POCKET CHANGE 2: A GAME OF CARDS
by Sharon R.
Chapter Eighteen
"Come," Sera called, "everybody to the bus. Come on, Mbuto. Put the ball down. There will be no football on the bus while I drive." She clapped her hands together to get the children's attention and hurry them to their seats. Luka was already in the Land Rover and out the gate ahead of them. "Mr. Casey, you and Paulette are the grown ups here. I expect you to keep these children in line," she called out to Todd as he counted the heads of the excited kids before sitting down with Paulette. Seventeen.
Having been through yet another period of drought and now perhaps the hottest day thus far, the dry earth bellowed up from behind the bus like fine powder coating anything and anybody nearby with a light brown covering. Sera masterfully shifted the old gears to get it up to speed as she waved to the guards at the gate and turned onto the road. The children opened what windows they were able, cooling themselves in the breeze that kicked in. Periodically Todd stood up in the front to check on the children and encourage them to stay in their seats. It was almost a lost cause as the excitement got the better of them, for some this being one of the first times on a bus. Singing songs, playing hand games, and watching the countryside whiz by was a treat. After the children settled in, Todd reached over to Paulette and gently took her hand in his, unaware of Sera's eyes in the mirror as she smiled at the budding romance, not a care that it was an upper class white boy from America and an African girl relegated to a refugee camp.
Luka kept checking his rear view mirror hoping he hadn't gotten too far ahead of Sera. He finally spotted the bus far off when he hit a straight-away and slowed down to let it catch up. As he came around a tight curve he was stopped by soldiers, probably a check point, he thought. Reaching over to get his papers, the doors of the Land Rover were opened and Luka was grabbed by the shoulders and brutally pulled out. He knew immediately that the men in the stolen government uniforms were not who they seemed.
"Take what you need," he pleaded hoping to get them to leave before the bus rounded the curve as well. "You can have any…" Before he could finish, the side of his face exploded in pain and he fell to the ground, his mouth taking in gravel and dirt while simultaneously pouring out blood. Luka squeezed his eyes closed a few times as he tried to refocus and get away from the darkness that threatened to peripherally creep in. Voices surrounded him and feet shuffled back and forth from the Rover to another vehicle. Again, he was grabbed and forced to stand, his arms painfully tied behind his back at the elbows and wrists. One of the men chillingly approached Luka, chambered a bullet in his pistol and put it to Luka's head. It was clear what his intentions were, but before the job could be completed the bus roared around the curve and nearly took out the Rover as the brakes were applied with great force.
"Ambush," Sera said to herself before repeating it louder to Todd and Paulette, "Ambush."
Todd immediately remembered the bullet points of what he had learned about these ambushes. Women were taken as sex slaves and children kidnapped and forced to take up arms for the LRA. And on that bus was a recipe for LRA rebel success. He gave Paulette's hand one more firm squeeze before letting go and turning his attention to the children.
One of the rebels came onto the bus and ordered the children out at gunpoint, save Sera who was made to stay in her seat. Todd stayed on the bus guiding the children off into Paulette's care, himself the last to exit. They were lined up against the bus - the seventeen children, Todd and Paulette - as the rebel soldiers looked them over. Todd's gut twisted as one of the men stopped in front of Paulette and stroked her cheek and lips with his filthy hand then fell his fingertips to her small breasts and violated them through the flowered fabric of her well worn dress. He laughed with another rebel and made sure to make eye contact with Todd as he used the barrel of his rifle to hike her dress up to her hip exposing her panties. Just as he ripped a corner of the bodice to her waist, the Land Rover went up in flames. Paulette held herself stiffly as the rebel took a break to check on the progress of their initial intent. She allowed herself only a moment of panic before crossing her arms over her bared breast and again reassured the children.
The roar of a helicopter soon tipped everyone's eyes skyward as it passed over, then circled back slowly descending as it checked out the action below. The smoke from the fire and blood from a cut on his eyebrow trickling into his right eye obstructed Luka's ability to make out who was in the chopper, but as he squeezed his right eye shut and focused with his left, he caught a glimpse of a white man being pulled back into the military aircraft and the chopper haphazardly rising back into the sky. As the wind shifted and the smoke took a different direction, Luka was blinded by the sun as it reflected off of the windshield of the chopper and he looked away just in time to see all of the weapons pointed at the helicopter.
