Page 34 of 5+Us Makes Seven

I could hear explosions going off at the orphanage as wood splintered behind us.

I tossed and I turned. Tears soaked my pillow as I pulled the comforter tighter around my body. I woke up the next morn

ing with an ache that had settled in my bones. My shoulders her and my hips hurt. My jaw hurt and my teeth hurt. I couldn’t chew anything and my hands were weak and my head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.

Was there any way to figure out how they were all doing?

I sent an email out to the team leader from my group in Doctors Without Borders. Maybe he would know how those kids were doing. Our program only ran a year because the funding ran out and the area became too dangerous for us to settle in. We petitioned to try and stay longer, but were yanked from the area before anyone could see our proposal.

But maybe Clark had made it back.

Maybe our team leader was able to get back into the area with a team better equipped to handle that kind of terrain.

I looked over at the clock and sighed. I had been sitting at my dinky kitchen table for over two hours staring at a damn wall. I checked my email and didn’t have a response from Clark, so I pulled myself up from the chair. I needed to start getting ready for Nathaniel’s soccer game.

I was meeting them at the house in less than two hours.

I took a cold shower, trying to wake myself up. I washed my hair and cleaned my body, then picked out an outfit that would be suitable for the ball field. I grabbed a coat in case I needed it and swung through my favorite coffee joint. I got a large cup of coffee with a shot of espresso and tons of sweat cream dumped into the mixture.

If this didn’t wake me up, then I didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of recuperating.

I arrived with enough time to hop into Carter’s SUV. The kids kept throwing questions at me and I answered them the best I could. Nathaniel was nervous about his first game so I tried to calm his nerves. A story came to mind that I thought would help, and it fell from my lips before I could catch myself.

“You know, the first time I showed up in Africa, I was very nervous,” I said.

“You went to Africa? Cool!” Nathaniel said.

“Why were you in Africa?” Joshua asked.

“Did you see lions?” Clara asked.

“I did see lions,” I said with a grin. “And I was in Africa helping children who needed me. But my first day I was a nervous wreck.”

“Why?” Nathaniel asked.

“The part of Africa I was going to wasn’t the nicest part. There are lots of people there who need help, but there are lots of people there who want to hurt other people, too.”

“Why do they want to hurt people?” Joshua asked.

“So they don’t get hurt,” I said. “My first day, there was this little boy. About your age, Joshua. And he couldn’t talk.”

“At all?” Joshua asked.

“At all. It was my job to evaluate him and spend time with him to figure out why he couldn't talk,” I said. “And I was so nervous. I didn’t want to be wrong and I wanted to help him. My goal was to have him speaking in small sentences by the end of the year.”

“Did he ever talk?” Nathaniel asked.

“He said ‘Goodbye, Natasha’ just before me and my team left for the airport after a year of being there,” I said.

“Does he still talk?” Joshua asked.

I sighed as I reached out and cupped the little boy’s cheek.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I hope he is. But I don’t know.”

“Can you tell us another story about Africa?” Nathaniel asked.

“How about this? If you play your hardest and have the best time at your game, then I’ll tell you lots more stories,” I said.

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