Change of Heart

Chapter Three: Best Laid Plans

Chapter 3

He spent dinner talking with Julien and Felix and Pierre, two UNICEF workers and Guinea natives who lived at the camp where the group would be spending the night, taking in their words about the country with all the eagerness of a young child. As the others spoke and ate, Jacks ever the professional, saw to the sleeping arrangements. She spoke with the camp director and followed him from hut to hut, each hut with two beds each, as he explained how he thought everyone should bunk.

"The stone walls keep these rooms a comfortable temperature compared to the houses you're used to. But the cracks in them attract more mosquitoes. It's what they call a catch 22." Jacks smiled and nodded. "So.Julien and I will share this hut, Pauline and Louise will be next door to us, Tom and Luke in the middle, and you and my assistant Nneka on the very end."

Jacks nodded again, peeking her head into her own hut as they walked back towards the others.

"You're lucky; you've got a bed bigger than the others. A married couple had it made while they lived with us last year; all the other beds are far too small for two people to sleep on together."

"It looks comfy."

"It is. Nneka will be a bit jealous to have to give it up, but you are a fellow UNICEF worker, so she'll get over it."

Jacks beamed at the man, his caring eyes a little weary and worn out but still noticeably bright in the moonlight. She kicked herself for forgetting his name, clearly the length of the day was getting to her. She hoped the conversation would end soon and everyone would get to bed as she took a seat next to Luke at the wooden table where the group ate their dinner. Tom sat farther down and across from them, and took a moment from his conversation to glance at her and smile. She felt the blush threatening to overtake her again. She suddenly became very interested in the table.

"So you work for UNICEF. That's noble."

She was startled to hear Luke speak in such a friendly and familiar tone, he had been so quiet and reserved during their car ride. She beamed at him; for some reason she wanted him to like her.

"Thank you. It's even nobler for you two to be here," she gestured to Tom. "It takes a lot to volunteer to do this, especially when you're a celebrity."

"The thing is, Tom doesn't think he's a celebrity. It makes my job much harder sometimes."

"Are you his manager?"

"His agent."

"So you're his Miles..."

"Come again?"

"Miles is my parent's agent. Their musicians, and actually he introduced them to each other...anyway, they give poor Miles a hard time to this day."

"So you understand the unglamorous life of an agent?" Luke grinned at her, looking to be relieved to find that she understood his job. Most people thought he was just a hanger on, a leech, a person along for the ride using Tom as a meal ticket. That could not have been farther from the case. "Are you a musician too?"

"I can play the piano, a little."

"That's too bad; if you were really good I could represent you."

"Yeah right! I have no doubt your amazing at what you do, but you couldn't get me a gig in a room full of deaf people. Besides, I could never be famous. I could never be anything but a UNICEF employee."

Luke laughed, and then smirked a knowing smirk.

"Never say never, Jacks."

Tom stood just outside of the door to his hut and sprayed and sprayed and sprayed some more. He coughed a bit, let himself air off for a moment then headed back inside as Luke took his turn to step out and douse himself in the mosquito repellant. Tom frowned in concentration as he unfolded his mosquito net, he turned up the brightness on the lantern on the small table in the hut and tried to figure it out. He stood upon the bed and hung the net from the hook in the ceiling. He untangled himself from the netting and stepped off the bed. He grinned to himself. Luke shook his head as he walked past his friend and laiddown behind his own net. His unbridled enthusiasm was admirable, but the fact that he was still wide awake after the day they'd had was totally unacceptable. Luke thought he saw the beam of a head torch as Tom turned off the lantern, but he drifted off to sleep too quickly to be sure.