Alexandria of Africa by Eric Walters

Author:Eric Walters [Walters, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-37460-8
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Published: 2008-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

The truck ground to a stop and I lifted my head from my hands. Everybody got up and started toward the ladder to climb down.

Sarah knelt down in front of me. “Are you feeling better?”

“A little.” How embarrassing. I’d almost lost my breakfast on this trip. I’d never been carsick before in my life, but this wasn’t a car, and this wasn’t a road, either.

“It is pretty rough back here,” Sarah offered.

“How could a few miles take so long?” I groaned.

“It was just under an hour. Come on, you’ll feel better when you get your feet on the ground.”

She took me by the hand and led me down the now empty aisle. Everybody else had already gotten off. She climbed down the ladder and I followed. Nebala offered me his hand for the last two steps and I accepted. He flashed me the Vulcan greeting and walked off.

“What was that?” Sarah asked.

“Must be some Maasai thing,” I offered.

We rounded the truck and joined the group. They were clustered around Renée and a couple of guys who looked like workmen. I looked past them, trying to survey the whole scene. There were a dozen little buildings arranged around the property. A couple of the buildings were made of concrete blocks, topped with identical red tin roofs, with blue window frames and doors. They were cute in a dollhouse sort of way. The rest of the buildings weren’t quite so cute. The roofs were rusty and they seemed to be constructed of mud.

In the distance was a large field with a couple of semi-matching soccer nets made of tree branches at each end, and off to the side were two rusty poles with basketball hoops attached. The whole area was a combination of burnt brown grass and red dirt. It certainly had less in common with the playing fields at my school than it did with the moon.

I heard children’s voices and looked around. I could hear them but I couldn’t see them. They had to be inside the buildings. Then I saw a face. A little tiny black face was peeking out of one of the windows. It was joined by a second and then a third face, and then a little hand waved at me. I waved back, and the little faces burst into laughter and disappeared from view.

“Okay, everybody, you all know what to do!” Renée announced. “Let’s get to work!”

The group scattered. Apparently they all knew their jobs. I would have paid more attention, but I already knew mine—my job was to avoid doing any job.

“Um … Renée,” I called out. “I noticed that everybody is putting on their gloves, and I realized that I didn’t bring any gloves. I was wondering if—”

She whipped a pair of gloves out of her back pocket and handed them to me. Without saying a word she walked away.

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