It was after three by the time they got back to the village. They trooped into the kitchen to make some tea, which was a very welcome prospect after the chilly walk. James was at the table, working on something with his Bible open in front of him. Dave was there too, a mug already in his hands. “Hi guys,” said James. “Nice walk?” “Amazing!” said Jill.
“She’s in dreamland,” said Melissa. “I think she’s composing poems in her head.”
“Sorry,” said Jill. “Should we get the kettle going?” “Definitely,” said Melissa.
Berenice walked into the hall, her hair wet and a towel around her neck. “Hi guys. Some advice for you first time in a rural village people – go and have your bucket bath now, while it’s still daylight. It’s way too cold to get your clothes off and get wet in the evening or in the morning.”
“That is a brilliant idea,” said Jill. “Is there time?”
“Make time,” said Berenice. “I’m the one who has to sleep next to you tonight, Chickee!”
Jill laughed. “Did you use the gas ring in our house to heat some water?”
“I did,” said Berenice. “Our water bottle is in the kitchen, so fill it up outside and take it over. There’s a tub there waiting for you.” Jill grinned and went to fetch the water bottle.
“That’s a good plan,” said Alex. “I haven’t showered since Monday evening. So how do I do this? Dave?”
Dave laughed. “Go to that little room off the hall, where the plastic tubs are – there’s a drain in the floor. I know, I built it. Get a bucket and get some water from the tap. Shut the door, get your kit off, wash, pour the water down the drain. The kettle’s just boiled – are you guys going to make tea or let Alex have a bath?”
“Tea!” said Melissa. “You can wait a few minutes for your bath.
I need tea.”
Alex grinned, and went off to fetch the bucket.
Half an hour later, he was washed and dressed again. He was colder than he had been before, but it felt wonderful to be clean, or close enough, after a day in the car, a night in layers of clothes, and a long walk. Soon Jill appeared too, her hair wet and combed. Her cheeks were rosy from the cold and from the walk, and she seemed happy too, excited and animated. Alex thought about his conversation with Mark. Mark had thought there was something going on between them. Well there was – there always had been, at least from his side. But that was all. What she needs is a guy who’s solid like Mark, but who gets her and appreciates her and makes her laugh like I do, he thought. A Mark/Alex combo – with Alex’s hair, of course. He smiled to himself at the thought, and looked over at Mark, who was sitting at the kitchen table with his tea, staring out of the window.
“Tea, Alex?” He turned and there she was, offering him a mug.
They sat at the table with some of the others to drink it.
“How was your bath?” she asked, wrapping her hands around her warm mug.
“My bath was so unlike any other bath I have ever had, that I can’t really call it a bath,” said Alex. “But it feels good to be clean!”
Jill laughed. “Me too,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll do that again in a hurry, though. Washing my hair was a challenge. I don’t know how clean it is.”
“You get good at it after a while,” said Berenice. “It’s not so bad.”
“I came back from the walk with my head full of poems,” said Jill. “My water got cold so quickly that when I rinsed my hair it washed all the words out.”
“Come on everyone,” said James. “Drink up. Time to use this table for chopping the vegetables.”
Soon the team was hard at work again setting up tables and chairs (Christians do this a lot, thought Alex), chopping vegetables, and getting the big pots going on the gas burners. They had brought bags of beans and rice from home and vegetables and some meat from Maseru the day before. Today there were a few packs of beef to add to the stew they were making, which Pastor Isaac said was a big treat for the children. The standard fare at the feeding scheme kitchen was mealie pap and vegetable stew or soup – spinach, squash and tomato the most common. They tried to give them meat once or twice a week but often it was just polony or Russian sausage. There were sixty children in the village who depended on this meal every day. Pastor Isaac refused to take credit for it. It was God, he said, who provided for these children. His job was just to open the doors and have faith. Today, he said, the meal came from Marshall Bay Community Church. On other days, God provided the food, or the money to buy it, from somewhere else. Sometimes food had been scarce, but since the day he and Ma Mohlatsi had begun the project, every child who came had been fed. He had so many stories of provision that the time flew by, and by six thirty, when a queue of expectant faces had formed outside the door, the stew and rice was ready.