If hanging out of a chopper wasn't enough, the rebels started shooting at them forcing the crew to take evasive maneuvers. With Carter finally pinned down on the floor of the chopper quite forcefully by one of the soldiers, his face pressed so hard into the metal flooring he could barely breath, the other one grabbed a gun and prepared to shoot back.
"No," Carter pleaded, "they're children. Children."
But before any shots could be fired, a round hit the chopper in just the right place, sending it into a spin.
"Hold on," somebody yelled.
With one of the soldiers still on top of him, Carter was glued to the floor of the chopper only insofar as the soldier was. As the soldier's body shifted towards the door, so did Carter's. He lost all perspective as he only caught glimpses of the ground and sky through the two open doors. The only thing he knew for sure was that they were still in the air. What he didn't know as they were being tossed around like a bag full of marbles was when or if they were going to crash. Carter finally pulled his right arm out from under him and grabbed the leg of one of the seats bolted into the floor. His stomach lurched with the spinning and acrid smell of the assorted leaking fluids and burning oil. Gritting his teeth, he could feel the skin on his hand being pulled taut by the weight of his body and the force of the out of control aircraft. It took every ounce of energy and strength he had to maintain his grip and groaned as his fingers began to slip away from the metal. He was suddenly pitched to the front of the chopper directly into the area leading to the flight crew, one of which was most obviously dead, a good portion of his face and head missing.
They were flying straight - sputtering - but going straight with the nose awkwardly pointed downward. One of the crew that had saved Carter stepped over him and pulled his dead comrade from his seat tossing him like dirty laundry into the back out of necessity.
"What should I do? I don't know…," Carter tried to ask as he was given a spare flight helmet, thrown back into a seat against the wall and buckled in, but the three remaining soldiers talked anxiously among themselves as they grappled with the controls trying to get them back to the camp.
"No radio," one of them called out.
"Not sure if the landing gear is intact."
"Hold it steady there. Hold it."
The third soldier stepped over the body and dove under the feet of the pilot taking hold of the controls down there and dutifully followed orders leaving Carter to be just a spectator. They were flying so low that the tops of the trees could be heard smacking the underside of the chopper, a few times the thin straggling arms of the tallest ones reaching inside and threatening to slap Carter in the side. Even though the five-point harness was not about to let him fall out, he instinctively held on to the sides of the seat as though it could provide a measure of safety the harness could not.
The camp was in site. As the chopper nosed in over the perimeter fence the chopper suddenly pitched sideways and down. Carter didn't know how they did it, but the three soldiers managed to bring them down without killing anyone on the ground. The sound of the loud metal THUD coincided with Carter's ass taking the force and his arms being thrown upwards in response. A second and third THUD were followed by the crunch of the blades as they slowed then cut into the dry ground spewing dirt and debris outwards away from the wounded chopper. For all intents and purposes Carter was on his back looking towards the sky through the open door of the aircraft as it rested on it's side.
He puffed the long awaited air from his lungs through his clamped together teeth that he had held since they first crossed the fence line. The harness restrained Carter so tightly that at the angle he was positioned in, with the body of the large dead man draped across his lower legs, he couldn't find the release, and after a moment of terror frozen shock he began to panic reaching for anything and everything. From nowhere a pair of arms reached his chest and pressed the buttons giving him freedom of movement. Looking up he recognized a vertical Bob hanging through that side door face to face with him.
"What the hell happened here, Carter?" he asked when he saw the bloodied and mutilated body of the Ugandan soldier.
It took a few deep, shaky breaths before Carter could even begin to comprehend what was said. His brain knew what happened, but his mouth couldn't get the words out.
