Nairobi Dreaming - Complete!

Chapter 13: The Plan

I heard the door open and close in the distance and then the footfall of someone running toward me. Too fast and heavy to be Kay. I turned around to see James, grinning, as he came up alongside me. He wasn't even a little out of breath.

"Where are you going?"

I shrugged, trying to ignore how pleased I was that he had followed me. "I have no idea."

"Can I join?"
I hesitated. If I was being honest with myself, I wanted nothing more. But I was acutely aware of the fact that I had been acting strangely toward him all day and I wasn't entirely sure I was done with that.

"What did I do?" He asked, arms crossed over his chest, his dark wavy hair falling across his forehead. He was wearing a white button up shirt, the sleeves rolled up, the buttons undone more than they had been earlier in the day, the bottom still tucked in. I had never seen another guy who pulled off a white dress shirt quite so perfectly, the slim cut accentuating just how fit he was, the white bringing out his tan and somehow making the gold in his green eyes brighter.

"Nothing, it's stupid," I said. "Come on."

He gave me a look like he knew I was lying but it was a playful look and he came to walk next to me, his step light and happy.

We walked along the road, away from the house and in the opposite direction of the school. There was no sidewalk so we just walked half on the road and half on the grass. On either side of the road there were fields dotted with anemic acacia trees and in the hazy distance were the ever present mountains looking like grand daydreams that had been transposed onto the silk canvas of the sky. I spotted two homes - one with a thatch roof, the other only slightly larger but with white adobe walls. Despite how we had ended up there I felt a sudden, deep rush of contentment and an intense desire to expand that moment, elastically, into forever.

"That look on Abigail's face." James said. He was smiling slightly, his teeth surreally white. "Honestly wish I could have taken a photo of it."

I shook my head, feeling the weight of what had just transpired again. "I think I fucked up," I said.

"No, hey," He stopped walking and I turned to face him. "She was being a fucking cunt. You were just the first person to tell her so."

"Yeah, but what now? Can I even really go back there?"

"Of course you can. It's not her house, is it?"

"I just can't believe her," I said, moving suddenly from ashamed to angry again. I could feel my temples pounding and the sharp pain in my jaw that indicated I had been grinding my teeth. "Like all of it. The way she is with the chef. The shit she said in that speech. And then, lying like that in front of everyone about me and...what did she mean by my unique skill sets? I'm almost positive it's some sort of dig at me being half Mexican and her having some prejudiced ideas about what my people do. It's either that or she thinks I am poor and that's what poor people do. Baby sit? What a fucking idiot."

"She's almost..." James trailed off, looking for the right word. "Hilariously bigoted, isn't she? Don't you think that if we asked her how she feels about immigration she'd spout off some retrograde bullshit about how people from shit hole countries should stay right where they are and that all Muslims are terrorists?"

"Yeah, I bet that is exactly more or less what she'd say."

We started walking again.

Our arms brushed and I felt a little thrill chase up my arm.

"You know the thing that bothers me the most about all of it?" James asked, his tone mischievous.

"What's that?"