“I have noticed lots of children walking along the road. I thought it was unusual that they were all in school uniforms,” Katie said.
“The parents pay for the uniforms. It’s worked out well.”
As they motored through a more rural area with hills and fields, the road became bumpy. Katie braced herself, but Cheryl didn’t. She bobbed and swayed along with the bumps as the scenery continued to spread out before them with fantastic vistas. Cheryl pointed out groves of papaya trees and banana trees. Katie noticed that the small herd of cows they passed looked pretty skinny. What surprised her most was that the entire time they had been driving, she saw people walking along the side of the road. So many people. All of them coming and going on their own two legs. She saw some people on bikes but not many. A young Kenyan man passed them on a motorcycle.
They came to an immediate halt when a young goat strayed from the pack of five that an older man was herding along with a stick. The wayward goat stopped in the middle of the road, and Jim nearly hit it.
“That was close,” Cheryl said, as soon as all was clear, and he drove on. She said it with the same tone that someone would use to tell the time.
Calm and unrattled, Cheryl reached into a woven basket next to her feet and pulled out a book to read. Eli settled into one of his sleep-anywhere positions with his head against the side of the door. No surprise there.
Katie knew there would be no space for personal conversations for any of them on this long drive. She didn’t like the unsettledness that came from not knowing who had said what to whom about which topics. Katie realized that every family has their own communication dynamics. If it were up to her, she would bust open all the hot topics and get them out there for all four of them to discuss.
She had a feeling, though, that it would go better all the way around if she used this as an opportunity to learn some patience and let Eli take the lead on when he wanted to talk and how he wanted to approach the unsolved topics.
As the car sped down the road, Katie congratulated herself for improving in the area of being a “big blurt.”
The silence was soothing after the excessively busy week. Katie found herself dozing off for short stretches of time. Each time she awoke, the magnificent landscape soothed her senses all over again.
When the sun was high above them Jim turned into the small, dilapidated gas station in a clearly British-influenced town called Nyeri. After filling the tank, they drove about a half a mile and parked near a large hotel that had a restaurant Cheryl said was one of her favorites.
Katie soon discovered why it was a favorite place to stop. The restaurant was outside on a terrace under umbrella-covered tables. Katie would have thought they were eating at a California restaurant except for the peacocks walking around on the large grassy area that stretched out past the terrace. The view beyond the grass was of rolling hills and jagged rock formations. In some ways it reminded her of the sort of background seen in an Italian painting from the Renaissance.
They ate fish, potatoes, and a green vegetable that looked like zucchini but tasted different. It could have been the spices used in the preparation. Or it could have been some other vegetable and not zucchini at all. She had learned it was best to gratefully eat what was offered to her, and say an extra little prayer that even if she didn’t like it that her stomach would. Fortunately this mystery vegetable made her stomach quite happy.
After they ate, the four of them strolled the grounds, talking about Kenya and how gorgeous it was and how surprising and exciting.
“I’ve never grown tired of the beauty here,” Cheryl said as she pointed out the red ginger plants.
“There’s a Swahili saying for all of this,” Jim said. “It’s Uzuri wa Afrika, which literally means ‘the beauty of Africa.’ When you can’t find a way to describe what you’re seeing, you just chalk it up to the beauty of Africa.”
They walked a little farther, and Katie quietly asked Eli, “How do you say, ‘I’m smitten’ in Swahili?”
He gave her a funny look and didn’t attempt a translation.
Leaning closer to him, Katie playfully said, “You see, you thought I was chasing you when I got on the plane, but now the truth is out. My big crush is really on Africa. I’m smitten. Sorry to break it to you this way, Lorenzo.”
With a straight face Eli said, “I should have seen this coming. How can I compete with an entire continent?”
Katie grinned. “You don’t have to compete. I think you know that.”
He smiled back and took her hand. “I’m glad you love it here, Katie. Really glad.” The path they were walking on had brought them back to the lobby entrance to the Aberdare Country Club.
Katie was reluctant to leave. Everything was so civilized and proper.
When they returned to the car, Eli was selected to drive. Katie ended up in the backseat with Jim. As he put on his seat belt, he said, “Cheryl, you should tell Katie the Treetops and Queen Elizabeth story.”
Eli started the car and slowly backed out of the parking spot. Katie thought about the way he had driven around campus last year in a golf cart that Katie referred to as a “clown mobile.” That was a different sort of vehicle than this one, and it was a different sort of terrain. She certainly wouldn’t want to be handed the keys and invited to drive the rest of the way to the village.
Eli did great, though, and within a few minutes, Jim was asleep in the backseat, demonstrating where Eli’s genetic disposition to sleep on the road came from.
“Mom, what about the story you were going to tell Katie?”
“Oh, yes. Queen Elizabeth. When she came to Kenya for a visit in 1952, she and Prince Philip stayed at Treetops. It’s a hotel not far from here. The rooms are at treetop height. She sipped tea on the open veranda while the elephants and other wild animals came to the watering hole below. Her father, King George IV, had been ill but seemed to have recovered, so the trip to Africa didn’t pose a conflict.”