"Carter? Come on, climb up and out. The crew can't get out until you do." Bob carefully pulled himself back up through the doors and rested on the shell of the chopper as he reached down and helped pull Carter out. "What happened?" he asked again once they were on the ground. "What were you doing in the chopper?"
"The bus," he spit out as he wrestled with the helmet. "It, ah…… it…." his entire body trembled as the adrenalin overtook him bringing him to his knees as his legs finally gave out.
Bob squatted in front of him and with the gentle voice of a man who had been there before, carefully brought Carter back to reality. "What about the bus, John," he smoothly asked, dipping his head forward to look into Carter's eyes. "Hmm?"
"They offered to take me to Kampala on an overnight," he said as he gestured to the three crew who had exited the chopper and were examining the wreckage. "We flew right over the bus. There was an ambush," he nervously got out, "we were right over it and they shot at us."
"Okay. So you witnessed an ambush on a bus." Bob was keeping his cool like a professional. "We'll make some calls and get the nearest military units out there to check on the people."
"It's our bus, Bob," Carter yelled as he got to is feet and started running towards the camp buildings. "Ours."
"Carter!"
Bob caught up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder forcing him to slow to a walk, but he wasn't quick enough to stop him before Sean, Maggie and Colleen got to him.
"Jaysus," Sean screamed, "what the bloody hell happened?"
"Rebels. They ambushed the bus."
"What bus?" Sean asked as he twirled around looking for the distinct camp bus in its usual parking spot. "The camp bus?"
"Yes, the camp bus," Carter shouted, frustrated.
"The bus was out of the camp?" Sean asked combining his deep concern with a smattering of fury.
Carter kept walking until he reached Bob's black SUV. "Come on, we have to get out there." The information was fresh to the others as they stood and looked at Carter. "Come on," he yelled while pounding on the hood of the vehicle with his hand, his neck veins standing out.
"Wait, I'm confused here." Colleen's eyes were wide open.
"Me too," added Maggie.
Carter squeezed his eyes shut pissed that he had to waste time and go into detail. "The children are on the bus with Sera and Todd and Paulette. They wanted to go to the satellite clinic."
"I thought you were going," Colleen pointed out.
"I was, but Luka and I changed plans at the last minute. He took the Rover."
"Shite." Sean raised his hand to his worried face wiping the sweat from his brow. "Can't you two wankers do anything by the book?"
"Luka's out there?" Colleen asked answering her own question just with the look in her eyes. Carter didn't even have to answer as he stared at her.
"Did you see the car?" Sean asked.
Carter nodded. "It's not good. We have to get there."
"Bob, can't you just get your commando guys out there?" Maggie asked.
"That's not quite how it works," he replied.
Othiamba appeared in uniform running from the gate. "I heard what happened. Is anyone hurt?"
"Probably. But we have to get there," Carter answered impatiently.
"All of our vehicles are either out in the perimeter out of radio contact or on security detail with this morning's entourage at their next stop." Othiamba was grasping. "We're short - even I had to go on detail."
"Come on," Carter yelled.
"Okay, look. I'll go and take whatever men Othiamba can spare." Bob unlocked the SUV and took out a piece of paper, writing something on it. "Sean, this is my satellite number. You get on your horn and call the emergency number the army gave you. Carter, where is the bus?"
"Um….," he raked his fingers through his hair as he tried to imagine the location on a map. "It's on the highway going to Gulu maybe about 15 kilometers from here. It's that big bend in the road after the long straight away."
"I'll go," Othiamba volunteered, "and we'll pick up a couple more men at the gate."
"I'm going too," Carter added.
"Me too," from Maggie.
And of course, "I'm just going to grab a camera. Hold on," from Colleen.
"Stop." Bob put his arms out in front of him. "Just - stop. Nobody else goes. Reilly, this is not a photo op."
"But…"
"No, Colleen. I mean it." Bob walked closer to her face. "You and Harry stay here."
Carter opened the passenger door just in time for Bob to slam it shut. "You and Maggie stay here too."
"No way. You're going to need a doctor."
"More than one," Maggie threw in. "And especially one that can handle a firearm."
