“Yeah.” Malik gave a snort. “What the hell was he thinking? I’ve got African ancestry, but I have no idea where my people come from. I was born and grew up in the States. The US is my home. I’m as American as he is.”
Kristi could relate. “When I did a semester abroad in China, my American friends in the dorm thought I knew everything about China just because I was Chinese-American. The train schedule, how to get to places I’d never been, where to get the best street noodles, how to clear up a visa dispute. I had to remind them that I was American just like they were and that, although I speak Mandarin, I’d never lived in China.”
“I bet that got old real fast.”
“It did. I felt responsible for everything, even though it was all new to me, too. I had my grandparents, of course, and they helped. But they expected me to understand parts of Chinese culture that I’d never experienced before. I felt lost in the middle.”
“That must have been hard.”
“Sometimes, but it was worth it. By the time I went home, I had learned so much. It helped me to understand my father and to appreciate how complicated it must have been for him to adapt to American culture when he married my mother.”
Ahead of them, just off the road, a group of vultures crowded around roadkill, hopping from spot to spot, a confusion of dark wings, bald heads, and hungry beaks.
“I guess these guys found some breakfast,” Malik said.
Interested in the enormous birds, Kristi looked as they passed—and her stomach fell. “Oh, God. That was a person. They’re eating a dead man.”
“Geezus.”
“Shouldn’t we stop?”
“What would we do? Chase off the birds and bury what’s left?”
Kristi turned in her seat, looked behind her, a knot in her chest. “How can we just leave him?”
Malik reached over, took her hand. “My mission is to get you safely back to the US. As cold as it seems just to drive by, we can’t slow down. From what I saw, there’s not much left anyway.”
She faced forward again, breathing deep to calm her emotions.
“Do I need to stop? Are you going to be sick?”
Kristi might have laughed if the circumstances were different. “Oh, please! I’m an ER nurse, remember?”
“Right. I suppose you’ve seen everything.”
“Now I have.” She hoped never to see anything like that again.
He squeezed her fingers. “You’ve got such a big heart, Kristi. I love that about you. But the only person whose life and safety I can worry about right now is you.”
She squeezed back. “I know—and I’m grateful. Without you…”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course—anything.”
“How do you cope when a patient dies?”
“It can be heartbreaking, especially when it’s a child. I remember so many people’s faces and their last words. When we lose a patient, I try to give their family the support they need. For them, it’s the worst moment of their lives. Helping them face their grief helps me get through it. But there have been lots of times when I’ve had to take a break and cry my eyes out.”
“I can’t imagine the strength it takes to do your job.”
“I could say the same about you. You’ve lost people, too.”
“Yeah—too many.” He glanced down at the navigation console. “We should be coming up on the river soon. We’ll pass through a village, and the river is about two klicks from there.”
Kristi kept her face downturned, not wanting to be seen. After the wildlife preserve, it felt strange to see lots of people again. A woman carrying a load of branches on her head for firewood. A young boy herding a few cattle. Two older men standing together, laughing about something. A little girl carrying a baby goat.
They drove through the town, passing through its marketplace, and then the village was behind them, the landscape becoming sandier and greener as they got closer to the river.