“Thank you, Pemmy!” I yelled before the connection broke.
Karina sat next to me. We were silent for a few minutes letting everything sink in.
“What if he can’t get anything?” I asked her.
Karina wrung her hands continuously. “We quarantine. We treat fevers. We hydrate.”
I sighed loudly. “Jesus, Karina. When does it stop?” I turned toward her.
“It doesn’t stop, love,” she said, stopping and resting a hand on my shoulder, a wan smile gracing her beautiful face. “We do the best we can when we can and have faith it will all work out.” I nodded. “Let’s get something to eat and discuss what we need to do with Charles and Din.”
We sat at the tables, my satellite phone resting in the center of our group.
“It’s dying,” I admitted, pointing to the phone.
“We really need a generator,” Ian said quietly.
“We can’t afford it, Din,” Charles added.
“No one will have electricity nearby,” Karina put in.
“And the closest city?” I asked.
“The closest city with guaranteed electricity?” Ian said.
“Yes.”
“Jinja?” he asked Charles.
“Probably.”
“How far is that?” I asked.
“Two and a half hours. Approximately.”
“Pemmy could have called by then,” I told them.
“True, but it’s our only other option,” Charles said.
Mandisa came to my side and I slid her onto my lap without thinking, resting my cheek on her head. “What if I turned it off, waited a few hours then rang Pemmy myself later. That way we could guarantee ourselves the information?”
“I don’t think there’s enough juice to boot it back up,” Ian observed, “but nice.”
“Nice what?”
“Thought. It was brilliant.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I was being sincere,” he said, offended
“Oh,” I said sheepishly.
I turned toward the table once more and spotted Karina eyeing me with interest. I shrugged my shoulders in question, but she just grinned and shook her head.
“Then we go to Jinja,” I conceded, slumping a little in my chair.
“I’ll take over your classes,” Karina said.