Beneath a Southern Sky - By Deborah Raney Page 0,1
man Daria had never seen before.
Nate ran out into the rain to speak with the two men. Daria stood watching from the shelter of the doorway. The stranger gestured widely and spoke in a dialect that Daria didn’t understand. The man waited then, while Quimico translated. She could make out a few of his words through the rain, and when Nate replied through Quimico, her heart began to pound. It sounded as though Nate was agreeing to go to another village with the man. Since their arrival, news had traveled that Timoné had a “medicine doctor,” and Nate had been summoned to outlying villages on several occasions. Daria hated it when he left, abandoning the safe sanctuary of Timoné and her.
The men finished their conversation, and while Quimico and the stranger headed back into the village, Nathan came to the hut, his head bowed against the rain.
“What was that all about?”
He refused to look her in the eye and instead went to his side of their sleeping mat, lifted a corner and pulled an empty knapsack from underneath it.
“Nathan, what’s going on?”
He answered with his back to her, stuffing provisions into the bag as he knelt on the floor. “There’s an outbreak of fev—of illness in a village upriver.”
He had stopped himself midsyllable, and Daria knew exactly why.
“Is it dengue, Nate?” she asked, her voice tight.
“I’m not sure,” he hedged. “I couldn’t get much of what he said, but whatever it is it’s devastated the village. They’ve lost twenty lives already—mostly children.”
Anger rose in her. She knew his words were calculated for her sake, that she’d feel guilty if she selfishly asked him to remain when little children were dying upriver.
“Nathan, where is this village?”
“Upstream a ways,” he said, still busily arranging items in his knapsack.
“How far?”
“It’s a distance, Daria. Quimico thinks it’s a couple of days up the Guaviare.”
“Two days! Nathan, it takes one whole day just to get to the river!”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“You’ll be gone a week.”
“I might be, Daria.” He yanked on a zipper and began adjusting the straps.
His steady, measured answers made her furious.
“When are you leaving?”
“First thing in the morning.”
She started pacing the short distance of the room, desperate to come up with the words that would keep him home. “Nathan, what if it is dengue?”
Still kneeling on the floor, he turned to look up at her. “I honestly don’t think it’s dengue, Daria. It sounds more like some sort of influenza.”
“But you don’t know that.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Nathan, you almost died the first time.” She was pleading with him now, her hand on his shoulder, forcing him to look at her. “You’re a doctor. You know dengue is worse if you get it again.”
“It can be, Daria. But I don’t think this is dengue.” He looked down, ostensibly to check his watch.
“How could you possibly know?” she growled. “You’re just telling me that because you’ve already made up your mind to go.”
He stood now and put his hands on her shoulders. “Daria, stop it. You know I have to go. It’s why we came here. You know that, Daria. God did not bring us this far to refuse help to those who need it.”
She bit her tongue to keep from asking him what this “we” business was, and yet felt as guilty as if she’d let the words fly.
“Don’t worry, babe.” He softened a bit. “I’ll be fine.”
“Then let me go with you,” she begged.
“Absolutely not. You’d just slow us down…and what would you do when you got there?”
“I could help, Nate. I could—”
“No. You’re staying here.”
She reached out and gripped his arm. “Nate, please…just listen to me.”
“There’s nothing to discuss, Daria.” He set his lips in a tight line.
Why was he being so pigheaded? Couldn’t he see that she was just worried about him? She hated him just a little at that moment. But she knew her husband well enough to know that nothing she could say now would change his mind, so she stood there watching him, silent.
The rains had stopped. Nate put the knapsack beside the door and stepped onto the stoop. “I’m going to go help get the boat ready.”
Trembling inside, she followed him.
Nathan descended the steps, but when he got to the bottom he turned to look back up at her. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m going to ask Quimico and Tados to go with me.”
She turned on her heel and slammed the door.
When Nathan returned to the hut that evening they ate together in chilled silence, the