Finally & Forever (15 page)

O
ne of Kenya’s distinctives that Katie had come to adore was the light. As they journeyed the final two hours to the village, the morning light awakened the day with long shadowed contours that seemed like gentle fingers rousing the earth from its night’s sleep.

Katie felt the warm light settling on her shoulders as the golden fingers stretched through the car’s back window. In front of them lay miles of dry red dirt, pale blue skies, and an occasional baobab tree posing like a great ancestor standing patiently under a wide, leafless umbrella. The familiar greens of the hill country were gone. No tea fields would thrive in this arid space.

She reached for her water bottle and downed the last few sips. They had only one or two more bottles of water with them in the trunk, and she didn’t want to ask for any of that supply even though she was still thirsty. It made her realize how valuable clean water is in a remote place like this.

Gazing out the window, Katie watched Africa go by. Everything in her wanted to ask, “How much farther?” but she resisted.

She didn’t have to wait much longer. About two hours after their car was mysteriously and miraculously repaired, Eli turned down a side road and kicked up a cloud of dust behind them. Katie could see several huts just past the line of shrubs. Three barefoot boys came running toward the car, smiling, waving, and calling out to them. As soon as Eli turned off the engine and the dust settled, at least two
dozen children had gathered around the car and were all talking at once, peering into the side windows.

“Have you got the chicken?” Jim asked.

“Yes. I’ll hand it over to you when we get outside.” Cheryl tucked the clucking hen under her arm and opened her door. The chatter of the welcoming committee rose, and it seemed as if a hundred arms with open hands were reaching for Cheryl at the same time.

Eli turned around and looked at Katie. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good. I’m not sure how to open my door, though, without hitting one of these kids.”

“Slowly. Like this.” Eli experienced the same greeting his mom had. Dozens of hands touched him, and a stream of rising chatter surrounded him. Jim was already out of the car while Katie hesitated.

As she cautiously opened the door, the cluster of children drew back just enough to make room for her. The moment she stepped out, the children around her seemed to take another step back as their eyes widened. They stared at Katie in silence for a moment.

Then, as one, they rushed toward her, reaching out to touch her red hair. They called to the other children, and suddenly all the children in the welcoming committee were circling Katie, staring at her, and reaching out to touch her hair.

“I forgot to warn you this might happen,” Eli said. “I doubt any of them have ever seen a redhead before. Are you doing okay?”

Katie felt herself sliding into the moment with her whole heart. She leaned down so they could touch her hair and look into her green eyes and point at her, chattering like a bunch of chipmunks. Eli came up beside her and spoke to the children in Swahili. They responded eagerly, and he translated for Katie.

“They want to know how you got all the spots on your skin.”

“Do they mean my freckles?”

Eli said something to the kids and pointed to the freckles on Katie’s bare arm. Some of them gave him doubtful looks. Others took on somber expressions of awe, while a few of them covered their mouths and giggled.

“What did you tell them?”

“I told them that when you were born, God was so delighted that he sent a hundred angels to kiss you while you were in your mother’s arms. Every place where the angels kissed you, they left a tiny dot. That way, if you ever forget how greatly you are loved by God, all you have to do is look at your skin, and you will remember.”

Katie was so touched by Eli’s fable, she felt her throat tighten. Several of the little girls in front of her were looking at their arms and legs and pointing out to each other where they thought they found an angel kiss on their skin.

“We need to take our greetings to the chief,” Eli said. “You ready?”

“Sure.” As soon as Katie started to walk with Eli and his parents toward the center of the village, a bunch of little girls reached for her hands as if they were self-appointed special escorts. Other children circled her and Eli, and one little girl stretched her hand around Katie’s right wrist and held on tight.

They entered the center of the village and were greeted by lots of adults who were sitting in the shade or coming out of their mud huts that were covered with roofs made of dry twigs and grass. From one of the larger huts, an elderly man emerged wearing a button-down shirt made from bright yellow and black printed fabric. He wore glasses and a pair of khaki shorts, but on his head was an intricate headdress made of feathers and beads.