Bob gripped his face and tapped on his mouth as he thought about the possibilities. "Okay," he finally agreed as he opened the rear swinging door, "but you both have to be armed." He pulled up the floor of the rear revealing a huge cache of weapons of all makes and sizes.
"Sweet," Maggie admired as she gazed at the assortment before finally picking up her choice of weapon and locking a clip into it while pocketing some spares.
Bob carefully picked the easiest of pistols and held it out to Carter.
"No," he refused. "Uh-uh. I don't do guns."
"You saw first hand the weapons these rebels carry and their lack of restraint in using them," Bob said as he took out guns and loaded them. "You'll need to protect yourself."
"I'll drive then. You sit shot gun." Carter didn't give Bob a chance to respond as he quickly put himself behind the wheel of the vehicle. "I think you have the gun thing covered," he told Maggie as she sat behind him, dressed in two large automatic weapons.
With Othiamba and Bob finally in the SUV, they picked up two more soldiers at the gate who sat backwards on the open tailgate.
The drive was tense as weapons were checked again and Bob gave out instructions. In his mind, Carter saw the road from above first winding around, then giving way to the long straight section that went for miles before that one curve. The road was suspiciously empty, completely devoid of traffic. The locals could sense danger and perhaps the military was blocking traffic. He shifted nervously in his seat as the minutes ticked away and the anticipation of the aftermath of the ambush took over his mind.
"Windows up," Bob called out as they neared the curve. Maggie shot a wondering look at him not wanting to be trapped inside a glassed in vehicle if they were shot at. "Don't worry, Annie Oakley, nothing can penetrate these windows. Now, slow down, Carter."
The lingering smoke from the Rover hit them like a sheet on a clothesline as they made the curve. Carter crawled the SUV inches at a time into the scene. There was no sign of life. None whatsoever. The soldiers jumped out of the back first walking beside the rolling SUV, their guns skillfully pointed away from the vehicle as they searched for indications of hostility. Taking a wide berth around the Rover, the soldiers signaled Carter to stop just in back of the bus. Othiamba joined the other two soldiers as the area was searched leaving Carter, Maggie and Bob in the SUV, all three keeping their thoughts to themselves. When they got the all clear, they too got out.
The silence was unnerving.
Chilling.
The only thing they could hear as they slowly milled around was the crunch of the debris between their feet and the road surface, and the occasional whoosh of the wind as it whipped through the trees. Even the normal chatter of the birds and calls of the wildlife were unusually absent. Carter stayed close behind Maggie as she and Bob took cues from each other without speaking, taking turns peeking around corners and covering each other's back. Othiamba was the first to board the bus and quickly motioned for help. Carter feared the worst.
As Othiamba covered the open bus door, Carter stepped up inside finding a seriously wounded Sera sitting slumped over in the driver's seat. She was alive but suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder and at least two stab wounds that he could see.
"Sera, it's Dr. Carter. Where are the children? Hmm? Where's Dr. Luka?"
"Children," she mumbled incoherently, her eyes still closed, her hand held tightly over a laceration on her neck.
"What's up?" Bob asked from the door.
"GSW to the shoulder, stab wounds - one to the neck, but no major arteries. There's really not much I can do for her here." Carter took out an IV bag of Ringer's Lactate and quickly got a vein on her arm. He packed off her wounds and took her blood pressure. Not great, but not critical - yet. Other than Sera, the bus was completely empty. Carter did what he could as he nervously looked around.
"Down," one of the soldiers yelled. "GET DOWN!"
At first, Carter thought they meant him prompting him to duck as he exited the bus. Then he saw the soldiers pointing their guns in the distance at someone walking down the middle of the road. The soldiers rushed the man who followed orders and got to his knees, his hands behind his head, but it was only moments before Othiamba pulled the man back up to his feet and guided him back to the bus.
Luka was safe. Bloody, bruised, shaken - but safe. Sitting on the ground against the wheel of the bus, he took a deep breath before gathering his thoughts. Carter tended to the cuts on his head and face while grilling him for answers.
"Where were you?"
"In a truck."
