‘What are we eating?’ Candace asked.
‘It’s a local fish,’ Kevin said.
‘A fish! How appropriate,’ Melanie said, which caused both women to
laugh to the point of tears.
‘I don’t get it,’ Kevin said. He had the distinct feeling that when he
was around these two women, he wasn’t in control of anything and
understood less than half the conversation.
‘We’ll explain later,’ Melanie managed. ‘Get the wine. That’s more
important.’
‘Let’s have white,’ Candace said.
Kevin went into the kitchen and got the wine that he had earlier put
into the refrigerator. He avoided looking at Esmeralda, worried what she
must be thinking with these tipsy women as guests. Kevin didn’t know
what to think himself.
As he opened the wine, he could hear them carrying on with lively
conversation and laughter. The good side, he reminded himself, was that
with Melanie and Candace there were never any uncomfortable silences.
‘What kind of wine are we having?’ Melanie asked when Kevin reappeared.
Kevin showed her the bottle. ‘Oh, my,’ she said with feigned
condescension. ‘Montrachet! Aren’t we lucky tonight.’
Kevin had had no idea what he’d picked from his collection of wine
bottles, but he was pleased Melanie was impressed. He poured the wine as
Esmeralda appeared with the first course.
The dinner was an unqualified success. Even Kevin began to relax after
attempting to keep up with the women as far as the wine was concerned.
About halfway through the meal he was forced to return to the kitchen
for another bottle.
‘You can’t guess who else was at the chickee hut,’ Melanie said as the
entree dishes were being cleared. ‘Our fearless leader Siegfried.’
Kevin choked on his wine. He wiped his face with his napkin. ‘You didn’t
talk to him, did you?’
‘It would have been hard not to,’ Melanie said. ‘He graciously asked if
he could join us and even bought a round, not only for us but also for
the guys from the motor pool.’
‘He was actually quite charming,’ Candace said.
Kevin felt a chill descend down his spine. The second ordeal of the
afternoon which scared him almost as much as the first was a visit to
Siegfried’s office. No sooner had they evaded the Equatoguinean soldiers
then Melanie had insisted on driving there. It made no difference what
Kevin said in an attempt to talk her out of it.
‘I’m not going to stand for this kind of treatment,’ Melanie had said as
they mounted the stairs. She didn’t even bother to speak with Aurielo.
She just sailed into Siegfried’s office and demanded that he personally
see to it that her car was repaired.
Candace had gone in with Melanie, but Kevin had held back, watching from
just beyond Aurielo’s desk.
‘Last night I lost my sunglasses,’ Melanie had said. ‘So we go out there
just to see if we can find them, and we get shot at again!’
Kevin had expected Siegfried to explode. But he didn’t. Instead, he was
immediately apologetic, said that the soldiers were only out there to
keep people away from the island, and that they shouldn’t have fired
their guns. He agreed not only to fix Melanie’s car but to make sure she
got a loaner in the interim. He also offered to have the soldiers scour
the area for the lost sunglasses.
Esmeralda appeared with the dessert. The women were pleased. It was made
with locally grown cocoa.
‘Did Siegfried mention anything about what happened today?’ Kevin asked.
‘He apologized again,’ Candace said. ‘He said he spoke with the Moroccan
guard and assured us that there won’t be any more shooting. He said that
if anybody wanders out there by the bridge, they will just be spoken to
and told that the area is off-limits.’
‘Likely story,’ Kevin said. ‘As trigger-happy as those kids they call
soldiers are, it’s not going to happen.’
Melanie laughed. ‘Talk about the soldiers, Siegfried said that they
spent hours searching for the nonexistent sunglasses. Serves them
right!’
‘He did ask us if we wanted to talk with some of the workers who’d been
on the island and who’d been burning underbrush,’ Candace said. ‘Can you
believe it?’
‘And how did you respond?’ Kevin asked.