The Promise of Rain

* * *

JACK TURNED OFF the satellite phone when nothing but static came through, then tried redialing.

“Take five steps to your right.” Anna’s voice had him turning like a schoolboy caught putting a frog in the teacher’s desk. She had Pippa by the hand and Niara followed with Haki.

“Five steps?”

“To your left, now that you’re facing me. You’ll get better reception. Trust me,” she said, continuing on her way. Niara looked from Anna to Jack, then smiled. A tiny one, but he caught it. Halfway around the world and he couldn’t escape female gossip. Despite himself, he wondered what Anna had told Niara about him. About them.

Trust her? Jack grunted, but then took the recommended five steps. Bingo. He dialed again.

“Dr. Alwanga. Hey. You know the samples I said I’d bring right back?” Jack turned slightly to his right to clear the reception. “No, no. Collecting them isn’t the problem. I won’t be coming back yet, so I’ll need to have someone fly them over. But I have a favor to ask. A couple, actually.”

* * *

ANNA WASHED HER HANDS after finishing her rounds with the orphans. All things considered, it was a great morning. She’d noticed light coming through the guys’ tent on her way out to her acacia tree right before dawn. She figured it was Jack, and took extra care not to let him hear her walk by. The last thing she needed was Jack following her and invading her private time. More than any other morning, she needed it.

Time alone. To think.

None of this was supposed to have happened this way. She’d pictured it every dawn for five years now. He would contact her and declare his love without ever knowing about the pregnancy. Then she’d tell him about Pippa, but only after she knew his feelings were pure. Honest. And he’d be thrilled, not angry. They’d defy her parents’ pathetic example of a marriage—of love—and he’d love Pippa the way Anna had missed out on with her dad. With free will.

But it was too late for that. The last email he’d sent, a month after she’d first arrived in Kenya, was signed with plain old “Jack.” Not “Love, Jack.” Not even “Miss you, Jack.” At this point, she’d never, ever be able to trust that anything between them was real, that it wasn’t obligatory or misguided. All she needed to focus on now was Pippa, the only person she knew loved her unconditionally.

Anna left the clinic and headed for the Jeep. She needed to check the recording boxes. Hopefully, the herd would be within sight and she’d be able to take notes on how things were going with the big mamas and their children.

She was concerned about one “teen” male in particular. She hadn’t seen the bulls nearby in the past week or so, nor had she heard their calls. Teen male elephants were known to get unruly and rebellious without the guidance of older males. Much like human adolescents, they tested boundaries and needed role models, and like humans, they suffered from PTSD. All elephants who’d witnessed poachers in action suffered from post-traumatic stress. It had been documented in studies. The loss of loved ones was hard to recover from.

Anna rubbed her neck. Jack had never recovered, and for all their years of friendship, she wasn’t enough to change that. If he’d never been able to truly open his heart to her, how was he supposed to love Pippa beyond any superficial sense of duty?

Anna stepped on the gas and tried to focus on finding the bulls. If she didn’t pick up any distant rumbles on the recordings, she’d mention it to Kamau. The Kenyan government took poaching seriously, but despite heavy law enforcement by both Kenya Wildlife Services and the Masai community, it had yet to be eradicated. Far from it. For one thing, the fines weren’t high enough. And, unfortunately, southwest Kenya, where most of the elephant herds roamed, bordered on Tanzania, a corridor for poachers and their ivory. Anna bit down on her lower lip. Her bulls had to be okay.

A part of Anna was glad that she didn’t often go out in the field for indefinite hours—an arrangement adopted because of the children, especially during the first year, when Pippa was so young and Anna couldn’t bear even a few hours of separation. She was thankful to Kamau for acting in a mobile vet capacity, but regretted the gruesome scenes she knew he’d witnessed. She’d seen her fair share during her first summer in Kenya, before she’d discovered her pregnancy.

She pulled up near the first recording location and got out of the Jeep. Three more stops for the day, then she’d need to spend several hours cooped up listening, tracking and analyzing. She never slacked, but with Jack here and Miller breaking the trust she had in him, she couldn’t give anyone excuses.

How many times, when she’d encounter a teacher who didn’t seem to like her, had her mother told her that success was the best revenge? Anna had listened and studied harder. She’d finished high school at seventeen and her undergrad studies in three years. But being the youngest had had its downfalls.

Come to think of it, her age was probably why do-gooder Jack had taken it upon himself to befriend her and keep an eye on her. She thought of Haki. Were all guys like that? The bottom line was that no one could argue with an A+. Maybe her parents had been right about some things. Right now, success was her best revenge, and defense, against Jack.

* * *

JACK HADN’T SEEN Anna at breakfast that morning. Although he got to spend time with Pippa and her friend, Haki, the little boy who kept an amusingly watchful eye on him, Jack couldn’t shake the feeling that Anna had skipped breakfast just to avoid him.