"Are the children behind you? Todd? Paulette? What happened?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know what happened?"
"I don't know where the children are," he retorted with frustration batting Carter's hand out of the way. "They stopped me, took everything from the Land Rover then set it on fire. The chopper came, then they threw me in a truck and left. I didn't see anything. Next thing I know I heard a satellite phone ring, they talked, then threw me out the door." He put his head against his knees trying to abate the ache creeping up in it. "Nobody's here?"
"Sera. Maggie's with her."
Luka's heart skipped a beat. "She's….?"
"She's alive. But we're going to have to get her to Gulu as soon as more help gets here." Carter told him with a steady voice. "You too."
"No."
Before Carter could argue further, a rustle in the bushes at the far end of the adjacent open field caught the soldiers' attention.
"Everybody behind the bus," Bob ordered.
Maggie pulled the gun she had slung over her shoulder around front. "I'm not leaving Sera."
Bob knew better than to argue. She had a gun, after all, and she knew how to use it. "All right. You've driven a Soviet tank. I haven't."
All of the guns were trained on the slow, meticulous movements coming from the brush. As it came closer, the breathing grew heavier and guns steadier. It was too quiet and Carter held his back tightly against the metal side of the bus feeling as though he would get it from all sides.
"No," Othiamba yelled, "guns down. It's okay."
When Carter got to his feet and forced himself to look in the direction of the previous offending movement, he saw only a small figure as it walked slowly and carefully towards the group. Carter, too, moved towards the figure as it picked up speed.
Little Joseph plowed into Carter's arms sobbing uncontrollably, the English he had mastered so well now laying dormant inside his terror. As tight as the boy's arms and legs were around Carter, the trembling originating deep within still reached out and brought yet another level of fear to the doctor.
As the soldiers, then Bob came from around the bus, they were treated to the part of Joseph's fear that Carter knew only by sound as the boys' head remained pasted into his shoulder and neck - his agonizingly tormented face. Luka came up from behind and gently put his hand on Joseph's tear soaked cheek searching through the large empty eyes for the happy strong boy he had left at the camp earlier. Although Toomay had been careful to filter the details of his father's murder, Luka and Carter both knew that at that very moment the child was putting things together in his own mind and forming a picture in his head of his father's last breaths.
Innocence lost.
Very slowly, other children appeared through the foliage and ran to the adults, some holding each others hands, others with arms outstretched as they looked to be held and comforted. Even surly Bob had one child in his arms and another clinging to his leg. It wasn't until the exodus had waned that Carter and Luka noticed the obvious missing: Mbuto, Todd and Paulette.
Carter carefully pulled Joseph's arms and legs free and put him back on to his own two feet then squatted down to talk to him.
"Are there more?"
Joseph's face froze, his chin trembling as he looked hauntingly into Carter's eyes.
"Joseph, where are the others?"
His mouth opened and the very first word stuck on his lips, the frustration and fright relegating him to a mute.
"Show us where," Luka softly told the boy.
Joseph's little finger pointed straight back to the tree line, far from where they were standing.
"Son," Bob stepped up, "are there any bad men back there?"
He shook his head and Luka and Carter took off toward the trees, their adrenalin surging. There against the very first tree, almost blending in with the bark, was Mbuto standing stiffly, eyes closed, his breath obviously held back for fear of giving away his location. He'd done this before.
"Mbuto," Luka called out as he neared him.
Mbuto's eyes flew open and when he focused them on the doctors his soldiered face relaxed, his eyes welled with tears and his mouth opened with a wail only a child could make for his mother. Luka knelt down and tenderly wrapped his arms around the boy drawing him into a loving and protective embrace. These littlest victims of war could no longer be sheltered from reality. They were now a part of it. And for Mbuto who had escaped the horrors of the Congo physically unscathed and emotionally wooden, he was now forever changed.
Innocence lost.
Carter stayed back, giving Luka and Mbuto that moment alone. Time for Mbuto to bring to the surface that which had been suppressed probably since infancy. Time for Luka to do what a father knows how to do.
