Time of Gifting

by Taki Drake

  Looking at Jean’s face, Mary had to fight to not break into hysterical laughter. Her friend’s eyes were opened wide enough that it looked like her eyeballs were going to pop out of her skull. Geri had both hands plastered over her mouth, and the group leader knew that gesture was the older woman’s attempt to control her own hysteria. When the white-haired woman’s eyes swept around the area and back of Mary, and the laugh lines on her face tightened more deeply, Mary turned.

  Peeking through separate gaping holes in the side of the bus were what appeared to be unattached heads. The other four members of their tour were staring at her with gaping mouths and the same pop-eyed expression that Jean still wore.

  It was too much for Mary. The dam broke with a choked off chortle, exploding into a gushing flood of laughter that brought a combination of relief and agony as Mary’s ribs fought valiantly against the jerking movements. Geri’s musical giggle joined her friend's amusement, threading in and out of the paroxysms until, one by one, the other women joined in.

  It was inappropriate, exhausting, and hysterical. It was also needed.

  After a timeless moment of intense pressure relief, the sound of laughter trailed off. Jean was the first one to speak, admitting, “I am sorry. I know I am not thinking very clearly, but if any of you are hurt because of me, I am not sure I can bear it.”

  Geri answered her briskly, “Then toughen up, girly because we have to get you out of here. Just promise you will not make our group leader angry again. Mary is really scary when she gets that way!” A murmur of agreement from the rest of the group sent an embarrassed flush to Mary’s face as she and Geri got their hands positioned to carefully raise Jean off the floor.

  The shifting debris on the curved ceiling of the bus that was now their floor made an extremely precarious pathway. Every time that Mary’s footing slipped, a vicious, stabbing pain stole her breath. When Geri gasped as she stumbled, the group leader became aware that she was not the only one concealing injuries.

  The two women refused to give up, eventually reaching a large gap on the side of the bus. Positioned by the opening, the party of three paused to catch their breath and collect their energy. A small breeze kissed them, even its heated air a relief as it evaporated the sweat that was thick on their bodies.

  Connie and Naomi hurried over to where Mary stood with Geri to keep Jean upright. Naomi said, “Let us take over from here. We will get her into the shade of the lean-to, and Pam can watch both of them.” Exchanging glances, Mary and Geri swapped places with their fresher friends, gratefully watching as Jean was smoothly and rapidly eased into space beside Abdul.

  Mary said quietly, “I am relieved that Pam shows no signs of a concussion or head fracture, but I am even more pleased that this will let her stay out of the sun.” When Geri murmured her agreement, the group leader turned to her, asking straightforwardly, “What injury are you concealing? I would like to know because knowing everyone’s status may be critical to our survival.”

  Geri smiled and responded just as quietly, “I will tell you mine if you tell me yours. That way, two of us know the status of everybody in the group.” When Mary admitted, “Possibly cracked ribs, severe bruising along both sides, nasty cuts on my arms.” The older woman responded, “Severe sternum bruising, twisted left knee and hip, possible pulled groin muscle, several loose teeth.”

  Sharing a little laugh, Mary admitted, “And I think we are doing the best of anyone. Which is really scary.” Wordlessly, Geri squeezed Mary's shoulder softly before both women headed back over to see what needed to be done.

  The women’s stumbling, semi-frantic escape from what could have been a metal coffin had made it clear how very close all of them had come to dying. Employing a minor sign of denial, the group avoided the stark reality of their situation by staying determinedly busy. The group leader knew that they were all focusing on doing rather than thinking, fighting to keep hysteria away by sheer force of mind.

  It was a mother’s technique. Deal with the current emergency, cry and shake later. All of them had been there and done that. So they were doing it again with the ease of long practice, but Mary felt in her bones that payment for their efforts would be demanded sometime in the not-too-distant future.

  The group leader thought they had made a lot of progress. They had scavenged as much of their belongings and items from the bus as they could find. Even the semi-destroyed scraps of things were pulled out and piled over to the side.

