CHAPTER FOUR #3
“Mi,” the young man hit his chest, “karim gan.”
An audible gasp sounded all around the circle. The women began to murmur in surprised alarm. The other men looked firm and dark. I felt Greg go rigid beside me.
“What?” I whispered, nudging him, “What did he say?”
Greg leaned close, and whispered, “He said he was carrying a gun.”
We were silent on the walk back to my hut. Night had long since fallen and everyone walked back to their beds with full stomachs and blooming heads.
The dark was different here—no corona of light to dim the brilliance of the stars overhead made it seem darker than home. I glanced up, struck at the magnitude of the tiny dots, like silver glitter spilled across the sky.
I sensed Greg was lost in thought—could feel the gears turning in his mind at the young man’s story.
“The Makian’s don’t use guns, right? I mean, it was just a dream,” I ventured. The statement was more of a question, and even I heard the doubt in my voice.
“Except many of the indigenous tribes believe that dreams reveal the future and foretell what one must do to survive.” He was quiet again as he pulled me up the hill, the crease between his eyebrows long and deep.
“Many of their stories involve gaining wisdom from their dreams about when and what to plant, when the rains will come, who to marry…” Greg’s eyes met mine.
“The fact that it was a dream tells me what the young man’s mind is already considering.”
“But how would they get their hands on a gun?” I asked. “None of the surrounding tribes use them, either.”
He shrugged, “As the Makian’s economy becomes more and more monetary, it’s not unlikely they could acquire firearms. It’s just a question of when, and how many.”
“Well, what can we do about it?”
Greg chuckled. “You always ask that…I don’t know, to be honest. Talk to the elders, maybe.
Warn them of the talk we are hearing. But the Makians will naturally defend their people and their land.
They have been doing it for hundreds of years.
They are still warriors, even though they are becoming more and more civilized. ”
“Yeah, but a gun against the bow and arrow of the Hundi doesn’t seem right.”
“Doesn’t matter if it’s right or not, it’s the natural way of things.
The Hundi are killers, and so far as I’ve been here, relentless.
I’m not surprised if the Makians feel they need to do whatever it takes to make sure they are protected against further attack.
They have every right. I just don’t like the idea of being around to find out. ”
When we reached the door of my hut, Greg turned and placed his hands on my shoulders. “Three things. I love you…I’m so glad you’re finally here…and I can’t wait to marry you.” he said, planting a kiss, like a seal, on my forehead.
“Then, let’s not,” I said before I realized the words were out of my mouth.
He pushed me back and frowned. “What do you mean?”
Dare I bring it up? “Let’s not wait,” I said before I changed my mind.
“We already had to push the date back…we could just get married here! Tom is a minister, we’re in a beautiful paradise, and like you said—you can’t wait.
” My heart hammered in my chest. I wanted this.
I just had a hard time imagining a life where I was a married woman.
“Your mom would kill me,” he said.
I rolled my eyes, “You know how much I loathe the idea of becoming one of her Bridezillas…we’ve already waited so long…”
“My parents would kill me.”
I felt myself losing the argument, per usual. “We can still plan some sort of reception and invite all our families and friends,” I hated the way I sounded, like I was begging. “I’m just afraid if we don’t do it soon it may never happen.”
“Of course it will happen,” he said, a bit patronizing in his tone.
“I just think you’re going to regret getting married here.
Don’t you want our family there, and our friends?
You know how many people will be disappointed if we married on some obscure island?
You know it’ll be the social event of the season,” he shook my shoulders.
“I guess you’re right,” I said, feeling myself backtrack. Greg’s family was a legacy in themselves in the medical community. We were sort of local celebrities—at least in our small community.
“And you know it wouldn’t really be legal until we’ve signed a marriage license?”
Why should we care about being legal? We’d been pretending we were married for years. So why did I want it now? The spontaneity was not like me, but marriage was the next step to procuring the life I longed for.
Last year I started looking into freezing my eggs. Many of our friends from college had already started having babies and I was afraid we’d miss our chance, but I never did make the appointment.
“We’ll set a date when we get back. Besides we have too much to do here to be distracted by marital duties,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows.
I nodded, feeling foolish for even bringing it up. “You’re right.
“We’ll have our first clinic day tomorrow, ok?”
“Sure…tomorrow.”