But as Carter's eyes adjusted to the darkness a cloud provided as it momentarily covered the sun, he saw something behind Mbuto's tree that called for his attention and he walked gingerly around Luka to get there.
A familiar smell was picked up by the breeze and delivered to Carter. He knew what it was. He knew what was coming. It was unmistakable and he wrinkled his nose as he took another breath anticipating that burnt metallic odor. To the lay person it probably wouldn't be noticeable, but for doctors who dealt with it daily, it was as common as the smell of roses to a florist.
He saw the feet first - two pair of feet, and as he stepped around the arms of a large bush he saw who they belonged to.
It was Paulette he saw first as she sat against the tree in a pose of defeated surrender, her dress half ripped from her chest exposing only a blood covered breast. Her face had the look of sadness - profound sadness - as she slowly looked up at Carter. He almost couldn't bring himself to follow the path of her eyes back down to her lap but was guided out of a sense of responsibility… no, compassion.
He laid in her lap, head cradled in the crook of her arm. At first Carter thought, or hoped, that there was life behind the opened eyes, but as he looked past them to his mouth, the last agonal breaths of death gurgling through a gush of blood, he knew that there was nothing he could do for Todd.
When Bob got there he stepped into the scene past a frozen Carter who suddenly felt years of helplessness wash over him. For every ten great saves in the ER, he lost one, and the feeling of not being able to help that one soul in front of him was one more check mark on his guilt meter.
Bob gently moved Paulette's hand from the hole in Todd's chest. She had tried. She had tried to save him. Turning him over, he compared the wound to Todd's chest.
"He was shot in the back."
"What…? Why would…?" Carter stumbled as he tried to put the unknown events together in his head.
"When the rebels started shooting at the helicopter, Todd told us to run," Paulette explained while still holding onto Todd. Her tired, gentle voice didn't match the words as she told of the events by rote. "He told us to run. He made sure all the children were ahead of him and he tried to get Sera to go too, but she said she wouldn't have been able to keep up. He was the last one to run."
So focused on what they were doing, they hadn't notice the influx of Ugandan government soldiers until a cluster of helicopters flew over and landed on the other side of the road. Help had arrived. Some of the soldiers brought a litter over into the trees and, as they picked up Todd's body, Paulette stood and walked beside him with no thought to his blood covering her body or her uncovered breast. She still held his hand.
As the soldiers maneuvered through the bushes and over the roots, Todd's cell phone dropped from his pocket onto the ground. Without thinking twice, Carter leaned over to pick it up, but before he could touch it, it rang, causing Carter to close his hand into a fist and pull back. Todd's phone was ringing.
"He gets cell calls?" Bob asked Luka with quiet suspicion.
Carter finally reached out and picked it up, opened the cover for a brief few seconds, then closed it again. The woman's world would fall apart soon enough, he thought. There was no harm in giving her a few more hours of comfort.
"Carter?" Bob wondered as the doctor brushed by him.
"It's his mother. She doesn't hear Todd's end. Just wants him to answer it."
The children were loaded into two matatous for their trip back to the camp. Luka lingered with Mbuto in his arms as Maggie situated Sera in an ambulance.
"I have to take Sera to the hospital," he told him as they connected foreheads. "Othiamba and Dr. Carter will take care of you. And Toomay and your friends will be waiting for you back at camp. I'm sure I'll be back tonight or tomorrow."
"Mbuto does not want you to die also," the boy told him in the third person.
"I won't. And even though I have some scratches I'm not hurt now." Luka's smile, as soft and fatherly as it was, still left Mbuto an unbeliever as his small hands cradled Luka's face. "Here, let me show you." Luka dug deep into his pant's pocket and held something out for Mbuto. "See? I have your good luck coin. I'm still waiting to find someone to pass it on to. Someone who does a good deed."
Mbuto touched the coin with his fingers before folding Luka's hand around it once again and wrapping his arms around his neck in a tight embrace. He whispered softly into Luka's neck. "I did not have one for Todd." One last tear fell. Luka was glad that Mbuto could not see that he, the older strong one charged to provide comfort and safety, was the one who shed it, the one who was innocently comforted by the child himself.
