Dave said, “Maybe I’ll come along with you, as long as Fallon and Linny are good to stay with Captain Sam and Katie.”
With everyone in agreement, they headed to the small skiff, and Dave slowly motored them around the island to the village.
“I always walk,” Leia said. “I don’t ever come this way.”
“There was no need to before,” Bullard said quietly. “Why would you get into a rowboat that will be hard to navigate in the ocean waters, especially when high winds come up, if you can just walk?”
She just smiled at him and his island ways. As she got off the skiff and onto the dock, several people raced toward her. Lots of hugs and exclamations and greetings were exchanged all around. Then, almost as one, the entourage, the entire troop, headed toward the old medicine woman. As they got closer, more and more people joined in.
“Wow,” Dave said to Bullard. “Leia really is loved here. Her and the medicine woman.”
Bullard nodded. “It’s causing me a little bit of trouble too, as far as keeping Leia happy in Africa.”
“Well, I can see that she will want to come back on a regular basis. These people have become like family to her.”
“And a family who accepted her,” Bullard stated.
“All the more reason,” Dave said. “We all know what that’s like.”
“I understand, but I don’t know that I want to lose her that often.”
“Well, like Katie said, maybe you need to make this another stronghold.”
Bullard looked at him and started to laugh. “I don’t think anybody will get any work done while they’re here.”
“And maybe that’s a good thing too,” Dave replied. “Everybody works too much as it is.”
“So many new relationships are developing right now,” Bullard noted. “I’m half afraid nobody will ever work again.” He turned to Dave. “You included.”
Dave looked at him in surprise, then realized what he meant and flushed. “Hey, Katie and I have been heading in that direction for a long time.”
“And I’m damn glad to see it,” he said. “I’ve thought a couple times that I might have to do something to throw you two together, but it looks like you finally got there on your own.”
Dave smiled. “Absolutely. Absolutely.”
“But how serious is it?”
“She asked me how many kids I wanted today,” he mentioned sheepishly.
Bullard looked at him and started to laugh. “Well, in that case, it’s damn serious. She’s been after a family for a long time.”
“Yeah. I’m both excited and terrified.”
“With good reason,” he admitted. “You lost everything, man. Now you’ve been given a second chance. I would take it, if I were you.”
“I’m planning on it,” Dave added. “All the excitement on this trip has brought us closer, that’s for sure.”
“Sorry for the trouble, but I’m really glad for you, Dave.”
“Thanks. It sure changes how you look at things.” He turned his attention back to see the old woman, stretched out just as he’d left her. She didn’t show any signs of having moved at all. He frowned at that. “She’s in exactly the same position as I left her in.”
“Yes, of course,” Leia said, with a heavy sigh. “She’s well past her end date.”
“What?” he asked, not sure he’d actually heard her say that.
Leia smiled. “We used to joke about it, the two of us. We think she’s well in her nineties.”
“Much harder to recover from something like this then.”
“She was also ready to go, but looking for somebody who would help take over the island and her position. But she never found anybody who had quite the right qualifications and personality.”
“Understood, and that’s got to be tough.”
“It is. She spent her lifetime looking for somebody to help.”
“Which is another reason you bonded with her so well. If you had been a local, her search would have ended.”
“Yes. But it’s also not my place, not my home. I’m happy to be a visitor and a regular tourist,” she admitted. “But it’s a whole different story to devote your life to looking after a village like this.”
“Maybe they’ll have to make more trips to the mainland,” Dave suggested.
“And it also depends on how often we’ll come back,” Bullard said.
Leia looked up at him and smiled knowingly. “You don’t want to come back at all.”
“That’s not true,” he protested. “I just want to make sure you’re safe.”
“You can’t keep me all bundled up forever,” she murmured.
“But I can try,” he said.
She just shook her head, but her happy smile was evident.
Just then there was a movement from the old woman on the floor. As she opened her eyes slowly, to see everybody around her staring, her gaze landed on Leia. She smiled immediately and reached out a hand.
Leia grabbed her hand and just held it close to her heart, then spoke some interesting words that nobody really understood.
Dave looked at Bullard, but Bullard was trying to figure it out himself.
Finally Leia settled back. “She will pull through this time,” she stated, looking around at the others. “But, as I’ve told you many times, her time is coming. She doesn’t have much more to give.”
“But you didn’t give us a time,” the pregnant woman said.
“Nobody can give you a time,” she corrected. “When it’s time for her to go, she’ll go.”
There was sadness in everybody’s face but also joy that the medicine woman would make it through this time.
Leia stood again and eased the medicine woman out of the awkward position she’d been in. She looked at Bullard. “They will likely have to do more and more trips to the mainland, and there is a trend toward that, but there’s also a lot of people who don’t want anything to do with it. There’s a monetary system on the island that doesn’t really work well for them here.”
“No, of course not,” Bullard said. “Is there free care for anybody?”
“No, not free, at least I don’t think so. But there is a bartering system that a lot of them employ.”
“That’s good at least.” Bullard just shook his head, as the others surrounded them, with several trying to talk to Leia.
She listened to several, gave advice to a couple, and then her gaze landed on the very heavily pregnant woman standing off to the side. She frowned and walked over. “You need to lie down.”
The young woman stared at her defiantly.
“She will live, but she may not be of any use for your birth at this time,” she said quietly.
“I was waiting for somebody to help. Are you staying long enough to be here?”
“If you would relax and allow that child to be born, we’ll have this over and done with in just a few hours.”
The young woman flashed a bright smile. “In that case, I will go lie down.”
“But you need to be calm because that baby is bound and determined to come now.” And, with that, Leia turned to Bullard, “I’ll go help deliver her child.”