Risking All for Love (Wattpadprize14)

Chapter Seventeen

Margaux held onto Father Anthony's arm as she turned to the others at the airstrip. "Sam, Hilary, Gary, Lisa, and David, I want you to meet my family." She then walked over to Father Smith and took his arm. "As a newborn baby, I was left here at Holy Cross Mission. These monks, the sisters, and my late foster parents are all the family I have known in the world. But these humble men in white..." Margaux stood back with a smile at the yellowish tint of the monks' clothing. "Well, they'd look whte if they used more bleach in their habits."  Margaux kissed Father Smith on his cheek. "These people have been father and mother to me all of these years."

A tear formed in Margaux's eye, and she began to break down. "Except for my foster family, this mission--monks and sisters--are the only real love I've had for years." She hugged and kissed both monks again on their cheeks.

"Wow, Margaux, if you keep this up, how long will we remain monks!" They had a good-natured laugh.

Within minutes the vehicles bounced along the dusty dry-season roads through the bush past the elementary school and up the hill to Holy Cross Monastery. They came to a halt at the Monastery Tea Room where the monks invited the visitors to have tea while they prepared their monastery to accommodate visitors.

"Come on in and have some tea," Father Anthony said. He hugged Margaux again. "Girl, it's so good to see you. I have missed you." He had them sit down while two other monks brought in their bags up from the Land Rovers.

"Father," Lisa said, "Jen is out until after Christmas. We have enough beds for Margaux and Gary down at the Peace Corps house." She turned to Gary's mom and dad. "The monks will put you up here. They can make a few changes to one of the cells to make them more comfortable for you."

Father Anthony then spoke up. "We have lots of people from down country that come here on spiritual retreat. There's a small retreat house farther down the hill to provide you more privacy. You are welcome to take your meals at the monastery unless invited somewhere else, for that matter."

Just then an engine was fired up next to the mission machine shop. Father Anthony looked over his shoulder and back to the guests. "That's the generator providing power a few minutes for the mission radio to inform the airbus service that Spike is on his way back to Monrovia."

"So will you have some tea with us before heading for your rooms? Supper is in our Refectory at seven o'clock this evening." After a while, Father Anthony excused himself, but Father Smith showed them to their small house.

During supper at the monastery, the monks and the guests were joined by Felicia, David, and Lisa. Supper consisted of cheese slices, rice, country chop, and flat bread that they bought from the Lebanese in Foyah Market. They drank hot tea or coffee with powdered milk substituting for cream. They also had a thick soup out of beans and noodles. They scooped it up with the bread and ate it in local Lebanese fashion. As they ate, a monk read a customary lesson for the good of the Order. Sometimes it was a long passage of scripture.

Then the monks invited their guests for their evening prayers, which lasted a few minutes.

"Okay," Lisa said, "we have a party laid on for everybody at Principal Willie's house tonight. Tomorrow is Saturday Market. That's when I want all of you to meet Pa, the Timne. He is in charge of making country cloth in Bolahun and will gladly show you how it's done. While we're here, he can get the tailor, who lives beyond Polema's farm, to make robes for all of you."

"Everybody has a flashlight so we can see to get to Principal Willie's house?" David said. They drew out their flashlights while David led the way.

At Principal Willie's they were greeted by African teachers from the towns. For snacks they had eddo chips and fruit salad from local trees and plants, which were in abundance. Principal Willie stood up. "Welcome to Bolahun. I regret that school is out for the year, we pride ourselves on academic excellence here. When our students leave here, many of them like myself enroll in Cuttington University. At first we all go through an ordeal. We are considered so unsophisticated by students from Monrovia, social outcasts."

"That's terrible," Hilary said.

"But then the professors give their first tests." Willie swelled with pride. "Our Bolahun students score consistently high. From then on the students from Monrovia and the coast let us alone.  No more humbug."

"Tell me about the schools here, Principal Willie," Sam said.

"We have about fifty students in St. Cyprian Junior High School and about twenty in St. Augustine High School. We have a library, a science laboratory, and three dormitories. The old wooden building down the hill was one of the first buildings to be built. Now it serves as the high school refectory and as a classroom."

"Our library has five thousand books, many donated by Peace Corps, visitors, educators, and missionaries. We even got a shipment from the Ford Foundation."

Then they started talking about snakes. "They killed a twelve-foot Python in front of Dr. Baine's house the day they arrived to live here. His wife said that if Spike's plane had not already left, then she would have gotten back on and flown back to the United States."

David said, "When I was in the latrine three months ago, a snake crawled in while I was sitting on the wooden box. Fortunately he turned away from me. I got out quick."

Everybody had a good laugh.

"Three of my friends at Shelloe were traveling in a jeep when they saw a giant Python. They got out of the jeep and tackled the snake. They wrestled with it for ten minutes, afraid it would knock them out and then swallow each of them. They finally gave up."

"If you see somebody beating the grass with a machete around here, they're going after a snake," Felicia said. "Then the kids sneak up while you are engrossed in the dead snake. As a joke they pinch you in the small part of your ankle." Felicia then jumped up as if bitten herself. "Wow! The kids make you think that you've been snake bitten!" People laughed. "Then I did the same thing to a kid and really made him jump! Turn about is fair play."

By ten o'clock in the evening, the mission's lights began to blink. That was the signal that the monastery generator would shut down in five minutes. That gave Principal Willie time to his light Aladdin and Coleman kerosene lamps. Then the electric lights went out.

Soon the party broke up. Gary's parents followed Margaux to their monastery's guest house while Gary and Margaux followed Felicia to the larger Peace Corps house. Lisa agreed that Margaux and Gary would share a room while Felicia preferred a bed in a room farthest away. "I don't want to know," she said. It embarrassed her to think that Margaux and Gary might have sex.

While Gary and Margaux pushed their beds together, they were careful not to make much noise in the night. Just joyfully loining themselves together without making a wild night of it.

Margaux and Gary lay in bed with but a sheet over them. A country cloth blanket lay on a chair beside the bed. His Telefunken radio played soft music while they shared tender kisses and said over and over that they loved each other.

"Gary, I love you. Oh, how I have needed to get away from Monrovia and all that ugliness. Here in Bolahun, I belong. I love this place. These are my people, Africans and missionaries. Oh, how this is such a relief for me to be here. I didn't know that I was undergoing such horrible stress until we came to this peaceful place."

"How I love you, your parents, Lisa, and everybody here."

Gary and Margaux shared a few more minutes of intimacy and tenderness.

Then they fell asleep.