Scattered Seeds

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Bloody fucking monsoon out there!” Luke spat as the door to the workshop banged shut behind him.

Jess looked up from her seat at the desk to grin at the publicist.

Luke was shaking off a soaked blue poncho with UNICEF written boldly in black across the front and back, still grumbling about how much he despised their recent weather.

“Thought you’d be used to the rain, living in England and all,” Jess spoke sarcastically.

Luke frowned at her, and then walked across the room. He nudged at Tom with the toe of his sneaker. “What the hell are you doing on the floor?”

“Bored!” Tom huffed from under the elbow he had draped across his eyes.

He felt Luke’s foot move over his arm before stepping away, and Tom sat up from his prone position on the wooden floor of the workshop. He was about to tell Luke off for wiping mud from his shoe on the sleeve of his freshly laundered white v-neck, but Jess got to him first.

“You know, you could have taken your poncho off outside on the porch, Luke,” Jess said with a point to the large puddle on the floor in front of her door. “It’s covered.”

Luke looked at the puddle, and then back to Jess. He smiled sheepishly. “Sorry,” Luke apologized. “Wasn’t really thinking. Just wanted to get indoors.”

Jess retrieved a towel and threw it across the room at Luke. She did not have to tell him to go clean up his mess.

Rick Beckett had flown As Sy and Louise to Dadaab four days ago. The rain started the day after they left, and it had yet to let up. All of Jowhar was now a soggy mess, and an irritable cloud had settled over the UNICEF colony.

Tom was frustrated that their progress had been cut short. They were waiting for Rick to return with desks and tables for the school. Besides hanging dry erase boards in each classroom and cleaning up some things here and there, there wasn’t enough work left for Tom to participate in. The locals received pay for their jobs, and Tom did not think it was right that he should take away from their opportunity of a full day’s wages.

Luke was overwhelmed with the tasks of posting progress updates, answering emails, scheduling Tom’s interviews upon their return to London, and communicating with his other clients. All though he was grateful that the rain provided him the opportunity to catch up, the amount of time Luke was spending in front of his laptop was giving him a headache. He’d deliberately shut the thing down and made a mad dash from his room in the dorm through the downpour to join his friends in the workshop.

Jess managed to install the last two pumps before the rain started. Satisfaction with a job well done made her warm and fuzzy inside, but after two full days of being holed-up inside she too was becoming restless.

Erasto spent his time at the clinic under Samuel’s tutelage. The doctor took his protégé’s interest seriously, and found the young man’s friendship was a pleasant distraction.

Who knew what Harry was up to? He came and went on his own accord save for the few times Luke needed him to photograph Tom at various locations throughout the colony.

“What are you doing?” Luke asked, coming up behind Jess who was now back at her desk.

The journal in front of her quickly slammed shut, and Jess laid a hand on its cover in a protective manner.

“Writing,” was all she offered, a bit put out that he’d interrupted her.

“Well let’s do something!” Tom sighed with exasperation, now seated with his long legs crossed. He rested an elbow on a knee to prop his chin up with his hand. “I can’t take this sitting around anymore!”