This chapter discusses how the general murders someone in front of Kevin in the show, and how watching it has affected him. If this makes you too uncomfortable to read, I recommend skipping to Connor's part in the second bit under the line.
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The next morning followed in a typical fashion, with everyone enjoying a breakfast cooked by Connor which was praised by all. Including Elder Thomas, but Kevin swore he saw him sneaking pop tarts even after the meal. After Connor reminded the group of their daily reading to study of the book of Arnold, the group parted ways. Kevin decided he'd travel into the village and purchase his daily coffee.
He greeted the woman who ran the stand and sat down at its small bar like table. Considering Kevin was there so often, it was typical for the two to strike up a conversation with each other. On this particular day, Kevin decided he'd finish his studying earlier, and what better way to do it than while enjoying his favorite drink? In today's reading, the story of Joseph Smith continued, and he'd now made it directly to Darth Vader himself. Kevin sat at the counter, rubbing his temples as he struggled to focus on his reading. He found himself reading the same paragraph repeatedly, for his mind was too busy wandering for him to comprehend anything written.
"Tough time there?" The woman behind the counter questioned Kevin, not bothering to look up from her work.
Kevin scoffed lightheartedly, "you could say that." He wasn't sure why he was so inattentive this morning, and why he couldn't stop thinking about the whole situation from yesterday evening. Kevin decided to brush it off as not being caffeinated enough to be productive. "You've read the whole book right? What do you think about this chapter?" He asked.
The woman motioned for Kevin to hand the book to her, which he did without hesitation. She read a few sentences and immediately began to nod in a knowing manner, "oh I recognize this chapter," she said. She returned the open book to the hands of Kevin. "I was there when he was preaching all of this! It's simple, I'll save you some time."
Without a hint of hesitation, Keving motioned for her to go on as he sat slurping his coffee. "Well, I'm sure you can guess that the 'space rangers' or whatever you call them were meant to be the general and his crew," she began, motioning heavy air quotes on space rangers. It wasn't the exact name but it was definitely close enough for Kevin to understand. "And the Darth Vader is supposed to be the general," she pointed out.
"That's about as much as I've been able to gather," He replied, pausing between words to take sips of his drink, which he noticed was beginning to run dry.
"Well to sum it up, about a week later after seeing we were all still upset after watching the general..." she trailed off. Kevin immediately knew what event she was referring to.
It shook him to his core, watching the general ruthlessly mutilate someone right before his eyes. The most traumatic part about it all was seeing he'd done it in such cold blood, lacking even a sliver of hesitation. His brutality was what kept Kevin awake at night; leaving him tossing and turning, questioning how a person could do something like that. He could dismiss his own attack from the general of having the Book of Mormon— Well, it was best not to think about it. He was affected on a much deeper level watching the harm to someone else. He never was able to remove the blood from his shirt fully either, and he eventually threw it out. He'd become nauseated after attempting to clean it for more than five minutes at a time anyway.
"Well after seeing us all so affected, he basically re-wrote the situation with different characters. There's not much more to it. It made us all feel a little better in the moment if that adds anything," she concluded. Kevin practically hear as tears welled in her eyes through the tone of her voice. He remained silent, not wanting to comfort her or try to talk about it out of fear he'd break down himself, as selfish as it was. "Well that's it! Care for another cup?" She said, her demeanor quickly shifting back to her usual enthused self.
"That'd be perfect," Kevin replied.
He watched as she struggled with her coffee machine. It seemed to be working much slower than normal. "Damnit! this mother fu-" her cussing was quickly overpowered by the loud hissing and fizzling sound emitting from the pot.
"Is it... broken?" Kevin hesitated, praying internally. He wasn't sure if he could make it through the entire day without a second cup.
She sighed. "For today at least. I'll have it fixed up by tomorrow when you come back," she reassured, "there's not much else I can give you here."
Kevin leaned over the counter, the assortment of coffee grounds catching his eye immediately. "How about some of those?" He suggested.
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Just coffee grounds?"
Before she could ask any further, Kevin already had his cup reached out over the counter.
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Connor was in the middle of replacing a broken window to save one of the villagers some time along with Elder Davis. As the two measured a piece of glass, Connor noticed in its reflection as Mafala approached him.
He handed the glass over to Elder Davis and turned around to greet him. "Good morning sir! Can I help you with something?" Connor questioned eagerly. He secretly hoped Mafala would need him for some other task. He felt like a fool trying to help Davis with any building project. He was significantly more skilled in comparison to Connor and seemed as if he'd have a much simpler time without his constant questions and clumsiness.
"My daughter has just called from a few villages south, wishing to give you a progress report," Mafala informed him. "I figured since you were leader, I'd come find you," he shrugged.
"No that's perfect! I'll go talk to her right now," Connor agreed as he attempted to shake off some of the dust that coated his hands.
"She's waiting for you on the pay phone over there," he clarified, nodding in its general direction.
Connor then thanked him and jogged over to the rusted payphone that stood in front of the shaded community gathering area. The phone was off of its hook, implying Nabulungi was waiting on the other end. "Hello?" He spoke, phone in hand.
To his surprise a voice shouted on the other line. "Elder McKinley! Hi!" Connor immediately recognized it as Arnold and chuckled. Before he could reply, he heard the faint laughter of Nabulungi as she snatched the phone back from him.
"Sorry, Arnold wanted to say hi," she explained, still laughing and teasing Arnold as she spoke.
Connor couldn't help but wonder how things were with the two on a romantic level. Arnold seemed to have a fairly sizeable crush on her, that was obvious to anyone. Even if he never cared enough to say her name correctly, he was practically walking around wearing a sign that read "I'm in love with Nabulungi" every day of his life. Naba wasn't as clear with her thoughts on him, but Connor could definitely see the two as a couple.
"But we have good news Elder McKinley!" She gushed, sounding as bubbly as ever.
Connor fidgeted with the phone cord as he spoke, taking a mental note to have it replaced; it looked like it was beginning to wear down and expose wires. "Oh really? What is it?" He asked with curiosity.
"We have gotten many people to take the book of Arnold, so much that we need to have more printed," she said, smiling through her words.
"Naba that's amazing!" He enthused. Connor took another mental note to send out another print order. His list of tasks were beginning to pile up.
"We'll be back sometime in the next couple of weeks, I can't wait!" She informed him.
Crap— Was she expecting the copies to be done by then? Connor was anxious internally but replied, "yep! Can't wait to see you guys again," with as much excitement as before.
"Alright, I'll see you soon Elder McKinley," she answered.
"Yep, have fun. Tell Elder Cunningham I said goodbye too," he added, and another shout wishing him goodbye from the background could be heard. At least there could be one happy couple in Uganda somewhere, that couple just didn't include Connor.
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I Believe In Us - (McPricely)
Fanfiction(Consistent uploads!) After the events of the original musical, the missionaries have decided to stay in Uganda and help in any way they can. This doesn't just include physical labor to help the village however, they're also expected to help spread...