“Was he the one who stuttered? I remember seeing a movie about him,” Katie said.
“Yes, that was the same king,” Eli answered for his mom.
“What happened is that he took a turn for the worse and passed away while Princess Elizabeth was at Treetops. Since communication between England and Africa was so slow, she didn’t know her father had died until after they had left Treetops, and they stopped for lunch at the Aberdare Country Club, where we just ate.”
“Really? The queen of England ate at that same restaurant?”
“Yes. Only she didn’t yet know she was the queen of England. Word hadn’t reached her. The great statement about Treetops is that Elizabeth went up the stairs to her room that night as a princess, and when she descended those same stairs the next morning, she was the queen of England.”
“I love stories like that,” Katie said. “I mean, it’s sad that her father died while she was in Africa, but what a rite of passage that moment was. She was doing what was on the schedule for that day, and by the time she put her head on her pillow that night, everything had changed.”
As Eli drove, Katie thought about the story of Isaac and Rebekah in Genesis. One of her Bible professors had taught on that particular story with a lot of added details. Katie remembered how Rebekah had gone to the well one morning as always, and by the end of the day, everything had changed.
Rebekah offered to draw water from the well for the camels of Abraham’s servant, who had been sent on a mission to find a wife for Isaac. She was singled out at the community well and returned with the servant knowing she would become Isaac’s wife.
Katie remembered how her Old Testament professor had paraphrased Rebekah’s comment on first setting eyes on Isaac and the two of them met halfway in the field. The Bible records that Rebekah said, “Who is that man?” Katie’s professor jokingly said, “And Rebekah exclaimed, ‘Hubba-hubba, who is the hunk with the Weedwacker?’”
Aside from that bit of professorial humor, the part Katie remembered most and had underlined in
her Bible was the passage that said Rebekah became Isaac’s wife and he “loved her.” Her professor at Rancho had pointed out that while the Bible tells a lot of stories about how couples met and married, the word love rarely is mentioned.
That’s what Katie wanted. She wanted to be loved. Was Eli a man who would love her for the rest of his life? Or would his work come first? It was an important question for Katie to consider.
Katie was grateful when they stopped again for gas at a petrol station in a remote area. They climbed out of the car and stretched their legs while Jim filled the gas tank and Eli filled a large, red gasoline container.
“How much farther, do you think?” Katie asked.
“A couple of hours. Are you road weary?” Eli asked.
“I’m doing okay. How about you? Is all the driving getting to you?”
“Not yet. I don’t mind driving. I like it more than my dad does. What about you? Do you want to drive for a while?”
“Ah, that would be a resounding no. Thanks for your generous offer, but I’ll pass. You’re doing just fine.” She patted him on the back.
Eli turned his back to her. “Scratch right there.”
She scratched his upper shoulder, and he continued to curve his back, rounding his shoulders forward and making happy sounds as if Katie’s fingernails were ministering angels.
“A little closer to the middle. There. Now down.”
Katie got going with both hands and gave Eli’s warm back a good scratch. She laughed at how he seemed to crumple at her touch.
“I didn’t know my sawed-off fingernails could have such a soothing effect on you.”
“You have the golden touch, Katie. This feels great.”
She scratched some more and realized the local people as well as Cheryl and Jim were watching them. Katie patted Eli on the shoulder and said in a low voice, “I think we have an audience. We probably look like a couple of monkeys.”
Eli made monkey sounds and scratched his armpits.
Katie cracked up. Eli never stopped surprising her.
“Katie, why don’t you take the passenger’s seat this next stretch?” Cheryl suggested, herding them back into the car.
Katie got in gladly and pulled the seat up as far as it would go so Jim had lots of leg room. He had bought some bottles of water at the filling station, and as they took off, they had music, bottles of clean water, and a wide view out the front windshield that was spotted with dirt and dead bugs.
“Katie,” Cheryl said gingerly, “how do you feel about being in a village for an extended period of time?”
“I don’t know. I’ll tell you tomorrow after I’ve been in a village for an extended period of time.”
“What about living in a village? For weeks at a time or longer?”
Katie could see where this was going, and her guard went up. Had Eli talked to his parents last night about their conversation in the dining hall? More importantly, had he talked to them about his father’s expectations of his role within the ministry? Was Eli set on living in a village?
“I don’t know,” Katie said, trying to sound as lighthearted and breezy about the topic as possible. She really wanted to have this discussion with Eli before chatting about it with his mom. “I have to be honest; I do like having my own bathroom.”
Eli darted a look at her and then returned his focus to the road. She knew she could be reading too much into his look, but it did seem that he was hoping she would withdraw her comment and cast her vote for village campfires instead of a sink and toilet.
The topics that had been hinted at but not fully opened on this journey were beginning to weigh on Katie. She liked things uncomplicated and out in the open. The best way for that to happen was for Eli and her to discuss these things privately, not with his parents. That meant she had to wait. And waiting was never a comfortable exercise.