Where a bus and small Land Rover left earlier in the day, a caravan of vehicles returned through the camp gate as nightfall approached and the sun's bright orange hue bled onto the thickening clouds overhead.
The children exited the white vans into the arms of their parents and loved ones. The last in camp was an open military Jeep, Carter behind the wheel, Todd wrapped in a tarp on a litter across the back, and Paulette sitting in the passenger seat, the blood now dried to a reddish-brown. Her eyes empty and hard. Tolo, who had stayed behind, was the first to reach her sister, then Toomay and Joseph. Toomay had lost the first love of her life, now she was watching her daughter lose hers. The Bisango family wrapped their arms around each other and left for their quarters to start the healing - or rather, continue it.
Othiamba and Carter carried Todd into the clinic and placed him at the far end on a surgery table just outside the office door. Sean and Colleen rose from their seats and looked through the glass wondering if the body was…
"Luka?" Sean asked stepping out of the office, the apprehensive red-head behind him.
Carter shook his head. "Todd." He stood, hands in his pockets, staring down at the covered body. He'd come so far. So much promise. So much life. And maybe even young love.
"What about Luka?" Colleen asked.
"He, um…" Carter had to collect himself, "… he went with Maggie into Gulu. Sera was injured. She'll be okay. Bob said he'd get them back here."
"How… ?" Sean quietly asked.
"Shot in the back while saving the children." Carter chuckled, his exhausted face barely moving. "Here he was worried about facing adversity."
In the office, he sat down in a chair and stared blankly at his feet. Even Norman sat at his desk subdued and lost in thought. "What's that?" Carter asked Sean. The music was almost a monotone. A child's voice, then a choir. Haunting. A reverential choral chant flowing in a foreign language.
"I'm sorry, I'll turn it off."
Carter stopped him before Sean could make it to the CD player. "No, don't." He listened some more. It was eerily comforting yet evocative. "What is it?"
"Celtic. Like a hymn I guess." An Irish low whistle provided a melancholy background. "Bim ar thoir an comhartha. Scaoileas m'anam saor." Sean closed his eyes and sang the song by rote, the words obviously close to his heart.
(A few lines of Song Lyric for Sigma by Rolf Lovland and David Agnew, sung by Secret Garden, previously properly attributed, deleted 5/3/05 as per new regulation by site adminstration. The author elected to keep just a few as the characters are quoting them in context.)
"Do you know the translation?" Carter asked.
Sean first recited the song in his native Celtic language, then gave the translation. "I search for the sign that will set my soul free. My heart must be pure so that I can find peace."
"Kind of prophetic." Carter closed his eyes letting the music take him over. He never really let music affect him like that, but when the next track started with the acapella voices singing in almost a spirit of lullabye of angels, warms arms and dark nights, he was so moved he had to leave the office before the last verse and search out someplace to hide in private.
(A few lines of Song Lyric for Prayer byFionnuala Sherry and Rolf Lovland, sung by Secret Garden, previously properly attributed, deleted 5/3/05 as per new regulation by site adminstration. PC2 can be read in its original text at LUKAFIC.)
Sera was recognized by the staff at the Gulu hospital. She had worked in camps most of her life, not taking a salary, only room and board. Maggie borrowed a treatment room and cleaned Luka's cuts and scrapes.
"Got quite a goose egg up there," Maggie said pointing to the side of his head.
"Yeah, well, I made out pretty good, considering." They shared little, but unlike the rocky road they took when they first met, it wasn't uncomfortable.
They waited around for Sera to get out of surgery and met the surgeon in the emergency room. She'd be okay, but would spend a week or so hospitalized before returning to her family in Jinja on Lake Victoria. They thanked the doctors and nurses before looking for Bob who had promised to meet them.
"You were probably expecting Dr. Carter," Luka offered to the staff, "but I'm glad we finally got to meet you."
"Oh, we haven't seen Dr. Carter in quite a while," the director told them. "He fulfilled his commitment long ago."
(Lyrics Deleted)