  Naomi was in charge of getting camp set up. She had spent decades as a Girl Scout leader, both as her children grew up and when the empty nest drew her to a continuing mentoring and nurturing position with other people’s children. Her decades of campouts and Jamborees stood her in good stead as a familiar routine kept her focused and functional.

  The experienced camper had insisted that they set up camp several hundred feet away from the damaged vehicle. The smell of gasoline was powerful, and none of them wanted to be anywhere around another explosion. They found a site that looked mostly level, which had a protected back wall of rock and partial protection from the prevailing winds. Hopefully, this would get them through the night. No one wanted to think any further than tonight.

  Suddenly, Pam’s excited shriek split the air, “Mary, come quick! Abdul is sort of awake, and he is calling for you!” Mary broke into a stumbling run, her ribs protesting at every step. Dropping to her knees onto the rug that had been used as the floor of the shelter, Mary ignored the grating pain of her ribs, even as anguished tears trickled down her face.

  Jean had half raised herself up on an elbow, her anxious and worried gaze pin to Abdul’s pale face. Pam kept trying to get their young driver to drink some water, but he fought her, calling out in a thready voice for Mary.

  Gently picking up his hand, Mary said, “Abdul, I am here. We have been so worried about you!”

  Clinging to her hand, the young man almost shook with relief as he whispered, “My ladies…? How…?”

  Noticing the effort that he had put in to say anything, Mary was determined to do most of the talking. She could hear the soft breathing of the rest of their tour at her back as she told Abdul succinctly, “For some reason, the bus blew up. It is pretty trashed, but we got all the water you had stored and as many belongings as we could scavenge out of it. All of us are alive. A bit battered and bloodied around the edges, but we are alive.”

  Sagging with relief, Abdul took a couple of shuddering breaths and closed his eyes. He murmured, “Truly, God is good.” Pam gasped as Jean choked back a whimper when two thick, hot tears trickled from the side of his eyes toward the ground. Her own eyes burning, Mary reached out her hand and gently brushed the side of his face, combining her capture of the tear with an unmistakable sign of affection.

  Her voice roughened by emotion, Mary told him, “Do not worry about us because we are tougher than you think. You concentrate on getting well, which means you have to drink the water that Pam keeps trying to feed you!”

  Weakly, he nodded and obediently swallowed several times as Pam trickled water into his throat. Mary felt him start to relax and thought he would fall asleep again when he suddenly clutched her hand and opened his eyes. Panic in his face, he asked, “Jumal? Where are he and Haji?”

  Mary was horrified, and she knew by the sounds around her that it was not just her that had forgotten the two other young men that were accompanying them. Stumbling her words, the group leader admitted, “I am sorry, but we forgot about them. I do not even know how to go looking for them.”

  The area around her was very silent before Abdul’s thready voice strengthened slightly as he said, “They would stay about two hundred feet ahead of the bus. If they were able, they would have returned to help you. You will need to go find them if you can.”

  Mary’s eyes filled with burning tears at the realization that there was another retrieval that had to be made, one that probably included the lifeless bodies of two people they had grown to like. The woman felt the reckoning f
or today’s events coming closer as she realized she would need to be one of those that made the trip.

  Stiffening her resolve, Mary let only confidence resonate in her voice as she told Abdul, “We will take off to go look for them while you nap. When you wake again, I will let you know what we have found.”

  Now looking gray with exhaustion, Abdul weakly nodded, murmuring, “Take my guns. Also, check the upper compartment for the big first-aid kit. If my friends are dead, do them the honor of retrieving the guns also. It would be a bad thing to leave them for others to use.” His voice trailed off at the last sentence. By the time he had taken another breath, Abdul had fallen into a deep sleep.

  Mary sat for a moment, her eyes hooded as she looked at the sleeping young man. Obviously coming to a decision, the tired woman looked over at Jean and said with amusement in her voice, “This is what I get for spending all of these years refusing to go with you to the gun club and learn how to shoot. If I am not mistaken, you are the only person here who knows how to shoot a gun, and you cannot go.”

