“Very. Samuel used to be an Israeli commando. He's amazing with weapons.” She realized she had slipped again, and reminded herself to be more careful in future. She was tired after the trip.
“That sounds scary, unless we have another Ethiopian war, in that case he might come in handy. I assume they're not married, or they wouldn't be here.” Although she knew Mary Walker had been at first. She had come for a ninety-day tour of duty, had never gone back, and got divorced. She loved East Africa and its people too much to leave it. She was the only doctor on the team other than Geoff, and she specialized in AIDS. She had a passion for the people she took care of, more so than her marriage, which she realized once she got there had been dead for years, so she stayed. “Do they have girlfriends at home?” Fiona inquired, and Christianna shook her head and then hesitated.
“I don't think so. I never asked.” Even she had to admit, it sounded odd, if they were claiming to be friends. The problem was that it was a charade, and Christianna didn't want to get caught.
“How do you know them?” Fiona asked, hopping onto her own bed like an elf. It was the one next to Christianna's. They could whisper secrets at night like young girls.
“Actually I've known them for a long time. They work for my father.” She had finally been honest, which was something at least. “When I told them I was coming here, they both volunteered to come, too.” And had subsequently been assigned the job, which of course she couldn't say. “We went to Russia together, during the hostage crisis in Digora. The woman who was running the Red Cross station there was remarkable. I fell in love with her and what she was doing. I decided after that to come here, and so did they.” Christianna's face grew serious and sad. “I think that night changed a lot of things for all three of us. So here we are.” She smiled at her new friend. She liked Fiona a lot. Everyone in the camp did. She was a warm, easy, open person, and worked tirelessly at her job, which she said she loved. Like many of the others, she was in love with Africa, too. It was a magical place, and addictive once it got into your blood.
“What was the woman's name?” she asked with interest.
“Her name is Marque.”
“Of course. I know her too. Everyone does. She comes here sometimes. She is Laure's aunt, that's why she's here. Laure had some sort of broken engagement, or failed marriage or something. She never talks about it. But the rumor is she came here to recover. I'm not entirely sure she loves it, or maybe she's just unhappy. That sort of thing is hard. I was engaged once, too”— she giggled again—“for about ten minutes. To a terrible man. I ran off to Spain for a year to get rid of him, and he married someone else. Terrible bloke. He drank.” Christianna smiled and tried to look sympathetic. It was a lot of information to digest at once, and she was so jet-lagged and tired, she was afraid that she would inadvertently say something she shouldn't that would give her away, that she was a princess and lived in a palace. The thought of doing that made her shudder. She didn't want any of that infringing on her life here, and hoped it wouldn't. It shouldn't happen if she was careful. She just had to be aware of what she said at first until she got used to her new life.
“Do you have a boyfriend at home?” Fiona asked her then with interest.
“No, I don't. I just finished college in the States in June. I've been hanging around home since then, and then I came here.”
“What sort of work do you want to do when you go back? Medicine? I love midwifery myself—maybe you should come out with me and have a look. It blows me away every time to see a new life come into the world. It's truly a miracle, and always exciting, even though once in a while it's sad, when something goes really wrong. It happens. But most of the time it's happy.”
Christianna hesitated at her question. “I was thinking about public relations. My father does that, and actually he's in politics and economics a bit, too. I like business a lot. I majored in economics in school.” It was all true, to a degree, depending on how you viewed it.
“I can't do math at all. I can barely count,” Fiona said, not entirely accurately. Christianna knew it had taken her seven years to become a midwife, including nursing school, so she must have been a decent student, or at least a persevering one. And she obviously loved her work. “I think business would be too boring,” Fiona said honestly. “All those numbers. I love working with people. You can never predict it, especially here.” She lay back on her bed with a sigh. She was going out that evening to visit patients, and usually tried to rest for a while before that, so she would be fresh and alert. She had a number of patients who were about to deliver at any moment. They were planning to send runners if she was needed, and she would go out to them in the ancient Volkswagen bug that had been at the camp for years. For Fiona, it was a thrill each time a new life came into the world. And here in Africa, she saved babies' and mothers' lives more often than not. The conditions she worked in were primitive beyond belief. She was good at what she did.
Christianna lay on her cot quietly for a few minutes. She wanted to get up and unpack and look around. She was too excited to sleep, but for a moment, her body felt heavy, and her eyelids began to flutter. Fiona looked over at her and smiled. She seemed like a sweet girl, and Fiona had to admire her for coming to East Africa at her age. It was a pretty brave thing to do, and just as she looked over at her, Christianna's eyes opened wider again, as she glanced at Fiona on the next cot.
“What about the snakes?” She sounded worried, and Fiona laughed out loud at the question.
“Everyone asks that the first day here. They're scary, but we don't see a lot of them.” She didn't tell her that a puff adder had slithered into the tent two weeks before, but usually they didn't. “We'll show you pictures of which ones to look out for. You get used to it after a while.” Fiona saw more snakes than most of the workers in the camp, since she was out in the bush a lot, visiting her patients.
Both women lay quietly for a few minutes, and without wanting to, Christianna drifted off to sleep. She was absolutely exhausted, and when she woke, Fiona was gone. Christianna went outside to look for the others. There were several people walking around the compound.
Christianna saw Akuba and smiled at her. She was leading a child by the hand into one of the huts. And the man called Yaw was hammering something intently. She looked around her, and there was a beauty to the night that she had never seen in her life before, that African light that people talked about, and the air was like a caress on her cheek. She noticed then that there was another tent, behind the huts. She followed the sounds she heard from there, and discovered the entire Red Cross crew, sitting at long refectory tables with rough-hewn benches, eating. Christianna looked instantly embarrassed, though far more rested than when she left them earlier. She had needed the sleep, but was afraid it made her look lazy, which was no way to start.
“I'm so sorry,” she said apologetically when she saw Geoff and Maggie. The full crew was there, minus Fiona, who was out in the bush delivering a baby, and had been gone for hours. Including Christianna, Max, and Samuel, they were seventeen now, of actual Red Cross workers. There were at least a dozen local Eritreans who worked with them, and Akuba and Yaw, who were from Ghana. “I fell asleep.” She looked mortified, but Samuel and Max looked pleased to see her, as did the others. They had just started eating. They were eating chicken and vegetables, and a huge bowl of rice with fruit mixed into it. They worked hard, and the quantities were generous enough to keep them going.
“You needed the sleep,” Geoff said sensibly. “We'll show you everything you need to see tomorrow. I've already given Sam and Max the tour.” They had discreetly asked him to see everything, which was part of their duties as security covering her. But they had been fascinated by what they'd seen, and both men had been enchanted by the children, who seemed to be everywhere in the camp, dozens of them, all smiling, laughing, giggling, playing, as were some of their elders. The locals seemed like an exceptionally happy people, smiling or laughing all the time. Even the sick ones staying at the center were friendly and good-humored.