One high-quality netted canopy.
One thousand thread count Egyptian cotton sheet set.
I looked down at my bedding and felt the urge to sob seep out of me. I stifled it with a hand across my mouth. I shook it away and stood on the mattress, hooking my canopy net to the hook on the ceiling before shaking out the rolled up mattress cover. I placed everything as it was meant to be, threw off my clothing, put on my pajamas and got into bed. I remembered the lady at the shops telling me to tuck the net into the mattress so I did as she instructed me to. I laid back on the impossibly soft bed and closed my eyes but all I could see was the little girl with the missing arm...
And cried in earnest.
CHAPTER EIGHT
I slept horribly. Terrible thoughts swarmed through my head and it was cold. Horribly cold. Apparently Africa hadn’t gotten the memo that it was August and fifty-degree nights shouldn’t be possible. I tumbled out of bed after shaking out the bugs that had died in my net over the night. I peeked out my door and it looked like the sun was only just rising. I didn’t think I’d ever seen the sun rise before and I watched as pinks and greens, yellows and oranges danced and disappeared over the incredible landscape.
I grabbed my shower caddy and robe and headed toward the showers just to the right of my little hut. I felt so incredibly alone there. I’d always felt alone. My entire life, actually, but this was a loneliness that felt unbearable. I knew I could always find solace in Karina, but I wondered if she’d be too busy to be the friend I needed though I didn’t really deserve one. I knew that. Dingane was right. I was a spoiled, repulsive brat, but I’d never had anyone actually tell me so before to my face. It felt like a slap, but I also felt relief, strangely, something I hadn’t been expecting. I’d never been told the truth so brutally before and it was releasing, not that I’d tell Dingane that. Regardless, he was rude to me and that pissed me off beyond belief.
No one was out then that I could see and I was grateful that I’d have some time to myself before I was thrown into whatever daunting situation I would inevitably be thrown into. I showered quickly and threw on my robe just as quickly, ready to haul ass back to my hut when I suddenly took notice there wasn’t a single insect or arthropod in sight. Huh, was all I could intelligently piece together in that moment.
Back in my room, I dressed in jeans, boots and a fitted button-up, ready for work. I braided my hair in two French braids down the sides of my head, leaving my straight bangs to air dry over my forehead. I tidied as best I could, tucked in my canopy net and stood by the door, my hand clenched on the handle, frozen in absolute terror.
I don’t know how long I stood there before I heard Karina’s voice singing a sweet melody. I peered through the cracks of the wood in my door and watched her stroll my direction, in her hand was the hand of the little girl with the missing arm. I studied the girl, finally able to really look at her.
She was no more than three years old with big, round, beautiful brown eyes, perfectly white, straight teeth and a smile as wide as the Nile. They were singing and laughing together, throwing their hands back and forth without a care in the world. When they got close, I backed away, my calves catching on the foot of the bed letting me know I could go no further.
Karina knocked softly. “Sophie, sweetheart. Are you up?”
“Ye-yes!” I called out after a moment’s hesitation.
“We’re here to walk you to breakfast!” she said cheerfully.
“Oh okay,” I said through the door. “I’ll be right out.”
I stepped in front of the small square mirror that hung loosely above the sink basin and checked myself. Simple makeup. Simple hair. I didn’t think I’d ever looked so droll before. I wanted to laugh at myself. I wouldn’t dare walk into public back home looking like that.
I opened the door and filed out in front of my audience of two.
Karina gasped. “Oh, dear Lord, Sophie. You scared me. I didn’t expect you to be up and ready so early.” She laughed. She eyed me and her hands came to rest on her hips. “Well, don’t you look a sight! My dear, you are a breathtaking girl.”
“Thank you,” I told her, knowing she was just being kind.
“Shall we?” she asked, grabbing my hand without asking. She started leading us to the second largest building on the property, just to the right of the main building, the center of the large half circle of buildings. To the right of the kitchens were the bathhouses. Just to the left of the main building and to the right of the remaining staff living quarters, was Charles and Karina’s house I deduced. I could tell because it was a bit more established-looking over the other residential huts, had a proper roof as opposed to the thatched roofs of the other buildings. To the left of their house was what I assumed was Kate’s and the other staff’s double hut and to the left of those was mine and Dingane’s. In the center of the property was the largest tree I’d ever seen in my entire life.
“What kind of tree is that?” I asked Karina, astonished that I was just then noticing it.
“It’s a baobab tree,” she smiled sweetly at me.
It looked like a giant bonsai, thick trunk, easily twenty feet around the base, and reached to impossible heights before its canopy shot flat and spread out to a radius of a hundred feet easily.
“It’s beautiful.”
“I know,” she said, patting its trunk as we passed by it.
“It’s always been here. Always.”
“Stalwart, is it?” I asked.
Karina smiled at me. “Yes, much like my Charles.”
I returned the easy smile and felt a little of my anxiety begin to melt away.
The kitchens were small and I wondered how they fed them all with such meager operations. I looked around me and saw tables overflowing with laughing children.