms and we fell asleep.
For the first time in so many days without fear or anxiety.
We had been granted that time together. How long it would be, I didn’t care. It wouldn’t’ last forever, that was certain. While it lasted, though, I would make the most of it.
The fight against the Nemesis would start soon enough.
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