Jim greeted him in Swahili and gave a respectful nod of his head as they shook hands. Cheryl lowered her head as well and held out the chicken as a present, which the chief took with quiet words exchanged between the three of them. It seemed the chicken was the perfect gift to bring and was greatly appreciated.

Jim introduced their son. Eli spoke in Swahili and dipped his chin to honor the chief. The two of them shook hands warmly. Then it was Katie’s turn. All the children let go and stepped back as Katie became the focus of the chief’s attention. He seemed to study her face and hair with fascination.

“Jambo.” It was the only Swahili Katie knew. She hoped it was the right thing to say in a moment like this. When no one moved or said anything, she added, “Hakuna matata?”

Eli gave her a signal that she should back away quickly and not try any more clever phrases.

The chief moved his attention back to Jim and handed off the chicken to one of several women who were standing nearby. The two men walked away from the others as they talked together and headed for the shade of a large tree behind the chief’s hut.

“What do we do now?” Katie asked.

“Hang out for a while. After my dad gets the update, we’ll probably go to where the workers are finishing up the well, and if it’s done, we’ll have a short dedication ceremony.”

“And then what?”

“We’ll take it as it comes, Katie. Don’t worry. Hakuna matata.”

Katie thought it was a lot cleverer when she had said it to the chief. When Eli said it, she felt as if he were scolding her. All this was new for her. He should realize that and try to be a little more patient and understanding.

Eli was listening to the discussion between the chief and his dad. He turned to Katie and in a lowered voice gave her the update. “It looks as if we came at just the right time. He’s saying that the guys working on the well had some problems two days ago, so they’re just finishing this morning. Dad thought the project was already completed. This is ideal. We’ll be able to see the first trial run in about an hour.”

“Perfect!” Katie said.

Eli’s expression lit up. “The other good news is that a small film crew is here from the BBC. The team that dug the well is from the UK. This is going to be great promotion for what we’re doing here.”

“Wow, that couldn’t be better,” Katie agreed. Several of the children were tugging on her arms and trying to tell her something.

“They’re inviting you to play a game with them,” Eli said.

“Is it all right if I go with them?”

“Of course.”

“Are you coming along to help translate?”

“You won’t need me. You’ll figure it out.”

For a moment, Katie read extra meaning into his statement, as if Eli were saying she could carry on her life from here on without him and she would be just fine. She didn’t know why she complicated things by giving herself crazy little relationship nuances to fret over. But there it was, sitting in the pit of her empty stomach.
You don’t need me
.

The girls pulled Katie to the side of one of the huts where they had arranged a line of sticks and pebbles. They played something that resembled hopscotch, and Katie did her best to join in. The girls would all chatter at once when she did something wrong. They smiled approvingly when she got it right. For twenty minutes, she jumped, turned, stood on one foot, and felt her stomach grumbling. More than she wanted something to eat, Katie really wanted something to drink. She couldn’t remember ever being this thirsty. The sun was rising in the sky, warming the earth and making Katie even thirstier. How did these people live in this remote village for all these years and not have access to clean water?

Katie knew from the presentation Eli had done in chapel and the fund-raiser she had organized that the lack of clean water was a solvable problem. In places like this village where the nearby streams had become polluted or dried up, a well could be dug, and from deep in the earth, clean water would come up. The ongoing need was for equipment funding and teams that drilled for water in these remote locations.

Katie looked at one of the small girls who stood across from her waiting her turn for the game. She was thin and was dressed in a large T-shirt that advertised a character from an American TV show. How that soiled T-shirt found its way to this village would be an interesting bit of information. Her hair was cut very short, and her lower lip was cracked. Aside from the few obvious differences that came from the rural living conditions, Katie thought of how, in many ways, the
little girl looked like any little girl in the States. One major difference was that when she was thirsty, she couldn’t drink some water and then return to her play. When she was thirsty, she remained thirsty.