Later, Alex sat on the floor of the hall, against the wall with his plate of food, a very bent and bashed-up tin fork in his hand. The children had been served, and sat huddled together on the chairs and benches, some talking quietly but mostly just eating. Some were already washing their plates at the sink full of soapy water outside. He was hungry, but he had asked for a small portion, not wanting to take anything away from the children. He looked at his plastic plate, one or two pieces of meat amongst the colourful vegetables, the rice nestled against the side soaking up the sauce. He had a strange feeling that he ought to be thankful for it. He had bowed his head with Jill and Simon when he had eaten at their house, but now he did it on his own for the first time ever. God, he said in his head. Thank you for this food. And for all the food I’ve ever eaten.
It wasn’t much of a prayer, he knew. But he had to start somewhere.
He helped with the clean-up and then set up his bed as he had the night before. He wasn’t tired – he felt amped. It was so strange living like this, not having anywhere to go in the evenings except for this rectangle of foam on the floor. If it was summer he would have hung out outside or gone for a walk, but it was freezing, pitch dark and threatening rain. He dug in his bag for the book Simon had given him. He hadn’t had a chance until now, but he thought he might take in another chapter. James came over and sat down on the mattress with him.
“Hi,” he said. “Busy day, right?”
“Great day,” said Alex. “This place is amazing.”
James grinned. “What are you reading?”
Alex showed him. “Simon gave it to me.”
“And?” asked James. “What do you think?”
“I’m getting through it. I like the guy’s style. It’s not boring – I was really surprised.”
“I know that book well. I’m glad you’re reading it.”
“It’s full of quotes from the Bible. I sat through chapel at school hundreds of times but I never heard the Bible explained like this, James. Is this what all Christians believe? Or is it just your church?”
James laughed. “It’s Biblical Christianity, simply explained, Alex. It sounds as if your chaplain wasted his opportunities to teach it to you. Or maybe you just weren’t open to the possibility that it might apply to you then.”
“Maybe,” said Alex. For the next hour the two sat on the mattress and talked quietly. Mark had put his mattress in a corner and seemed to be asleep, and Brad and Dave were playing cards at the kitchen table. Later, after James had gone to bed and the light in the hall had been turned out, Alex carried on reading with his torch. When he closed the book, his eyes feeling suddenly heavy, the name of one of the chapters kept running though his mind. “Our problem, God’s solution.” Up until his dad’s diagnosis he hadn’t considered that he had any problem that he couldn’t solve on his own. Now he knew he had been wrong. He remembered Jill telling him that he had been arrogant. To think he could live his life without considering God at all had been arrogant; he felt that it was time to admit that. He didn’t understand the solution yet, but tomorrow was another day. Just a week before he had felt that his life was over, and now here he was: excited at the prospect of a new day, of new things to learn and do.
Lesotho
Snowy peaks and icy skies
Hills bursting folds of green
Lines and lines of flapping clothes
With houses in between
Huts of stone, walls of brick
And little shacks of tin
Thank you, land within a land For welcoming me in
-Jill
Alex sat once again on a plastic chair in a circle with the others, his head bowed. The sun had barely risen over the hills, and they were praying before the work of the day began. This time Alex closed his eyes with them, listening, not quite feeling that he was one of them but feeling less of an impostor than he had before. “Thank you, Lord, for working through us,” JP prayed. This was a new thought for Alex: that people could be used by God to do good in the world.
JP is giving some of the credit for what he’s doing to God, he thought. He knew he had never done that himself. Does God really work through JP? he wondered. He shelved the thought. It was something to ask James about later.
There was already a queue of expectant faces outside the church when the doors opened and the day two of the clinic began, today for children and teenagers. Berenice set Alex up in his own cubicle with Solomon to translate, and asked Kelly to take simpler cases to him. If his patients needed medication or if he needed help, he could refer to Berenice.
“You’re doing great, Alex,” she said, after quickly confirming a case of bronchitis and approving the antibiotic he suggested. “Keep going.”
He looked in ears and mouths and listened to chests, examined rashes and cleaned up a few wounds. He even gave a few shots. He remembered to smile at the kids and the parents, and found that the few Sesotho words he had learnt went a long way to helping the kids relax. He knew many of the children had HIV and kept his gloves on.
