Facing the Son, A Novel of Africa by M L Rudolph

Author:M L Rudolph
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: thriller, adventure, africa, peace corps, father and son, mali, cote divoire, abidjan, ouagadougou, sahel, passport theft, mungo park
Publisher: M L Rudolph

Chapter 24

After Ségou, Jacques jumped on an old road tracking the south bank of the Niger. No sooner had he reached a slow cruising speed than he abruptly abandoned the hard pack and turned sharply south into a rutted dirt trail that rattled over spine-jarring washboard.

“What now?” Matt shouted over the roar of the road, his back complaining with shots of pain.

—What are you doing? Sally snapped at Jacques, reaching across to slap his headrest. He leaned up and away from her rebuke.

—Enough with your little idea, Jean-Louis said, assuming control. —We stay off the main road.

—No.

—Yes. We discussed it at the market.

—I didn’t discuss anything. If we don’t leave a presence at Mopti.…

—No. Do you hear me? We leave the road. No one sees the car from Côte d’Ivoire any more. End of story.

Sally protested the change of plans to no avail, then tried a different tack. “This car is not for off road. We will break down. It is stupid to risk it.”

“We will not break anything,” Jean-Louis asserted, holding firm as a sullen truce descended.

Jacques slowed where the road narrowed to a single pair of tire ruts weaving between trees and brush. He honked at a pair of lumbering cattle, departed the ruts to avoid the cows, then resettled into the tracks of the uneven terrain.

“One rock or hole, that is all it takes. It is completely stupid. We should have gone to Mopti, stayed to the river road. We don’t save anything by getting stuck and having to hike back to Ségou for help.”

“We could break down going north, too,” Jean-Louis countered. “We lost too much time making all those pointless stops. We did it your way. Now we do it mine. Robert will go north to Mopti and get lost in the markets. That’s enough. By the time we get to Ouaga, Robert is at a crossroad between crazy and lost.”

The car lurched, the undercarriage grabbed, and a dull rhythmic thudding started keeping time.

Sally said nothing and directed her stony stare out the window. After the knocking persisted to the point of concern, Jacques stopped next to a shady tree and everyone got out to inspect the cause of the racket. Jacques crawled underneath and after a groan and a struggle, he slid out and tossed aside what resembled a mutilated rib cage of a small animal.

—If we don’t go through Mopti, Robert will notice and drive directly to Ouaga, Sally asserted.

—I don’t think so, Jean-Louis retorted. —We are done with your game. Only slows us down and makes it a longer drive.

Sally glared at her uncle.

—He will catch us on the road if we keep stopping.

—I see that. She turned her attention to the mutilated rib cage.

Back in the car no one spoke as Jacques drove a bit more slowly over the uneven trail. At one turn, at a steeply eroded section of road, he and Jean-Louis got out to heave a fallen tree limb out of the way.

“Listen,” Jean-Louis eventually said within the brooding atmosphere.

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