Someone who worked for the mission needed to do a better job of communicating Africa’s need for clean water by getting people to imagine what it would be like to be thirsty, really desperately thirsty, and to have no clean water available to drink. Katie wondered if the film crew from the BBC would let them use their documentary footage to put together a presentation for the US.

Eli came looking for her and appeared just as excited as he had been earlier. “How’s it going here?”

“Good. You look happy.”

“I am. I’m so amazed at what they’ve accomplished here. It’s going to transform this village. Makes me wish we had ten million dollars so we could do this for every village on the list.”

One of the girls tugged on Katie’s and Eli’s arms and kept saying something in Swahili.

“What did she say?” Katie asked.

“She said, ‘
Mimi na wewe pete na kidole
.’”

“Very funny. What does that mean?”

“It’s sweet. It means, ‘I and you are like a ring and a finger.’”

Katie wasn’t sure she understood. “Is she saying that you and I seem like we’re engaged?”

“No.”

“Married?”

“No, Katie, it’s like the two of you are so close that you are like a ring and a finger. She’s saying she likes you. She wants to be with you.”

“Oh, that’s sweet.” Katie gave the girl a hug, and she hugged back even harder. The other girls were sitting in the hut’s shade, their energy spent.

“Eli,” Katie said, her little ring girl still at her side. “You know how you said you wished you had ten million dollars to use for all the villages on the list?”

“Yes.”

“Well, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. I’m not sure this is the best time, but I want you to know that I don’t have ten million dollars, but I do have a lot of money. I mean, a lot.”

Eli laughed.

She kept a straight face. “It’s the truth, Eli. I had a great-aunt who passed away last year, and she left her estate to all the relatives who went to college, but it turned out I was the only one who did. So I inherited all the money.”

He tilted his head and gave her an incredulous look.

“I ended up with a big inheritance, and I was thinking it would be great to do more to make the need for clean water known to people. Maybe you and I could talk to your dad about a marketing fund or something to get the word out.”

“Katie …” He gave her a look of pity, as if the sun had fried her brain.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m telling you the truth. This is one of those things I was referring to the other night in the dining hall when we had some serious topics we needed to discuss. This is one of those topics. I probably should have waited, but there it is. I have a lot of money.”

He still had no response.

“I don’t think about it very much, but …”

“I don’t believe you.” Eli pulled back.

Katie was surprised. “It’s true. I don’t think about it.”

“No, I mean I don’t believe you have a stash of money in the bank. I’ve watched how you’ve lived for a year, Katie. I know you. I would have known about this.”

She wished with all her heart that she had done this differently. Drawing in a deep breath and blowing the air out through her dry lips, Katie said, “Okay, I didn’t want to ever tell you this, but your school bill was paid off in full, right?”

“Yes, I told you that. My uncle Jonathan paid it.”

She asked Eli where his uncle would come up with that kind of money, and then she quoted him the exact amount.

Eli’s jaw went slack. “That was from you? You paid it?”

Katie rubbed her forehead and looked down. “I shouldn’t have blurted that out.”

Cheryl came from around the corner of one of the huts and called out to them, waving for them to come to the well. Eli walked robotically, and Katie and her gathering of little girls followed him.

“I’m sorry, Eli. It is shocking. I forget that. I never wanted anyone to know. Except Julia. She helped me with the lawyers, the bank, and everything. But hardly anyone else knows. Except your mom. Your mom knows.”

Eli stopped walking and turned to give Katie a wounded look. “You told my mom?”

“No, I didn’t tell her. She figured it out from the bank statements for the fund-raiser.” Katie pursed her lips together and wished again that she hadn’t leaked more information.

“Is that why we did so well with the fund-raiser? You spiked the donations?”

“I didn’t spike them. I just gave. A lot. Cheerfully. Eli, you’re acting like I’ve done something wrong.”