“I believe you,” I told him.
“I may have looked at you a few times to make sure you were doing your job.”
“Oh, I see then.”
“But I certainly wasn’t staring.”
“We’ve established that you were not staring.”
He breathed deeply a few times, his eyes burning into mine. “Good.”
He’d definitely been staring. The butterflies in my stomach fluttered and flew.
When lunch was over, I circled the children’s desks while Dingane taught penmanship, which was both in English and what I’d learned was Bantu. He then taught geography, where I got a chance to show Henry and all the children where California was, science, and we ended the day with an hour of reading then discussing what they’d read.
All in all, I was impressed with the day’s activities and knew those kids were actually learning valuable lessons they could take and create lives with. After school was out, all the kids congregated in the courtyard under the baobab tree and played football with a ball that had almost completely deflated. My heart hurt a little when I saw that. I saw a flock of girls building little dolls out of straw. They had obviously zero interest in playing soccer and that made me laugh.
Dingane caught my attention and pointed away from the children. “Kate, Joseph and Ruth will watch them before dinner. Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“Our day has only begun,” he explained.
“Who are the others I saw this morning around Masego?” I asked as Dingane took me outside the fenced property.
“You’ve met Kate. Joseph does maintenance and guards at night occasionally when it’s needed. Ruth heads the kitchen and she and Mercy, who only works part-time, care for the laundry, which is quite a task. Ruth is married to Solomon, who does maintenance and helps guard as well. They have two kids, Sharon and Isaac. They have their own home just off property.”
Dingane stopped and cupped his hand over his eyes to see farther toward a grove of trees. “No, we’ll have to get my jeep,” he told me.
I followed him to his jeep and hopped in. “What are we doing?”
“We got a call yesterday that there were men loitering around that grove of trees,” he said pointing off into the distance, “near our swimming hole. We’re going to see if the rumors are true, to check for tracks.”
“Why would they be there?”
“If they’re Lord’s Resistance Army soldiers, they could be scoping us out, or they could have been men just looking for shade and water.”
“How can you tell?”
“The LRA wear boots that most here cannot afford. It’s a good indicator.”
We stumbled along uneven terrain and I had to keep myself from sliding into Dingane’s hip several times. Finally, we came to a stop just inside the canopy of trees. Dingane reached over my lap and my blood began to boil before running ice cold when the gun he’d pulled from his glove compartment came into view.
“What are you doing?”
“These men, if they’re still here, could be armed, Sophie. I can’t take any chances.” He checked to see if the gun was loaded and an audible clicking sound resounded around my head when it clicked back into place.
I gulped and got out, not too subtly siding closely to Dingane as we started to examine the outer perimeter.
“There,” he said quietly five minutes later. Adrenaline shot through me at an astronomical rate and I grabbed his arm, pressing myself into his side.
“Wh-where?”
He pointed to a small cluster of plant life near the ground and a mud outline of a large boot print shone between.
“Jesus! What does this mean?” I asked him, my nails accidentally digging into his arm. He looked down at my hand but didn’t say a word. I lightened my hold.
“It means they were most likely LRA.” He sighed. “The men will have to take shifts over the next few days to watch for them. Hopefully they were just passing through and have no business with us.”