Every Serengeti Sunrise by Rula Sinara

Author:Rula Sinara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

MADDIE GRABBED A bag of sugar and a container of tea from the back of the jeep as Pippa unloaded a cloth sack, plus a bag with her water and soil sampling kits she’d held on to since her college geology labs. Maddie’s mom had asked Pippa to check a few wells in the area when she could. Apparently, Hope was concerned about some clinical symptoms that had been showing up in the rural villages. This particular village was the closest to Busara, and Busara’s water had been fine when Pippa tested it.

“I don’t need my fortune told,” Maddie said, holding up the sugar and tea gifts. She should have known the water wasn’t the only reason why Pippa wanted to visit this place.

“Oh, come on. You need a distraction after yesterday. So do I.”

“I guess it’s not something anyone can get used to.”

“No. You had me worried, though,” Pippa said. “Me? It shreds me to pieces every time. I’ve learned to stay out of the clinic until I’m told a baby needs a name. I can’t handle it when they don’t make it. That’s why I didn’t go to vet school. That takes a certain type of stoic strength I don’t have. If I knew you’d followed them, I would have stopped you. I’m sorry.”

Maddie didn’t respond right away. She was still devastated by what she’d seen. It was burned in her memory. She wasn’t good at dealing with death. No, she was downright terrified of it. She’d handled the passing of her fish over the years, but that was the extent of it since her mother’s passing. Fear. It was what kept her from adopting a cat or finding a way to include a dog in her busy life. She loved each fish she’d had, but there was something about the glass between them that made her feel sheltered from the pain of loss. Safe from heartbreak.

“I’m okay.”

“Then don’t resist. This fortune reading will be fun. It’ll help clear your mind.”

“Are you sure about that? The last time you did it, Laibon Leshan told you something like, ‘Enemy will make earth break and bleed.’ I fail to see your enthusiasm for dire divination. That would have given me nightmares for weeks.”

The Laibon was the one who everyone turned to for healing and guidance, from issues of infertility to where greener pastures lay for the cattle. A medicine man and oracle all in one. And it was traditional to bring him an offering or a gift in return for requesting his help. Laibon Leshan loved getting sugar and tea.

“Ah, but we had a small tremor a few days later. Most didn’t feel it, but I thought I did and looked it up. Sure enough, it showed up on the Richter scale readings on the geological website. Get it? Tectonic plates shifting. Small earthquake. Cracks deep in the earth are the breaks, and magma—since we didn’t have any volcanic eruptions or lava flow above ground—is the blood. He totally saw that coming.

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