After each child received their shot, we replaced empty saline bags and treated fevers just as the sun was rising.
“That’s almost twenty-four hours straight without sleep,” Ian sleepily said, stumbling toward me in Charles and Karina’s cabin. He fumbled across the sofa I was strewn across and laid next to me, his eyes closing quickly.
“Careful, Aberdeen,” I lazily drawled, a secret smile gracing my lips.
He grinned, his lids still seemingly fused. He knew exactly what I’d meant. “I will,” he promised around gleamingly white teeth, throwing an arm over my shoulders. The smile slowly slipped from his lips and his breathing deepened and steadied. Then it was my turn, though I’m sure my smiled stayed.
Around two in the afternoon, I woke to children’s laughter and a heavy arm laid across my back. I peeled open one lid and faced the back of the couch. I quickly shut them, my nose scrunched together in an effort to keep them closed, and listened for a moment.
“What are they doing?” I heard Mandisa ask someone.
“They’re sleeping, Mandisa, leave them be,” Karina answered. Her voice was lighter and I breathed a sigh of relief. I could tell the vaccines were working because Mandisa was lucid. My heart soared.
“He will bury her,” she offered.
“He will not,” Karina said, giggling. She was in the kitchen, stirring something in a metal pot. I could hear the gentle rhythm of the spoon scrape the bottom back and forth.
“He will. He is too big. He is going to kill her.”
“Mandisa,” Karina playfully admonished.
“We get him off her.”
“Mandisa, come over here and sit on this chair,” Karina ordered.
“I can’t leave. I have to watch he does not cut off her air.”
“I have crayons,” Karina tempted.
I heard hesitant little feet walk to the table. She began coloring and I could hear each individual stroke against the wood tabletop.
“They are married?” Mandisa asked after a few minutes. I was forced to bite my lip to keep from bursting out in laughter.
“No,” Karina answered.
“But his hand is on her back.”
“I’m sure it was an accident, Mandisa. He wasn’t trying to be disrespectful to her. They were probably very, very tired from caring for you and your brothers and sisters last night.”
“It is okay this time then,” Mandisa concluded.
“Yes, because it was an accident,” Karina said, though a bit too loudly.
tared at me, eyes wide. “I-I just meant...I meant that, uh, that I also wanted to sleep with you.”
I laughed out loud.
“I mean, not with you but sleep in my own bed during the time in which you also sleep...in your bed. We’d be asleep in two separate beds. You in yours and me in mine.” One of his hands left the steering wheel and ran the length of his face. “God, I’m deprived.” A quick glance my way. “Of sleep! Deprived of sleep!” His hand slapped the wheel. “God, shut up, Din.”
I smiled at him softly. “I got you, Ian.” Boy, do I ever.
It’s not surprising I slept most of the way to Kampala. We arrived shortly before the plane was scheduled to land and rushed into the airport.
“Does this bring back memories?” I asked Ian.
He smiled. “It certainly does.”
“You hated me.”