She was glad when Eli’s dad changed the topic a little while later. “Katie, is your mobile phone picking up a signal here?” Jim asked. “Mine isn’t. I’m trying to check on the weather to make sure we’re not heading into rain with those dark clouds ahead.”
She pulled out her phone and turned it back on, since she had turned it off to save the battery. “It looks like it’s working.” She handed it to him so he could do a weather search.
As Jim was looking up the weather report, Katie’s phone sounded a distinct buzzer. A few seconds later it sounded again.
“Do you have a call coming in?” Jim asked.
“No, that’s an old alarm. I set it last year for anytime I received a text from my fellow RA, Nicole. When we were on duty this past year, lots of times we had to get ahold of each other right away.”
“This alarm sounds only when that particular person is trying to contact you?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“That would be handy. What’s the app for that?”
Eli glanced at Katie as she was directing his dad to what he wanted to find on her phone. “That’s what you need, Dad. Another phone app.”
“We all have our hobbies, son.”
Katie smiled as she took back her phone and turned off the buzzing from Nicole’s message. It had been a long time since that alarm had sounded, and Katie felt melancholy hearing it. She missed Nicole and the time they had spent together in the dorm for their senior year of college. More than once Katie had wondered how Nicole and Rick were getting along in their newly sprouted dating and working relationship. Rick was opening a new café, and Nicole had been working with him on the huge project for quite a few months. Having worked with Rick when he managed the Dove’s Nest Café, Katie knew that the close, daily interaction could either make or break their attraction to each other.
Opening her text message file, Katie read Nicole’s note.
ANY CHANCE YOU CAN CALL ME? ASAP? CALL ME BEFORE YOU CHECK YOUR EMAIL.
Katie didn’t think this was a good time or place to call Nicole. Aside from the high service fees she would have to pay for the international call, it wouldn’t be private in the car. Katie knew it would be better to wait until they were back at Brockhurst, and she could use the internet phone service she had set up on her laptop so they could have a nice, long conversation.
She was about to put her phone back in her bag, but her curiosity was too strong. What email had Nicole sent that she didn’t want Katie to open yet?
Knowing Nicole, it was probably an email with an attached photo of the way her decorating scheme had turned out for Rick’s café. Katie wasn’t especially wowed by vinyl-covered booths or paint colors on walls the way Nicole was. Katie thought the email could wait.
She put away her phone, and they drove into the dusk as the scenery turned dusty brown and took on the golden haze of the sunset.
“Did you see if rain is predicted in the village?” Katie asked.
“No. The clouds seem to be just passing through,” Jim said.
“How’s Nicole doing?” Eli asked.
“I don’t know. Her text said to call her, but I’ll do that when we get back to Brockhurst.”
“Do you think she’s okay?”
Katie hadn’t considered the possibility that something was wrong. Nicole’s email might have bad news that she wanted to tell Katie first. Reaching for her cell phone again, Katie let her imagination sprint down a dismal trail. Tapping her foot as she waited for her dozen or more emails to load, Katie saw the subject line come up on Nicole’s email: Save the date.
She relaxed her shoulders. “It looks like an invitation for a birthday party or probably for the grand opening of one of the restaurants Rick and his brother are opening.”
Katie couldn’t remember off the top of her head when Nicole’s birthday was or when Rick’s café was supposed to open.
Clicking on Nicole’s email, she wanted to see what upcoming event she would have been saving the date for if she were still back in California.
Katie read the message and didn’t blink. She barely breathed.
Save the date
:
October 3
Rick and Nicole are getting married!
13
Eli.” Katie stared at her phone. No other words formed on her lips.
“Yes?”
Katie was aware that he was glancing at her and then looking back at the road.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
Katie still didn’t know what to say.
“Is Nicole all right? What did she say?”
Without looking at Eli, Katie said, “She’s getting married.”
“She is? To Rick?”
“Yes, of course. To Rick. Rick and Nicole are engaged. I’m in shock. The wedding is in October.” Katie’s stunned thoughts turned to her default mode of sarcasm. “We’re supposed to save the date.”
“Did you know they were that serious about each other?”
Katie turned off her phone to save the battery. Or maybe she just needed to feel she had the power to hit some sort of “Make it stop” button. She knew that Eli’s parents could hear everything she and Eli were saying from their position in the small car’s backseat. Katie didn’t care. They all had talked openly about Rick before and how Katie had gone out with him for more than a year. Eli always had nice things to say about Rick as a former roommate. Katie always had nice things to say about Nicole, her former fellow RA.
She didn’t know what to say now.
“Nicole is a sincere person. Rick has a lot of vision.” Eli kept his eyes on the bumpy road. “They’ll make a good team. A good couple.”
If she weren’t so stunned at the moment, Katie probably would agree. What Eli said was true. Rick and Nicole would make a good team. As a matter of fact, when she found out a few months ago that Nicole had it bad for Rick, she helped to match them up. She knew then that in a lot of ways they would be better together than she and Rick had been. And Nicole and Rick managed to develop a really strong relationship and had been very good for each other in a lot of ways.