  Jean responded hotly, “All I need is a…” Flatly interrupting her, Pam said sternly, “No. Just, no! We all know that you would if you could, and you have nothing to prove. We also know you lost a lot of blood, and in this heat would be more of a burden than a help.”

  Turning her gaze to Mary, the sweet motherly woman said flatly, “I can shoot a gun, and I am actually pretty good. One of my children was interested, and I thought I should learn how to know what good safety practices were. I may not be the best marksman, but it would seem I am your best option for a companion on the scouting trip.”

  Chapter 15 – Scouting

  Imploringly, Patty protested, “Pam, it will be dangerous!” Looking pained at the pleading in her twin's voice, Pam said firmly, “So is carpooling. I lost my babies less than a mile from my home and my husband shortly afterward. Life is dangerous, but withering away is an unacceptable rejection of the gift of life. This trip has taught me one thing, and that is even amid despair and loss, we can find joy and something to celebrate.”

  When Patty did not change her look of pleading, Pam almost shouted, “Patty, we just survived a freaking bus explosion. As far as I am concerned, we are all living on borrowed time. If God wanted me to die today, my life could just as easily have ended two hours ago. So, stop with the whimpering and whining, and just make sure to hug me when I get back.”

  Quietly, Geri offered, “I will stay here with Abdul and Jean and make sure that they drink water. You two had better get going because you do not want to be out after dark.”

  Wordlessly Mary and Pam got up, gathering water bottles to take with them. Naomi and Connie volunteered to help them search the bus for both the guns and the first-aid kit, which Mary gratefully accepted.

  Inching their way back into the wrecked vehicle, Mary had some problems getting oriented, but Connie moved unerringly toward a location on one side of the twisted and mangled front end. Draping her body over the remains of the driver seat, the woman gave a joyful shout as she straightened up, holding a pistol and a long gun.

  Pam took both guns from Connie and examined them. Her smooth motions as she checked the weapons' mechanisms reminded Mary of Jean, and a little of her tension dropped away.

  In the meantime, Connie and Naomi examined a ripped off portion of the bus that Mary could not mentally identify. Both women exclaimed, and then Connie cried out in triumph, holding up to sizeable packs labeled with the Red Cross. Naomi shouted, “We found the first-aid kits. I recognize the type, and it is similar to what we had at the Scout Jamborees. We can use some of the supplies to work on patching people up while you are gone.”

  Somberly, Mary suggested, “We do not know what will find. On the off chance that either Jumal or Haji are alive, we probably need a few supplies to carry with us too.”

  Wordlessly, Naomi opened one of the packs and pulled out a few supplies. Spying a scrap of fabric that have been still left on the bus, she tied the cloth around them and handed the package off to Mary.

  Climbing out of the vehicle carcass, Mary and Pam made their way up the hill and onto the road. The two women looked back in the direction they had come and saw a huge hole that looked like it had been scooped out by a giant hand.

  For a moment, Mary just stared until she realized that the force of the explosion had done that. Shaking her head, the group leader turned in the opposite direction and began to walk. Pam smoothly moved to her left side, lagging back a step. Mary noticed that the woman’s eyes swept from side to side and wondered to herself, What surprising new skills will be revealed over the next few days? I never would have picked Pam to either shoot a gun or have the reflexes of a hunter.

  There was a clattering of stones behind her, but before Mary could check it out, Connie’s voice shouted to them, saying, “You were only going a few hundred yards. Naomi and I will stay here and if you need help, just call.”

  Surprised, Pam and Mary looked at each other before reluctantly grinning. Mary responded in a loud voice, “I am glad that somebody’s thinking. That is a great idea.”

  The two women searched both sides as they walked forward, hoping to see a sign of their two missing escorts. The road took a turn to the right just ahead of them, snaking its way around a large outcropping. As the two women moved closer, the acrid scent of fired munitions burned their noses, and instinctively, they slowed down and spaced themselves further apart.

  Creeping closer to a good vantage point, Mary felt her heart pound in her throat and realized her palms were sweaty. She realized that she was repeating mentally, “Please do not let them be dead. Dear God, do not make us bury more boys.”

