CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
But with the new extraordinary you still had the unexpected...
That morning, we all woke anew, with a mission. We informed the children of their Christmas present, a new place to live. Many felt uneasy about the potential move but we assuaged any fears, letting them know it would be safer and that they would have a playground and that seemed to liven them up enough to get them excited.
With that, we went about packing rooms in preparation. Our plan was to set up temporary camps within the new territory. Pembrook had somehow arranged for military CHU’s or Container Housing Units to be dropped off within three days which would allow us to house and care for the children during the weeks of new construction. I didn’t want to know how much that was costing my father and I hoped he didn’t either.
By the time the CHU’s had arrived, we were prepared to transport. Most of the children’s things were packed and ready to go as well. There had been no additional sign that the LRA was near or nearing. We were confident and happy.
The night before we were set to transfer everyone and everything, Ian and I were making our way to the CHU’s, twenty minutes south of the then current Masego. We just needed to make a quick pit stop a mile outside the gates to gather one of the missing cattle and mend a broken fence.
“She’s a stubborn jerk,” I said, pushing the cow toward the damaged fence.
Finally, the old girl hopped it and moved as quickly as a heifer could move toward her meandering comrades.
Ian and I dropped to the ground right next to the fence and laughed, out of breath from pushing the cantankerous bovine. The lights from our jeep lit us from behind, bathing us in an ethereal glow. He leaned into me, wrapping his hand around the nape of my neck and tugging me toward him, kissing me softly on the lips.
“What a Christmas,” he told me, gazing at me and brushing his thumb across my lower lip.
“Indeed,” I agreed.
“I love you,” he professed, running his fingers through my hair before meeting my nape once more.
Earlier he had undone my braids for me and I never thought I had ever experienced anything as sexy as the way his eyes danced when it fell across my shoulders.
“I love you,” I told him, my hand coming to rest on his forearm at my neck.
His face became serious and I searched his eyes, his furrowed brow.
“Stay with me,” he whispered, the hand that had been resting on my hip moved to meet the other side of my neck.
I swallowed, forcing my gaze downward. I’d had no idea how I was going to answer that because it was a forbidden topic, a forbidden thought. I was scared.
“I don’t know what to say,” I told him truthfully.
“Say you’ll stay. Give it all up, Soph. You have nothing really to go back to, you told me so yourself.”
“Excuse me? I have plenty to go back to,” I said, affronted.
“Yes, but none of it means anything.”
He was right, of course, but I didn’t like how he dismissed my old life so readily. Yeah, I was different since Masego but I could still have a righteous future in the States. But can you leave Ian? Really leave him? How about Mandisa?
I shook my head of the thoughts.
“I don’t have a choice,” I told him.
“You do. Choose me, Soph.”
But with Ian comes responsibility. Could I choose a Masego life for myself? For the rest of my life? Could I commit to it?
I hedged. “I’m due back in court at the completion of my sentence, though.”
“Then I’ll come with you and we’ll come back together,” he said, hugging me to his chest tightly. “It would probably be good to have a Masego rep there anyway.”
I pushed at him slightly. “We don’t have to decide now,” I told him.
He widened the distanced I’d created. “Why are you being so difficult about this?”