She Bleeds for Us: The Galactic Consortium 3

Chapter 33

Unrest in Africa, the scroll said on the TV screen. Jake shivered and squinted up at the screen.

They were at a fast-food restaurant on the edge of town. It was a warm day, or so mom and his sister insisted. "One of the first days that really feels like spring," Mom said.

It might be a warm day in Caspar, Wyoming, but Jake had just arrived home from Bamako and it felt cold to him.

He couldn't hear what the TV was saying over the sound of kids in the play area. He watched the protest but it seemed to be somewhere drier, more desert than Sierra Leone.

Mom followed his gaze. "Is that where you were?"

The scroll was now saying something about South Sudan. He shook his head. "No, I was in Guinea, just north of Sierra Leone. That's where the protests were. Our route used to go through Sudan, but not South Sudan."

"They're different?" His sister, Cynthia asked.

Jake bit back a snort. He did that more and more lately when he was home. People in Wyoming just didn't seem to understand that Africa was an entire continent. They showed surprise over the distances that Jake drove, the number of countries he visited and the diversity of the people he saw. He had to remind himself regularly that he had been the same way only a couple of months ago.

"Hey, Jake," a voice said over his shoulder.

He recognized the girl vaguely but he couldn't quite place her name. She had been in high school with him. She was thin and blonde, with a toddler in her arms.

"Lacy," she prompted, bouncing the child on her hip.

"Lacy, yeah," he said. "Hey."

"You back in town?"

"Just for the week," he replied.

The TV was now talking about Sierra Leone. He glanced back and forth.

"We should get together while you are in town," Lacy was saying.

"Umm, yeah, that would be..." He caught a glimpse of a young boy amongst the protestors. His head spun to look but the camera had panned on by and would he recognize the boy from the camp anyway?

"Well, if you want, is all," Lacy muttered. The child began to struggle. An older woman with enough resemblance to Lacy to clearly be her mother went by with a tray of food. "Your mom has my number." She was blushing now and clearly caught that Jake's attention was divided.

Jake felt bad. He hadn't meant anything by it. It was just, there was so much going on back in Africa. And Jake had been part of it, was part of it. It was hard to keep his focus on home.

"How things have changed," Cynthia said as he turned back to her and his mom.

"What?" he asked.

"I remember a time when you pined for her. Now it's the other way around."

Mom gave him a conflicted and looked away.

Jake scrunched his brow. Had he pined for Lacy? He had, he remembered that now. Was she pining for him? He glanced over to where she was fighting to get the toddler into a high chair. He wasn't so sure. "I don't know about that," he said.

"What?" Cynthia demanded of mom.

"Nothing," she said. "It's just, Lacy, she's nice but her boyfriend just left her."

"The baby's daddy?" Cynthia asked.

"No," Mom sounded exasperated. "Her new boyfriend. I'm just saying she's kind of unstable."

"I think he's got someone back in Africa anyway," Cynthia said with a sly look in Jake's direction.

"What about that girl at Asha-tanga?"

"It didn't work out," Jake said. "We're just... different people. She's in college and all that. And no, there's no one in Africa." The image of Åse floated past Jake's head. He shrugged it off. There wasn't anything to it.

"Right," Cynthia muttered with a smirk.

"What?" he said, irritated.

"Just you've been distracted."

Because of all the unrest and Devaki's request. He bit that back. They couldn't understand, or they didn't want to. They were happy to go about their day to day lives as though half the world wasn't turning upside down, fighting for their freedom and independence. And all Jake could think was that he belonged there, in the middle of it.