five.
When we got out of the shower, Armin's wife, Connie, took Connor and I aside.
"You boys sure got a lot on your plates," She spoke with the same southern accent that Armin did, "And as a personal gesture I'd like to offer you the R.V for night-time."
"Wow," Was all I could say, "Thank you."
"Are you sure?" Connor asked, "I mean, you have already been so good to us. We really don't want to impose."
"I insist!" Connie threw her hands in the air. "You two have done such a wonderful job taking care of that group of yours. You deserve a break."
"Well, it's all Connor's doing," I smiled, "But thank you. We'll be out of your hair before too long."
That night, as I closed and locked the R.V door, Connor burst into happy tears. He told me that it was the first time in weeks that he felt safe. I felt so lucky to have him, and told him thusly. That seemed to be the breaking point for him, because he lunged across the tiny bedroom and into my arms kissing me fiercely. Everything from that point on would get us sent to hell, for sure. But I would never, ever tell him that.
The next day was, thankfully, a rest day. We sat around the little fire, talking and eating good food. I felt incredibly blessed. I had friends who I had come to address as family, I has safety and shelter, I had Connor. I knew that in a few days we'd be back on the road again, and our chances of survival would decrease. I tried not to think of that and just enjoy the feeling of a full belly, of the rough ground beneath me and the soft, warm boy with his arm slung around my hip.
There were, as always, decisions to be made. We opted to keep on track to Morocco, and that our first stop after this would be Egypt. Halfway there. We kept checking on the radio to make sure the transmission hadn't stopped. They hadn't.
After a hearty dinner, Arnold pulled me aside.
"What's up, companion?" I asked.
"It's… It's Nabagapo." He stuttered, mispronouncing Nabulungi's name, as per usual, "Her birthday is tomorrow days and I'd like to see if we can find something to give her."
"I'm sure we can figure something out," I assured him. He nodded happily and bounded back to the fire. I wasn't sure if we would be able to give her anything, but I was positive that just knowing that we were headed to Salt Lake would be more than enough for her.
Kalimba, Middala and Kimbay decided to stay with these new people when it's time for us to go. They said that it was just too hard for them to leave this part of the world. That was really tough to hear, but we knew it was best for them. We knew that Armin and Connie had a pretty good operation set up there, and they probably had a better chance of surviving with them than with us. That means that we can all squeeze into one of the vans. Granted, it will be very tight, but it will be better to not waste gas.
Connor and I were up all night discussing everything from us to life to Salt Lake, which reminded us that we still don't know how our families reacted to us coming out via letters we sent out about two months ago. Letters would have arrived three days ago. I said we'd wait and see how they took it when we got back to Salt Lake. I wanted him to remain hopeful that his family was still alive. I spoke to him about Nabu's birthday, and he mentioned that we should let her and Arnold have the R.V for the night of her birthday. I said that it sounded like a great idea. So it was a plan.
The next morning (well, noon) I woke up without Connor. He had gone outside. I dressed myself and stumbled outside into the cool morning. The second that I closed the door, Arnold ran full-speed into me, crushing me in a hug
"Whoa, whoa. What's going on?" I chuckled. I'd never seen him so happy.
"Elder McKinley told me what you're giving Naba and I. It means a ton. Naba is super happy. Thankyouthankyouthankyou." He babbled. I hugged him back.
"It was Connor's idea." I told him. He craned his head to look at me. His glasses were pushed into his nose.
"I know. I already thanked him."
I gazed over to the fire. Connor sat with a smirk on his face, arms crossed in front of his chest. He gave me a wink. Arnold and I walked towards the pit. I sat beside Faye. We made idle conversation. That lasted about 15 minutes. Poptarts and Church came out of their tent.
"Guys, we have something to say." Church announced. Everyone turned their attention to them. Poptarts gave me a smile; I knew where this was going.
"We… We're… uh…" Church muttered. He was nervous, even though he had no reason to be. Poptarts rolled his eyes and laced their fingers together, holding their hands up. Silence. I could see the fear creeping onto their faces.
"Well it's about time!" Schrader laughed loudly. Everyone instantly agreed. Church sighed in relief and pulled Poptarts towards him in a sweet hug. Connie commented on how cute they were. As everyone was laughing and congratulating them, Connor moved to sit next to me to hold my hand.
In lieu of a cake, we stuck three tea candles onto a loaf of banana bread and sang 'Happy Birthday' to Nabu. She was so overwhelmed that she cried as the cake came down onto her lap. She thanked each of us profusely. We waved her and Arnold off as they retired to the R.V. People continued to go to their tents until it was just Connor, Schrader, Zelder, Thomas, Poptarts, Michaels, and Davis left. God knows what time it was.
"We should leave tomorrow." Connor suggested.
"Are you sure? I mean, It's going to be hard to leave Kalimba and Middala and Kimbay." Michaels commented.
"Yeah, but we can't drag this out. It's like a band-aid. We just have to rip it off." Davis offered.
Zelder sat up straight. "Yeah. I mean, it's going to be packed tight in the van, and we're going to have to work out a new seating plan, but we can't get too comfortable."
Connor smiled, satisfied. "Great! We'll leave at noon tomorrow. For now, let's work on that seating plan." Schrader grabbed a pen and some paper from his tent and wrote what Connor said down. In the end, our plan looked something like this: Zelder in the driver's seat, Michaels and Schrader in the passenger seat, Arnold, Nabu, Mafala, and Gotswana in the middle, Poptarts, Church, Connor and I in the back. Davis would sit on the floor at Arnold and Nabu's feet.
We eventually got too tired to plan anymore, so we all went to our respective tents. Connor curled into me, and despite the fact that it was our last night of guaranteed safety, I felt secure in the fact that I held the entire world in my arms.