What Changes Everything by Masha Hamilton Read Free Book Online

Mandy hadn‟t known, and the phrase "back on his feet" made her cringe. But she nodded vaguely. "In Afghanistan?" she said.
           "I don‟t know if he‟ll want to come back, but he‟d be good at it. How‟s he doing?"
           Why did she always stumble over this question? Because she felt she was supposed to say fine, and there was progress, and all that. She was supposed to be grateful her son had made it home, and forget how. "You know how it is," Mandy said. "He‟s okay."
           Hammon nodded, hesitated, and Mandy had the sense he was about to tell her something, maybe something important. But then the guard appeared, spoke to Hammon in Pashto, and handed over a note. Hammon held it out to her.
           "A driver just stopped by and left this for you," he said.
           It was a single page, folded three times. She opened it carefully.
           "Dear Mrs. Wilkens. I am very sorry that it is my duty to inform you Mr. Todd Barbery has been taken from the street by gunmen. I will do everything I can to act on Mr. Todd‟s behalf in his absence, which I trust will not be long. I cannot meet you today, but tomorrow, please call me at this phone number. 700 201136. Very Best, Amin."
           Mandy stared at the words, trying to absorb them. T odd, kidnapped? It ha d been more than a decade since she‟d seen him, but they‟d been friends of sorts in their youth. Todd had married one of Mandy‟s closest friends, Mariana, who‟d died young. T odd, kidnapped? He had long experience in this part of the world, Mandy knew. If he didn‟t know his way around the dangers here, no outsider did.
           "What is it?" Hammon asked.
           She handed him back the note and sank down on the edge of the bed.
           Hammon read it in one glance, and refolded it carefully. "You know, you can turn around right now. If your contact is unavailable, one of the next flights out is an option."
           Mandy hesitated only a single beat before shaking her head. "No. No it‟s not." She took a deep breath. "I came all this way. I‟m not leaving at the first sign of trouble. Jimmy didn‟t. You don‟t."
           "Jimmy said you were pretty determined."
           "I bet determined isn‟t the word he used."
           Hammon grinned. "Can I keep this note for a little bit? Before you go anywhere, I want to check out this Amin person."
           "Of course."
           "Take some rest, Mrs. Wilkens. Rumi should have dinner soon. It‟s downstairs. He rings a bell, and we all throng in." Hammon left, closing the door behind him.
           Mandy lay back on the bed, dropping her head against a pillow that felt as if it were filled with rice. She closed her eyes. She wouldn‟t tell Jimmy about the kidnapping, she decided. And at dinner, she‟d ask Hammon to keep quiet about it as well if he should talk to her son. In the distance, she heard the start of the hypnotic call to prayer. She realized that the jetlag, the travel, and the news about Todd had left her feeling deeply tired and yet too buzzed awake to nap. She would unpack her clothes in the quiet before dinner. It would be a symbolic commitment to her decision to stay, no matter what. So she rose, tugged open a zipper on her suitcase and began settling into the thick-walled room in the heart of a dusty, foreign city.

    Clarissa, September 4th

           Clarissa pushed her way outside to stand on the front stoop; her apartment felt confining. She couldn‟t bear to be waiting from in there for whatever would happen next out here. Her cheeks were slapped by a brilliant, raw morning, too bright and too cold for September, a morning already being spliced into haiku-like moments that would never, no matter how she tried, coalesce into a whole.
           The air had an odd consistency, like Jell-O, and for several minutes she felt as though she had to concentrate on eating the sky