  The sharp sunlight of Afghanistan revealed a scene from Mary’s worst nightmare. The two motorcycles were tossed as if knocked over by a giant fist. Haji’s dead body lay under the one remaining on the road. His sightless eyes stared into the unforgiving distance, and the pool of blood around him told the two women that there was no hope for him.

  Frozen in shock, Mary clutched Pam and felt the woman shudder. Mary’s eyes flooded with tears and the pain in her strained ribs was overwhelming. Breathing in short gasps, Mary was inching her way forward, lock-stepped with her companion when a massive shadow slid over them. Landing ponderously on the ground, its ten-foot wingspan slowly folding against its sides, was a black vulture.

  Both women yelled, “No!” simultaneously. Mary began to run forward, but Pam did not move. The group leader had no idea why her companion had stopped, but she was not going to let the bird rip into the young man’s corpse. Screaming like a madwoman and waving her arms, she paid no attention to the fact that the colossal bird had talons capable of ripping her face off. Her focused grief and rage did not permit rational thinking. Instead, it zeroed in on the bird, and she was determined to deny its desire to feed on her friend.

  The snap of a powerful pistol firing stopped Mary cold in her tracks. The bird mantled, and when Pam fired the second shot, the massive vulture shook its dark feathers out and lumbered back into the sky.

  Mary leaned over, her hands on her upper thighs, struggling for breath. The sharp agony of her ribs defeated her, and the only thing she could do was gasp for air. Pam’s rapid footsteps announced her arrival a second later next to the struggling group leader. Apologetically, the redheaded twin said, “I am sorry it took me so long to fire. I was so mad I could not remember where the safety was located.”

  Getting her breathing back under control, Mary managed to gasp out, “You still managed to do what had to be done on time. I am glad you did not kill the vulture, but I just could not stand to see Haji ripped apart.” Helplessly, Pam patted the struggling woman’s back until Mary could once again draw a full breath. Her chest hurt more from the exertion, but she did not dare stop what she was doing.

  Suddenly, Pam half-shouted, “Look!” Mary glanced up and saw that Pam’s grip on the gun had become white-knuckled, and she was staring at a place to the right of the road. When Mary
followed her sightline, the group leader realized that two other people were lying on the ground and obviously dead.

  The two women stood there clutching each other in fear and confusion, unsure of what had really happened here. Pounding feet behind them and the voices of Connie and Naomi snapped them out of their frozen postures. Naomi reached them first, frantically grabbing Mary and then Pam and patting their faces and bodies, terrified and needing reassurance that they were unharmed. Connie was close behind, sweeping her two friends into a tight hug. The shaking woman whispered, “You frightened us half to death!”

  Mary heard the familiar sound of Naomi’s camera and looked over to see the woman was taking methodical pictures of the scene, even while tears poured down her face. With Pam standing guard over Haji’s corpse, the other three people moved as a group while Naomi continued to document the scene. Mary murmured, “I hope someone can figure out what happened.”

  Connie whispered, “We already finished with pictures of the road and even put a reference in the photos of the hole so that if people want to know how big the explosion was, they can figure it out.”

  Mary nodded in acknowledgment but just watched as Naomi carefully took pictures of one of the dead strangers. The group leader barely kept her nausea from erupting into vomit as she caught a glimpse of the unmarred portion of the man’s face. Crying out in horror, Mary cried, “That is one of the men that was following us. I thought I saw him at the last village but convinced myself that I was just overly tired.”

  Connie kept a comforting arm around the woman’s shoulders as they made their way over to the second visible Afghani body. It was not a surprise to Mary when she also recognized this man as the other’s companion.

  Thinking to herself, Every place I saw one, I also saw the other. They must have planned this when we were in the spice market. This is probably what Abdul warned us about when Patty talked about money in the middle of all those people. These men thought it would be easy to kill and rob us. And Haji, Abdul, and Jumal have paid for our ignorance, Mary felt the sharp pain of regret.