At ten Jill and Melissa brought around mugs of tea and coffee.
“Hi Doc,” said Jill, poking her head around the sheet around Alex’s makeshift cubicle. “And Solomon. Coffee?”
“Wonderful,” said Alex, and he and Solomon accepted their mugs gratefully. Solomon took his outside, leaving them alone for a minute. “How’s your morning going?”
“Great,” she said. “I’ve been editing in the office with Pastor Isaac.”
“Cool. Anything to eat with that? I’m starving.”
“Some rusks,” she said, fetching the box and offering him one, then perching on the edge of the desk.
“Thanks,” he said. “We haven’t stopped since seven.”
“There’s still quite a queue. They are all so patient.”
“I’m being as quick as I can. But I don’t want to mess up and make a mistake.”
“You look very professional,” she said, nodding to the stethoscope around his neck.
“I love it, Jill,” he said. “I feel alive.”
“That’s wonderful to hear. This time last week you didn’t feel that at all.”
“Nope,” he said. “Thank you for this.”
“No need to thank me.” She stood up. “Drink up. There’s a kid with the snottiest nose I have ever seen waiting outside for you.”
“Woo hoo!” Alex grinned. “Bring it on.”
Jill laughed and disappeared behind the partition. Alex finished his coffee and rusk and stood up again. If this could be life – being a doctor, even if it was mostly snotty noses and coughs, and having Jill bring him coffee and smiles – how wonderful that would be.
By lunch time all the patients had been seen. Alex was tired. He had worked hard, and it was emotionally hard too. Some of the cases he had seen were heartbreaking. A twelve-year-old girl had brought her tiny two-year-old brother – she and another teenage brother were the little boy’s only caregivers while their parents worked in South Africa. He clearly had developmental delays and probably HIV too. Alex passed him on to Berenice, no idea what to say to the girl. There were other children way too small for their age, and some with problems that could have been so easily fixed with better medical care. He saw a boy who didn’t seem to be able to hear well, and when he looked in his ears was shocked at the amount of wax there was. All he needed was a syringing from Berenice and he walked out, smiling widely at how much better he felt.
After helping to clear things away again, he sat down with the others for lunch. Jill and Melissa had made a huge pot of pasta with bacon and cheese, and the team tucked in enthusiastically.
“You guys are stars,” said Brad. “Awesome lunch.”
“Thanks,” said Melissa. “Jill and I need to make a trip to town this afternoon for more groceries, though, for us and for the feeding scheme. We have most of the non-perishable stuff but we need some fresh things.”
“I’ll drive,” said Alex. “I want to explore a bit. Can we do both?”
“Sure,” said Melissa. “We need to be back by four to start cooking, so we’ll need to get going soon.”
“Anyone else want to come?” asked Alex.
“Not me,” said Berenice. “I need to chill on my bed with my book, and then I have some follow-up to do. And we need to organize some of the medication again.”
“I’ll help with that,” said Kelly. “Then Nicky and I are babysitting Lerato and Joshua. We won’t come.”
“We’re out,” said Brad. “Dave and I need to keep going with the plumbing for the washroom. The weather might be bad tomorrow so we’re going to make use of the rest of today.”
“I’m going to carry on what I was doing with Pastor Isaac,” said James.
“Me too,” said Mark. “I’m in the middle of sorting out a problem with a pledge to the feeding scheme that hasn’t come through yet. I need to follow up on it.”
“Brilliant, Mark,” said Jill. “You are so good at that kind of thing.”
“Thanks,” said Mark, looking down at his lunch.
“So that’s Jill, Alex and me going shopping then?” asked Melissa. “Mark, maybe you can tell me how much money is left and I can figure out what we can spend today.”
“Sure,” he said. “The file is in the office.”
They all helped to clear up the lunch things and then went off in different directions. Soon, Alex’s car was on its way down the bumpy track.
“When we arrived the other day, I was too tired to notice much on this road,” said Alex, as they turned onto the main road, back the way they had come. “There’s a lot going on here.”
