First World Problems

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 

Thank God. Someone was finally starting to understand me.

Lena shook her head. “No, no. We don’t have computers.”

“I brought mine.” It was one of the few things I’d made sure to keep with me at all times. I may have been going to a third-world country, but it wasn’t called the World Wide Web for nothing. One of the ways I’d managed to keep calm during packing was reminding myself that bringing my computer meant that even in the third world, the first world would always be at my fingertips.

“I don’t think you understand. There’s no computer capability.” Lena enunciated her words like she thought I was slow.

“I’m sorry. I’m not a techie. I don’t even know what that means.”

“For starters, we don’t have electricity.”

“We don’t?” Holy shit, how had I not noticed? My mind raced through all the things I depended on—no, needed—electricity for. My ribs tightened around my lungs, squeezing the breath out of them.

Lena smiled. Damn her and that pleasant, calm smile. “You didn’t notice last night? You really must have been exhausted. The electrical grid in this village is nearly non-existent. There’s one line to the police station about half a mile from here. They run a line to the generator and the backup to the hospital. They have a phone that works. Sometimes. That’s the only place we can go to make a phone call out of here. There’s not even dial-up. “

“But…it’s the World Wide Web.”

She pushed an eyebrow up. “It’s the first-worldwide web. Most of the Internet doesn’t even know where Guyana is.”

She was right. I’d thought it was in Africa until four days after Dad dropped the bombshell and I caved, punching the country name into Google Maps to see for myself. But after that I couldn’t stand to read much more about it—it was all too traumatic to think about actually having to live there. Besides, I’d still been betting on the off-chance that Dad would let me out of the trip.

“So how am I supposed to order stuff?” Panic crawled across my skin like one of the damned insects that were everywhere.

She cocked her head. “Stuff like…?”

“Sheets. Pillows. Face wash and lotion. More appropriate clothes, I guess. Some protein bars, probably? Or anything edible?” I finished, my voice soft and timid. Nausea at the thought of last night’s dinner made me want to keep my mouth shut. Another first for me.

“We don’t exactly have an address, Sofia. Just the village location. I’ve been away from civilization for a while, but I’m pretty sure Amazon.com will not accept longitude and latitude as a delivery address.”

“Wait a minute. You’re telling me we don’t have an address?” As soon as she said it, my stomach sank at the memory. Anne had told me the same thing, and I hadn’t believed her. I’d thought she was ridiculous.

“Yes.” Lena smiled. She did that a lot. “When I got here, I was actually kind of happy about it. No phone, no address, no Internet so my parents can’t bug me, and coming to visit is too much hassle for them.”

So Lena’s parents were shit, too, but she had actually come here to escape. All I wanted to do was escape from this godforsaken place. Not that I wanted to go back and hang out with Dad and Anne, though.

A strange emptiness expanded inside of me, making space for something I couldn’t grasp. Who did I want to hang out with? Was there anyone on the planet I would die to see right now and who felt the same about me? My stomach sank with the thought of how completely pathetic that was, but I shook it off. Feelings were annoying, especially when I needed to get shit done. Back to business.