Change of Heart

Chapter 6: Advances

Chapter six.

They pulled back into camp and got out of the jeep, unseen by anyone in their group.

"Let's go hang this up while we still have time to get another one if we need to."

"Or not. I thought the sleeping arrangements last night were more than adequate."

"Don't be a perv, Tom."

"Ehehehehehe."

She opened the packaging of the net carefully, he helped her examine it for holes, then stood on the bed to hang it from the hook in the ceiling.

"Looks good."

"Admit it, Jacks. Your going to miss me tonight."

"I'll live."

The day wore on and they worked to spread the word to mothers on the importance of providing proper nourishment for their child. After a lively and interesting round table discussion in the living room of a house in the village, everyone headed to bed as Julien asked Jacks to hang back for a minute.

"Julien, I think I know what this is about..."

"Of course you do."

"Tom and I met very briefly in New York before I ever came here, and he put together an amazing gift for one of the children at the home I worked in. I hadn't seen or spoken to him again until yesterday.Thats it."

"Well, that's nice of you to assure me of Jacks, but that has nothing to do with why I've asked to speak with you." Her face turned as red as a tomato and her mouth hung open. She could not believe she had made that big an idiot of herself. But the perplexed look on Julien's face told her that she had. "Jacks this is about your reassignment, your promotion."

"What?"

Her eyes widened and she immediately forgot the embarrassment of the moment before, her ears perked up. Reassignment and promotion in the same sentence.

"Tania sent word of it to me this morning, she was just as surprised as you seem to be. Apparently they want you back in the states next week to give a report on the state of affairs in Guinea, then your off to Afghanistan, as lead project assistant. I thought for certain she would have sent word to you too." Her mouth hung open even wider, she seemed to have lost the ability to speak. " I suggested they brief you at the embassy in London, then you could just fly back and stay with me until its time to go to Afghanistan, but of course I haven't heard word yet...Jacks are you quite all right?"

She closed her mouth and grinned at him. His face brightened.

"This is amazing....so unexpected . But still amazing. I had no idea. This is so sudden."

"That's the job, people come and go rather quickly. UNICEF waits for no man."

She wandered the village in the light of her lantern with a dopey smile on her face. It was a stupid thing to do, mosquitoes were out and wildcats no doubt lurked in the darkness, yet she cared very little, she was certain she wouldn't be able to do this in Afghanistan.

To send her to such a war torn country with such a high profile in the US meant they trusted her. She was proud of herself. She was also terrified; how was she going to break the news to her parents? She thought about it as she wandered into the makeshift information clinic, it's wooden door always left open in case a visitor needed food or clean water in the night. She'd noticed a piano there earlier in the day, and now could play without anyone hearing her. Music was a comfort to her and the only constant thing in her childhood besides her parents. She sat on the bench and gently touched the keys. They were perfectly in tune, to her surprise.