“Isaac told me where to go to find the stuff we need,” said Melissa, from the passenger seat. “I think I’ll be able to direct you.
What a view of the mountains from up here!”
“I’d love to see some snow up close,” said Jill. “I never have.” “Never?” said Alex.
“No,” she said. “I’ve been to London but never in winter. And it doesn’t exactly snow in Marshall Bay.”
“It feels cold enough for snow,” said Melissa. “I don’t think my feet have thawed since we got here.”
“Maybe you need a blanket,” said Alex. “Look – maybe I can get a hat here. I can’t come to Lesotho without getting a hat.” He slowed down as they passed a few stalls by the roadside, the goods displayed in front of small square shops made of rough cement blocks. He stopped the car at the side of the road and they got out to look at the displays of hats, beads and blankets. Jill admired a blue blanket with a design of swirly heart shapes on it. Before she could open her bag, Alex had paid for it and opened it up.
“A gift for you,” he said, wrapping it around her shoulders. “To keep you warm.” He smiled at her. “And to say thanks for taking care of me when I needed it.”
“You didn’t have to do that, Alex,” said Jill, blushing a little. “But thank you. I love it.” She remembered how a few days before he had fallen asleep on her couch, emotionally drained and desperately unhappy, and she had covered him with her blanket. Was that really only a few days ago? she thought. He was not in that dark place any more.
Melissa observed the exchange and raised her eyebrows. Alex moved off to look at some hats. “Jill,” she said. “That was sweet of him.”
“Yes, it was,” said Jill, taking off the blanket and folding it up in her arms. “If you had known him when I first met him you wouldn’t believe he was the same person. He didn’t wear anything that didn’t have a designer label. Look at him now.” Alex was trying on a traditional hat made of grass, with a string of clay beads around his neck, laughing with the shopkeeper.
“Sounds like an interesting story,” said Melissa. “You’ll have to fill me in some time.”
Jill smiled. “I suppose it is,” she said. “Okay. Next time we are chopping a mountain of vegetables remind me to tell you all about the summer when I was seventeen.”
“Does Mark know the story?” asked Melissa.
“Oh no, Mel – he wouldn’t want to.”
“You and Mark seemed to be getting closer recently. I wondered before we came if this trip might bring you two together again. Am I being nosy?”
“No, it’s just … actually Mel, except for when he is right in front of me, I don’t think of Mark at all. He was around a lot the last few months. But no. Mark and I are less close than ever.” Jill hadn’t thought about it like that before she said it. But she knew it was true.
He hardly crossed her mind.
“Hmmm,” said Melissa. “You are full of surprises, Jill.”
Alex came up to them again, a hat on his head and two more in his hands. “One for each of our amazing cooks,” he said. “And these.” He slipped a string of beads from his neck over Jill’s head, and then Melissa’s. He looked at his watch. “We’d better get moving,” he said.
They got back in the car and headed to the supermarket, where they found everything they needed. Melissa smiled to herself as she ticked things off her list and watched Alex and Jill pushing the heavy trolley piled with groceries, laughing together as its broken wheel kept sending it careering into the shelves. She smiled to herself as she watched Jill’s face, and felt sorry for Mark. She knew that even if this handsome stranger disappeared from Jill’s life as quickly as he had returned, poor Mark didn’t stand a chance. Not anymore.
They were a little late when they got back with the groceries, so the cooking had to get going quickly. Today they were making mince with vegetables in a tomato sauce, serving it with rice again, and loaves of bread from the supermarket. Jill went to her room to put her blanket and hat away, and then straight to the hall to get going. There were a lot of vegetables to chop, onions and mince to fry, slices of bread to spread with margarine, and the big pots of water needed to be put on to boil for the rice. The team soon fell into the same routine they had followed the previous day. Melissa was standing at the big gas cookers, putting the meat into the pots to get it cooking with the mountains of onion that Jill and Kelly were chopping. One of the pots didn’t seem to be getting hot enough, so she bent down to see what was happening under the pot.
“Dave!” she called. “Will you come and see what’s up with this gas ring? I think it might be blocked.”
Dave came over from where he was washing potatoes in a plastic basin. “Sure,” he said. He moved the pot back and investigated. He fiddled with something. “Try again,” he said. “I think it should work better.”
“Thanks,” she said, getting out the matches to try again. As soon as she held the match near to the ring, a ball of flame shot out from the stove. Melissa’s reflexes kicked in and she ducked violently back out of the way of the flame, knocking over a chair behind her. The chair toppled backwards into Jill, knocking the knife out of her hand.
Everyone rushed up to see if Melissa was all right.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she said, shooing everyone except JP away.
“The flame didn’t touch me. I just bashed my leg on that chair.” “Sorry,” said Dave. “I should have known that would happen!” “It’s okay,” said Melissa, rubbing her leg.
“I’m not fine,” said Jill, from behind her. The knife had flown out of her hand and cut her other wrist. She had clamped her hand over the cut but as she looked down she could see blood pumping out from under fingers. She tried to look away quickly, but she wasn’t quick enough. The shock and the sight of her blood flowing all over the onions made her feel light headed and nauseous.
The attention moved quickly to Jill. JP quickly grabbed a clean dish towel and held it over the wound. He moved her chair back from the table and made her put her head down onto her lap.
“Hold this, Alex,” he said. “It’s okay, Jill. You just stay like that and we’ll fix you up.”
Kelly had already fetched first aid supplies from the clinic boxes across the hall. Alex held the towel tight over Jill’s wrist, his other arm across her shoulders.
“Sorry,” she said, her head still down. “I’m trying not to faint.
But I’m okay.”
“Come over to a clean table,” said JP.
Alex kept his firm hold on the towel as she stood up. She still felt very wobbly as they moved across the hall to another table. She sat on the chair pulled out for her, her injured arm on a clean cloth that someone had put over the table. She was feeling the edges of her vision darkening again, so she put her head down on her other arm.
“Do you think it was the point or the side of the blade that cut you?” asked JP, sitting next to her and motioning for Alex to move the towel away.
“The edge, I think,” said Jill. “I don’t know.”
“It’s going to need stitching,” said Alex, as JP examined the cut.
“But it doesn’t look too deep, and none of the tendons are injured.”
“Yup,” said JP. “The bleeding is slowing down. Sorry Jill, no more onion chopping for you today. Let’s clean you up and keep this arm elevated and still for a while, and when you feel better we’ll stitch it. This isn’t the worst place to have an accident, hey?”
They all laughed a little, the tension relieved. After a while the others got back to work and Jill started to feel better. Alex had stayed with her, his arm not around her any more but his concerned presence very comforting.
“Is it hurting?” he asked, noticing her wince.
“Yes,” said Jill. “It’s not too bad, though.”
Alex lifted the gauze and looked at the cut.
“Do you want to stitch me up?” she asked.
“I’ll leave that to the pros,” he said. “I’ve only done stitches twice before. On a person, that is.”
“On a person? You mean you’ve stitched other things?”
“Raw chicken,” he said, grinning. “And pig’s trotter, once.”
“Yuck,” said Jill. “Do you really like all that stuff?”
“I love it,” he said. “I get lost in things like that. I don’t even notice the time passing. Best job in the world.”
“For you, maybe,” said Jill. “I feel so dumb for nearly passing out. Thanks for taking care of me.”
“Don’t be embarrassed,” said Alex. “Any time you need a wound clamped with a dish towel, I’m your man.” He smiled at her. She smiled back, and then happened to look over his shoulder. She caught Mark’s eye before she had a chance to avoid it. He was on the other side of the hall, a cloth in his hand as he wiped down tables. He stood still for a moment, looking at her, looking at Alex’s hand on her arm, the expression on his face blank. Then he looked down at the table again and carried on wiping it.
“What is it?” asked Alex. He looked behind him. “Oh,” he said, turning back to Jill. “He wants you back. You know that, right?”
“He hasn’t said anything,” said Jill. “I can’t turn him down if he hasn’t asked, can I? I’ve hardly spoken to him at all since we got here.”
“So, you would turn him down if he asked?”
“Shhh,” said Jill, in a whisper. “Yes. But I can’t exactly initiate the conversation, can I?”
“No,” said Alex. “He’s not the guy for you, Jill. I’m glad you can see that.” He got up.